Does anyone here home educate?

Can I ask those who HE and forgive me for sounding, well thick I guess but do you have to follow an outline curriculum like the school educated kids do, do your children sit exams to gain gcse's and do you have a set routine to you day?

No to all, unless you as a family want to.

what happens at college/uni level when they dont have exam results?
id love to HE, but from dawns responce to nursery i think she needs the social aspect. (and im scared id be lazy or not clever enough )

Many colleges/uni's will take into consideration that a young adult has been HE'd and that just because they haven't taken exams doesn't mean they aren't capable. From what I've heard the HE is a bonus in this situation, higher education institutions often have a positive experience of HE'd people, they have the thirst for learning and want to be there, so make very good students.

Regarding the whole 'not teaching what they don't want to learn' thing. Surely as a parent there are things that you are insistent they learn even if they don't want to?

For example, I think it was Shadow that said your kids are very interested in spelling and maths, but if they hated maths would you make them learn it anyway as it's a basic skill that people need to know (IMO anyway)?

Regardless of whether they hated maths or not, they are still learning it all the time. I'm not *teaching* it. Think about every day situations. Baking = weights and measures, shopping = dealing with money, addition and subtraction, multiplication, etc. as well as weights...... the list could go on and on. Ocean is adding and subtracting because he wants to, I could be wrong, but I don't remember the other two boys doing either in reception class, which is where he'd just have left if he'd been at school - he's done this because he wants to, we go along at his pace. Maths and English are all around us. I'm not too bothered about the more advanced stuff, I've yet to use algebra irl for example. If they were interested in Maths or wanted to go on to do higher subjects or careers that needed them then they would be learning such because they wanted to.

I see what your saying, but I don't think it's a good enough reason to be put off HEing a primary age child

I didn't say it was, it was in response to a question about people HE at secondary age

Regarding the whole 'not teaching what they don't want to learn' thing. Surely as a parent there are things that you are insistent they learn even if they don't want to?

For example, I think it was Shadow that said your kids are very interested in spelling and maths, but if they hated maths would you make them learn it anyway as it's a basic skill that people need to know (IMO anyway)?

The point is we don't teach them, we facilitate their learning, but they learn for themselves.

I think the problem is that you are thinking about how children behave and learn in schools (where information is often spoon fed and children typically learn the same things at the same time in the same way) and applying that to a home situation.

How did your kids behave before they went to school? Did they learn important skills by just living or did they need formal school lessons to learn how to walk, talk, use cutlery, learn the names of colours, shapes etc.? Did they ask questions all the time? Did you answer them? This is how HE children learn. You just carry on in the same way as you did before they went to school.

Children are naturally inquisitive, if they see a need to know how to be able to do something then they will learn how do it. School can dampen children's enthusiasm for learning but that doesn't happen with HE children. Once they realise that reading or counting is a useful skill they learn it. One they can read they can learn about anything.

How do you learn now? If you need to know something, do you panic and go back to school for lessons? Or do you google for information, discuss it with friends, ask an expert, read a book? It's just the same.

I'm not too bothered about the more advanced stuff, I've yet to use algebra irl for example. If they were interested in Maths or wanted to go on to do higher subjects or careers that needed them then they would be learning such because they wanted to.

This is where I was getting to. Perhaps my use of the word "teaching" was wrong but how do you facilitiate and help the learning of an advanced subject if that is what they want to learn. I understand about them learning because they want to learn but with complex subjects they might need help to learn? (I really wanted to do accountancy but have never been one to read it in a book and understand it straight off, I have needed tutors to show me how it works).

And I'm not saying this is reason not to HE, I am just understanding how it works

what happens at college/uni level when they dont have exam results?
id love to HE, but from dawns responce to nursery i think she needs the social aspect. (and im scared id be lazy or not clever enough )

They get a place on a portfolio and interview. It's common for HE kids go to college at 15/16 or university at 17.

Your educational background is irrelevant. Even kids from lower income poorly educated families, do better than the school educated children of middle class well educated parents.

I've said this lots before, nursery and school is not natural socialisation. Do you need to spend 8 hours a day, every day, with 20 or 30 people the exact same age as you (who you might have nothing in common with) to make friends?