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| Introduction | |
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| What Is Home Education and Why Do People Do It? | |
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| What is home education? | |
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| Is it legal? | |
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| Frequently asked questions and a few quick answers | |
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| Why do people home educate? | |
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| Why did we home educate? - A personal story | |
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| The advantages of home education | |
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| A brief word about friends | |
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| The disadvantages | |
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| What do you need to home educate? | |
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| Summary of the main points | |
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| Suggested websites | |
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| How Do Parents Start Home Educating? | |
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| Considerations when making the decision to home educate | |
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| The difference in deciding pre-school, or after the children have been in school | |
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| The home education network and how to find support | |
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| Deregistering children from school | |
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| The role of the local education authority | |
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| How home educators fulfil their obligations to the local authority | |
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| Making the adjustment from school to home education | |
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| Dealing with objections from others | |
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| Having confidence in your knowledge of your child | |
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| Summary of the main points | |
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| Suggested websites | |
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| How Do Home Educated Children Learn? | |
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| Our traditional view of how children learn | |
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| A broader view of how children learn | |
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| What children need, both personally and environmentally, in order to learn | |
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| The most valuable learning aid: children's love of learning | |
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| How children learn without teaching | |
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| How children learn from everyday experiences | |
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| The learning value of play | |
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| The difference between skills and knowledge | |
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| Home educators' different approaches and styles | |
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| A tightly structured approach | |
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| An autonomous approach | |
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| An approach in between | |
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| How to choose an approach | |
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| The use of time | |
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| Motivation | |
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| Children having charge of their own learning | |
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| Opportunities within the community for learning | |
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| Summary of the main points | |
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| Suggested websites | |
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| How Do Home Educated Children Find Friends and Become Socialised? | |
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| How children make friends pre-school | |
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| How schools do not have exclusivity on friendships | |
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| How schools can sometimes harm relationships | |
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| The importance of occasional solitude | |
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| What social skills do we want our children to have? | |
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| How children acquire social skills | |
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| How do home educated children find friends? | |
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| The home education community | |
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| Opportunities for friendships within the local community | |
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| Summary of the main points | |
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| Suggested websites | |
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| What about Curriculum, Subjects and Timetables? | |
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| What curriculum actually is and what it's for | |
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| How home educating parents use it - or not | |
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| How curriculum, subject division and timetables are merely tools for learning, and how to use them as such | |
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| Considerations for making your own timetables | |
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| Basic subjects and how to approach them | |
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| Choosing extra subjects | |
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| Subjects that develop valuable life skills | |
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| How to use curriculum and timetables to your advantage | |
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| Summary of the main points | |
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| Suggested websites | |
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| What about Tests, Exams and Qualifications? | |
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| What tests are for | |
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| What home educators use tests for | |
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| What exams and qualifications are for | |
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| How home educators choose exams and qualifications | |
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| Keeping the needs of the child at the forefront of decisions | |
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| The difference between qualification and education | |
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| Finding support for GCSEs | |
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| Making decisions about A levels and further education | |
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| Other opportunities and other qualifications | |
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| Summary of the main points | |
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| Suggested websites | |
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| What is Life Like for a Home Educating Family? | |
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| How home educating families are the same as any other families, wanting the same things for their children | |
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| Typical daily routines among home educators | |
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| How home educators manage work | |
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| How parents cope with their children being at home full-time | |
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| Relationships within the family | |
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| The integration of real life and real learning | |
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| Coping with bad days and anxiety | |
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| Keeping a broad overview and positive perspective in the longer-term | |
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| Summary of the main points | |
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| Suggested websites | |
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| What about Children with 'Learning Difficulties' or 'Special Needs'? | |
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| The concept of 'difficulty' or 'special need' | |
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| How children with mild difficulties can sometimes thrive with a different learning approach and individual attention | |
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| How parents with special needs children approach home education | |
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| Where to find resources and support | |
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| Summary of the main points | |
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| Suggested websites | |
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| Where Do Home Educated Families End Up? | |
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| Some home educated children and what they are doing now | |
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| Children returning to mainstream education | |
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| What parents might want for their children both short-term and long-term | |
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| What children might want and discussing it together | |
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| Differing views on education, what it is and what it's for | |
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| What parents might consider success to be | |
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| How to keep an open view and an individual view that relates to the child | |
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| Educating for intrinsic value rather than for outcome | |
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| In the end | |
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| Summary of the main points | |
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| Three thought-provoking websites to finish off with | |
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| Index | |