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Incase you're not from the UK, Home Education is similar to Homeschool. So what exactly is the difference? Well in the UK we give different types of H/E different names. So homeschool for the UK means following the curriculum just as you would at mainstream school, having tests and taking exams. Where as "Home Education" can cover a full range of different teaching styles that doesn't mirror exactly mainstream school. Examples are anything from core curriculum only (english maths and science), encouraged hobbies like playing an instrument or focusing on sports. Life skill education such as budgeting and home economics, mechanics and gardening. World schooling / Roamschooling is when families are lucky enough to travel around the country or the world and experiences count as education. Autonomous/Free range education is where the education is child led, so literally the child/ren make all their own decisions from what they eat, when they get up, what they choose to do all day. For our family it's a big mix of everything. But it wasn't like that at the beginning. I had done a shed load of research on everything homeschool before I sent in my letter of deregistration. We decided that we wanted to take the stress out of learning but also wanted our kids to have core curriculum without the tests and exams. So I had this big plan that everyday we would start at 10:30am, do core studies, and each day do something different. I bought all the supplies, books, etc but the plan soon went downhill. H/E had become just as stressful as school. I felt bad and frustrated as I just wanted to do the best I could and my plan was failing. So we talked and cut down the core to 3 times a week, scrapped all my planned lessons and tried out free range learning. That didn't work either. My daughter loves to read and play Dance Central so we let her do that. But that soon fizzled out too and she was becoming extreamly bored. We joined a H/E group but she didn't much like to engage. So we decided that one day a week she could spend the day at Nanna's house which she really did seem to enjoy. Learning, though was becoming stagnant. By this time my husband and I had been talking about H/E'ing our younger two kids. There were some problems at their school that were just not getting sorted out and we wasn't going to let it drag out again like it had with our eldest. So out came my pen and pad and I worte out their de-registration letters. As well as for our own reasons of taking the younger 2 out of school we also hoped that it would encourage our eldest daughter a little more. Since they have been at home all together the days have changed dramatically again. At this point in time core studies have dropped from 3 times a week to just once a week, and also just one core subject each. Our eldest really likes and understands science so she does that. Our youngest two just do core maths. I make up the rest of the core studies (although not as curriculum) with hands on science experiments, and written projects which are combined into different topics. We get up around 10am, start about 11am, and always start the day with an art or craft project to ease into things. Although as I'm writting this I can see that it looks as though I have become a bit of a slacker, but when I was cracking the whip, so to speak, they were so unhappy and disengaged to what I was trying to do and give them. Now we seem to have found OUR way to home educate and it's working. I think this is something all H/E families probably go through. But it's a shame to think that some parents aren't willing to be flexible. It's like if it doesn't work the way they've planned then they can go back to school. I think that's a real shame. I read about how some parents tell their H/E experience as being awful, or the worst thing they ever did. I wish I could of somehow helped them, if someone had just said to them to see it through the hard times and tweek the plan because it's so rewarding when you all find your feet. I hope that maybe this post might help others who are going through something similar. Keep going, even when you feel like giving up. There will be doubt, worry, and tears, but it will be soooo worth it.