Newbies

=Home Education for Newbies=

You’ve decided to home-educate, or are seriously considering it… what next? Here are our tip picks for newcomers to home-ed.

Home - Ed for Beginners
'Home Education - what's that all about?'YouTube short vid by South London home-educator Joolz. This won't play on mobile devices but it's definitely worth firing up a desktop for!

Home Education Advice from MuddlePuddle

Early Years HE Resources from Patch of Puddles

Considering Home Education? from makingitup.The Real Reason Why Kids Fidget - an Occupational Therapist writes about the increase in children who seem unable to keep still in class, and how they need more activity than school generally offers.

The Seven Lesson School Teacher by John Taylor Gatto - full text

Hackschooling by Logan LaPlante - video of TEDx talk by 13 year-old home-ed student about how he is hacking his education to prioritise happiness.

Changing Education Paradigms- animation accompanying talk by Sir Ken Robinson on how the education system needs to change.

How Schools Kill Creativity TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson.

The law, rights and responsibilities
Home Education UK by Mike Fortune-Wood, a well-respected authority on home education in the UK. His site is especially useful for straightforward information on legal issues.

EdYourself.org by Fiona Nicholson. Brilliant for detail and legal references. The link is to the FAQ which is a no-nonsense, well-researched and well-referenced summary of legal and administrative issues. If you have a question about rights and responsibilities, this website will probably have not only the answer, but a link to the government document at the root of it.

Free-Range Education - lots of home-ed articles from long-term home-educators

Online Support Groups/Social Groups
Facebook group: Learning Under the Trees has a reputation for being friendly and supportive, and a trusted source of information for new home-educators; quite a few South London home-educators are members.

London Home-Ed Pre-’Schoolers’ - Facebook group for people with under-5s who are planning to home-educate.

HE-UK : well-established general home-education email group run by Mike Fortune-Wood

Subject Resources
Home-Ed Links - We have a page of sites recommended by other home-educators, sorted by subject area. Please feel free to add your own favourites.

What about qualifications?
Home-educated children can obtain qualifications through sitting exams as external candidates. There is a well-established Home-Ed Exams support network - see the HE Exams Wiki, which will tell you what is available and how to go about studying for GCSEs and IGCSEs.

Home-Ed Festivals and Camps
There are various home-ed camps each year - the most famous is HesFes, which many London home-educators love :-)

HESFES is an annual Home Educators’ Summer Festival - the world's largest gathering of home educators. This is the highlight of the year for many home-educated children and teenagers. www.hesfes.co.uk