For many years, the prevailing philsophy in home education in the UK was ‘unschooling’ or autonomous, child-led learning (although perhaps less so now, when families choose to home educate for a number of different reasons which may not be philosophical in nature).
It is difficult for teachers to accept that learning can take place apart from pedagogy, but it absolutely can – I have seen unhindered self-teaching in action, and it is awesome to behold.
It is in a child’s nature to want to learn, and the object of education and teaching must ultimately be to produce (or not stand in the way of) children’s ability to teach themselves.
For us as a family, however, although we are relaxed and unschool-ish by many standards, and although we accept that a child can learn without pedagogy (and I love the idea that home educators are raising a generation of autodidacts), we are not completely unschooled, and take bits and pieces from a variety of teaching methods and styles.
The pages in this section give an overview of the most popular methods and styles of home education.
Little Bears Home Education 