Do I need to be highly educated, have a degree, or teaching qualifications?

What happens if we change our minds?
Homebased Education is not a 'final' choice. You can always return a child to school later if that suits you. Some families have one child in school, with one HE. The best approach to either HE or school is to see what works best for now, and review it at intervals.
The only "problem" may then be that your child has become more advanced than children in school, and has more enthusiasm for studying than suits the popular approval of other pupils.

Do I need to create a timetable and planned lessons?
No, but it depends on the individual family.
You will probably want to start off with familiar 'lessons' and some children definitely prefer this themselves. But many children do not suit structured learning, and one of the most important aspects of HE is to allow you to make this choice for each of your children, as it suits you and them. (Part of this choice has to be what suits you, as well, as the key person providing the education.) Many parents start out doing lessons because it feels "proper", then after gaining confidence later on the family tends to become less structured. Most use a mix of free-form home learning, tutors, local and online courses, local clubs and societies, etc Finally what you need to domay change every few months or every year or so as your child goes through different stages and family circumstances change.

What kind of families home educate?
A great variety. The most common reasons are a wish to keep the very young child under 7 in safe, small scale conditions for longer;
experiences of bullying;
sensitive children needing a quieter, more human-scale context
ADHDD (children who seem to need to be drugged in order to attend school can often stop taking drugs if they live in a smaller, less complex context at home
Asperger's: again a simpler, safer environment with personal attention can be vital;
Slower paced or high achieving students
Physical or mental disability; see Home Education special below.
Mobile families/ expats;
Families with strong philosophcal or religious commitments;
Families relocating or travelling.

Should I follow the National Curriculum?
You are not obliged to and some familes don't at all. Others like to use it as a guide while still others follow it closely.
Have a look at the booklets on sale at Smiths, and talk it over with other home educators via the organisations listed below.

What about socialisation?
This is not so much a problem as a discovery that socialising becomes different. You may well find that your child does not mix with other children every single day, but instead spends a whole day session with other home educated children. Instead of their time being dominated by adults they are freely socialising as children in a child's world. HE kids also socialise with all kinds of children at after-school clubs, local classes and projects,
Sleepovers with a friend become more important as part of HE socialisation to build independence.
There are networks of Home Education meetings (which are held in school hours). There are also various camps, conferences and online networks.
HE society mixes children of different ages which seems to reduce competitiveness and increase cooperation and tolerance skills. Due to this, and as HE socialising is smaller scale, there is very little bullying.
It can be objected that HE kids are over protected and not prepared for 'real life.' Most HE families would reply that apart from a life in the military or prison, there is little need for adults to have large scale institutionalised social skills. For careers in large companies a young person can pick up organisation skills in their teens at sixth form or adult education colleges.

How can I cover the range of subjects the child needs?
You don't have to because you don't do this all on your own. Home Education is a collaborative project: you link and work with others. You use relatives, friends, the Home Education organisations, libraries, perhaps private tutors, local classes and clubs, museum services - all kinds of resources wherever you find them. Most are free or very low cost.
Perhaps the most important resource here is the child themselves. Once you've helped a child learn to read and use a computer they can access a huge array of resources for themselves. You will find that as your child gets older they will go further into subjects you know little about. You can't be expected to know it all! and you don't need to. Instead your job is to help your child find others who do know about their interests.

What about my own work?
Home Education takes place during all waking hours, so don't assume your active part in it has to be in the limited "school hours" period. There are home educators, who are successful at it, who have fulltime jobs, relying on responsible carers to cover their working hours. You can plan outings and homeactivities with the carer to fit the current learning of your child.
Relatively limited hours of one-to-one work with your child in your free tme are astonishingly productive, because it is one-to-one, and because it's you. As the parent you have a far greater understanding of your child than anyone else.
That said, yes it is a juggling act but parenting and livelihood usually is. It is quite difficult for two parents to work fulltime and home educate: one of them generally needs to work less hours. But many home educators find ways of working from home which eases the complications.

Would a tutor or two be a good idea?
This is an extremely individual issue. Some children respond better to someone outside the family, or you may find that experience and specialised training is useful,or reduces worry. Families manage perfectly well without tutors but many do prefer to include them in the education package.
A tutor gives valuable one-to-one intensive support. They can supplement areas you feel less equipped to handle. With a slow paced learner a tutor can sometimes manage to be more patient and detached, because this is not their child, or else their help just gives you a rest. Similarly a high achiever might benefit from the challenge of an outside tutor, and a child or young person with specialised interests could really enjoy an appropriate mentor. Perhaps where a tutor is most likely to be useful is in supporting preparation for exams.

Which OTHER organisations as well as First College UK provide distance or online learning that could help?
For primary age children Primary Home Education UK has a reputable and friendly service.
The Open Learning Centre, Carmarthen (Tel: 01267 235 268) has a good reputation among Home Educators for distance learning courses.
The NEC (National Extension College) also has well established courses.
The Open University has courses that will sometimes admit older students.
Note: There are some other projects available as well as these, but we only list here those of good reputation that we feel we can recommend. If you know of another project you think should be listed here please let us know. We will either list it, or tell you why we have chosen not to.