Discover autonomous learning with James and Rebecca
James and Rebecca have been home educating their children for just over a year. After finding that a school-like approach wasn't engaging enough, they encouraged autonomous learning.
What is autonomous learning?
James describes autonomous learning as allowing children to explore and find things themselves, focusing on topics and subjects they find particularly interesting. This approach has meant lots of learning for the parents too, but Rebecca enjoys the freedom to try new things in home education.
Video: Autonomous learning
Watch this video to find out how James and Rebecca have adapted home education to encourage autonomous learning.
Rebecca: My name's Rebecca. And this is James. We home educate our son Henry and our daughter Genevieve, and we've been educating them for about 13 months. So just over a year.
James: I would say that autonomous learning is allowing the children to kind of explore and find things themselves.
Henry: Once we've finished learning about something.
Genevieve: Ask if we can, like, learn other stuff.
James: We found a more school-like approach to learning really didn't work for our children. They weren't engaged, especially for Genevieve. She has to be really focused on something that she wants to learn, and if not, it leads to just a really negative day. She doesn't want to do it. So now she will kind of think about the things that she wants to learn and how she wants to learn them. And we'll go down that avenue, and she engages so much better. Since we've taken on home education, she is thriving.
Henry: Yesterday they asked us, "Do you want to, uh, what's the next thing you learned about?" And then we tell them what we want to learn about.
Genevieve: I asked to learn about the world because we're going on holiday, so we probably need to learn about the world.
Rebecca: They are so curious about things, and I have to learn too. But it's really enjoyable—all of us getting to research these things together. There will be so many times I say, "I don't know, but we can find out." And it's really nice.
James: Yeah.
Interviewer: What are your favourite subjects to learn about?
Henry: Science, history, and—
Genevieve: Maths.
James: Sometimes they want to learn so much that it's hard to get them to find something that they'll really stick with. But that's fine because when they do get something that they really enjoy, such as planets, we are able to work on that over a period of time.
Henry: Yeah, we did the solar system, and Saturn has seven rings.
James: It just means that you have to be at ease with flicking between different topics that you're going to learn about, which I'll happily chop and change at a moment's notice if it means they're getting experience with different things that interest them and figuring out what they want to learn.
Rebecca: The beauty of home education is that you can try so many different things until you find what works for you.
Producer: What's your favourite thing about home education?
Genevieve: That you can do crafts.
Henry: They can go to different places to learn about stuff.
Where can I read more about autonomous learning and home education?
For more top tips on autonomous learning and home education, check out our guides on building your child's study skills, how to stay motivated when home educating and seven life skills you can develop in home education.
For general advice about learning and parenting, check out these Bitesize Parents' Toolkit articles: five ways to incorporate mindfulness into your child's day, eight tips to support your child's reading at home and how to make your home a fun learning zone.
Where can I find more support for home education and parenting?
The BBC Bitesize home education collection is designed to support you and your child’s learning at home with free resources for early years and foundation stage (EYFS), primary and secondary-age students.
Bitesize Parenting is the go-to place for the whole parenting community to find stories, expert advice and fun activities.
If your child has special educational needs and / or disabilities, be sure to check out the Parenting SEND collection. Bitesize also has a collection of Sensory Stories, an immersive video series that transports you on unique sensory adventures, for children with additional or complex needs.
For more information about home education, these BBC News articles cover the rise in families deciding to educate their children at home and, from 2021, the impact of Covid on home education.
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