Warning: this is a bit of a proud home ed mum rant!

He's going to college to do his 'A' levels

For sixteen years Cain followed his own interests, sometimes (many times) those interests seemed to be lolling around, we didn't follow the curriculum, we never had a timetable, we spent an awful lot of time on the beach...  all in all he has had a very free childhood. 

Last year he decided he wanted to follow an academic route and so went to college to do a fast track gcse course, he could only study four gcse's but we were told that because he was home educated he would be accepted with four passes rather than five.  The course was a steep learning curve, it was meant for people who were retaking rather than someone totally unfamiliar with exams and formal study. 

Yesterday he got his gcse results, four B's and today he was accepted onto his A level choices, english, history, photography and film studies. 

When we began home educating we didn't know what kids did when they got to sixteen, especially if they were really academic.  We tried to trust our instincts,  we knew we didn't like the national curriculum and we were hopeless at being formal about education.  There have been times of stress, definitely times of 'should we be making him do ...' .  Today I feel as though it was all worth it.  We are still home educating our other two children but it feels so much easier now.

I think it's helpful for other home educators to know that children don't need 13 gcse's to get into college to do A levels and that it is possible to do what's needed in a very short time if necessary. 

Our other two may not choose college, each child is a different journey, but right now we really feel that our children can do anything they want to do, with or without school.