What is homeschooling?

‘School’

What is homeschooling? It contains both ‘home’ and ‘school’ making it a bit of an anomaly – since it doesn’t need to take place at home, nor does it need to look anything like school.

Or should we be aiming to make it more like school?

The term ‘school’ can often summon up images of classrooms, desks and timetables; of teacher-led work following a set curriculum, worksheets and tests; of everyone following the same curriculum, regardless of ability or interest. But that image couldn’t be further removed from the root definition of the word ‘school’, which actually comes from the Greek word ‘schole’ meaning leisure! 

School is not just a noun but is also a verb – a process.  The Greeks viewed leisure as an opportunity for man to spend time thinking and finding out about things. And so, the connection between leisure and the pursuit of knowledge became established and then eventually, over time, changed to become a physical place of learning as well as a process.

Home education, or homeschooling – as it is often referred to in the US, can be better aligned to the true meaning of school than traditional school, where full timetables, hours of homework and regular testing can dominate. ‘School’ at home allows children the time to pursue interests and work at a pace that suits them.

Home

According to the Cambridge dictionary home is “the place where you live or feel you belong.”

This idea of home can be extended further. I particularly love this definition:

“Home is a safe haven and a comfort zone. A place to live with our families and pets and enjoy with friends. A place to build memories . . . A place where we can truly just be ourselves.” 

Linda, Habitat for Humanity

So, when we homeschool we can do it wherever we feel we belong, where we feel safe, or where we want to build memories. This could be in our physical home – on the sofa, inside a blanket fort or under the table; or somewhere outside of our physical home: in someone else’s home; in the woods, the park or on the beach; at the museum, home ed meetup or on holiday.

Learning can happen anywhere your child feels safe and happy.

So what exactly is homeschooling?

Whether you call it home education or homeschooling it affords our children that leisure time: that time to think and make connections without pressure or constraint.  The ‘school’ in homeschooling is about educating our children in any way we consider appropriate other than at a physical state or private school – whether that be at home, outdoors, through field trips, tutors or virtual online classes.  It doesn’t have to conform to what has become the traditional view of ‘school’ (unless we want it to) and is more concerned with the process – how we educate our children – which will be different for everyone. 

How we homeschool is not about how to recreate school at home, but how the atmosphere of the home can be used as a nourishing environment to support and enrich learning.

It is about how we enable our children to learn, grow and blossom, by catering for their individual learning styles and allowing them to follow interests, develop strengths and chase dreams.

It is about providing opportunities, gently guiding, supporting and encouraging.

It can be a morning snuggled up under blankets on the sofa reading books and being whisked away to far off places or times; or an afternoon damming streams, climbing trees or creating sand forts.

It can be hours spent creating imaginary worlds through writing or small world play; or baking sweet treats for a special celebration.

It can be a nature walk through an enchanted forest or cooking damper bread over a campfire as the sun sets.

It can be a hands-on science investigation or an hour spent sipping tea and sharing poetry.

It can be whatever your family chooses it to be.

Home education roots learning in the real world, and subjects are interwoven naturally so that connections are more easily made. Topics can either be followed in great depth or broadened out to encompass many different subjects.

But home education is so much more than ‘learning’. . .

It is about developing life skills and growing into independent and capable people.

It is about building empathy and building relationships.

It is about respecting and caring for the world we live in.

It is about enabling our children, and us, to blossom into the kindest and best person that we can be.

I have been home educating my five children for nearly two decades now, and for the past few years have had the full range of abilities to cater for – with my littlest learning to read and write, whilst my eldest were working towards formal qualifications. 

I have been there to hold their hands through their learning, gently guiding and enabling.  Catching them when they fall, nurturing them when they needed it and cheering them on with their hopes and aspirations.

I am still a lap to sit on when my youngest is writing and someone to bounce ideas against when my teens need to vent or become enthused with a new subject. I am an ideas generator, resource maker, enabler, reader of poetry, stories and every book under the sun; cosy atmosphere creator, home-maker, researcher, exam marker, shepherd of young people and facilitator of learning (and many more things besides!).  I am a home educator.

Home education can be hard work, exhausting and messy, but it can also be creative, magical and so, so rewarding.  Do I have any regrets about home educating my children? Absolutely not.

Every day is different, with new things to discover and explore. 

If you were to pop around to our house on a typical home ed day, you wouldn’t find a pristine, perfectly arranged house with beautiful resources and displays. You would most likely find mess.  Lots of it.  Firstly, you would have to wade through a sea of muddy boots left strewn by the front door after a nature walk.  Then you would have to negotiate various dens, bikes and piles of playing bricks and marble runs.  If you wanted to sit down, you would probably have to clear away blankets and books and if you wanted to use the table you might be lucky to find a small patch to work on that wasn’t piled up with drawings, writing, more books and board games.  And then there are all the actual homeschool projects they are working on.

My children are always busy.  Busy playing, busy reading, busy inventing things  and experimenting; crafting, baking, writing and drawing; listening to music, riding their scooters, splashing in puddles and streams, kicking a ball around, climbing trees or clambering about on rocks at the beach and peering into rock pools.  And in every one of these things they are learning.  Learning how to express themselves creatively, how to problem solve and learning how science works; learning about the natural world and about risk; they are developing fine and gross motor skills, life skills, gratitude, and the art of negotiation; they are learning how to share and how to care; they are testing and challenging themselves; they are learning and they are blossoming.

You see learning doesn’t just happen at a table or in a classroom or on a worksheet.  It happens every day.  Through discussions.  Through doing.  Through life.

What is the best way to home educate?

“There is no wrong or right way –

only the right way for your child and your family at that particular time.”

Home education means something different to everyone.  If I had to describe, in three words, what home education means to my family I would choose freedom, togetherness and joy. It is this combination that has made home education such a positive and enriching experience for our family.

There are so many different approaches you can take when home educating.  There is no wrong or right way – only the right way for your child and your family, at that particular time.  It can begin the moment your child is born, when your child reaches ‘school’ age, during the teenage years or even before your baby is born, when many parents-to-be start to consider and research how they want their child to be brought up.  It can be for the entire ‘school’ age years, may just be dipped into for the primary school years or started as your child embarks on more formal exam study.  It can be done full time or can be done part time in conjunction with school (flexi-school).  It can be done without the use of any tutors, workbooks or online classes or it can use a combination of any or all of these. 

Freedom

You do not need to be a qualified teacher to be able to home educate your child.  In the UK you are not obliged to follow a particular curriculum or work to set hours.

This gives home educators a huge amount of freedom. 

That freedom extends to all areas of learning and the benefits of that freedom range far beyond learning.

In home education there is freedom in what to learn:  it gives the freedom for your child to follow their own passions and for you to incorporate study that aligns with your family’s values and beliefs.  Children are free to learn about a wide range of topics or subjects that they may not ordinarily encounter and to become immersed in an area of study that they are particularly interested in.  Immersive learning can lead to a deeper understanding and enable more connections to be made.  And of course, if your child enjoys what they are learning about because they have chosen it, then they are far more likely to be engaged in their learning.

There is also the freedom to choose how your children learn:

• freedom for your family to adopt a style of learning method that is suited to your educational philosophy
• freedom on how to structure your day
• and freedom on how your children actually learn day to day

Educational philopsophies and methods

There are many different educational philosophies and methods to choose from, but some of the most popular include:

• Traditional – if you like structure, like to follow a curriculum and assess your child’s progress then you might favour a more ‘school at home’ approach to learning
• Project Based Learning or Unit Studies – if your children have a wide range of interests and like learning with more of a hands-on, cross-curricular interest-led approach then this method might suit them
• Steiner Waldorf – this might be perfect for you if you wanted to adopt more of an holistic approach that caters for learning with the head, heart and hands
• Charlotte Mason – if you are a book loving family and love spending time immersed in Nature then you may want to follow this style or curriculum
• Unschooling – this style of learning favours child-led learning – where there is no set curriculum and children are free to pursue whatever interests them
• Eclectic Homeschooling – this is a style of learning that incorporates elements from two or more different methods
• There are also many other methods to choose from, such as Reggio Emilia, Montessori and Classical

If your children choose to study for formal exams then that is also possible as a home educated student.

We are eclectic home educators and weave together various strands from several philosophies, including Steiner Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, Project Based Learning and Unschooling.   We tend to have a gentle rhythm to our days and week, but will also spend weeks at a time where we will drop structure and immerse ourselves in child-initiated projects.

Structuring your day

Home education means that you are not confined to a set timetable – you are free to structure your homechool day however best suits your family.  If that means you want to follow a strict timetable then you can, if you prefer a gentle rhythm to shape your days then that is okay too.  If you are a family that thrives on flexibility and want to embrace each moment as it happens and would prefer to have no particular structure to your day. . . then that is fine too. The beauty of home education is that you get to choose. 

If you are early birds then you may choose to get all your learning done in the morning and then use the afternoon for play, outings or meet-ups.  Or you may need to get on with chores first thing in the morning or be late risers – then your ‘school day’ might not start until 10 or 11am.  Some families even choose to work in the evenings as they find they all work better then, whilst others work over the weekend in order to fit in with work commitments.  There are also families that don’t have a ‘school day’ as such, as they consider life to be learning, where learning happens all the time.  There is no wrong or right way – just what works best for your family.  And you may find that this changes over time.  For example, when I had babies and toddlers then I would fit more focused learning in with the older children whilst the little ones had their naps.

Freedom in how our children learn

When it comes to the actual mechanics of learning, home educated children are free to learn in a way that matches their learning style.  At a basic level, this may include things such as allowing children to learn in an environment that they are most comfortable with.  Not all learning has to happen at a table – my daughter is infinitely happier learning whilst lying down on her bed (or up a tree!) and younger children may be happier snuggled up with you on the sofa.

Everyone learns in different ways: some are visual learners, others are more aural, whilst others prefer to use their hands or learn in a more practical way (kinaesthetic).  Home education is able to cater for these different needs and provide a bespoke education, tailored to your child’s interests and needs and also allows them to work at a pace and level that suits them. The VAK learning styles model is a useful place to start if you are not sure how your child learns best.

Togetherness

One of the best things about home education is the sense of connection you can get with your child and quality family time together.  We can slow down our pace of life and savour the precious moments.  I feel so privileged and blessed that I get to spend every day with my children.  I get to be there for them when they need me.  I get to see all their firsts.  I get to share their excitement.  I get to share with them what is important to me – my beliefs and values and passions – and they get to share what is important to them with me. 

I get to see them blossom and grow.

We get to share moments and build memories together.

Joy

Yes, there are struggles. There are times when siblings squabble, when they refuse to do the work you have spent hours preparing and when the house really is such a mess that you wonder how it will ever get tidy again. There are times when you wonder if your child will ever learn to read or that you don’t think you are qualified enough to home educate your child, or you are just so exhausted that you could happily have a nap at 10am in the morning.  But . . . then you turn around and notice how happy your children are – how they have become their own person with their own passions.  You see them working independently and yes, they can now read. They have grasped a secure working knowledge of maths principles . . . and they didn’t need to spend hours doing maths workbooks every day to get there.  All those hours you spent modelling how to deal with situations or complete chores suddenly seem worthwhile: they are cooking and helping without needing help or prompting. They are sharing and caring. They have a real love of learning. They ask questions and can find out how to answer many of these questions themselves.  They are applying what they have learned. 

You no longer need to hold their hand and then you realise that they are holding yours. 

Just as you have led them on a journey of discovery – they are now leading you on one too.

My three words for describing home education are freedom, togetherness and joy.

What three words would you choose?