Home Schooling, Home Education or Unschooling, What's the Difference?

When we started to home educate the first-time round, we would say that we were “home schooling” as this was the term that was most used in our research. However, when we started to attend group activities and meets, I was met with a lot of judgement and negative comments. I was told, “we don’t home school we home educate, there’s a difference”, “we don’t agree with the schooling system we home educate here”, “so you just teach school system lessons then? Why have him at home?” and so on. Then when I shared, I was a qualified teacher the judgement and comments got worse. I walked away from some of these groups feeling disheartened, confused and hurt. I didn’t see what I was doing wrong to be excluded because of using a different phrase, or my history as an educator.

However, I was determined to not be uneducated in what I was doing and so went back to my laptop and carried out more research. These three terms were more different than I had thought, and not only did I want to understand their differences, I wanted to understand why some families were so offended by them and what method suited my autistic son best, because that was why I was doing this.

Homeschooling

Homeschooling refers to the practice of parents educating their children at home, following a structured curriculum similar to mainstream schools. Often this method is chosen because it is the environment and not the workload that the student cannot cope with, or that families wish to deliver a personalised curriculum in place of the government’s national curriculum. So, would this work for my son?

Benefits for Neurodiverse Learners

• Customised Learning Environment: Homeschooling would allow me to tailor the learning environment to my son’s sensory and emotional needs, creating a space that enhances focus and reduces anxiety while still giving him all the learning opportunities that a school offers.

• Flexible Scheduling: I can choose when and how long to study, allowing for breaks or adjustments based on his energy levels and attention spans.

• Individualized Curriculum: I can select or design a curriculum that aligns with his interests and strengths, making learning more engaging and effective.

Challenges for Neurodiverse Learners

• Parental Expertise: As I am a qualified teacher and have years of experience working in special education contexts, I felt confident in delivering a full curriculum, so this wasn’t a challenge for me.

• Socialisation Opportunities: It is widely discussed that any type of home schooling has a detrimental effect on socialisation, but I will address this in another article.

• Resource Availability: Access to resources, equipment and special education services and extracurricular activities, may be limited compared to mainstream schools.

Home Educating

Home educating is often viewed as a more relaxed and philosophy-driven approach compared to formal homeschooling. This method emphasizes learning as a natural process that occurs through everyday experiences rather than a structured curriculum. Home educators may utilize resources from various sources, including community programs, libraries, and online materials, to support their child's learning. This seemed like it might be a better fit for my son, but I wanted to know more.

Benefits for Neurodiverse Learners

• Natural Learning Opportunities: Home educating would allow my son to learn through exploration and real-life experiences, catering to his different needs.

• Stress Reduction: The informal nature of home educating can reduce pressure and anxiety, which was a major issue for my son in school, so by removing the restrictive nature of the school environment would be a great advantage.

• Focus on Interests: My son would be able to delve deeply into subjects that interest him, which would help to rebuild his love of learning.

• Community Involvement: It would give me the opportunity to engage with local communities, which would provide opportunities for my son to socialise.

Challenges for Neurodiverse Learners

• Structure and Routine: My son works well with structure and knowing what is coming next so too much of a relaxed approach would actually be counterproductive.

• Parental Time and Commitment: Luckily as I don’t work, I am able to dedicate my time to my son’s learning, however it would still require a very 24/7 approach to his learning.

• Assessment and Progress Tracking: Without formal assessments, it would be difficult to measure my son’s progress, which I would need to know if he returned to formal education later on.

Unschooling

Unschooling is an educational philosophy that prioritises child-led learning, where children pursue their interests and curiosities without a predetermined curriculum. This approach is based on the belief that children learn best when they are free to explore topics that fascinate them. I already felt that this would not be a suitable approach for us but I wanted to see if there were any elements that might enhance my son’s learning.

Benefits for Neurodiverse Learners

• Autonomy and Empowerment: Unschooling would empower my son to take charge of his education, fostering independence and self-directed learning.

• Engagement and Motivation: By following his interests, he would be more likely to remain engaged and motivated, leading to deeper understanding and retention of knowledge.

• Adaptability: Unschooling allows for a highly adaptable learning environment, so I would be able to accommodate his needs easily.

• Real-World Skills: My son would be learning practical skills through hands-on experiences and real-life problem-solving, which my son likes, as he is a very multi-sensory learner.

Challenges for Neurodiverse Learners

• Lack of Structure: Just like home educating, my son works well with structure and knowing what is coming next so too much of a relaxed approach would actually be counterproductive.

• Parental Time and Commitment: Again, although I can dedicate my time to my son’s learning, unschooling would be a very 24/7 approach to his learning.

• Social Interaction: Unschooling could cause my son to become quite isolated in his learning.

In the end we decided that a combination of home schooling and home educating would suit our son the best, it would allow us to structure his learning, so he would be able to see what to expect over the week. However, it would also allow him to have more autonomy in what subjects we learned and how.