Homeschooling

Home education (also called homeschooling) is the education of school-age children in the home instead of in a school. Some definitions include all forms of education used as a primary means of educating a person of compulsory school age which are not directly controlled by an institution or a professional educator other than the parent or guardian of the student. The term may also be used to refer to forms of education which are primarily based in the home and are under the control of an institution or a professional educator.

Approaches to homeschooling

For those who decide upon the homeschooling option as a way of educating their children, there still remains a wide range of approaches from which to choose. Closely related to this choice are various theories of learning and child development. The options range from school-at-home, which is basically a replication of the institutional school except in the home and under the control of the parents, to unschooling, a highly informal and unstructured approach favored by U.S. educational reformer John Holt.

Unschooling

Unschooling may refer to a either a curriculum-free approach to home education or a specific type of student-led education developed by John Holt.

Unit studies

Unit studies is a method of home education in which topics are studied as they relate to each school subject. For example, a student might study Greece by studying the culture for social studies, the political structure (ancient and modern) for political science, mathematical innovations arising from the country for math, and he or she might prepare and eat traditional foods for home economics. Unit studies may be purchased from a publisher, found on the internet or in other resources, or developed by the parent or student.

School-at-home

Some home educators attempt to replicate the way in which their child would be educated in a school in the context of the home. They may use boxed curricula or purchase the textbooks used by their local school system.