Different ways of homeschooling

My oldest turned 16 a few months ago. He has never been to school and what more he has never studied a text book in his life. (Ok may be once when we tried the Singapore Maths for a few weeks, absolutely hated it and then ditched it.) He is currently preparing for A levels, mostly on his own.

My 14 year old wants to go in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics so she has started down a self- study pathway through open courses from universities like MIT. She has never studies a textbook either.

When I tell people this, I get bombarded with tons of questions like how did they learn? How did they learn to read and write? And WHAT ABOUT MATHS?

Rather than writing random posts all over the social media I will answer those questions here. If you are reading this and have any question just leave a comment.

So before I can dive into how to homeschool without textbooks, I would quickly go over the different ways of homeschooling and when to choose one.

The school-at-home

School at home is what it says on the label. You just school at home. Like lift your hand if you want to use the toilet. Okay may be not that! Please not that!

Jokes aside, you just buy a complete set of text books and curricula which is being taught at your nearest mainstream school and teach it the way it is taught in school. Some people like to adhere to the school setup so much they even set aside a room in their house as the “school room”. With white boards and lectures and notes and even “homework”. I have seen families who also had assemblies in the morning and they even kept a bell to signify the change of period.

Who is this option for?

If you have no reservations with the schools’ academic system but you are not satisfied with the school environment due to religious or other reasons then this option is for you.

Homeschooling curricula

The second option is where you buy homeschool specific curriculum and teach it at home. There are also some distance learning academies that teach special curricula for homeschooling children. Sans bells and homeworks, it is still a kind of school-at-home.

Who is this option for?

If you are not satisfied with the school’s curriculum and want to explore other (and more expensive) curricula, you can give this option a try.

Elective homeschooling

This is where things start getting interesting. You can have a curriculum or text books to serve you as a spine, but you ditch the traditional teaching methods. You know the topics your child should be studying and you use any and every means to accomplish that goal. And you fortify the learning with lots of topics which are not in the curricula.

Let’s say you want to teach your child addition. Rather than sitting down with a text book and solving addition exercises you would employee other methods to learn. You may use crafts, cooking and baking, watching videos or writing stories, or even physical exercise towards that end. You would also let them learn things and explore topics which are not taught in mainstream schools like making computer games, arts, etc.

Who is this option for?

If you are not satisfied by the way things are taught in school, but you feel that a child must be educated through a set curriculum,  you may want to give this option a try.

Interest led homeschooling

This is where you ditch the curriculum altogether. And rather you take what your child is naturally interested in and create learning opportunities around it. Sometimes you may hear different names for this approch, like unit studies or project based learning. Although there are subtle differences in the methodologies but to all intents and purposes they are the same.

For example your kids like animals. You read books about animals and watch YouTube videos (literacy), visit zoos and farms (excursions). You study how animals move and eat and breath etc (science). You bake animal shaped cookies in which you sneak in some measurements, fractions and halving and doubling (maths). You make a pretend zoo and write the names of animals for their cages (literacy for younger ones), make information posters using an image processing software (ICT), read how animals were used in yester years (history)… Well I could go on, but you get my point.

Who is this option for?

If you detest dull textbooks, if thinking about your own school days still makes you anxious, if your kids are giving you a hard time “studying” then this option might be for you.

Unschooling

And finally the biggest kid on the block. Unschooling is more than just an academic strategy. It’s more an ideology, a different life style. Unschooling is where we don’t “sneak in” learning (which is like chocolate coated broccoli), because we believe that learning happens naturally. Because we believe that all kids have the desire to learn. We just need to nurture that desire and that inquisitiveness. We believe that children should be the leaders and in charge of their own learning. We trust that children will learn what they want and when they want as they need it. They are the drivers of their own vehicle, we are just the fellow passengers, to celebrate their successes, to ease their frustrations and to give them a hand when and where they need it.

This homeschooling style is the most difficult to comprehend for
minds raised in our post industrial revolution era, for whom learning is something which needs to be forced down the throat of an individual. Hence this choice is what causes most raised eye-brows and the incredulous looks.

Just to give you an idea of how unschooling looked like in my home when my kids were young, here is a glimpse from our own days.

There was no routine. Days varied from days and weeks varied from weeks. But that doesn’t mean we had no discipline. We planned our days around salaah, and early mornings always dedicated to Quran study. But apart from that they were free to do as they pleased.

We don’t have a TV and don’t watch movies/cartoons so it saved us from idle and passive entertainment.

They were fond of books, and computers. They would normally be found finding out cool stuff on topics that interested them (which were many and kept changing) or playing. Lots of open ended playing in our house. No expensive toys but they had invented so many games. Lots of outdoor time, some extra murals like swimming, some sport or other, horse riding etc.

They weren’t too crafty but liked to cook and bake. And make things. Silly inventions which took them hours to build. But they had a blast. Alhamdulillah. They were also fond of writing and would write stories, blog posts, written documentaries, anything that would strike their fancy.

Without the pressure of performing, their natural inquisitiveness led them on, Alhamdulillah.

Who is this for?

The brave at heart! No unschooling is not difficult, but ignoring the sludge of well and ill meant advise, concerns and over all interference from relatives, neighbors, cashiers at grocery stores, random aunties you meet at passport office can wear you down. And yes all these are my personal experiences.

But if you believe that learning happens naturally this option is for you. If you believe that your baby can learn to walk and talk on his/her own at his/her own sweet time this option is for you. If you believe that children should be the leaders and in charge of their own learning this option is for you. In short if you trust your children this option is for you.

I am not advocating one way or the other. Every family is unique and so is every child. It is a decision only you – the parents- can make.

Also this classification is a very general one. Many people overlap a lot between these options and come up with their own unique homeschooling styles. Then there are also many other options like cottage schools, studying through tutors, short courses and workshops etc. especially with older kids.

Head swimming? Yeah it can happen. But don’t let that deter you. Just pick any one style which feels the easiest. You can always change your style later. Most people do anyway. And eventually you will find a style and a rhythm that will work for you.

P.S. If you want to learn why school system is failing us do watch Sir Ken Robinson’s famous TED talk Do schools kill creativity?

P.S.S. Next I will write about the examination and accreditation choices before I will start writing more on unschooling and how it worked for us.