What is the difference between these two ways of educating their children at home?
Homeschooling
When we talk about homeschooling we refer to those families that teach using a very specific curriculum (created by them or purchased online).
They partly recreate the school at home by proposing certain topics according to the age groups, using textbooks similar to the scholastic ones (but not always!). They also dedicate a specific moment of the day to the study.
To be more explanatory, I would say that in this method the knowledge ship is piloted by the parent (or the tutor) who indicates to the child the path to follow. Furthermore, homeschooling can be a single family or a group of families that follows the education of several children at the same time.
Unschooling
Unschooling is a term coined by John Holt in his newsletter “Growing without schooling” and then generically meant learning without going to school. Today with unschooling we refer to those families who leave their children free to decide how, where, when and especially what to learn.
In this case, the ship is piloted entirely by the child, but he is not alone: the parents are an active part of this education by offering sources of study and supporting it in its natural paths. Families who do unschooling can make a big change because they have to forget everything they’ve been taught about learning and learn to trust their own children completely. Parents offer the tools to find information respecting the choices and times of the child.
It goes without saying that these two categories are not watertight and that there are many different methods of doing family school as there are families that practice it.
Erika D.M. via controscuola
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