What is homeschooling?

The easiest way to define homeschooling is, schooling or learning that occurs at home. However, the concept of homeschooling encompasses so much more than what is said in this simple explanation. Homeschooling does not have to take place solely in the home, and it almost never looks like “school” in the traditional sense. A more comprehensive, yet simple, definition is that homeschooling is the learning process that occurs primarily in, but is not limited to, the home.

Homeschooling can take place in many different locations. While it is usually at the student’s home, it is not limited to their home. It can be at a friend’s home, a neighbor’s home, a family member’s home, or the home of another student. It doesn’t have to be in a home at all; it can be at a library, a museum, a planetarium, a zoo, an aquarium, a science/discovery center, or a national park. It can be in a car, a minivan, a recreational vehicle (RV)…these are just a few physical locations where homeschooling can occur.

Homeschooling as a learning process does not have to look like school at all. Learning can take place at the grocery store; a student’s learning can be reinforced in a number of ways through the use of a simple grocery shopping trip. Before leaving home, the student can create the meal plan for the next week, make note of the items needed for the meals, check the kitchen, pantry, etc. for these items, and write a grocery shopping list for the items needed. Once at the store, the student can shop for the items on the list, compare prices and sizes of the chosen products, check for any possible savings, and check out at the register. This one outing alone has taught and reinforced skills such as mathematics, home organization, budgeting, planning, decision making, just to name a few. And in no way does this exercise resemble the traditional in-school learning process.

While most homeschooled students are taught by their parents, this is also not a hard and fast rule. Sometimes, one or even both parents are not able to teach the student, and the reasons vary widely. Perhaps the parent’s or parents’ work schedule does not allow them to teach their student. Maybe it’s a single parent household. The parent might be ill or disabled. It could even just be a case of the parent not possessing the necessary skills or knowledge to teach some or all of the lessons (i.e., calculus). Yet the student can still have a holistic, age- and grade-appropriate learning experience.