Education is increasingly becoming a lot more flexible, and there are now many different ways to teach children. In this article, we’ll discuss the similarities and differences between homeschooling, unschooling and gameschooling.
Though they can sometimes be referred to interchangeably, there are some aspects that set them apart and our aim is to offer you a clear and insightful overview on these three schooling methods, to best inform your learning/teaching journey. We hope that by providing you with some information on these methods, they’ll become a lot clearer in your mind!
Homeschooling is the process of teaching and learning at home, as opposed to receiving education in the traditional classroom.
While homeschooling has always been around, it started becoming a more popular form of education in the 20th century, when parents voiced their concerns about the quality of teaching in schools at the time.
In the present day, homeschooling is extremely prevalent, as this teaching method is something that most parents and children had to experience in the past few years. Despite the reopening of most schools on an international level, a high percentage of families have now fully embraced homeschooling as standard practice, or have chosen to adopt homeschooling as part of a hybrid approach to education.
Homeschooling is the most popular in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
On the other hand, some countries have completely banned this form of education, including countries in Africa, Asia, South America and Europe.
There are multiple reasons for homeschooling, but here are the most popular:
Some benefits of homeschooling include:
As we know, all great things have their challenges, so when considering the idea of homeschooling your child, it’s important to take into consideration some aspects that can lead to negative outcomes. Some of these can be:
Homeschoolers often follow a curriculum, so the learning is structured around mandatory learning. Regarding homeschool schedules, it’s completely up to the family, as they have complete freedom over the number of hours and days per week they choose to homeschool, just as long as they meet the curriculum requirements. If you're thinking of giving homeschooling a try, make sure you devise a clear plan on how you'd like to organise your homeschool day in accordance with everything else you have going on!
Unschooling is a method of learning that rejects traditional curriculum-based teaching and is instead very much child-led. While the term “unschooling” can sometimes be used by homeschoolers, the lack of curricula is what sets the two teaching approaches apart.
Unschoolers view education as a freeing activity, taking into account their children’s interests and turning those into learning experiences. Unschooling ideologies are often influenced by worldschooling practices, such as taking advantage of the world around them as inspiration for their studies. This teaching method is also linked to outdoor activities and learning from day-to-day life.
Similar to homeschooling, unschooling is particularly popular in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which interestingly are all English-speaking countries!
When looking at popular reasons as to why Western, English-speaking countries have the highest number of homeschooling/unschooling families, we found these to be the most common:
While the process of unschooling is very personal and differs from family to family, some of the most common reasons for unschooling are:
All teaching methods come with their benefits! Here are some advantages of unschooling:
Much like homeschooling, some disadvantages of unschooling can include:
Parents and educators who unschool take every opportunity to teach their children valuable lessons. This often means that every situation or family outing can be classified as an educational practice.
For example, unschoolers may take a trip to a museum, or visit a historical monument and pay attention to their children’s reactions and opinions. If they seem interested in a particular topic, they may incorporate it into their schooling.
Gameschooling is a fun and interactive teaching method that uses games as its main form of education. These games can be traditional, such as board or card games, or modern, much like video games.
Prioritizing gamified learning means that parents who gameschool understand the importance of children’s intellectual engagement and how they can achieve maximum focus while providing their children with a fun new way to learn!
As we all know, we live in the age of technology, and children are no strangers to it! Here are some reasons why parents choose to gameschool:
These are some of the best benefits of gameschooling your child:
Here are some gameschooling cons:
Gameschooling is very flexible and can be used alongside other teaching methods. For example, if you’re looking to homeschool, then there are curriculum-based games that you can use to work on academic skills. If you’re an unschooler, you can also take advantage of some gameschooling aspects to improve your child’s overall learning experience.
While all three schooling methods can be interchangeable in some ways, there are special things that set them apart and make each of them unique and definitely worth a try. Now that we’ve taken you through the benefits and potential disadvantages of homeschooling, unschooling and gameschooling, we hope that we’ve given you the information you need to decide the next steps in your family’s schooling journey!
Nightzookeeper.com is used by thousands of homeschoolers, unschoolers, and gameschoolers, as well as traditional schoolers, to develop their children's reading and writing skills in a fantastically fun way! When joining the Night Zoo, our program is an easy fit into a homeschool writing curriculum which will transform your children’s love for reading and writing no matter how you decide to teach your children.
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