Homeschooling is a form of private education (i.e. education in the broad sense) that genuinely places the parents as being directly responsible for planning and executing the instruction of their children. Parents are responsible for making choices regarding the learning objectives, curriculum, pedagogical approaches, teachers / tutors involved, and places of instruction and learning. As the children get older, for example in their teenage years, these youths usually become a genuine part of the decision-making process about their own education and their future. As a corollary to this, homeschooling does not rely on either state-run public schooling or institutional private schooling for the children’s education.
Homeschooling is based out of the home but does not take place only in the home. The home education of a child also occurs in places such as libraries, museums, science centres, zoo’s, forests, parks, private businesses, art centres, dance studios, music teachers’ homes, at meeting places of scouts, on athletic nd sports fields, in gymnasiums, in rooms in ‘traditional / formal’ schools, in church buildings, in other homes, and many more places. Most of the academic instruction of the students occurs from Monday through Friday, during the day.
Homeschooling instruction is done mainly by the parents. This is especially true when the children are younger, such as ages 5 through 8. Typically home-educated children are engaged in an increasing number of learning activities, with adults and children other than their parents and siblings, as they grow older. The use of homeschooling centres (such as St. Elly’s), tutors, group classes and more, are common and used more for home-educated children, as they grow older and more advanced in their academic knowledge and skills.
