Homeschooling, Unschooling, and Other Alternatives

Rogelio Valdés

Feb 16, 2022

Over the last few years, more and more parents have started looking for educational alternatives. Some want to create better academic opportunities for their children, others want to stop the bullying their kids are experiencing, and many are simply frustrated by how inflexible the traditional system feels. Fortunately, there are now many alternative models available, and the key is to understand them well enough to choose the one that best fits your family’s needs. Today I want to talk about some of the most popular models and the ones parents ask us about most often.

Before we begin, if you want to understand these educational alternatives but still do not know how official academic validity works, I invite you to watch the video we made about certification. The pathways discussed there can apply to any of the models below.

The first model most people hear about is homeschooling. This should not be confused with the at-home video-call education that families experienced during the pandemic. Homeschooling uses resources such as books or digital platforms so that students can learn on their own with support from their parents. During the pandemic, traditional schools taught through Zoom. Even if parents became more involved, teachers were still lecturing, preparing lessons, and grading assignments. In a homeschooling model, parents are usually responsible for preparing the resources and reviewing the work.

Another popular alternative is unschooling. This methodology is similar to homeschooling because students do not attend a traditional school and learning is more self-directed. The main difference is that families are not trying to fulfill a predefined curriculum. In other words, families who practice unschooling are not concerned with whether the ministry or department of education says all children of a certain age should learn addition or subtraction in that cycle. That does not mean those skills will never be learned. It means the timing and the method are freer, and the child’s interests play a much larger role in guiding the learning process.

Another model that has become increasingly popular is the learning pod or “bubble group.” In this case, families may follow either a homeschool or unschooling methodology, but the difference is that students work in small learning groups, usually of 5 to 10 children. They meet in a location near their homes or in one of the families’ houses and carry out their activities together. From the outside, it may look like a traditional school is being formed, but in reality each student continues moving forward individually within their own curriculum. They work together, but on different goals.

These are three of the main educational alternatives. Which one is best? That depends on your family’s needs. Maybe you want to travel the world and do not plan to stay in one place. Maybe you want a more personalized education for your children without losing academic depth.

At Robin, we have built a new kind of school that combines elements of all three models. I invite you to explore it in more detail because it could be a good solution whether you are just starting to look into alternatives or you are already using one of them.

In simple terms, we help families with curriculum content and planning, academic mentorship for students, and international certification. You can see all the details at robinacademy.com/escuela.

I hope this comparison helped you understand each model more clearly. If you are interested in these topics, I invite you to subscribe to our channel, where we talk every week about alternative education and new methodologies.