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Home-based and self-directed schooling

Whether your child goes to a regular school or learns at home. Structured homeschooling follows a curriculum; unschooling is child-led with no set curriculum; democratic (Sudbury) schools let students run their own learning and the school itself.

Should we homeschool or unschool?

In short: Parents choose between 5 main approaches: Conventional school; Hybrid; Structured homeschooling; Unschooling; Democratic (Sudbury) school. Evidence: your call. No outcome evidence picks a winner. Preference, culture, money and logistics decide. Best settled: preschool.

Evidence
Your call
Best settled
Preschool
Part of
Learning & the wider world

Home-based and self-directed schooling: what are the options?

Parents usually land on one of these 5 approaches.

  1. 1. Conventional school

    The child attends a regular school.

  2. 2. Hybrid

    The child learns partly at school and partly at home.

  3. 3. Structured homeschooling

    You teach the child at home with a set curriculum.

  4. 4. Unschooling

    The child learns at home through their own interests, with no curriculum.

  5. 5. Democratic (Sudbury) school

    The child attends a school where students choose what to do and vote on the rules.

Home-based and self-directed schooling: what does the evidence say?

Your call. No outcome evidence picks a winner. Preference, culture, money and logistics decide.

The research is mostly small, self-selected studies that cannot be generalized

Sources

What else is worth knowing?

Homeschooling means parents take responsibility for a child's education, with rules that vary by state and province. Unschooling follows the child's interests without a curriculum. These choices also decide which parent is home during the day.

Questions to ask each other

  • What appeals or worries us about homeschooling?
  • Who would teach and for how long?
  • What would make us choose a school instead?

More in School and academics

First published 2026-10-03. Last updated 2026-10-05. General information, not medical advice.