Public schooling is by far the most popular method of schooling, without doubt. If you are contemplating on putting your children through home schooling, there should be some valid reason/s for it.

If you have chosen home schooling simply as a protest or as the only other available alternative to public schooling, then you have missed the bus; for there are other types of schools that cater to different criteria and methods of imparting education. The idea behind this article is to provide you with a wider choice of the other types of schooling available for your consideration before taking the final decision to persist with home schooling; unless it is what you really want.

In the first place, what made you to select home schooling for your child in preference to public schooling? Is it the long distance to the nearest public school or are you not satisfied with the standard stuff dished out by public schools without any meaningful attempts at aptitude detection or nurturing and uplifting varying special skills of individual students, or is it due to the absence of any other vocational oriented streams of education in public schools for those who don’t fit in so well with the standard syllabuses?

Could it be due to any particular peculiarity of your child such as an otherwise able physical disability? Could it be because of a special aptitude you possess for teaching which you thought to exploit for the better and more effective education of your own children, or because you enjoy so much having them with you all the time or even because of a fear you have of letting them out of your sight? If you have opted for home schooling for any of the above reasons, your decision may be justified, although not before the options available are also considered; which we give below: However, if you just can’t stand having children around over long periods, then you have to discard your home-schooling option, for it will never work well for either them or you!

How do your children feel about this? Do they like to learn from home rather than in the company of many others like them in a school? Are there adequate controls to guarantee discipline in your home school, which is a must; to ensure that they will not be up to all sorts of tricks and mischief the moment you are out of sight? Keeping to flexible hours of studies for different days of the week would not be an issue.

In the light of the above, consider also the following alternative options offered by some other non-traditional schools: There are schools operating on Charlotte Mason’s “unschooling” method where the children themselves can choose their study courses according to their aptitudes and interests and is good for students with practical skills. “Evergreen Sudbury School” is a free school in Maine that does not conform to any standard curriculums, and is tailor made for exceptionally gifted children.

“Essential Schools” in Oakland, California was founded in 1980 by a group of people disillusioned with the government system of having few teachers to teach a very large number of students. This too follows a free curriculum of its own.

There are now quite a number of schools that follow the “Foxfire” method of teaching as well; where the teacher is only the guide and the actual learning is in the hands of the pupils themselves, with peer teaching and teamwork building given high prominence.

Montoressi Schools, Progressive Schools, International Baccalaureate and Waldorf Education are further systems of schools that deviate from standard study syllabuses; and you may search the internet for more such non-traditional type of schools if the only reason for contemplating to start home schooling was due to your disenchantment with the present government system of education.

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