At-home learning for Children and Students: Types, Programme Activities, Curriculum and Timetable, Educational Support Resources, Apps and Pack, Near me, Benefits and Advantages

Homeschool of Early Childhood and Kids’ Education

Photo by sofatutor on Unsplash

What is the meaning of at-home learning?

At-home learning or home learning refers to educational activities in homeschooling all categories of children and students engage in by themselves but under the guidance of learning-facilitator to acquire certain knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Types and Forms of home learning

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

Parents, teachers, and tutors can model at-home learning to a formal or an informal type for convenience. Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash

Which form of at-home learning are you having? At-home learning as a characteristic feature of the school of early learning and childhood education is divided into two types. They are formal and informal at-home learning.

Formal home learning

A formal home learning comprises of education-related activities children and other categories of students at homeschool engage in either on their own or with fellow students and other home-education facilitators – parents, teachers, and tutors, or educators.

Informal home learning

An informal home learning comprises of education-related activities children and other categories of students at homeschool engage in either on their own or with fellow students and other home-education facilitators to become better learners.

Formal and informal home learning in early childhood education or homeschool can remedy to correct learning difficulties and deficiencies in school-age children and other student learners.

How is at-home learning a form of formal and informal education?

Is at-home learning a form of formal and informal education? Home learning is a form of both formal and informal education in the Homeschool of Early Learning and Students’ Education. Formal at-home learning takes place in school while the activities of informal at-home learning take place in any other place outside a school learning environment or education center.

Forms of At-home education activities

The forms of home learning in the school of early childhood and students’ learning include natural, conventional, autonomous, unschooling, and situational

Natural learning

Natural learning, liked conventional learning, is an aspect of home learning whereby facilitators simplify learning activities for the learners (usually school-age children and higher learning students) to acquire broad-based knowledge in their interest areas.

Conversational learning

Conversational learning is a form of informal home learning whereby children through recognized parent-children or facilitator-children social interactive relationships learn about any topic from parents or learning facilitators.

Social interactions in conversation learning do not offer any defined objectives and opportunities for learning.

Autonomous (unstructured) learning

Autonomous learning is a superset of conversation learning and a school of early and homeschool education whereby home school children and students become autonomous, learning to take responsibility for their own learning outcomes.

Unschooling (child-led or interest-led learning)

School children and students in unschooling can do explorative learning on their personal interest area outside their guided home education curriculum. Through this child-led or interest-led learning, children learn daily practical social skills by interacting with facilitators and parents.

Unschooling is related to natural learning because school-age children and students learn through daily life experiences. A fundamental premise of unschooling is that learning is a natural process constantly taking place and that curiosity is innate and children want to learn. It is also considered a teaching approach and methodology.

Situated learning (Apprenticeship)

The concept of situated learning or apprenticeship states that school children and students acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities of a trade (arts or sciences) that gradually amasses over time through a form of informal education and learning to eventually gain expert knowledge and skills of the trade or occupation.

At-home learning vs school education: Which is better?

Watch a video for reasons why homeschool education is better than traditional public and private schools education

At-home education and school education are both forms of education that commonly involve a learning facilitator (teachers, tutors, educators, or parents) who promotes learning activities in a classroom environment for kids and students to acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities. So, in the homeschool of early childhood and students’ education, is at-home learning better than traditional school education?

What really makes the difference between at-home learning and school education? Are they the characteristic features or mode of learning and administration? Is it the predetermined curriculum, regimented timetable, the structured and defined program activities if they exist or the nature of formal and informal forms of education services they offer?

Parents, teachers, tutors, and other educators should realize that homeschool education is different from school education and how differently the children and students see them in terms of which one offers better or quality education services.

The home education kids and students develop a different learning mentality towards at-home learning activities different from that of the school which may make them react less positively with the one that offers a more structured curriculum and a strictly regulated timetable.

For the fact that little or no prescriptions are made in a homeschool, formal and informal at-home learning are both considered as informal forms of learning in the school even when it offers good-quality education programs.

Daily home living and experiences can affect learning outcomes in home education – a kind of learning that hardly features in school education. A way to avoid this is for parents to ensure that their homeschool classroom is a true reflection of the features of the school classroom in facilities, management, and quality of learning

Most people will consider home learning less serious with the thought of parents taking over the professional teacher’s role at home using school methods coupled with the disbelieve that children can informally acquire the same knowledge that the school painstakingly takes years to teach formally.

At-home learning in a home school does not heavily rely on exercises and testing as evidence of learning as applied to school education because it is optional. A parent or teacher can keep track of kids’ progress and give feedback based on the interaction with the learners.

Do kids in at-home education do better than those in school education?

At-home learned children acquire the needed motivations, behaviours, and knowledge that demonstrate healthier social, emotional, and psychological skills to become better integrated into the societal functioning than school-grown kids.

According to Spanish Academy, The Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) reports that homeschool kids and students have a 30% higher GPA. The National Home Education Research Institute reports that, on average, homeschooled students have 15-30% higher grades than public school students.

A study suggested that homeschooled children also tend to do better academically,  tend to do better on standardized tests less prone to drop out of education once enrolled. A 2009 study showed that the proportion of homeschoolers who graduated from college was about 67%, while among public school students it was 59%.

Follow-up questions regarding college academic performance scores in 2013 found that home-educated students possessed higher ACT scores, GPAs, and graduation rates when compared to institutionally-schooled students.

Homeschool vs school education: Benefits and advantages of homeschooling over school education

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

A girl comfortably learning at home through her laptop computer. In-home learning offers great flexibility in learning and still provides a formal education structure. Photo by Maria Thalassinou on Unsplash

Parents now have a way of knowing if at-home learning is better than school education but should also note that the school methods are subject to amendment to achieve home education benefits and advantages as they are not sacrosanct.

One of the advantages of homeschooling is that students can progress according to their own temperament and timetable. They learn and develop their innate abilities at their own pace.

In a homeschool of early learning and students’ education, at-home learning is better than school education when emergency cases arise like during outbreaks of wars, disease, widespread violence, and when other forms of societal insecurity situations will pose serious danger to young learners.

An additional advantage of home education and a reason why it is better than school education is that it is highly intensive and more suitable for slow learners or SEND children when the right professionals are involved because it applies a one-to-one teaching and learning approach.

It is also more flexible and adaptable to change and amendment without getting in the way of the learning objectives but restructuring in school education is not easy especially in large institutions.

Again, children taught in homeschool are better skilled in informal undertakings than those in traditional private or public schools because they participate in many learning support – share in daily activities, assist with household tasks, follow particular interests, use the computer, and so on, provided by the parent or educator in the course of learning.

Watch a video on Why you should homeschool your kids

Other Eduonwheeels’ home learning blog posts in Homeschool of Early Childhood and Kids’ Education that might interest you:

How to have successful at-home learning with a homeschool curriculum

England parents want to abandon schools for at-home learning

Homeschooling vs At-home learning vs Home Education vs Home instruction

At-home learning vs school education: Which is better?

Big 5 educational websites for at-home learning packs

Free at-home learning pack of educational resources

Big 5 reasons parents choose homeschool education

At-home learning activities for children and students

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

Two homeschool pupils involved in hands-on arts. There is a wide range of activities for homeeducation students. Image by Enson Renton from Pixabay

At-home learning activities are very children-centered and even students giving them an ample opportunity to carry out educational activities on their own to acquire certain experiential knowledge, skills, and abilities.

As a characteristic feature of early childhood education (ECE), at-home learning activities are wholesomely directed towards achieving children’s overall development – physical, social, emotional, and mental development.

Choosing an appropriate scheduled program of activities requires a home education parent focussing on what will be best or right at present,

That parents in home education can combine certain subjects which are not necessarily grade- or age-specific, such as physical education, government, history, literature, and the arts, means there can be an organized timetable of a predesigned program of sequential educational activities within a planned curriculum in a formal home learning setting with which the learning facilitator delivers what the children learn, monitors, progress constantly

The designed curriculum and programme of activities in a homeschool must be flexible enough to provide the children ample time for both cognitive and social learning and must be convenient for the parent while assuring high performance from the kids.

All homeschool activities should produce in children early literacy skills in Early Childhood Education and math, verbal communication, cooperation skills, learning to handle wins and losses, improved critical thinking, problem-solving skills in school-aged homeschoolers.

There can still be gameplay, musicals, hands-on arts, crafts, and kits, watching educational programmes like STEM-related documentaries, incorporate cooking, parties, and celebrations as part of homeschooler activities incorporated into the programme curriculum – the extent of participation and involvement based on grade- and age-levels.

Home learning educational resources and apps for children and students

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

A girl accessing available books on a homeschool shelf. There are a wide range of educational resources and learning apps available for home education. Photo by Taylor Heery on Unsplash

Traditional physical and online at-home learning educational resources and materials for kids and students among others abound either offered for free or as a paid subscription. Some free online educational resources and at-home learning apps available to school kids and other categories of students have been discussed in our posts.

Online organizations and websites not only offer support to school children and all other categories of students, parents, and learning facilitators ranging from implementation guides to parent communication strategies for effective at-home learning activities.

Access to the educational resources and activities provided by the websites can be downloaded as an at-home learning app

At-home learning programs for kids and students

Acting as a one-on-one learning facilitator, the parent, teacher or tutor continually observes the children and students’ homeschool activities as they learn through a structured educational program. This close observation allows the facilitator to keep track of a child’s proficiency or struggles.

The structured educational program in a homeschooling environment allows children and students to progress at their own pace until they have mastered the necessary materials.

Home education programs are essentially a collection of curriculum, procedures, activities, and staff providing support to homeschooling children, parents, and teachers.

At-home learning curriculum & timetable

There should be an organized timetable of a designed program of sequential educational activities within a planned curriculum in a formal home learning setting but such may not be obtainable in an informal home learning.

Any home learning curriculum and timetable adopted by a homeschool should be planned in detail and carefully sequenced. The learning facilitator delivers what the children learn using the curriculum and timetable, monitors progress constantly, from answering teachers’ questions in the home classroom to completing written exercises to taking regular tests.

There may be very good pedagogical, institutional, organizational and practical reasons to adapt to a structured curriculum and timetable in homeschool but it does not mean that this is the only way to acquire an education. It’s just that we are so inured to school-type learning that it is very difficult to imagine any alternative.

So, even though the use of a defined curriculum in a prearranged timetable of a planned program in the homeschool of childhood education creates a sense of progression and organizational skills acquisition in the course of the learning, there is no guarantee that the students will do better if such resource is lacking neither is there any scientific basis whatsoever for the almost universal assumption that the traditional use of curriculum means of educating children is an essential part of making progress after reaching school-age.

There are other factors that determine the high performance of students in a homeschool one of which is the level of children’s maturity. Kids who are immature enough for formal homeschool programs may only start performing well when their senses, coordination, neurological development, and cognition are ready.

Homeschooling vs At-home learning vs Home Education vs Home learning: What is the difference?

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

At-homeschooling parents with two kids learning. Homeschool offers some differences from school education in performance and structure.

Is there any difference between homeschooling, at-home learning, and home education? While they are similar and can be used synonymously, the difference between the three lies in the extent of formal education offered otherwise the three early childhood education concepts point to educating children and students at home instead of a traditional private or public school.

Home education, sometimes referred to as homeschooling, provides convincing evidence for the potential of home learning. Home educators are seeing themselves pioneering new educational approaches, almost continually less formal ones.

Home learning is interchangeably used with informal learning because it was first used as a form of informal education before lately gaining increased acceptance as an alternative form of formal education. During the last two decades, it has become increasingly acceptable as a viable alternative to school, according to Infed.org.  A parent sets up a homeschool even when he or she is not an educator. Today, we have both informal and formal at-home learning.

Children whose parents and guidance engage in homeschooling, at-home learning, or home education program activities usually do when they turn school age.

Home education packs

Every interactive and engaging home learning educational resource pack provides appealing and reliable practice for all basic and key skills, irrespective of age, stage, or year.

There is a wide range of exciting and engaging free at-home learning educational resource packs and practice books designed for school children and students in the school of early learning and home education for academic excellence in assessment tests and exams preparation even in Phonics, Reading, SATs, or GCSEs.

In-Home learning effective implementation strategies for homeschool children and students

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

A female teacher showing a child something to learn on paper. Tutors must develop effective implementation strategies for making their students learn at home. Photo by Adam Winger on Unsplash

7 Steps to achieving in-home learning strategies for school kids

Parents, educators, tutors, and other education facilitators can achieve in-home learning implementation strategies that can be effectively achieved in 7 steps:

1. Assign daily lessons for specific knowledge, abilities, and skills acquisition through devised skill plans.
2. Set lesson goals for specified knowledge, abilities, and skills.
3. Have your homeschool children and students work to acquire knowledge, abilities, and skills for undertaken lessons to achieve set learning goals
4. Actualize personalized or individualized practice plans
5. Carry out home tests on lessons learned.
6. Perform knowledge, abilities, and skills analysis to ascertain if learning goals are met.
7. Use metrics and analytics to get insight into homeschool children and students’ progress.

Homeschool education resource support group teachers, tutors, and organizations near me

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

Near-me learning support can be offered by tutors and facilitators for homeeducation kids. Photo by sofatutor on Unsplash

Perhaps you live US, Canada, UK, India, Australia, China, South Africa Nigeria, or any other country, you can find homeschool resource support groups, teachers, tutors, organizations near me in your area and location by clicking these links:

Click here to find homeschool resource support group near me in the US

Click here to find the resource support group near me in Canada

Click here to find homeschool resource support group near me in the UK

Click here to find in Australia

Click here to find in India

Click here to find out about homeschool resources, activities, and organizations in China even though homeschooling is officially illegal in China

Click here to find a homeschool teacher near me in the US, Canada, and other countries – UAE, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Kuwait, and Guam

Click here to find in South Africa

Click here to find in Nigeria

Click here to get a home tutor in Nigeria

Click here to connect a homeschool organization of your choice

Click here to find homeschool tutors near me

Local homeschool events near me

On the other hand, you live US, Canada, UK, India, or any other country and want to find homeschool local events near me in your area. You can click these links:

Click here to find a local homeschool near me in the US

Click here to find a homeschool near me in the UK

Click the following links to find for Canada: Canada Homeschool Support Group and Homeschool Organizations and Support Groups; 

Click here to find for Australia

Click here to find local homeschool resources near me in India.

Click here to find in China

Click here to find in South Africa

Home learning Plan for children and students

There may be very good institutional, organizational and practical reasons that make formally structured learning necessary in school.

The home learning content and curriculum of what school-aged children who are five years and above should learn should be planned in detail and carefully sequenced as they embark on “proper” or formal learning.

The teacher, parent, tutor, or learning facilitator delivers this curriculum and children learn what they are told to learn. Progress is constantly monitored, from answering teachers’ questions in class, to completing written exercises to taking regular tests.

How to plan for a successful at-home learning

There are several measures a parent or teacher can take in planning for successful at-home learning. Some of the measures or plans are outlined below:

1. Reduce the teaching day to a couple of teaching hours so that the workload will be less burdensome for the children
2. Make use of the morning hours in teaching the learners.
3. Make learning sessions flexible. The flexibility of home learning also means that a timetable is unnecessary.
4. Lessons can be as short or as long as necessary.

The implication is that the parent or teachers must not persist when learning is any more taking place because the child is tired or losing concentration. The lesson can be picked up or continued later. It is a waste of time to teach someone without the student learning. On the other hand, the lesson or activity can go on for as long as the interest lasts, even up to 10 to 12 hours if the teacher has the endurance and strength as well.