Starting - How to start Homeschooling in India
External Research : Know Homeschooling
- Know what is homeschooling and how home schooling is done or lived differently by different families
- From different life philosophies
- Through variety of approaches
- To serve different needs - Some families follow curriculum and prepare and appear for board exams like NIOS, IGCSE and many home educated children join colleges and universities. In some homes parents teach, some use services of outside tutors, some use online homeschool programs, some follow child directed learning & growing. Some families form local groups and facilitate home schooling through homeschool coops or learning centers where children or families gather regularly or irregularly.
- Unschooling families usually do not feel compelled to have a set curriculum or teach proactively for learning to emerge and many are not even interested in board exams, certificates, degrees or colleges and live without them.
- Know legal aspects, curriculum, certification & exams options, Indian homeschoolers community support
- At this time (in 2023) practicing Unschooling or Homeschooling in India (unlike other conutries like USA) does not require registration with state education departments or periodic assessments or inspections.
Internal Research : Know Yourself and Reasons for Homeschooling child
- Usually I invite families to first connect within themselves and contemplate on education, schooling, learning, exams & certificates, degrees, jobs or in general meaning & purpose of education.
- Then connect with
(A) Needs, lifestyle philosophy & choices, aspirations & circumstances of parents or family
(B) Needs & individuality of child.
Explore Community Support
- Then you may also contact or learn from other families journey online or offline. Observe or know about the variety of without school or homeschooling approaches or methods or structures they are using.
- You can be part of offline or online homeschooling or unschooling groups. The sharing, discussions that happen on these home schooling groups or past discussions may give you ideas and perspectives and you can ask for guidance from other home school or unschooling families if and when needed.
Choose your Home schooling lifestyle
- Then see which approaches may suit your needs, circumstances, aspirations, lifestyle, worldview. Or you may want to have your own unique approach to meet your needs + childs needs + collective needs of family.
- If you are new to homeschooling and finding any aspect of home schooling, unschooling overwhelming to begin with, then relax.
Start with whatever feels comfortable.
Many experienced home schooling families know that it is not merely a child's but also an engaged parent's or care provider's or facilitator's journey of learning & exploration too.
Home Education or Living Without School is a 'PROCESS', and while you may prepare, still you may not have all the knowledge, skills, tools, experience, plans, resources to begin with, and many of them needed would be acquired 'In the' and 'Through the Process' in this journey, just like consciousness of parenting gets developed in the process of parenting itself or job skills on the job. - While you are practicing the homeschooling approaches you have chosen (or havn't deliberately chosen), you may keep being connected with and observing child to see how the child is responding or growing in that environment. Some children enjoy and blossom in particular structures, some don't. You may consider having flexibility to mend home schooling approaches if needed.
- If child has been growing with schools and your are shifting into homeschooling, there is no obligation to get permission or Transfer Certificate from school to be able to facilitate home education.
- When shifting from school to homeschooling, some children may find comfort & blossoming in home learning immediately, and some may need some time to shift away emotionally & structurally from familiarity, habits, ideas & structures of traditional schooling.
- From my observation of homeschooling families over a decade I have observed that normally within a couple of years of starting your home schooling journey you may get guidance from your journey itself, and confusion, concerns and many worries or fears you may have experienced before or at the start of homeschooling journey get settled.
- I have also observed that significantly high percentage of families who plunge into homeschooling or growing without school contently navigate their journey of home schooling.
All the Best!!