In finding your group, or your tribe, it’s really useful to know who you are. This applies in life AND to homeschooling. Second-choice homeschoolers are at a disadvantage here. We come to homeschooling unexpectedly, sometimes with very little time to prepare.

Us second-choicers know about our own reasons for needing to homeschool, but don’t have a great handle on what first choice homeschoolers are about, nor have we firmed up our own values and conceptions of what we want in our own homeschools. We may even have a pre-conception that homeschooling is generally a single kind of thing, that homeschoolers are mostly alike.

There are several kinds of spectrums of homeschooling including style/method, religion, and class/expenditure. Here’s a brief overview of what’s out there, maybe it will help you find your group.

Style/Method

This spectrum runs from classical education to eclectic to radical unschooling.

Classical education can sometimes be referred to as schooling at home. It is a methodical, highly structured method of education, and often quite time intensive.

Radical unschooling is usually an entirely student-led endeavor. The parents give their children freedom to explore the world and learn about various topics on the child’s timeline, meaning when a child is interested in something, the child can pursue learning about it; the parent won’t dictate when or what a child will learn. Unschooling is sometimes referred to as self-directed education.

Both classical and unschooling homeschoolers often have deeply held values that inform how they structure their homeschool.

Eclectic is a “middle way.” It is characterized by parents who sometimes take a classical approach and sometimes take an unschooling approach. Most eclectic homeschoolers I’ve met are pragmatic and can see benefits from changing approaches at different seasons of homeschooling or with different subjects.

Class/Expenditure

Some homeschoolers are doing what the elite have always done through history, hired private tutors and provided educational experiences that the middle and lower classes cannot access.

In the middle, are parents who can send their children to homeschool enrichment organizations, for example Parts & Crafts in Somerville, and within reason get most classes that they would like from area organizations and obtain almost any curriculum they’re interested in.

At the other end are broke homeschoolers. We are a necessarily resourceful bunch, with low to extremely low budgets. We will sometimes combine resources with other broke homeschoolers. We will search out free, low-cost, or used curriculum. We research all the opportunities available to us to creatively meet the educational needs of our kids. We often create curriculums from library and internet resources. Free is our favorite word, 😀

Religion

This last spectrum is self-explanatory, and can be a touchy subject, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Conclusions

Just like the wider world, sometimes it’s difficult for people with strongly held values and beliefs to find common ground with people who have opposing but equally strong values and beliefs. It can be tricky for people of different classes to spend time together in regular life which applies to homeschooling too.

So my advice for finding your tribe is to figure out who you are and to look for people of similar dispositions. I’m not saying don’t try to work things out with people who are different, but if you find you are out of sync with a certain group of homeschoolers, don’t judge yourself, it’s likely there’s a mis-match.

If you’re in an area where the predominant style/class/religion of homeschoolers doesn’t match your own, it can feel tremendously confusing and isolating. Don’t give up, homeschoolers like you are out there and you can find one another!