Homeschooling and Unschooling

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Unschooling is a natural or autonomous type of learning, that is, totally free and designed by the parents or legal guardians of the child in question. The student is not directed by anyone from outside to introduce academic concepts unless he or she is interested in something specific or shows a need to learn it. This methodology is based mainly on the fact that in order to truly learn something, intrinsic motivation and curiosity are necessary ( Perea, 2016 ).  Children's natural learning processes are respected and above all their intellectual and emotional rhythm. An example is learning to speak the mother tongue, this is called immersion learning ( Rolstad and Kesson, 2013 ). Unschooling has many different definitions, and unschooling families' ideas and activities also differ greatly. The difficulty in locating and studying unschooling families further complicates large-scale research projects ( Rolstad and Kesson, 2013 ).

Homeschooling can be defined as a form of schooling directed by parents without the need to enroll their children in an educational center, so it takes place at home. Parents are responsible for their children's education, but they may request help from teachers or professors ( Urpí and Sotés, 2012 ). Most education experts agree that homeschooling is not simply bringing school home. Therefore, students who remain enrolled in school but are unable to attend classes for a variety of reasons are not considered homeschooled students ( Valiente et al., 2022 ).  Today, some two million children are homeschooled and, since the turn of the century, homeschooling has grown to include a wider variety of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as family goals ( CRHE, 2013 ).