Home education or Reggio Emilia?

The difference between Home education and Reggio Emilia is mostly one axis: where the curriculum comes from. Home education sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits firmly toward it emerges from the children. They agree, more than most people expect, on technology at school. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Home education

Education at home with a structure you choose — bought curriculum, your own sequence, or a co-operative with other families. It gives complete control over pace, content and values, and it converts one parent's time into the school. The outcome research is genuinely good and almost entirely drawn from self-selected families, so it should be read as what is possible rather than as what is typical.

What it asks of you

One adult's working life, in most arrangements
Building a social world deliberately, since it does not arrive with the building
Teaching subjects you are not confident in, for years
A plan for the transition back, if there ever is one

Reggio Emilia

There is no curriculum set in advance. Teachers watch what a group of children is drawn to, document it obsessively, and build long projects out of it — which may run for months. The environment is treated as a third teacher, expression takes a hundred forms, and the documentation on the walls is the record of the thinking rather than display work.

What it asks of you

Tolerating genuine uncertainty about what your child will study this term
A school with the staffing to do it, since the method is expensive in adult attention
Reading the documentation, which is where the learning is visible and is easy to walk past
Accepting it is an early-years approach; few Reggio schools run past six

Side by side

Where they differ

Home education is the filled marker, Reggio Emilia the hollow one. Widest difference first.

L4Where the curriculum comes from

it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Home education sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits firmly toward it emerges from the children.

L5What a teacher is

a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Home education sits a little toward an authority who instructs; Reggio Emilia sits toward a guide who steps back.

L1Who directs the day

the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Home education sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits toward the child chooses what to do.

E1Mixed ages

classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Home education sits toward mixed-age groups; Reggio Emilia sits between the two.

V1A view of the world

school should stay neutralschool should teach a view of the world

Home education sits toward school should teach a view of the world; Reggio Emilia sits a little toward school should stay neutral.

L2When formal academics start

when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Home education sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.

V2Who else is there

a broad, mixed intake matters mosta community that shares our values matters most

Home education sits toward a community that shares our values matters most; Reggio Emilia sits between the two.

V3What it is for

childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Home education sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits toward childhood is the point.

C2Money and distancewhat your life allows

free and local, or it is not an optionwe can pay, and we can travel

Home education sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits toward we can pay, and we can travel.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

Technology at school. Both sit between the two.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing