My name is Ivonne Quiroga, a native Colombian living in Medellin, Colombia. I’m a wife, homeschool mom, and homeschool adviser. I am the founder of Homeschooling Antioquia (which is our network and our family support group in Medellin), a regional leader of “EnFamilia” (InFamily) Network (The Colombian home education network) and one of the organizers of the International Forum Of Alternative Education in Medellin.

I want to share with you a little about homeschooling in Colombia, especially in Medellin.

Since 2000, Colombia has grown in the numbers of families seeking to educate their children at home. Although homeschooling is a practice that has been going on for many years in my country, it has only recently begun to attain popularity.

Up until now, it’s been difficult for families to identify other homeschoolers in their area, or to connect with those who are homeschooling for similar reasons.

In the early 2000s, the National University of Colombia released a study on homeschooling, which raised awareness in Colombia for home education. As it began to grow and become better known (particularly after 2008), families and networking organizations began surfacing — first in Bogota — and has been growing in other countries ever since

In Colombia, there is no specific regulation, nor prohibition, for homeschooling. Technically, home education in Colombia is alegal (i.e. functioning without being regulated or prohibited) and is covered by the constitution Article 68: “Parents have the right to choose the type of education for their minor children.”

Medellin is a wonderful city, not only because of its people and its weather (it is known as the city of eternal spring), but also because it is one of the most innovative cities in the world. It is a city that offers many resources and spaces for homeschool families, such as libraries, cultural centers, a park that is an interactive site to learn about science, technology and more, planetarium, zoo, museums, universities, sports venues, events and many more things.

Knowing that our city has lots to offer the homeschool community, we created the family network in 2013. Since then, we have stumbled across different activities for children and also parents who wish to homeschool. We’ve also been able to create lots of different events and opportunities for these families. We help and accompany families who want to get started in homeschooling, answer the FAQs, share information about legal aspects in Colombia, methods, ideas, resources, books, authors, pages, articles, videos and everything that can help them in this way. We organize trips to different places in the city, free play meetings in different parks, and we also make alliances with learning spaces such as universities, where we do workshops and programs for children. At the zoo we have a scientific club and there are different museums and institutions that have opened their doors to us.

We have a Facebook group where we share information, reflections, articles, videos, pages, resources, ideas, experiences, events and everything related to home education and soon we will launch our web page. And, since so many foreigners come to Medellin, we have connected with homeschool families from different countries and we are open and delighted to meet and receive families from different parts of the world.

A warm hug from Colombia for all HSLDA families and fellow homeschoolers around the world!