What makes home-based early childhood programming unique?

When I am asked what makes a home-based program so different from a school-based one, this is what I immediately think of. Homes are personal, often familial spaces. They are hugely shaped by the lives and personalities of the people who inhabit them. The felt sense of being in a home is very different to that of a community building, childcare centre, or a primary school. To me it is not really so much a question of which is “better,” and instead more of an honest acknowledgment that home-based programs are really quite distinct.