Homeschooling Styles

I would like to share about the various homeschooling styles that are available for families today. As there are a variety of families who choose this educational route, there are a number of homeschooling styles. Let's talk about a few of the most common styles you might encounter. Just remember that you should always be doing what is best for your family even if it is not the most popular option.

Traditional: This approach to homeschooling is sometimes referred to as school at home. This approach is highly structured, includes textbooks, grade by grade curriculum, schedules and routines. Families who choose this homeschooling style usually mirror their days after the traditional classroom model. They may have a designated schoolroom or area of the home and have set goals they want to accomplish throughout the school year.

Classical: This approach is based on a three-part process: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. Some families choose to include their Biblical beliefs and practices into this model. Families who choose this route see learning on a continuum beginning with the Grammar stage where children are learning how to learn. This is usually from birth to around fourth grade. The Logic stage begins around fifth grade and focuses on reasoning and analytical thinking. The Rhetoric stage begins in High School, which is when children apply the rules of logic to the foundation of skills learned at the younger stages. A classical education is a language-based homeschooling approach.

Montessori / Charlotte Mason / Waldolf: Some educational approaches are steeped in the research and teachings of specific people. Maria Montessori’s teachings, Charlotte Mason’s educational practices and Rudolf Steiner’s Waldolf approach are three of the popular homeschool approaches that families gravitate towards. These approaches are similar but have distinct principles as well. I invite you to do your own research to get a deeper understanding of them all. To some extent they look for the beauty in language and literature, they see children as naturally curious and encourage interest based learning.

Unit Studies: Families who homeschool with unit studies do so by choosing a central theme around which they base their lessons. They may focus on bats and pull in science lessons, language arts and math. All of their lessons will somehow relate to the central theme. This is one way to teach especially when teaching multiple age groups. It is an immersive approach to learning. Families switch their learning topics as needed.

Eclectic: An eclectic approach to homeschooling is just that. It is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I would say our family’s approach is more on the eclectic side. We do not follow any one philosophy or practice in our homeschool. My formal educational background has given me the confidence to choose what I would like to see in our homeschool. For some subjects we use textbooks or worksheets, we have a loose daily schedule and or routine but I also love, love, love unit studies. I find that as you dive more into your homeschooling journey your thoughts and expectations will change as will your practices. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can tailor what you are doing to your family’s lifestyle. There are some weeks where we are true to our schedule and we get everything done in a timely manner. There are other weeks when we might have doctor’s appointments or other obligations and so we have to do some schoolwork on the weekends. For us learning is fluid and so we embrace the flexibility.

Unschooling: With unschooling the children are usually in the driver’s seat. Unschooling does not mean lack of learning. In fact it is more child led learning. There is no tie to any one educational practice or set of tools and the children are usually learning based on their areas of interest. Caregivers often say they are following the lead of their child and allow the learning to happen more in an organic sense.

Additionally, I wanted to also share briefly about road schooling and world schooling. Some families really value travel and choose to do so while educating their children. I think if this works for your family, you should most definitely take advantage of the opportunity. Children will learn no matter where they are and world experiences really just adds to the multifaceted components home educators have at their disposal.

The aforementioned approaches to homeschooling are all really only briefly discussed in this post. No matter the approach you choose to use with your family allow for flexibility and change. Do further research to really get an understanding of the style that best suits you as the educator as well as your learners. Your homeschool should fit you not anyone else. Follow the guidelines of your state and country and go with what feels right based on the morals and views of your family.

As stated before, we take an eclectic approach to learning as that is what works for our family. I hope you found value in this post feel free to leave a comment below to tell me what style works for you!