Common Homeschool Styles

As with most things in life, there is more than one way to succeed. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can find a way that works for your family and fits your individual child’s needs. In today’s post, we will discuss some of the common styles of homeschooling. Keep in mind that there is no rule saying you have to choose a single style. Most families float between multiple philosophies or combine the parts they like to create their own methods. There are no limits or restrictions when it comes to choosing your path!

As you might guess from the name, classical education is one of the oldest styles of schooling. It is structured around three stages of learning, known as the “Trivium.” A child works through the grammar, logic, and rhetoric stages, while studying the great philosophers, Latin, and The Bible. The focus of this homeschooling style is to teach reading, listening, writing, observing, measuring. After mastering these tools, a student will have everything they need to learn whatever they want. Classical Conversations is a popular program, which is heavily centered around the teachings of Christianity.

Charlotte Mason is an educational philosophy that centers on teaching the whole child. It does not focus on teaching rote facts from text books, but instead uses “living books” to teach history. Living books are written in an engaging manner, usually by someone who is an expert on the central topic. Students show understanding by retelling the story in their own words. Dictation, copy work, and memorization are other components of the Charlotte Mason style, and are used to teach spelling and handwriting. Dedicated time spent in nature as well as a focus on art and poetry round out this program.

Dr. Maria Montessori developed an educational program for young children in a classroom setting, which has been adapted for homeschool use by many families. The central theme is that children are free to choose what they would like to do each day. Tables or trays are set up around the room with different educational tools on display to attract the children. Hands-on learning is a large part of this program, from math beads to color tablets. This is a relaxed, child-led method of teaching where the parent provides an “invitation” to learn different topics, while the child feels in control because they are choosing to learn. Montessori is primarily a classroom teaching style so most of the information you find on it will be for the school setting, however you can easily adapt the concept for homeschool. It is popular for the preschool and early elementary age.

Waldorf is another method which is found in the school system and has been adapted for the home. This educational style is often conflated with Montessori, however the two programs are quite different. Waldorf focuses on a multi-sensory education, with art and music playing an important role in every lesson. Natural materials such as wood or felt are featured and plastic toys are forbidden. Children may paint pictures, decorate wooden doll figures, or design felted creations to accompany a lesson. Subjects are organized into “lesson blocks” where stories, art, and music build a central theme of the topic at hand. These blocks may last for several weeks before moving on to a new theme.

This style is pretty much what it sounds like. The public school classroom is recreated at home. There may be a schedule of what subjects will be tackled at specific times. Individual subjects are kept separate, like periods during a school day. Students read from textbooks and fill in worksheets. This method is highly structured and is set up as though the student is still attending school, just at home. K12 is a popular choice, though it is not considered homeschooling. You are still enrolled in the public school system and have teachers assisting you in each subject, however it may be a good option for families considering the school at home method. More program options will be discussed in our next installment.

There are two methods of schooling with unit studies. The first involves an interdisciplinary program where you focus on a specific area of study while still highlighting all school subjects. If you choose to do a unit study on sharks, you will include science, history, language arts, and even math, all focused on the central theme of sharks. This is a popular method of teaching, as most subjects are intertwined when in the real world and especially so in a career setting. The second way of utilizing unit studies is to use it as an addition to your regular subjects. Math, science, etc, are all still taught as individual subjects, with an ever-changing addition of more focused units. You may also choose to have science lessons rotate through multiple units over the course of the year. In this manner, it is similar to the school setting where areas of study focus on a specific topic for a period of time before moving on to the next.

The next style of homeschooling is the most difficult to describe because every family lives it differently. The central theme for all unschoolers is that this is a complete lifestyle, not just a form of education. Radical Unschooling is a method where the child has free will to make all choices in their day. If they want to read a book, they may do so. If they want to stay up late and play video games, they may do so. There are no rules or punishments. The idea behind this lifestyle is that children are naturally curious and will choose to study what interests them when given the freedom to do so. A child may discover a deep love of movies and be inspired to become a director or a film composer. They will be driven to learn these skills on their own without outside pressure from parents or a curriculum. While there are many families who choose radical unschooling, most unschooling families take a more relaxed approach. Children are still given the freedom to learn what they wish to learn and self-direct their education, however a more common family dynamic remains in place, with rules, consequences, and usually some form of a schedule or routine.

As you might guess from the name, this style of homeschooling combines pieces from many different methods to create an educational atmosphere that works best for individual families and children. It is by far the most common form of homeschooling, and is the approach we take at Revolutionary Learning. You may choose to use living books to bring history studies to life, while taking an unschooling approach to mathematics while cooking with your child. A Charlotte Mason style nature study combined with the art and music of Waldorf may round out your science for the year. The freedom to pick and choose whatever we want truly is the beauty of homeschooling.

One final, yet incredibly important, topic to discuss when reviewing homeschool styles is that of religious materials. The vast majority of homeschool materials have historically been religion-based, simply due to the history of modern homeschooling itself. Many parents chose to keep their children at home so they could be educated with their faith in all aspects of life. They did not want their children exposed to certain topics at school, with evolution being a frequent sticking point. Because of this, homeschool curriculum companies focused on materials with a strong religious undertone. Bible studies and the story of creation are woven seamlessly into each subject. God’s teachings dictate much of what is taught. Evolution is said to be false, and many other claims are made that we will not discuss here. This material is perfectly fine if that is your goal in educating your child. There are some beautiful curriculum options available for religious homeschoolers, which we will discuss in our next post.

But what if you are not religious? Many families choose to use faith-based materials simply because they are readily available. You may skip over the parts that you don’t agree with, modify, or supplement in areas you wish to teach differently. That was the only option families had until recent years. The homeschooling community has had an explosion of new curriculum options come onto the scene during the past decade and we have more choices than ever before. If you decide you would like to avoid faith-based materials, what are your options? (As a side note, many religious families choose to use neutral or secular materials so they can either keep their religious teachings separate from school, or to make sure their family’s specific faith and views are taught, not the views of the author.)

Neutral and secular materials do not include religion in their materials, except as discussed from an academic standpoint. It is extremely important that we study religion because it has played such an immense role in world history. Educational materials that completely avoid religion as a topic are doing a disservice to our children and their future understanding of the world. The difference between neutral and secular materials comes down to the topic of evolution. Neutral curriculums have taken the stance of pleasing both sides. If they don’t bring up evolution at all, then they may appeal to more families. This serves as a middle ground in the debate between the two views of Earth’s beginning. Secular materials teach the theory of evolution and the big bang.

To summarize, if you believe in creation and wish for it to be a running theme in your child’s science lessons, you will want to choose faith-based materials. If you believe in either creation or evolution, but would prefer to keep the discussion out of the classroom setting, neutral will be your friend. If you would like your child to learn about the big bang and evolution, and have your science curriculum be based on these theories, then you will want to choose secular materials. All are great options, and once again highlight the freedom we have to choose what our children learn when we control their education.

This is not an exhaustive list of homeschooling methods. There are far too many to cover, so we have chosen some of the more popular styles to include in this summary. In our next post, we will share some popular homeschool materials, including religious, neutral, and secular options.