If you are planning on homeschooling your child, you will need to learn the many styles of homeschooling that’s available so that you can decide which would work best for your family. The top 5 today are Classical, Eclectic, Charlotte Mason, Unit Studies, and Unschooling.
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1. Classical Homeschooling
This is a method of learning that goes all the way back to the middle ages. It works on the philosophy that the younger children begin with learning the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Once that’s mastered, they move on to the next stage, which consists of grammar. It involves compositions and collections.
Then they move to the dialect stage, where the serious study of reading and writing and arithmetic comes in. Instead of learning grade-appropriate materials that public schools use, the child learns in stages.
2. Eclectic (or Relaxed) Homeschooling
This type of homeschooling works under the philosophy that you should enhance children’s everyday activities and emotions, using them to insert appropriate lessons to teach them a subject.
3. The Charlotte-Mason Method
This is one of the most popular methods of homeschooling today. Charlotte-Mason developed this style to enrich a child’s education through nature, literature, and real-life experiences.
Although a child must still be taught with a regular curriculum according to your state’s laws, they can learn to love learning with nature lessons, poetry understanding, and much more. When learning is more enlightening for a child, they’re more apt to absorb the information than when they’re given a bunch of facts to memorize.
4. Montessori-at-Home
This type of homeschooling allows a child to learn their fundamentals through the use of their environment and by using all of their senses – not by memorizing facts from a textbook.
Dr. Maria Montessori was a woman who studied children for many years and developed the philosophy that one should control the environment and not the child when teaching them skills. She believed this would provide the optimum learning environment.
5. The Moore Formula
This method developed by Raymond and Dorothy Moore is divided into three separate parts. It’s a way of teaching with studying for a determined amount of time each day based on the child’s needs.
It involves manual work and entrepreneurship, which teaches a child to accept responsibility. Lastly, it involves home or community service, which builds character within the child.
6. The Reggio Emilia Approach
This approach first started in the Reggio Emilia area of Italy. It teaches preschool-aged children to learn through exploration and not by having the fundamentals forced on them. Also, it teaches that children have a built-in sense that allows them to learn what they need in this world at their own pace.
7. The Structured Homeschooling Approach
This is a method of homeschooling that is similar to the curriculum seen in public schools. This approach teaches lessons at a grade level depending on the student’s age and where they are at in their academics.
8. The Unit Study Approach
This approach to homeschooling allows a child to learn a subject as a whole instead of just reading chapters in a textbook. A child learns a subject through the use of reading, science, math, and other methods to learn that topic. Children can retain almost 50% more with this immersion technique than the traditional study applied in public schools.
9. Thomas Jefferson Education (TJEd)
Created by Oliver and Rachel DeMille, TJEd offers an approach to education based on how great people in history were educated. They focus on the “how” and “why” we teach, instead of just the “what” to teach. It steers more towards classical books than textbooks and having “mentors” instead of teachers.
10. Unschooling
This is a more laid back form of educating your child. Basically, your son or daughter will lead you to their educational needs. You’ll discover what to teach them based on their own interests and goals, not by abiding by a strict curriculum.
11. Waldorf (or Steiner) Homeschooling
This method was developed by Rudolph Steiner. He broke learning up into 3 main categories:
Early childhood education–focuses on hands-on activities and playing
Elementary education–focuses on artistic expression and social capacities
Secondary education–focuses on critical reasoning and understanding
12. Multiple Intelligences
This was created by Howard Gardner and Harvard University’s “Project Zero”. It uses the strengths of the child to teach instead of focusing on weaknesses.
13. Online Homeschooling
You may choose to participate in an online school. This can be either a homeschool-based or state-based curriculum. Also, there are online classes or groups that you could join for specific subjects.
Resources
So where can you find curriculum for these? A quick google search is a good place to start. I have also linked to sites that we use quite often.
Unit Studies with Techie Homeschool Mom: Ancient Egypt Online Unit Study
High School Solution with The HomeScholar
Your Local Library
Conclusion
By analyzing your child’s learning abilities and your comfort-level with each type of instruction, you’ll be able to find a method of homeschooling that fulfills both you and your child during the educational journey you take together. Or you may decide that a combination of the above will work better. It is okay to change your mind. Know that one curriculum is not set in stone. We have tried many different approaches until we settled on a mix of classical and online homeschooling.
Good luck!
Kim.
You can also check out our Resources page for more information.
some of these methods I had never heard of before. Good to learn new things eh? 🙂