There are so many wonderful styles of homeschooling to choose from! If you are just starting out, it can be overwhelming figuring out which style you want to go with. Guess what? They all have amazing benefits in one way or another and they all have their drawbacks. Let me help you pick: be an eclectic homeschooler! Take all the parts you love about each style and use them!
Education Models:
This is probably the most familiar educational model. It is what is used in most schools; textbooks and workbooks. Fill in the blanks. Read a lesson, answer the questions.
Pros:
- Easy set-up, many curriculum options
- Students who love structure will enjoy this
- Parents who want little prep time can find open-and-go (or online) curriculum
Cons:
- Can be boring
- Students who don’t do well with traditional school work will be unhappy
- Little time to dive into interests
This style focuses on three stages: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. It is very systematic and rigorous; aiming to build a strong connections between the subjects studied and develop persuasive language skills. You can read more about this style here.
Pros
- Solid, proven method
- Curriculum available, little prep needed
- Good for structure-loving kids and kids who like rote-memory
Cons
- Can be too rigorous for some students
- Revisiting the same subjects every 4 years can get boring
- Not great for creative kids
This method utilizes “living-books” to teach; allowing stories to help students learn through imaginative stories and re-telling those stories. It focuses on nature, art, and music as well as traditional subjects. This method is more of spreading a feast of knowledge and letting the student consume what interests them. Learn more Here.
Pros
- Curriculums available
- More interesting subject matter; imaginative
- Very hands-on, in-the-field type of learning
Cons
- Can be expensive (if buying many books / no library available)
- More prep required for the parent
- Not quite as systematic; very gentle learning experience (Pro for some, co for others)
Unit studies focus on one subject at a time and encompass many academic disciplines around that subject. If teaching about weather, you might include stories about weather events, learn to measure rain for math, endless science experiments, read about clouds, rain, climate, etc, then do a painting of clouds.
Pros
- Keeps kids interested in learning because the subject changes every few weeks
- You can follow kids’ interests
- Easy to implement as entire school experience or as a fun supplement
Cons
- Not systematic (drawback for some parents/students)
- Can be much more prep work/planning
- May feel like sporadic learning
This style is often misunderstood as “neglecting your child’s education.” Unschooling should really be called “child-lead learning.” There is no set curriculum and you follow the interests of the child, learning through that interest until a new curiosity comes up.
Pros
- Child gets to learn at their own rate
- Child is encouraged to pursue passions
- No curriculum necessary!
Cons
- More prep work (always figuring out how to turn their interests into a learning experience)
- Hard for parents who need/want evidence of learning
- Easier to have accidental learning gaps
I adore the Charlotte Mason method, Unschooling, and Unit Studies. I also find benefit in a small amount of routine schoolwork (math). I’m not completely an unschooler, but we aren’t traditional. We love unit studies, so we aren’t Classical schoolers. We use curriculum from time to time, but we also go through seasons of just exploring nature.
We do what works for us in that season or in that week.
I know, that makes it sound like we are not in control of our schooling, but it is just the opposite. We are in complete control of the way our days look. We have our Default Days, where our more traditional school side shows through. We work on the typical reading, writing, and arithmetic skills. We have unschooling days where I follow the lead of the kids and dive into something they wanted to learn. We have Charlotte Mason days where we take hikes through nature and keep a watercolor journal. I’m very interested in the classical way of teaching history.
If you are dead-set on being a Charlotte Mason home schooler (because her methods and ideas are amazing!), but in practice you are frazzled and your child is not enjoying life at all, is it working for your family? Is that what you want? Probably not. Find the part that is working, put it in your pocket and move on. If Unschooling scares you, read about it! It is not a complete neglect of your child’s education; it’s letting them take the lead. Unschooling is learning about what your child is interested in. Does he like Dinos? Get all the books, make fossils, draw them, learn to spell words related to them. Does your daughter love princesses? Learn about castle types, how to draw them, famous princesses in history, read about them. Sorry, princesses was the first thing that came to mind…I’m a #boymom. Maybe Jewelry making is an interest? That could lead to all kinds of learning about metals and gemstones. Or sewing…The history in quilting can be fascinating and there is definitely math in quilting!
The point is, your family is not a cookie-cutter family. Do you know how I know? Because you homeschool. Don’t try to use a cookie cutter in the shape of traditional school or any other method. Make your own shape by taking all the parts you like from the methods you read about and apply them in a way that suits your unique homeschool. You get to shape your life, what do you want it to look like?