Homeschool Methods & Styles

Homeschoolers cover an entire spectrum of different educational methods. On the one end, you have unschoolers, families that believe in self- or child-led learning. Relying on real world experiences, they learn by living. On the other end of the spectrum, you find parents who have “school at home.” They may set up a classroom environment, use structured curriculums, and rely on schedules to keep things moving smoothly. And of course, there is everything in between. There are as many different ways to homeschool as there are homeschoolers. Explore the different methods, ideas, and approaches that make the homeschooling experience so rich.

What's Popular

Home is Cool: Get Organized for Home School

Homeschool families, like Tolstoy’s happy ones, are all alike: drowning in a sea of clutter. Home schooling a child beats all other organizational challenges hands-down. How do you count the clutter? The books. The papers. The biology experiments on the kitchen window. The six-foot-tall child sprawled on the floor, reading. The record-keeping. College admissions and testing and letters from the correspondence school.

Montessori

School Jokes

School Jokes has lots of jokes and humor all about school, school life, teachers, lessons and lots more—over 250 pages of them. Includes many subject related jokes.

Must Have Homeschooling Items for a Large Family

This list of practical items and virtues are great for a large homeschooling family.

Homeschooling the Single Child

Homeschoolers report that it is sometimes more difficult to homeschool one child versus two or more children. Many parents report that it is easy to place too much pressure on a single child, as the child is the sole focus of the parent’s day. Clashes may also arise between a parent and a single homeschooler as they are together for a large part of the day. Both parents and single homeschooled children report that they sometimes feel smothered by each other. Some children also feel lonely.

How to Homeschool: Determine Your Child’s Learning Style

One of the first steps you should take when embarking on homeschooling is determining your child's learning style. Most people tend towards one of the four main learning styles. This means that they are more successful in learning when the learning and teaching corresponds to this style. Few people are only one learning style, so exploring the different styles is helpful. This guide details four learning styles: kinesthetic, visual, auditory, and tactile.

Benefits of Homeschooling

More and more children and teens than ever are learning at home. The benefits are clear. Homeschooling gives the advantage of flexibility, academic superiority, efficiency, and the many opportunities that a homeschool family can take advantage of. Education is not a one-size fits all endeavor and homeschooling allows families to learn in the way that best suits them.

Charlotte Mason Approach

This website gives an overview of the Charlotte Mason method and features resources and explanations for using the CM method in your homeschool.

Homeschooling Parent Magazine

Launched in 2000, Homeschooling Parent is a bi-monthly publication focusing on stories of interest to homeschooling families, products, and ideas that assist parents teaching their children at home. Individual subscriptions are offered, as well as free group subscriptions for support groups or libraries.