Homeschool Styles: Different Methods & Types

Are you trying to understand the different homeschool styles? Did you know that there are many ways to approach homeschooling? If you’re feeling overwhelmed and need help understanding the various methods, styles, & approaches to homeschooling, the information below should be helpful.

Let’s get started with a list of basic homeschooling types, methods, styles, approaches, and terminology. Be sure to keep scrolling for more information about each method of homeschooling. There are separate blog posts and podcast episodes about many of the styles of homeschooling.

• Traditional School-At-Home
• Curriculum Based Method
• Deschooling
• Classical Style
• Unit Studies
• Project-Based Learning
• Gameschooling
• Wildschooling
• Roadschooling
• Unschooling
• Radical Unschooling
• Worldschooling
• Strewing
• Child-Led Learning
• Delight-Directed Learning
• Eclectic Homeschooling
• True Homeschooling

A Note About Publicly Funded K12 Programs

• K12 programs are public school programs. This is not the same as true homeschooling. K12 programs are funded by the public school system. When your child is enrolled in a K12 program, they are a public school student and are not considered a homeschooled student. This difference is significant because when your child is enrolled in the public school system, you’re options are quite different than when you are a truly homeschooling your child. Learn more about the differences between doing school-at-home through the public school system and true homeschooling here.

Traditional School-At-Home Model of Homeschooling

When you are following a traditional school-at-home model of homeschooling, in essence, you are trying to replicate the public school system within your home. You may follow the public school calendar and the timelines that your local school district has set forth. Each school day would look very similar to the school system’s schedule. Your daily schedule may look something like this.

School-At-Home Example Schedule

• 6:30 a.m. Kids get up.
• 7:00 a.m. Breakfast.
• 7:30 a.m. Brush Teeth.
• 8:00 a.m. Start school.
• 8:15 a.m. Spelling.
• 8:45 a.m. Math.
• 9:30 a.m. Recess.
• 9:45 a.m. Language Arts.
• 10:30 a.m. Music
• 11:00 Lunch

Does the thought of following this regimented schedule exhaust you? While this is how many homeschooling parents begin their homeschool journey, not many finish it this way. The problem with trying to follow a school-at-home model as a homeschool family is that you don’t have the same environment as a school and it’s quite unnecessary to follow this model in your home.

p.s. Your home is not a school. While your children are learning from home, it is not necessary to recreate a school environment for your children to be educated. People have been learning long before the school system was created and they’ll continue to learn long after this model has run it’s course.

Since following the school-at-home model has been quite ineffective for many homeschool families, there are a variety of other styles that parents use to help educate their children. In reality, most families are eclectic homeschoolers. They simply pick and choose what works best for their kids and situation.

Eclectic Homeschoolers

While we’re going to explain a variety of homeschooling types, you should know that you don’t have to marry any particular style of homeschooling. Over the years, you’re going to find that you need to change your approach to homeschooling your kids. When you take an eclectic homeschooling approach, you’re simply cherry picking from various curriculum and homeschooling styles. In essence, you’re doing what works best for your family.

HomeSchool ThinkTank’s Homeschooling Philosophy

At HomeSchool ThinkTank we believe that to homeschool effectively for many years, that you’ll want to consider adopting our philosophy that we abbreviate as CCE.

1. Connection.
2. Community.
3. Education.

We’d like to suggest that you consider how this philosophy of homeschooling might work with each style of homeschooling.

Three Steps To Learning

In addition to considering our philosophy of homeschooling, we’d also like to suggest that you consider our philosophy for learning. In essence there are three steps to learning.

1. Acquire information.
2. Practice, play with, or otherwise use the information that you have acquired.
3. Share the information.

As you review the various homeschooling methods, consider how you can help your child acquire new information, then how they can play with or utilize that information, and finally how they can share their knowledge.

In our opinion, these three steps are at the core of effective education. You might want to check out this article about learning and education.

What Is Curriculum?

What is curriculum? Curriculum is basically a series of lessons that are generally laid out in a linear pattern so that a person can learn specific information. Oftentimes, curriculum is singularly focused such as on math, history, or reading.

What is a linear pattern? It’s basically a straight line. So we might learn history from ancient times to modern times. We learn math as we learn to count, add, and multiply. As you teach your child to read, they progress from easy books and to difficult books.

Basically, a company or a person lays out lessons that have the potential to help another person learn the material that the publisher or teacher wishes to help another learn.

It is important to recognize that there is not a curriculum that was created specifically for you child. However, there are some excellent curriculum options available that work well for many children. It’s important to be willing to adapt as needed so that your child continues to move forward and make progress on their journey to lifelong learning.

Curriculum can work well when the person learning the material is interested or motivated to learn the material.

Circular vs Linear Learning

The human brain doesn’t always work in a linear pattern. Often times, people learn better in a more circular way.

Here’s an example.

Your child might read one of Rick Riordan’s books from the 39 Clues series and suddenly become interested in Russian history. This could spur an interest in the Romanov family that could then trickle into your child drawing portrait’s of Anastasia Romanov. In addition to drawing portrait’s of the Romanov family, your child reads and talks about the Romanov family excessively and eventually her interest in the Romanov’s leads into more reading about historical events in that era.

Year’s later, your child’s past interest in the Romanov’s leads to a discussion around ethics when she mentions that this disturbing and sad history was poorly and lightly portrayed in a children’s movie.

In general, it’s more interesting to learn in a circular pattern where subject areas intertwine. This way of learning is generally individually driven, much more natural, and leads to deeper learning.

Deschooling

When children have been attending a traditional public or private school, you might hear veteran homeschooling parents say that you need to deschool before you homeschooling. As part of attending a traditional school, children learn to wait to be told what to do and what to learn.

Most homeschooling parents strive to help their children develop a true love of learning. A significant portion of wanting to learn is being curious. Ultimately, the purpose of deschooling is to allow the child time and space to become curious again.

To learn more about deschooling, you’ll want to read this article or listen to our podcast episode about deschooling.

Homeschool Styles: A Classical Education Introduction

Classical education began in ancient Rome & Greece with philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, & St. Augustine. While this method of education has ancient roots, it still has value as an educational philosophy today.

It is based on a combination of learning about the Seven Liberal Arts & reading the Great Books.

The Classical Education process is broken into three stages that are called the trivium

1. Grammar Stage: 1st-4th grades.
2. Logic Stage: 5th-8th grades.
3. Rhetoric Stage: 9th-12th grades.

“Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind.

The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study.

In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments.

In the high school years, they learn to express themselves.

This classical pattern is called the trivium.“

Susan Wise Bauer, What Is A Well Trained Mind? June 3, 2009. Well Trained Mind. Accessed November 14, 2021.

Learn more about classical education in this article and podcast episode: Classical Education Method of Homeschooling Explained

Homeschool Styles: Unit Studies Approach To Homeschooling

When using a unit studies approach to homeschooling, you would choose a topic or theme to study. This can be an effective way to help children learn at their own pace. Older kids can can do more advanced work while younger children advance at a developmentally appropriate level.

While a family can study a topic together, individual children can also choose their own topic to study.

When using this approach, as a parent, you’ll want to help your child incorporate as many subjects into the unit study as possible.

This can be a very effective way to help children learn in a circular way that interests them.

The video below can help you get started with building your own unit studies.

In this video, Torrie Oglesby defines a unit study as “an exploration of any topic that you and your kids want to explore.”

Torrie breaks unit studies down into three simple steps.

1. Choose a topic to study.
2. Brainstorm questions about the chosen topic with your kids.
3. Find materials to learn from.

As Tori mentions in this video, you could learn from the following.

• Books.
• Videos.
• Printables.

Check out DK Books to springboard your next unit study.

We’d like to suggest that, when possible, you also incorporate field trips intro your unit studies. You could go to places like the following.

• Museums.
• Nature centers.
• National parks and monuments.

How long should a unit study be?

• A mini unit study is generally less than four weeks long.
• A more comprehensive unit study is generally four to seven weeks long.
• Really, there are no hard and fast rules. A unit study can last as long as your children have interest in the subject.

Homeschool Styles: Project Based Learning

Buck Institute defines the following seven project design elements of project based learning.

1. Challenging problem or question.
2. Sustained inquiry.
3. Authenticity.
4. Student voice and choice.
5. Reflection.
6. Critique and revision.
7. Public product.

Here are some questions to help your child get started with project based learning.

1. What do you care about?
2. What do you want to accomplish?
3. Who do you want to help?
4. How do you want to get started?
5. Who will you share your project with?

Listen To The Podcast Episode About Project Based Learning

Get more information, ideas, and examples of project based learning in this episode of the HomeSchool ThinkTank Parenting Podcast.

Homeschool Styles: Gameschooling

This is just what it sounds like. You’ll be playing lots of games with your kids and other families. From board games to yard games, your family will have lots of fun.

You can use games as a primary way of educating your kids or to supplement other ways of learning.

Podcast Episode about Gameschooling

You can listen to this podcast episode about gameschooling on the HomeSchool ThinkTank Parenting Podcast. In this episode we talk about the many benefits of playing games with your kids.

You can also listen to Episode #134 about gameschooling on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Do you prefer to listen elsewhere? Visit our podcast page for more than 20 other platforms where you can listen to our podcast.

Discover Games to Play With Your Family

Learn about more fun and educational games that you can play with your kids in the links below.

• Fun math games for your kids.
• Discover spelling games here.
• Learn about this versatile dice game.

More Educational & Fun Math Games are Coming Soon!

Do you want us to let you know when we add more games to our ever-growing list?

Learn how you can keep up with HomeSchool ThinkTank Happenings here!

Homeschool Styles: Roadschooling vs Worldschooling

What is roadschooling? It’s basically homeschooling while traveling. You might stay in short term rentals or even homeschool out of a motorhome. When you roadschool you’ll take advantage of local educational opportunities, science museums, botanical gardens, and other beautiful places like the National Parks.

So what’s the difference between roadschooling and worldschooling? Basically, when you roadschool, you’re limiting yourself to where roads can take you.

When you’re worldschooling, you’re open to travelling overseas to explore new areas.

The concepts are the same though, you’re learning through experiences and personal observations. Rather than just reading or watching a documentary about an area, you’re going there and experiencing another culture or place first-hand.

Learn More About Worldschooling & Roadschooling

Discover more about worldschooling & roadschooling with the following articles and podcast episodes.

• Worldschooling A Homeschooling Family
• Roadschooling: How to Get Started.

Are you thinking about homeschooling?

Read or listen to THINK HOMESCHOOL: Live & Learn Your Way! This book was written to help parents understand the pros and cons of homeschooling.

It’s time to decide if homeschooling is the right decision for your family.

Download the ebook, get the paperback, or listen to the audiobook.

Book A Call

Do you need help understanding the different styles of homeschooling? Are you looking for additional information?

Get some one-on-one coaching when you book a call here.

Helpful Information About Homeschooling

• Discover the differences between doing school-at-home and true homeschooling.
• Visit our Start Homeschooling area.
• Learn more about our homeschooling community.