Homeschooling Methods

There are so many methods for homeschooling, it can become quite overwhelming to choose the one that is right for your family.  I've listed a few of the more popular approaches. You may find that you end up using a mixture in your home.

Charlotte Mason

This method is based on the writings of the 19th century British educator, Charlotte Mason, who felt children should learn from real books with living ideas.  It involves nature, discipline of good habits, narration, and living books.

Classical

This method is based on the Trivium, which is made up of three stages.  The Grammar stage includes memorizing lots of of facts and language, mainly Greek or Latin.  The Dialectic stage involves the study of logic; understanding what has been memorized and asking questions.  Lastly, in the Rhetoric stage the student learns how to present arguments in a persuasive way.

Unit Study Approach

This approach allows a child to learn a subject as a whole instead of just reading chapters in a textbook.  It takes all of the subjects, such as Science, History, and Language Arts, and focuses the lessons around one central theme, say Astronomy. 

Literature Based

This method uses great books as the centerpiece for learning, instead of textbooks. 

Unschooling

Unschooling allows children to learn through their natural life experiences, including child directed play, game play, household responsibilities, work experience, and social interaction, rather than through a more traditional school curriculum.

Eclectic

An Eclectic Homeschooler is one who looks at the different approaches and methods of homeschooling, and takes little from each one.

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So what do we use?  I feel like we have used all these methods at one time or another. When our daughter was younger we definitely used the literature based and unit study approach quite a bit. In recent years though, we have used the classical method much more.

I just know that we go with what works.  If it is not working, we switch gears or move to a new curriculum.  That's one reason I have loved homeschooling, it gives us the flexibility to do what we want!

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