Different kinds of homeschooling (classical, religious, etc.)

There are virtually as many kinds of homeschooling as there are homeschoolers. Every family comes to homeschooling for their own unique set of reasons, so it only makes sense that they would each have their own approach to homeschooling. Here are a few.

Many families come to homeschooling for religious reasons. Whether they are Christian, Catholic, Muslim, etc., some parents make the decision that their faith, and the incorporation of it into their student’s curriculum, is of the utmost importance. Granted, these families could simply choose to find a school with the same religious position. Yet there is not always a school available with which they resonate religiously. Or, if there is, they may not be able to afford it. Or they may simply want the homeschooling experience for their student. Indeed, in some faith systems, it is viewed as the parent’s responsibility to educate the student.

Some parents approach homeschooling from a classical perspective. This approach is designed to resemble the type of learning that occurred in Ancient Greece and Rome—a more Eastern approach to education—that was continued into Puritan and Colonial American education. The classical approach focuses on the Trivium, which is the first three parts of the seven liberal arts; namely, grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Grammar is the foundational phase of the Trivium, and as such, teaches the basics, or mechanics. Students learn how to read, compute basic math, etc. During the second phase, logic, students begin to learn how to process what they’ve learned, and reason through fallacies—how to logically think. The third part, rhetoric, utilizes the basics learned in the grammar stage, and the understanding gained in the logic stage, to demonstrate and communicate the wisdom acquired as a result of the process. Students of the classical method often learn Latin and even Greek. A classically trained student learns how to think and how to learn, as opposed to simply learning topics.

Another approach to homeschooling is the unit study approach. In a unit study, the parent chooses a topic of interest, and builds the curriculum around it. So, for example, the parent knows that the student has an affinity for horses, so the parent capitalizes on that interest to teach the lesson. The nature and science aspect of the unit study are obvious. Mathematics could be incorporated by calculating how fast a horse runs, given an amount of time and distance covered. English or language arts could be included by having the student read a classic such as The Black Stallion and write a book report. Geography could also be a part of the lesson, by investigating where horses roam freely. Art could also be an element, by having the student either draw a horse, or color an existing sketch of one. This is a simplified example of how the unit study approach is used.

Another homeschooling approach is the Charlotte Mason approach. Charlotte Mason was an instructor in the late 1800s who advocated the use of “living” books and real-life experiences as the ideal approach to education. Living books, as opposed to textbooks, are works of both fiction and non-fiction that engage children in learning. The book mentioned in the previous approach, The Black Stallion, is a good example of a living book. The Charlotte Mason approach incorporates such concepts as narration, copywork, dictation, and memory work as important components to the learning process. While this method is not necessarily curriculum-driven or curriculum-dependent, homeschoolers new to this approach might elect to begin with a Charlotte Mason curriculum, and then branch out from there, once they become more confident.

In the school-at-home approach, parents approach homeschooling as if it were a micro-classroom; namely, they simply replicate the classroom in the home. This approach is especially appealing to parents who are teachers who have been trained and educated as classroom teachers, and are not comfortable with anything but traditional classroom techniques. It is also appealing to parents who choose a curriculum that has the school-at-home structure, and there are many such curricula. These curricula tend to be comprehensive, yet cumbersome; many new homeschooling families start with the school-at-home approach, but abandon it in subsequent years for something less unwieldy and more flexible.

The unschooling approach is very appealing to the more free-spirited homeschoolers. Some parents who are not interested in a structured curriculum or approach of any sort, but would rather allow the student to experience learning as it naturally occurs, might find this method appealing. While it certainly has its merits as a way of naturally incorporating learning into a student’s life, it is important to ensure that basic, essential concepts are being taught, and especially where the state’s homeschooling laws are concerned.

An exhaustive list of the different approaches to homeschooling would make this discussion considerably longer; instead, this discussion is meant to merely introduce you to some of the more popular approaches to homeschooling. Not only are there many more approaches not mentioned here, but lots of homeschooling families often incorporate more than one approach into their daily learning—and this is considered an approach, as well, and it is known as eclectic homeschooling.