An Overview of Homeschooling Styles
Mary Sellers
July 13, 2005
Clearfield/Curwensville Homeschool Group
Hello, my name is Mary Sellers, and I’m the homeschooling mom of five children: Nathan, age 14 next week; David, age 12; Libby, age 10; Michael, age 9; and Rachel, age 5. This fall will be my tenth year to homeschool and a new adventure as my oldest will be entering 9th grade—high school!
Some of you here in the audience are already homeschooling. Some of you might be considering it for the first time. Wherever you are on the homeschool continuum, it is good to know why you are homeschooling and what your goals are for your family. Many years ago, 1997 to be exact, I was challenged by a speaker to write out the reasons why I was homeschooling and my educational philosophy. While I didn’t cross-stitch these words and hang them on the wall for all to see, writing them did allow me to truly think about why I was homeschooling.
There are lots of reasons for homeschooling: dissatisfaction with the public school, a desire to keep our children away from negative influences, a feeling that a small student/teacher ratio, such as is found in homeschooling, is more effective than a large classroom setting, and more. My primary reasons for homeschooling might not be the same as your reasons, but that doesn’t make me more of a homeschooler than you are.
I challenge you to think through your reasons for homeschooling and to set them down on paper. You should ask your husband why he feels you should homeschool. He might have very different reasons than you do, and you might be surprised. If your children are old enough or are coming from a different school setting, ask them their reasons as to why homeschooling is a good decision. Their answers may surprise you as well. When I asked my children about it, their reply was, “There isn’t any homework!”
Once you’ve written down your family’s reasons, put the date on the paper, and put it in a safe place. When you are feeling discouraged and burnt-out, perhaps this list will give you a shot of encouragement. When you are planning your curriculum for the next year, this list might give you direction. Also, if God leads you to continue homeschooling, you can see if your reasons changed through the years or if they stayed the same.
I’d like to share my ten reasons for homeschooling in the hopes that they might encourage you to really think about your reasons for schooling.
1. I feel I can more effectively teach my child than a stranger who may have chosen elementary education as his last resort as a college major.
2. I want my children to have an independent love of learning.
3. I want my children to see how God fits into every area of life and every subject in school.
4. I want my family to stay unified, not divided into grade levels.
5. I want to teach my children what I feel is important, not what the NEA or the government feels is important.
6. I want my children to take responsibility for their lives and their learning and not just do it for the grade.
7. I can tailor-make our curriculum and my teaching style to fit each child.
8. It gives our children the chance to mature in a safe environment without influences with are harmful.
9. We can set our own pace for learning.
10. We aren’t tied to a school’s calendar and daily schedule.
Have my reasons changed? Somewhat. For example, I would now put number ten, the school calendar, as close to my number one reason. Still, I have enjoyed reviewing these reasons and understanding my thoughts when we first began homeschooling.
I mentioned that I was also challenged to write my educational philosophy. I found this activity to be even more interesting as I had to think about what I thought about teaching. What did I think was most important in education? What wasn’t important? I chose to write this philosophy as a numbered list of ideas which helped me to organize my thoughts.
An educational philosophy is even more valuable than your list of reasons for homeschooling when it comes to planning your curriculum and your homeschool day. If you feel that music and art are essential, then you might decide that an art class and music lessons are vital and should take priority over some other subject. If you feel that science is supreme, then your days will probably be filled with experiments and observations of the world around you, and perhaps music will be a CD in the car. I encourage you to consult with your husband and children as you write up this philosophy. You may find that what you feel is the top priority ranks fifth on your husband’s list. It is good to have a consensus on what direction your homeschool will take before you invest a lot of money in curriculum. If you can understand what sort of person you are and your children are and what is educationally important to your family, then you will make fewer mistakes in purchasing curriculum and might not suffer from an overloaded schedule trying to fit everything in.
Here’s my Educational Philosophy:
1. Children should be well-grounded in the basics of math, grammar, history, science, and geography.
2. Children should be allowed and encouraged to explore, read, study, and experiment on their own.
3. Children should have a good knowledge of types of art, artists, musical styles, and composers. They should know how to read music and how to play an instrument.
4. Children should be fluent in at least one language other than English.
5. Children should be able to see “the big picture”—how Regency England, Lord Byron, Napoleon, and Davy Crockett are related for example.
6. Children should be encouraged athletically to participate in sports.
7. Children should have a large store of memorized things, from Bible verses to poems to passages from Shakespeare.
8. Children should have a clear understanding of God and their relationship with Him and their responsibilities to Him.
9. Children should view the acquisition of knowledge as an exciting adventure, not as seatwork.
Chances are quite good that my educational philosophy is quite different from yours. You will also notice that it’s not exhaustive. I didn’t list every skill that a child should have. I just listed what I thought was the most important. I didn’t include note-taking, computer skills, and many other things that might have made the top of your list. Therein lies the wonderful diversity. I am different from you. My homeschool will be different from yours. I will choose books which you would never even think of picking up. I will set a schedule and outside activities which your family would find horrible. I don’t have to make my homeschool a carbon copy of yours or anyone else’s. The beauty of homeschooling is our ability to fit our plans, our schedules, our curricula to the needs and desires of our own families.
Now, this is not to say we can’t learn from one another. I’ve really enjoyed the years I’ve spent homeschooling, and I’ve enjoyed interacting with other homeschoolers. What always impresses me when I meet almost every other homeschool mom is how inadequate I sometimes feel when she begins to discuss what she does for homeschooling. “Oh, she must have it all figured out. Oh, I should be doing that!” I think to myself. Now, sometimes ideas gleaned from others have been a real blessing, but many times I go home and try to implement someone else’s ideas or books or style, and after a while, I would realize that it just isn’t working. The children and I aren’t happy. We are frustrated or are skipping assignments to focus on other things which none of us feel are important.
Having ten years experience has allowed me to truly comprehend my teaching style and my children’s learning styles and get a handle on our educational philosophy. We’ve come to an understanding of one another which has allowed our homeschool to function quite well. But, what if you don’t have ten years’ experience? What if you haven’t read all the homeschool magazines, attended the conferences, and been a part of homeschooling e-loops? What if your educational philosophy is just some jumbled ideas written on a piece of paper? How do you figure out what your family’s homeschool style is?
Tonight, I’d like to give you an overview of the main approaches to homeschooling, what a typical day or year might look like in such a family, and give you resources so that you can find out more about the styles which fit your family. Having a set of goals—your reasons and your educational philosophy—will allow you to more easily understand which style is better for you. Also, as I describe the style, if you find yourself saying, “Yes, that’s how I always imagined homeschooling to be!” then that might be the style for you.
Before I begin to discuss these approaches, it is good for you to know that most people don’t fit in one category or another. Most homeschoolers are eclectic, which means that they pick and choose what suits them and what suits their children. So, if you find yourself drawn to more than one approach, you are quite normal.
Imagine your children sitting quietly at their desks or at the table. They move from one text to another, occasionally asking you questions, while filling in answers in their workbooks, reading textbooks, or answering questions from their books. This might be a fair description of the first and most familiar homeschooling model, “School at Home” or the Textbook approach. Parents using this approach try to model a traditional public or private school day at home. There are textbooks and teacher’s manuals for each subject. Mom presents the lesson to each child in each subject, and the child reads the textbook, answers the chapter questions, fills in the blanks of the workbook, or does whatever is required for the pre-set lesson plans. There is little planning on Mom’s part as the teacher’s manuals lay things out in an orderly progression. There is no fear of “missing anything,” as major textbook publishers stick pretty closely to the state standards when writing their textbooks.
The downside to the textbook approach is that it is difficult for mom to present individual lessons to each child if she has a large family. Many mothers overcome this difficulty by having the older children read and learn the lesson on their own or by combining some grade levels in some subjects, such as teaching the third and fourth grader from the same health book. Another drawback is for those children who need to get up and move. They often find sitting at a desk all day to be well-nigh impossible, which can often lead to frustration between parent and child. Another disadvantage is that since there are separate texts for each subject, there is little to no connection between subject areas. How do Benjamin Franklin and Beethoven relate to each other? How does Alexander the Great relate to the Bible? Ordinarily, textbooks will not lend themselves to these connections.
If you like the order and structure of a textbook day, and your children would enjoy such structure as well, then this approach might work for your family. Resources for this homeschooling style would be A Beka and Bob Jones textbooks, and Rod and Staff.
Imagine your kitchen table turned into a model of the inner ear that your children can crawl through. Imagine science and geography being integrated with history and all of them making sense. Imagine your children dressing up in costumes and acting out historical scenes. If this image appeals to you, then you might enjoy the unit study approach to homeschooling. Unit studies are all about connecting things to one another. There is no subject done totally in a vacuum. Even math can be connected in a unit study.
The basis for this idea is to take a topic, let’s say “horses.” Then, all the rest of the subjects are built around this theme. For history, you might study the old west and cowboys. For health you might study the ear or eye, as horses have big ones; science is study the anatomy of horses or mammals. For reading, Margarite Henry’s books might top the list. Geography could cover the American west where those horse ran free or perhaps it is a local geography of Chincoteague Island where those Henry books were set. Math might be the regular math book supplemented with some kid or parent-created problems dealing with horses. “If a hand is five inches and a horse is 17 hands tall, how many inches tall is the horse?”
A unit study is done for a certain length of time, often for six weeks. After the six weeks is up, a new topic is chosen.
The drawbacks to the Unit study approach is that there is much more planning for Mom to do. Someone has to decide which topics will be studied, for how long, and what activities and books will be used. Curriculums like Konos have helped with the Unit Study preparation time by giving you resources and ideas. The Konos in a Box product contains all the books and resources you will need for a study. There’s no need to even go to the library. Also, there is more work involved in documenting for the portfolio. Instead of just three-hole punching some workbook pages, you might have to take pictures or have the children write about their activities. Also, it could be more difficult to structure your day. Instead of a tidy 30 minutes for science, one day you might spend two hours constructing a model. These scheduling difficulties can be overcome, of course.
The obvious advantages to the unit study approach are numerous. The children are involved in a hands-on approach to learning which doesn’t confine them to a desk all day. All their subjects are connected, so they begin to get a picture of the world. Children, just like adults, remember the fun times they had much more readily than they do a workbook page. “Do you remember the time we made those Viking helmets and we were going to put horns on them, but then we read about the fact that they didn’t have horns? Then we put on that skit of sailing to Vinland? That was so much fun.”
If you are interested in unit studies, articles by Jessica Hulcy and Lynn Hogan would be good to read. Konos curriculum and Amanda Bennett’s Unit Studies would be places to start for pre-made unit studies.
Are you the sort of person who wants to make sure that every subject contains the Bible and a Biblical world view? Is character formation more important to you than academics? Then the Principle Approach might be the best way for you to homeschool. This approach is more than just teaching your children Christian values and creation science. Instead, this style of homeschooling focuses mainly on American history and the influence of Christianity on the formation of our country. Christian character development—loyalty, fidelity, honesty, bravery, truthfulness, and the like—are the main focus. Academics, while important, are not the goal of this instructional mode. Instead, parents focus on raising strong Christian men and women who will be able to stand up for Christian values and principles and who will voice their opinions in an increasingly evil society.
If you have never heard of this approach, you might be thinking, “Well, don’t all Christian parents want this for their children?” Of course! Of the families I’ve met who’ve used this approach and of the nationally-known speakers and resource providers, I’ve developed a stereotypical picture of this type of family. The girls and mothers often wear dresses. If not, they are always femininely and modestly dressed. The men and boys often have a more dressed-up look as well. A large portion of the curriculum is devoted to history and Bible. Often times, college is not the focus or goal of the principle approach family, although this is not always the case. This family might be viewed by some as legalistic, as they have definite views of the roles of women and men. Also, this approach advocates shunning the modern entertainment industry—movies, music, and books, in favor of more moral pursuits and Christian authors and artists.
The benefits of this form of education are that children usually come forth with a wonderful Biblical world view. They aren’t unsure of the Bible or how it fits into modern society or whether or not issues are right or wrong. Students usually have a good grasp of America’s past, especially her government. Some people feel, however, that children who are homeschooled using the Principle Approach can be very judgmental and legalistic. Also, as character is the main focus, these children might not be prepared for college, especially in the areas of math and science.
Vision Forum, The Institute for Biblical Life Principles, and The Foundation for American Christian Education are all resources for materials which will help you to educate your children in this way. Bill Gothard, Doug Phillips, and Little Bear Wheeler are all Principle Approach speakers.
Books, books, and more books, beautiful music, nature journals, famous artwork, and time to enjoy all these things are the hallmarks of the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. Charlotte Mason was a British educator in the 1800s who believed that teaching children from textbooks was wrong. Instead of giving them dry, dull facts or snippets of real literature, she advocated living books. Living books are written by people who love the subject about which they are writing. They are written by experts in the field. They are living books because they make the subject come to life. Another aspect to the Charlotte Mason education is an emphasis on nature study. Children just shouldn’t read about insects or plants; they should go out and feel them and see them and draw them. This approach also focuses on short lessons. Children in the lower grades would have no more than fifteen minutes per subject each day. That way, their excitement for learning would not dim. Workbooks were not found in the Charlotte Mason school.
Children are exposed to a variety of art, music, and literature giving them a framework upon which to build. Children usually develop a love of reading and of classical music. Charlotte Mason is like a liberal arts education for your children. If you have a child who doesn’t enjoy reading or being read to, then this approach will be difficult for you and your child. Also, as the lessons are short, even into the upper grades, the rigor required for serious study of math and science might not be there. As there is no set CM curriculum, there is more planning on Mom’s part.
Karen Andreola, Catherine Levison, Sally Clarkson and Penny Gardner are well-known Charlotte Mason speakers and writers. Sonlight Curriculum and The Heart of Wisdom are two curricula which are Charlotte Mason-like. If you are really interested in learning more about this approach, I highly recommend Karen Andreola’s A Charlotte Mason Companion.
Imagine a lively discussion around the dinner table on the Peloponnesian War and it’s parallels to modern warfare. Picture your children reading The Great Gatsby and a modern newspaper columnist and pointing out the parallels between the two. Do the educational ideals of the ancients appeal to you? Do you think a broad overview of history, the learning of Latin, and a study of classic literature is vital to a well-educated person? Then the Classical Approach might be the best way for you to approach your homeschooling. The classical approach to education is based on three stages of instruction: the Grammar Stage, the Dialectic Stage, and the Rhetoric Stage. These correspond to the psychological development of children. In the Grammar Stage, memory work is stressed. The Dialectic Stage, the middle school years, are the years when analysis and asking “why” are pursued. The final stage, the Rhetoric Stage, an emphasis is placed on recognizing and applying truths. Ordinarily, three four-year cycles of world history are the emphasis of the Classical curriculum. For example, in first grade, a child might study the Greeks and would learn the dates, important people, and general geography. In the Dialectic Stage, the Greeks would be studied again. This time, the child might be asked to explain why or to analyze things. Why do you think Troy lost the war? Why were the Greek gods so important? In the final stage, the Rhetoric Stage, a high school student studying the Greeks would read the writings of Herodotus and other Greek writers and would make connections between their society and our own and their religious beliefs and our own and be able to engage in conversation or to write out his thoughts.
The benefits of a classical education are that children learn in a similar way that many of the great men of history had been educated. Children gain an appreciation for the scope of history and a firm understanding of the world in which they live in and how they fit into that world. This curriculum is quite academically-focused, and children often emerge more than ready for college. This curriculum can be very parent-intensive. If someone is going to have great mind-engaging conversations with the children about ancient history, it usually has to be Mom or Dad. Also, some have not liked the emphasis on learning and studying ancient texts, ancient beliefs, and ancient gods. They would say that the classically educated person isn’t as grounded Biblically as he should be.
If you are interested in finding out more about Classical education, Susan Wise Bauer, Douglas Wilson, and Harvey Bluedorn are all excellent sources. The Veritas Press catalog is a great place to start for curriculum. Harvey Bluedorn’s Teaching the Trivium and Susan Wise Bauer’s The Well-Trained Mind are helpful, informative books which explain the Classical approach quite well.
If all this talk of curriculum, books, and four-year plans has left you feeling cold, then maybe the Relaxed Homeschooling approach is best for you. Relaxed Homeschooling, also known as Unschooling, Child-directed learning, or Delight-directed learning, allows the child to set the pace and the curriculum for his schooling. Instead of following a textbook or a set of lesson plans, parents provide an educationally-rich environment and allow their children’s interest to dictate the course of study. If a child is really interested in the Civil War, he would be allowed to pursue this interest fully. Parents could form a unit-study around this topic or just allow the child the freedom to explore and read and create on his own. The Relaxed Homeschool doesn’t worry so much about when certain levels of learning are reached. Susan can’t read at the age of seven? She’ll learn when she’s ready. Molly wants to begin algebra in the fourth grade? Fine! This category is the hardest to truly categorize as what categorizes unschooling varies from home to home. In the book, Homeschooling, A Patchwork of Days, author Nancy Lande interviewed thirty homeschool families, many of them unschoolers. The variety of educational philosophies embraced by these families was vastly different, but they would have all fallen under the umbrella of unschooling.
The advantages to child-directed learning are many, but so are the disadvantages. When done well, unschooling allows a child to develop at his own pace, to fully love learning and the process of learning, to learn how to research, and to learn how to organize his thoughts and make sense of the world around him. When done poorly, unschooling is little more than a book read here or there, a video on TV, and children “wasting” their time in various non-academic ways. It is more difficult to document an unschooling way of life for the PA portfolio, but it is by no means impossible.
Mary Hood and Maryann Turner are both advocates of unschooling. John Holt, one of the “founding fathers” of the homeschool movement is a strong supporter of child-directed learning. The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffin (sure a lot of Marys!), The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewelyn, and Teach Your Own by John Holt are three books which should help you on your way to having success with child-directed homeschooling.
Another approach to homeschooling which is becoming more and more popular is computer learning. Students spend most of their time working on the computer either in completing assignments, watching teacher lectures, or using interactive textbooks. Some students take just one or two classes online such as the Advanced Placement courses offered through Pennsylvania Homeschoolers or a literature course through Great Books Academy. Some sign up for cyber charter schools such as the K-12 program. Others choose to use a set of CDs for instruction such as Alpha-Omega’s Switched on Schoolhouse.
Parents like the fact that their children are still at home all day doing their work, but parents are no longer totally responsible for the curriculum. In the case of the K-12 program, teachers grade the homework and set assignments. Parents have to make sure that their children complete the work and also must take them to testing sites occasionally in the year. There is flexibility with the computer system, but it really depends on which program you choose. Some programs, such as Switched-On Schoolhouse, are totally flexible as the parent is the one responsible for setting deadlines. The more outside-teacher interaction there is, the flexibility of the program usually goes down.
Another downside to computer education is that children spend a great deal of time on the computer! I realize that this seems like a foolish point, but spending four hours a day staring at a computer screen can be a lot of time for a child’s young eyes. Also, in the case of internet schools, the phone line can be tied up for hours at a time. This might be a good thing in some instances, as you won’t be bothered by any incoming calls either!
Parents also might not realize that some online schools are really public schools “in disguise.” Cyber charter schools are state-funded, and your child, even though working from home, is considered to be a public schooled-child with your school district receiving funding for her. For many, this is not an issue, but some homeschoolers do not like being associated with the public school system in any way.
Lest you think I am biased against online or computer schooling, I should let you know that I will be starting my fourth year of teaching online for Pennsylvania Homeschoolers. I’ve found it to be a positive experience for both my students and their parents.
If you are interested in pursuing online or computer learning, K-12 is a great place to start. Alpha-Omega’s Switched On Schoolhouse is another good resource. Most online classes are offered to middle school or high school students, and there aren’t as many elementary options. I have several websites which list online schools in your handout.
A homeschooling family is a unique unit. Although they all fall under the label of homeschool, each family gets to decide what is most important to them and to focus on it. Although the state has set certain standard that we all must follow, how we chose to follow them is not scripted for us. Just because a certain educational approach worked for another family does not mean it will work for you. Just because you’ve “always done it this way” doesn’t mean that it is truly the best for your children. Don’t be afraid to try new things in your homeschooling. Don’t feel as if you have to fit into a certain mold or you “won’t be doing it right.” Don’t worry that if you don’t follow a set plan that your children will be miss out or never be able to graduate from high school. Seek the Lord as you consider the direction your homeschooling should take, and He will direct your paths.
Are there any questions?