Summary
Does homeschooling have to happen ‘at home’? What are some ways to approach homeschooling? There are many ways to go about it, and each family will need to settle on a strategy for choosing how and when to go about it.

Description
There are numerous choices for how to homeschool. I am listing the best-known methods in order of similarity with the public school methods. The methods towards the bottom may seem strange to newcomers, but all methods have their merits, and not all methods are suitable for all families:

Distance Learning / Virtual Homeschool / Online Homeschool

There are both private and public distance-learning alternatives. The main difference from a traditional public school is the fact that the student is not physically at the school, but rather at home. While traditionally they used the mail service and telephone to stay in touch with the school, today the internet allows for continuous contact between the school and the students.

Traditional / School-at-home Approach

This is when the public school system is used as a guide and the family aims to teach the same subjects, in the same way as is done in public schools. The only difference is the reduced class size (only your own children) and the teacher (you and/or your spouse). Some may go as far as using the same tests and issuing their own report cards.

Classical Christian Education Method

Based on the trivium, a three-phase process tied to age or grade levels. The first phase is ‘memorization or absorption’, the second is ‘logic and critical thinking’, and the third is ‘independent thinking and self-expression’ where they are taught rhetoric and the art of speaking. There is no distinction between Christian and non-Christian subject matters, instead the Christian world view is tightly integrated into the whole.

Standardized curriculum or packaged curriculum

There are many curriculum companies that specialize in creating complete year-by-year grade-specific packages. The packaged curriculum typically includes all the books, lesson plans and sequence planning needed for an entire school year. Some providers also offer additional services, such as counseling, report cards and diplomas.

Unit Studies Approach

With the Unit Study approach, the children (or the entire family) will typically immerse themselves in a subject for an extended period of time. While immersed, they explore the subject from multiple disciplines such as history, math, science, language, arts, and more. The idea is to ‘go deep’ and make it a real experience, not just something you read about.

Charlotte Mason Method

Named after Charlotte Mason, a British educator who lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the method seeks to use ‘living books’, music, art and great literature as teaching materials. The term ‘living books’ refer to engaging and well-written books, often authored by a single person who is passionate about the subject. Built on a central idea that education is three-pronged – i.e. education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline and a Life. The Atmosphere refers to the child’s daily environment, Discipline refers to good habits, and Life refers to the realm academics such as thoughts and ideas.

Montessori Method

Named after Maria Montessori (1870–1952), an Italian child educator. Her method is child-centered, with emphasis on self-directed activities using self-correcting learning materials. The teacher is called the ‘director’ or ‘directress’ because (s)he observes the child and directs them in choosing which materials to work with. Great emphasis is put on the learning environment, as well as the materials tehmselves. The child operates as independently as possible, and is thus very much responsible and in charge of their own learning.

Waldorf Education Method

Originated by Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner in the early 1900s, it got it’s name from the Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company in Germany, where the first school was opened based on Steiner’s principles. Waldorf emphasizes imagination and nature, often spending significant time outdoors. The child’s development is divided into three developmental stages: 1) Early childhood uses immitation and following examples. 2) Elementary (age 7-14) where learning is artistic and imaginative. 3) Adolescence focuses on abstract thought and conceptual judgement.

Unschooling Method

Also know as the ‘child led’ or ‘natural learning’ method, it is when the parents take their cues from the child itself, and supporting the child in following their own interests. Learning happens all the time, and unschoolers take this principle to the extreme by letting the child make decisions about what to learn, how to learn it, when to learn it, and when to stop and do something else. It is based on the concept that children learn better and faster when they are following their own interests.

Eclectic Approach

This is not really a specific method, as it refers to those who pick and choose from all the above methods in order to create a unique style that works for them. Every ‘eclectic’ family will be different from each other, so it’s hard to say much more then that.