The Different Styles of Home School

Since I started back in September I have had a lot of questions regarding Home School:

What does and average day look like?

What about Social Interaction?

Why is Unschooling Important?

All of these I have tried in previous posts to answer and by clicking on the above you can find posts.

Another popular question: How do you Home School?

Like with Parenting there are many different styles and often people like some aspects of a one and dislike other aspects creating a mix. This is probable the majority of parents that I know. But like most things there are different styles listed:

School at Home

School-at-home is the style most people automatically think of. It is so easy to understand and can be accompanied by a photo of children studying around table. This is also reportedly the most expensive style and according to statistics has the highest burnout rate. Most families who follow the school-at-home approach purchase a boxed curriculum that comes with textbooks, study schedules and grades.

The disadvantage is that this method requires much more work on the part of the teacher/parent and the lessons are not as much fun for the children.

Relaxed Home Schooling

This is the style that I use: Relaxed home education is the style apparently used most often by homeschoolers. Basically, the children do a little of everything, using workbooks for math, reading, and spelling, and taking an unschooling approach for the other subjects.

The advantage of this method is that the parent feels that the subjects they believe are most important are covered thoroughly. This method also allows the family to choose textbooks, field trips, and classes that fit their needs and interests.

The disadvantage though is that in some cases this provides a very inconsistent approach.

Unschooling

Now I covered Unschooling in this post here*. This style is continued through after the initial unschooling phase. The positive to unschooling is that unschooled children have the time to research areas of interest becoming, ultimately, experts in that field.

The disadvantage is that because unschoolers do not follow the typical school schedule, they may not do as well on assessments and may have a harder time if they reenter the school system.

Classical Home Schooling

The point to this approach is to teach children to learn for themselves. They go in principle of the five tools of learning, known as the Trivium, are reason, record, research, relate, and rhetoric. Younger children begin with the preparing stage, where they learn basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. All the tools come together in the rhetoric stage, where communication is the primary focus.

The advantage of this is that when they child achieves the ability to learn for themselves that this can proceed into other aspects of their life. i.e. starting a new job and adapting to it. Disadvantage is, for me a big one, not all children achieve the goal of learning to learn.

The Waldorf Method

This is a method that I have come across in selective communities: The Waldorf method is also used in some homeschools. It stresses the importance of educating the whole child; body, mind, and spirit. Children are taught to develop self-awareness and how to reason things out for themselves. Children under the Waldorf method do not use standard textbooks; instead, they create their own books. The style also discourages the use of television and computers because they believe computers are bad for the child's health and creativity.

I don’t know too much on this style to give you a fair advantage and disadvantage but if you do then please tell me!

Montessori

Montessori materials are also popular in a lot of households. This style emphasizes "errorless learning," where the children learn at their own pace and in that way develop their full potential. It emphasizes beauty and avoids things that are confusing or cluttered.

The advantages are clearly that schooling avoids a certain amount of pressure, very similar in the style of unschooling. The disadvantage is that it can be quite affective for younger children pre KS2; children older struggle with application and motivation.

DVD/Video Schooling

This is a very hands-off approach for the parents/adults involved:  

This style can be used with all of the above styles of home education. The main concept is that it uses quality educational titles to help your child learn Science, Physics, History, Religion, Preschool skills, Music, Art and more; all through directed levelled films and programmes.

Internet Schooling

According to the Home School inspector that visited us back in January this is quite a popular method locally.

This is exactly what it says in the title! Education presented by the Internet through virtual tours, studies, interactive classrooms, teachers, students and resources all at the click of a button.

In principle, what can’t you find via Google, Pinterest and other online sites? Use these and other online resources to educate.

These are the most popular styles of Home Education out there. As I said at the start, like parenting, there are a range of styles, combinations of styles where ultimately you choose the one that best suits you and your child.