What Kind of Homeschooling is Right for Our Family?
Whether you’re new to homeschooling or you are a seasoned veteran, you’re probably aware of the vast number of curriculum choices you have to choose from when it comes to homeschooling your kids.
So how do you know what the best kind of homeschooling is for you and your family?
That is a loaded question, because there are so many aspects to consider: learning styles, family schedules and dynamics, religious values, and homeschooling methods. Each curriculum has a unique combination of these, so it may seem a bit overwhelming to sift through all the options.
Family Lifestyle and Dynamics
A great place to start is consider your family’s lifestyle and overall dynamic. This involves things like your weekly schedule, your available finances, fammily values, and how much hand-on teaching you’re looking to incorporate.
Parental Involvement
Do you have a teacher’s heart and want to teach the content? Are you a working homeschooling parent? Do you have a large family with students in various grades? These kinds of questions are important to consider when determining how much involvement you can and are willing to put into your child’s education.
Family Values
Not all homeschooling curriculum has a Christian component. You’ll need to decide if you want to incoporate your faith into your homeschool and/or if you want God woven into the course material.
Schedule Flexibility
Does mom or dad have an unusual work schedule? Or maybe your family travels a lot. Are your kids involved in a lot of extracurricular activities? How long does it take you to drive to and from your home? These are all important things to consider when it comes to your family’s school flexibility.
Along the same lines, if your child knows what he or she wants to do for their career, and they are already showing enormous talent, homeschooling is a great option for helping them pursue their dreams. This will dramatically impact your homeschooling schedule.
Depending on your family’s schedule and flexability, co-ops or scheduled online courses may not be a possibility.
Financial Considerations
Finally, if you’re on a tight budget, like most of us, you’ll need to factor in what you can afford including the costs of co-ops, field trips, supplies, etc. Sometimes there will be a course that is too expensive, and that’s okay.
Learning Styles
No that you have an idea of what your time, family lifestyle financial situation, and family values will allow, you’ve already narrowed down your search. Next, ask yourself, “How does my child learn best?” If you don’t know yet, that’s okay! But you can take a guess and go from there.
If you attended a traditional school, you’ll know that teachers have to cater to the general population in how they teach their curriculum. They may take turns catering to the various learning styles, but one of the biggest benefits of homeschooling is that you can tailor your student’s education to their specific learning style as much as you want!
What does it look like for each learning style?
- Auditory – If your student enjoys music and seems to pick up more of your conversations than you thought, they may be an auditory learner. Listening to an audiobook, reading aloud to your kids, and putting content to song are all great ways to cater to this learning style.
- Visual – If your student likes art, movies, or color coding, they may be a visual learner. A great way to teach a visual learner is through video instruction and displaying the course content in pictures, graphs, or charts.
- Hands-On – If your child likes building with Legos or MagnaTile or prefers to be up and moving while learning, they may be a hands-on or kinesthetic learner. Find opportunities to incorporate experiments, or use of manipulatives into your homeschool to nurture students with this learning style
- Social – If your child is a talker, and you notice that they learn a lot from their friends and family, they may be a social learner. This learning style can be incorporated by having your student talk to their friends and family about what they’re learning, participating in a co-op, or taking a live-online class.
- Independent – Finally, if your student enjoys quietly reading and taking notes, they’re likely an independent learner. This learning style is mainly going to involve just that, reading and taking notes.
Make sure that the curriculum you choose will work with your student’s learning style.
Socialization
It’s the age-old question- Can homeschoolers get proper socialization? The answer is, of course, they can! But you have the freedom to determine how much and with whom. Not only that, but they also will have more freedom to surround themselves with people they have things in common with, rather than the random groupings the public school system arranges. Your students can make friends with those who share their faith, live on the same street, or take the same ballet class.
Homeschooling styles
Finally, once you’ve determined your family’s lifestyle, your children’s learning styles, and figured out how much external socialization you want to incorporate into your homeschooling, you can have a good idea of what homeschooling method will work best for your family. There are approximately 10 widely recognized homeschooling methods. You can read more about the details of each of these different styles here.
- Box Curriculum
- Classical
- Montessori
- Waldorf
- Unit Study
- Unschooling
- Multiple Intelligences
- Eclectic
- Charlotte Mason (Apologia is Charlotte Mason-inspired)
Finding Your Ideal Fit
- Research what’s out there – The best way to ensure you’ve chosen the best curriculum for your students is to learn about the different options available to you. You can do so by:
- Internet- Use Google or AI to search curriculum options based on what’s important to you and your family.
- Conferences– Conferences are a great opportunity to pick up, open, and flip through the curriculum, ask questions, etc.
- Talk to friends or other homeschooling parents- Find out what curriculum your friends are using with their kids. This gives you inside information on how it’s working for them.
- Trial and Error
- Don’t be afraid to try something and find out it doesn’t work. Trial and error is a tried and true method for a reason. Be patient and give a new curriculum a try.
- Discuss it with your kids – Sometimes the most obvious solution is staring us in the face. Find out what your kids think. Their answers may surprise you! Ask them questions like:
- “What do you enjoy most and least about this curriculum?”
- “On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best, how would you rate this curriculum?”
- “Does this curriculum inspire you to learn more about this topic?”
Concusion
Ultimately, God gave you these little souls to care for, protect, and teach. No one is more equipped to determine the best way to educate them than you.
