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 determine the best kind of homeschooling for you and your family? There are so many aspects to consider, such as learning styles, family lifestyles, socialization, and homeschooling methods. And each curriculum has a unique combination of these, so it may seem a bit overwhelming to sift through all the options.
Family Lifestyle
Considering your family’s lifestyle and overall dynamic is a great place to start. This involves things like your weekly schedule, your available finances, family values, and how much hands-on teaching you’re looking to incorporate.
Parental Involvement
Do you have a teacher’s heart and want to teach the content to your kids? 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 curricula have a Christian component. You’ll need to decide if you want to incorporate your faith into your homeschool and/or if you want God woven into the course material.
At Apologia, our purpose is to support homeschool families in making a different choice for their children’s education by focusing not just on their academic success, but on their understanding and love of God as their Creator.
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 questions to ask yourself when it comes to your family’s school flexibility.
Depending on your family’s schedule and flexibility, co-ops or scheduled online courses may not be a possibility. Or, you may need a curriculum with audiobooks your kids can listen to on the go.
Financial Considerations
Finally, if you’re on a strict budget, you’ll need to factor in what you can afford, including the costs of co-ops, field trips, and supplies. Sometimes there will be a course that is too expensive, and that’s okay.
Learning Styles
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!
Now that you have an idea of what your family lifestyle and schedule will allow, you should narrow the search quite a bit.
Next, ask yourself, “How does my child learn best?” If you don’t know yet, that’s okay! You can take a guess and go from there.
What does learning look like for each learning style?
- Auditory – If your student enjoys music and seems to pick up a lot from conversation, they may be an auditory learner. Listening to an audiobook, reading aloud to them, and putting content to song are all great ways to support 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 blocks or tiles or prefers to be up and moving while learning, they may be a hands-on or kinesthetic learner. Find opportunities to incorporate experiments or the 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
As a homeschooling family, you will have the freedom to determine the parameters of your child’s socialization, such as how much and with whom. Instead of the random groupings the public school system arranges, you can ensure your students are surrounded by family and people who share the same faith, live on the same street, or attend the same extracurricular activities.
One great opportunity for homeschoolers to socialize is through live online classes and co-ops. Depending on the amount of socialization your child needs, you may need to sign them up for more classes with other students.
Homeschooling Method
Knowing all of this will help you determine the best homeschooling method for your family. There are approximately 10 widely recognized homeschooling methods. You can read more about each of these here.
- Box Curriculum
- Classical
- Montessori
- Waldorf
- Unit Study
- Unschooling
- Multiple Intelligences
- Eclectic
- Charlotte Mason (Apologia is Charlotte Mason-inspired)
Finding Your Ideal Fit
Finally, here are three tips for 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 explore, engage with, 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 the 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.
