5 types of homeschooling
5 Types of homeschooling
When most families think of homeschooling, they think of traditional homeschooling or pandemic homeschooling.
When families think of traditional homeschooling, they often think of traditional school, but at home. They envision a woman in a house in a homemade skirt (perhaps on the prairie) standing at her kitchen table giving lessons to her children on a chalkboard for six hours a day. And then, perhaps, she makes home-made bread and cleans the house.
Pandemic schooling conjures up images of an exhausted parent (in-between conference calls) bribing, coercing or pleading with kids with cabin fever to sit through six hours of zoom school - and then assist them with several hours of homework based around a very specific (and often complex) method of teaching aligned with common core and federal standards. And then, they attempt to work from 9pm-1am. During the covid-19, we helped 100k families through our free hotline and information platform, schoolclosures.org and saw how unpleasant pandemic schooling can be.
Veteran homeschoolers are quick to point out that pandemic homeschooling is not homeschooling. In reality, modern-day homeschoolers live in urban, rural and suburban environments. They’re teachers, technologists, entrepreneurs, artists, healthcare workers and other innovators. And they’re not at home, but out in the world, using a modular approach, drawing on technology and community-based resources.
Here are some of the main ways families homeschool, though nowadays, almost no families use a wholly purist approach. Almost every family applies modular learning to some degree, supplementing their main homeschooling approach with other educational resources. Within the main types of homeschooling, there are many styles of homeschooling, Worldschooling, Forest School, Montessori, Waldorf, Carschooling, Youtube schooling, documentary schooling and even Gameschooling!
1. Traditional Homeschooling:
In traditional homeschooling, a parent or guardian teaches their own children at their house. This approach generally involves 4-5 hours a day of direct instruction.
Some parents design their own curriculum, but there are many different curricula that are designed for families educating their kids at home that cover all subjects traditionally taught in school. These curricula generally have a very easy-to-follow guide for parents and caregivers, so no teaching experience is required. Within traditional homeschooling, there are a variety of styles including Classical, Montessori, Waldorf, Charlotte Mason and Unit Studies. In some states, families can enroll in an independent study at public school (following a public school curriculum from home) or in a charter school that supports in-home instruction.
Families should be aware that the vast majority of curricula designed for traditional homeschooling includes religious content. Some of our favorite secular curricula designed for traditional homeschooling include Time4Learning, the Critical Thinking Co, Torchlight Curriculum, Build Your Library and Blossom and Root.
If you have the time, teaching your own child is an incredibly gratifying experience that you have to try to fully grasp. However, most families don’t have 4-5 days to devote to their child’s instruction. We hope you’ll incorporate it in some way into your child’s homeschooling, even if it’s just 30 minutes a day. Another con to traditional homeschooling is that often replicates many of the aspects of school that aren’t relevant to individualized instruction or optimizing learning efficiency (such as long hours of direct instruction) or curricula that follow common core.
For families interested in traditional homeschooling,Teach Your Own by John Holt is a great book to get started.
2. Online Homeschooling:
In online schooling today, most instruction happens online through live classes, recorded classes or an adaptive learning app paired with homework assignments graded by a teacher (or built-in assessment in the app). Families may either enroll in an accredited online school (in which case they do not need to enroll as a homeschooler) or online classes (in which case they do need to register as a homeschooler).
There are fantastic online programs, which have been developed and refined over several decades (in contrast to pandemic schooling which had to be developed overnight). Some of the best programs have built-in assessment and adaptive components, so they’re able to build an evolving personal journey that addresses your child’s weaknesses and plays to their strengths. The disadvantage to online schooling, like traditional schooling is that the approach is homogeneous. Like brick-and-mortar private schools, online schools are trying to standardize learning to help the most families. It’s not a program that’s truly customized for your child. While they may incorporate some self-directed learning, they don’t necessarily offer 1-1 mastery-based instruction. Some predict that the school of the future will be one that has the AI to personalize learning perfectly for every child, but we’re far from that point.
Even if we build the perfect AI-driven online school, another big problem is that online schools don’t provide childcare or social learning. Some may serve to distract your child while you’re working from home or give them an opportunity to connect with other kids online. It’s also important to note that there’s still considerable debate around the impact of different types of screen time on children, especially younger kids.
However, if you have a child who thrives learning online, this could be a great option for them.
Some of the secular, accredited online schools we recommend include TTU-K12, Calvert, Oak Meadow, Calvert Academy, Clonlara, Laurel Springs, NAHRS
(many of these also have homeschool programs where families can choose the classes they want instead of enrolling in the school)
Some of the online programs we recommend include Khan Academy and Khan Academy Kids, OnlineG3 and Outschool.
3. Unschooling:
In a purist unschooling approach, children guide their own learning without any structure or interference from parents. There are some very compelling arguments based on developmental psychology that demonstrate that kids are biologically programmed to learn on their own. And that they learn well when left to their own devices. The most compelling work on this topic is Peter Gray’s groundbreaking book “Free to Learn.” It’s fairly difficult to step away from this book without incorporating at least some aspect of unschooling into your child’s education.
The word “Unschooling” has come to mean many things to many people. In most cases, what we’ve observed is that “unschooling” has become synonymous with “secular homeschooling.
Unschoolers often use a more modular approach to education that incorporates lots of self-directed learning. Their groups tend to be progressive and inclusive, made of up of engineers, teachers, social activists and artists. Families often share skills with the community in co-ops or classes. For example, a science professor mom might teach a science class to the kids. Another parent could lead a chess club Another word for this kind of learning is free-range learning. Kids also share skills with other children. For example, a teenager might lead a theater class or teach reading to a kindergartener. Unschooling groups tend to be highly social, meeting up for park days, playground meetups, potlucks, going on field trips and organizing other educational group activities. Families also love that when they travel, unschooling families often invite them to stay at their house.
Generally, in the unschooling philosophy, a parent will not teach a child a subject until they are specifically asked to do so. This means that some children may not learn to read or write until they are 10 or 12 - or ever. However, the majority teach themselves or ask to learn when they see other kids learning.
Most children do have an insatiable desire to learn and lots of self-directed learning is vital to learning and social-emotional development. However, the environment within which they do that learning is also very important. At its worst, unschooling can border on neglect, where children’s basic and higher needs are completely ignored. On the flipside, some families allow children to do whatever they want whenever they want, even if it has consequences to the family or others in the community. It’s vital that families allow children to suffer natural consequences to their actions so they can learn to live well in the world. It’s important to remember that while some children are very self-directed, others might need more guidance and structure. What’s wonderful that there are so many approaches to homeschooling that families can find the one that works best for their child.
What’s clear is that every child needs time for self-directed learning to develop their autonomy and sense of purpose in the world. For a wonderful example of what Unschooling can look like at its finest, we recommend the podcast “Free-Range Learning” with Laura Wheldon or her book.
4. Hybrid Homeschooling: microschools, homeschool co-ops and learning pods
Hybrid homeschooling is when parents homeschool half of the time and send them to a part-time school the other part of the time do traditional school, online school or unschooling. This could be a Homeschool co-op, microschool, learning pod or colearning center. Sometimes they are free and sometimes they are equivalent to the cost of school.
Hybrid homeschooling can be a great way to get some childcare and connect with other homeschooling families, as well as enhance learning. The hybrid school can also provide accountability and support for families. The one problem with these hybrid models is that they tend to replicate school and follow the school schedule. Typically, instruction happens in small groups, but children don’t get as much 1-1 mastery-based learning. Homeschool co-ops follow a large variety of models, ranging from a space for unschooling, to highly scheduled traditional homeschooling. These hybrid schools can be wonderful places for parents to connect and build community.
Families can enroll directly in a homeschool co-op, hire a teacher with a group of parents, be the teacher themselves, or parents can take turns being the teacher. A hybrid homeschool can be 3 hours a week or 4 days a week. However, pay attention to local laws that might require families to do a certain percentage of homeschool instruction at home.
Our section on “How to find and evaluate local & online homeschool programs” provides more guidance on how to find a co-op in your local area. If you’re interested in starting a new one, check out our guide on “how to start a learning pod.”
5. Modular Learning:
Modular learning is fully curated homeschooling: custom education, custom socialization and custom childcare with custom accountability & support.
Our description of modular learning is based on patterns we’ve cataloged from direct observation and interviews with hundreds of secular homeschoolers (many former teachers) who are successfully educating their children above grade level.
Nearly every type of homeschooling listed above incorporates some level of modular learning, but this is what we’ve observed “full-on” modular learning most typically looks like in practice. This approach has emerged from decades of secular families collaborating, iterating and improving upon homeschooling methods within secular homeschool communities ).
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Mastery Learning: 1-2 hours a day of power homeschooling
-core curriculum) with a parent or tutor or independently (1-2 hours a day)
-Math with a parent or tutor (30-60 mins daily)
Self-directed learning or play (2-3 hours a day)
Playdate or group project (daily)
Afterschool or homeschool classes (3-4 times a week). Older students may take classes at a community college.
Group field trip day (1-2 days/week)
Homeschool co-op (1 half-day or full day 1x/week)
Forest/Nature days (1 day/week)
Reading the NYTimes together as a family (daily)
Watching a documentary as a family once a week
Adaptive learning apps, Youtube videos, Educational games interspersed throughout the day or during dedicated screen time.
Extensive world travel
Year-round schooling
Internship or volunteering
Quarterly or semi-annual assessments
To get a better sense of what modular learning can look like in practice, see our guide to setting up a homeschooling schedule with 17 sample schedules.
