There are a number of different homeschooling styles, as well as an infinite way to integrate the various styles to find the one that is perfect for your family. At the end of this list, I have included what my family does.

Spoiler: We incorporate a lot of these different styles because there are aspects of each one that I like. So don’t think of these as “all or nothing” programs. This is a buffet where you can pick and choose components of different methods, if you want to. Or you can go 100% into one. 

Remember: YOU are crafting a homeschool for YOUR family.

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Homeschooling Styles

This list goes roughly in order from the most highly structured to the least structured.

Traditional School at Home    

This format is often the easiest for new homeschoolers, or for homeschoolers who are not sure how long they are going to be homeschooling, because it fits with the “schooling” concept that most of us grew up with. There are often specific subjects that are familiar: math, reading, language arts, geography etc. A complete public virtual school program would fall into this category. A completed “boxed curriculum” is often distinguished because it follows a specific educational philosophy, Waldorf or Montessori, for example; it could also be distinguished by its world-view. A number of these types of curriculum come as a complete package, with daily lesson plans already printed and ready to go.     

Great option if:

• You are new to homeschooling and concerned that you don’t have the “right background” to homeschool.
• You are completely overwhelmed and want something that is “ready to go.” 
• You are unsure of how long you will be homeschooling and you want something that will easily translate back into a traditional school.
• You want your children to be working on the same material at the same level as their traditionally schooled peers.

Traditional School at Home Resources:

• Seton is one of the most widely used Catholic curriculum that comes with material covering all subject areas.  They also offer online courses and grading services. 
• Sonlight is a Christian literature-based curriculum program that you can tailor to meet your family’s specific needs. Sonlight has also developed 9-week curriculum options for families that will be homeschooling short-term.

Online School    

A number of homeschool programs offer online options. With the growing interest in homeschooling, more online programs are expanding the courses and programs that they offer. Some offer a complete curriculum by grade level. Others offer individual classes, usually with guidance for parents to help them craft these individual classes into an entire program. There are, in general, three online options: live online classes, pre-recorded self-paced classes, and in-person parent-led classes. With live online classes, a teacher moderates the course, leads lectures and discussions, grades assignments and provides grades at the conclusion of the course. They may provide the materials needed digitally, or require you to purchase a textbook/materials of some kind. With pre-recorded self-paced classes, the lectures are recorded. Students watch the lectures and complete the assignments. Teacher Keys are provided to the parents, who complete the grading and assign grades at the completion of the course. With in-person parent-led classes, the school provides the parents with the materials needed to teach the course. There may be additional videos available to assist, but the parent is responsible for teaching the lesson.

Great option if:

• You are new to homeschooling and overwhelmed by the possibility of being the primary educator.
• You are working with a subject or level that you are not very comfortable teaching.
• You have multiple children at varying ages and want a way for them to all complete their schoolwork independently.
• You are looking for ways to enrich their education.
• You are looking for ways to bring in an additional educator besides yourself.

Online School Resources:

• Your School District or State Department of Education. A number of states have virtual school options and an increasing number of school districts offer them as well. In these programs, your children will be instructed by State certified teachers, completing coursework similar to that being completed in the classrooms of your local public schools. Some districts will consider your child enrolled in public school if they are taking a certain number of online credits. This would alleviate your need to fill out homeschool paperwork/documentation. Check with your State for details.
• Kolbe Academy is a Catholic classical homeschool program for students in grades K-12. They offer homeschooling programs to be completed at home with a parent, self-paced online courses with pre-recorded videos of courses, and live online courses with an instructor who will grade all assignments and lead lectures and discussions. 
• Queen of Heaven Academy is a Catholic classical online homeschool program for students in grades 4-12. Live courses are held online with corresponding homework and assignments. 
• Homeschool Connections is a Catholic resource for individual classes for students in middle school and high school, as well as a new K-5 program. They offer live online classes as well as pre-recorded classes. Additionally, they offer dual-enrollment with Franciscan University of Stubenville for certain high school level courses. 
• Abeka is one of the largest Christian homeschooling programs. They offer parent-led programs to be completed at home, as well as online options. Abeka is strongly evangelical in its world-view, which is visible in specific components of their materials. For example, the science program proposes a six literal day, Creationist word-view, whereas Math does not really incorporate specifically evangelical beliefs.
• Melamed Academy offers a complete online program for Orthodox Jewish students, grades 1-12, including Torah studies. In addition to the Academy’s rabbinical advisory group, the school works with local Yeshivas in New Jersey to ensure that their program is Torah-observant. 

Classical Education    

This highly-structured model is based on the classical educational format, which is divided into three stages: grammar (grades K-4), logic (grades 5-8), and rhetoric (grades 9-12). Each stage is characterized by specific skills and information is tailored to their learning stage. The Grammar stage is characterized by growing a large body of fact knowledge through memorization, songs, poems, maps, etc. The Logic stage is characterized by using the facts that have been learned to look for patterns, connections, correlations, and explanations. The Rhetoric stage is characterized by the ability to evaluate new and established positions or opinions, using research and support to defend or explain their assessments. There are many local Classical Education groups, such as Classical Conversations, that meet regularly for classes, then send home material for the parents to cover with the children on days that they are not meeting in person. There are also curriculums that present material using the classical model in humanities. This allows a family with children in multiple ages to cover the same topics, while allowing each child to learn the material at a level that is appropriate for them. For example, Connecting with History is a classical history curriculum that provides lesson plans for all children to be learning about Egypt, but the Grammar student is doing a different activity than the Logic student. If your family has both, this allows your family to be united in topic, but differentiated in specific assignment.    

Great option if:

• You want to cover history in a chronological order.
• You have children in multiple levels and want them to cover the same material topics while having individualized assignments.
• You want structure, but the traditional school at home model does not fit your family for some reason.
• You want to use original source books in your instruction.

Classical Education Resources:

• Mother of Divine Grace is a Catholic Classical program that offers a teacher-guided program as well as support courses and grading services. 
• Classical Conversations is a Christian community-based program where students typically meet 2-3 days per week, and are given work for the remaining days. It covers all areas of an academic program.     
• Connecting with History is a Catholic world-view humanities program that includes daily lesson plans, a large variety of activities, and literature incorporation. 
• Tapestry of Grace is an evangelical Christian world-view humanities program that includes daily lesson plans, great variety of activities, and an extensive online support community. 
• Angelicum Academy is a Catholic online school offering a complete curriculum, including online Socratic discussions. They use the Great Books List by Dr. Mortimer Adler as the foundation for their instruction in humanities. You can also purchase individual course material for use at home. 

Charlotte Mason    

Charlotte Mason was a British-born educator (1842-1923) who developed an educational philosophy that is based on using real-world experiences as the basis for education. She wrote a six-part series titled the Original Homeschooling Series that covers everything from habit-building to the importance of children spending time outside. Her model typically includes:

• Using “living books” that are chosen to spark a love of learning and reading in children.
• Extensive nature studies, art studies and composer studies as ways to experience nature, art and music and develop an appreciation and understanding of it. Each child creates a nature journal to record their observations and information they learn from nature studies.
• Using verbal “narration” to demonstrate understanding as a way to lead into written narration rather than tests and reading comprehension questions.
• Each child creates a “Book of Centuries” that illustrates historical advances and events around the world by century.

    The Charlotte Mason model has become increasingly popular in recent years. One great resource is the Ambleside Online website. They have created a free Charlotte Mason curriculum that is available for K-12, with weekly lesson guides, as well as online sources for many of the books that are recommended.    

Great option if:

• Your child is an avid reader.
• You want a program that is rich in the arts.
• You want to learn along-side your children.
• You want a program that uses a lot of classical literature.

Charlotte Mason Resources:

• Simply Charlotte Mason is a great source for all things Charlotte Mason. The founder, Sonja Shafer, has tons of videos explaining the many facets of a Charlotte Mason education, as well as curriculum and individual programs that they have created to facilitate your homeschool. 
• Ambleside Online is an incredible secular resource, with weekly lesson plans that you can modify or use as-is for a complete Charlotte Mason education. Note: the History program uses a British source, but could be easily replaced with an American-focused history text. 
• Mater Amabilis is a Catholic Charlotte Mason-style program that offers complete online weekly schedules and links to books that are recommended. 
• Ani Ve Ami offers a Jewish homeschooling program that is based on Charlotte Mason and includes ways to incorporate Jewish living into homeschooling. 

Unit Study    

In the Unit Study model, topics are chosen by the parent or child, and all areas of education are related to that topic. For example, the Unit Study might be on “Middle Ages.” Every area of study would be related to this theme or topic.

• Literature: The children would read historical fiction set in the Middle Ages- Door in the Wall, Adam of the Road or Girlhood Journey- Juliet.
• Social Studies: They would complete maps of the city centers of Europe, trace the spread of the Black Plague, or show the travel routes of the Crusaders or Marco Polo.
• History: They would read Castle to learn about how castles were constructed, how castle towns were organized, as well as the many people involved in both building and running a castle.
• Science: They would learn about inertia as they study John Philoponus, lenses and optics as they learn about Roger Bacon, and the spread of disease as they study Guy de Chauliac.
• Art: They would learn about Giotto and Fracked Angelico, then recreate work in their style using egg-yolk paint. They would learn about Illuminations and create their own.
• Music: They would learn about Perotin and Hildegard of Bingen as they listen to their music.

    If this is a model that is attractive, you will likely want to choose a math program to work through concurrently to your Unit Study. While math activities can be integrated into Unit Studies, they will likely not cover all of the material that is necessary for a complete math program.    

Great option if:

• You have an unpredictable schedule due to live circumstances- illness, new baby, moving, etc.
• You want something that is loosely structured, but allows for “tangents” that follow your or your children’s passions and interests.
• You want to be able to focus on a certain topic in depth.
• You have children at multiple ages and want a single topic that everyone can study together. Some activities can be completed by the whole family together, while others can be tailored to your child’s particular level.
• You want a curriculum that can be tailored to your child’s interests.

Unit Study Resources:

• Faith & Good Works has compiled a list of 100 Free Unit Studies that link to Unit Studies compiled by other educators, often including reading lists and videos. 
• A Mother Thing has also compiled a list of 100 Free Unit Studies that link to Unit Studies by other educators. This list has an extensive collection of literature-based Unit Studies. 

Un-Schooling    

This model is the least structured of all. It is based almost entirely on the child’s interests. The parent acts as a facilitator for the child’s education, providing resources and information as necessary. The child, however, is the one who is choosing the topic, as well as the method of instruction. While un-schooling often has a reputation of being a “kids gone wild” approach, if done well, it is more like a Scouting approach to earning badges, only without the requirements. The child is choosing a topic that interests them, then pursuing information to answer the questions they have. The information they find leads to more questions, which leads to more information. The topic could also be a skill- say sewing. The child sees an outfit and wants to learn how to make it. This leads to learning about patterns, types of fabric, notions etc. The child eventually creates the outfit themselves, learning from their mistakes along the way.    

Great option if:

• You want your children to learn in a fashion similar to how adults learn, through self-directed interest.
• You want your children to learn through discovery, rather than through direct instruction.
• You value the creative process very highly.
• You are not concerned with the “grade level” at which your child is performing.

Un-Schooling Resources:

•     The Thinking Tree has published a number of “Fun-Schooling Journals” that are directed at specific ages, or interests. They provide guidance in areas like literature, math, art, science etc. They are intended to be used in a number of different homeschool models, including un-schooling. One suggestion they offer is to “complete 10 pages per day,” which would ensure that each day contains a number of different subject areas.

Hybrid Model    

This is probably the most commonly adopted version of homeschooling. In the hybrid model, families combine aspects of different models that they like. This is what my family uses.

What WE do in my house:

We have five children, ages 11-3. The breakdown is: 6th grade, 4th grade, 2nd grade, Kindergarten and Pre-K. 

Disclaimer: My personal background is in Education. As a result, I have spent years gathering what I find to be the best individual components of a homeschool education. This does not mean that everyone should follow my plan.

Remember, YOUR plan needs to be the best for YOUR family.

In general, my kids’ work falls into two categories: work we all complete together as a family, and work that you complete independently. I use the humanities program that we have as our foundation and build a lot of other subjects from that. Yes, it does look like a lot, but it is really designed to be as coherent as possible. I also choose programs that have pre-written lesson plans with different levels included. That way, I am not trying to figure out what my 6th grader should do, as opposed to my Kindergartener. It’s already written in the lesson plan. I just have to plug it in.

Our middle schooler will be doing several pre-recorded, self-paced online classes through Connections Academy.     

Why online: Because we recognize that as he gets into high school, he will be taking more online classes so that he is not limited to my or my husband’s personal knowledge of any subject area. We are working to transition him to this style of learning.     

Why pre-recorded: Because we tend to take family vacations during the off-season, which would mean missing live classes. So, instead, we chose to do pre-recorded so that we can work them into our family schedule.   

Why Connections Academy: We like that with one membership, we get access to all of their pre-recorded classes. This offers us maximum flexibility in terms of course selection.

All-Family Humanities: We use a classical model for history and the humanities: Connecting with History.    

Why: It allows all of the children to be learning about the same topic/time in history at the same time. It also allows us to do family-wide projects (similar to Unit Studies.) For example, when we were learning about Vikings, everyone made viking flatbread together; my oldest started working on a viking shield wood project with my husband; my second oldest learned about tablet-weaving; my littles worked with me to construct a viking-style boat. We had a Viking party when we were finished, eating Viking food, wearing Viking clothes, and watching How to Train your Dragon.

Humanities Add-on: While the Connecting with History program offers a timeline, we choose to do a Charlotte Mason-style Book of Centuries. We have a family Book of Centuries, and our two oldest have their own Book of Centuries. I use the family Book of Centuries to record the major events of what we have learned about. I print out small images of the people we learn about, as well as images of the kids with any projects we have completed. This serves as a kind of scrapbook of our Homeschooling time. Once the children are olde enough, they get their own individual Book of Centuries. Charlotte recommends having a child start their own personal Book when they are around 4th-5th grade.

Family Book of Centuries 

Individual Book of Centuries

Why: A Book of Centuries allows you to see the many events, people, and discoveries that were happening all over the world during a particular century. I color-code the Family Book by continent, so that we can see what was happening in roughly the same area. Each century is given the same amount of space, and so it also allows you to see how technological advances have filled a lot of later centuries, whereas earlier centuries can appear “empty.”

Literature: Connecting with History provides literature connections for all levels that are related to the history that we are learning. For grades 3 and up, there are literature guides that offer writing assignments connected to the literature they are reading. For the littles, we do picture books that are connected to the history we are learning.

Elementary Science: We use a program that was developed to follow scientific discoveries as they were made through history: Science in the Ancient World from Berean Builders. 

Why: Instead of learning science in isolation, we are learning it in connection with history. As a result, our science program travels through time along with our history program. When a discovery is made within science, we get to see this discovery within the context of the world around it. Personally, this is probably my favorite curriculum, because it shows me how revolutionary a lot of scientific ideas were for their time and place in the world. It has also taught me that a lot of scientific discoveries were made without items that I take for granted (like hand lenses or telescopes.) This particular program offers hands-on activities for each lesson, as well as level assignments for the students to complete.      

Middle School Science: This coming year, our oldest will be starting a more traditional middle school science program- life science, earth science, physical science, etc.

Why: We are shifting to this for him because, while the history-based program is great, we time it to correspond with our history, which means we are not covering as much science content as he would be in a more traditional class. He will continue to do the history-based lessons with us, because they are lots of fun, but he needed more science-specific content.

Art/ Music: We do a Charlotte Mason-style Picture Study and Composer Study, where I find an artist or artistic style that corresponds to the history that we are learning and we incorporate it into the Unit for that time period. Additionally, I find a composer and we listen to their music while doing our work. We have done a few short-term “Art Courses” online, but I have not found anything that was truly ground-breaking or earth-shattering. I am familiar with a beginner level of piano, so the kids are currently taking piano lessons with me. When they out-grow my skills, we will likely bring in a piano teacher to continue their instruction.

Elementary Math: We use a traditional model, specifically the Modern Curriculum Press Homeschool Editions.     

Why: MCP was originally Scott Foresman, which was a curriculum written for gifted students. I like the homeschool editions because they provide lots of practice problems. In elementary math, practice is king, since you are building skills.

Middle School Math: Our middle schooler will be using Saxon Math, and attending the corresponding pre-recorded online classes with Connections Academy.     

Why: Saxon is designed for students to be able to use it independently. It provides review of previous material, as well as new material in small bite-size pieces. The program goes through Calculus, so once he is familiar with the format, he will be able to follow the program for the remainder of middle school and high school.

Read Aloud: In addition to the picture books from Connecting with History, we also do additional read alouds. The Gifted Department at the University of Connecticut has put together a reading program designed to challenge all students with really excellent literature, the Student Enrichment Model- Reading (SEM-R.) Among their resources is a great collection of various award-winning books, classics broken down by reading level, audio books, and books separated by topic. This is my go-to for finding great books. 

My other resource for finding great literature is Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revival. She offers an online Premium Membership that includes lessons and activities that you can do as a family that relate to the read aloud that you have chosen. She has an incredible wealth of information and resources on her website. 

Miscellaneous Homeschool Stuff: 

Unit Study/Projects/Holidays: We love to travel. When we are preparing for a trip, we will put a pause in our humanities program and switch over to a Unit Study style program where we will learn all about the place that we are planning to go. This is also how we handle holidays. For example: the week of Thanksgiving is a Unit Study on the history of Thanksgiving, developing gratitude, and sharing our blessings with others. We learn about the pilgrims fleeing England and the Netherlands to America; we learn about the native people and plants that they encountered upon arrival; we learn how it came to be a national holiday. 

Scouts/American Heritage Girls: Our boys are involved in Boy Scouts and our girls are involved in American Heritage Girls. As such, we use their badge work as opportunities to enrich their homeschooling- this looks a lot like un-schooling. They choose which badges they are interested in pursuing, and I help to facilitate their research and learning about that topic. While they are doing the actual work, I integrate their badge requirements into their homeschooling so that they have a built-in accountability system.

But what about screen time?

We are not huge fans of screen time, so we limit it as much as possible. We do have the following for the kids:

Khan Academy: A free resource with lessons in Math, Science, Humanities, etc. FREE. 

Skybrary: The brainchild of Levar Burton and Reading Rainbow, it has tons of books read aloud and video clips similar to the TV show. $40 per year. 

Magic School Bus/ Magic School Bus Rides Again: Both available on Netflix. Who doesn’t love Ms. Frizzle? Scholastic has lessons and printable here. 

PBS Kids: This can be a rabbit hole, so be sure to set boundaries. My kids’ favorites are: Wild Kratts (all about animals), Odd Squad (Math), Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood (the original), and Daniel Tiger (Mr. Roger’s spin-off). 

Intentional Parenting- Part 1: Start with the Mega-Picture

Intentional Homeschool Parenting- Part 2: Why

Intentional Homeschool Parenting- Part 3: How

Intentional Homeschool Parenting- Part 4: What