There are as many ways to approach homeschooling as there are to skin a cat.

Actually, we hope there are more. We really don't like thinking about skinning cats.

One way to do it (back to talking about homeschooling, not removing cat hair) is to imagine the various homeschooling approaches existing on a continuum ranging from completely unstructured to highly structured.

That's the way we'll organize our brief summaries of various homeschooling methods, beginning with the unstructured end of the scale.

Unschooling

First proposed by John Holt in the 1970s, unschooling represents a child-driven approach to education. If a child is interested in lighthouses, she studies lighthouses until she's ready to move on to a new subject. If dance or drama are the passions of the day, those pursuits may take precedence over addition and subtraction until a time when the child becomes interested in exploring math concepts.

Who knew a pedagogical theory could sound so much like a millionaire's rotating hobbies?

While critics suggest that unschooling could leave huge gaps in a child's education, proponents counter that most necessary skills will be acquired through life experience and that children learn better when they are intrinsically motivated to do so.

P.S. If an unschooled child loves workbooks, he can fill them out all day every day and still be considered an unschooler, so long as the workbooks are his idea. But think how deficient that kid would be in climbing trees and developing apps, right?

Unit Studies

Here's step two on the structure ladder. This is the deal when homeschool education is organized around particular topics or units, much in the same way that individual subjects are organized in public schools. Through the exploration of a subject (such as dinosaurs, pirates, or ancient cultures, for example), homeschoolers can tackle reading, writing, math, science, social studies and more while delving into an area of interest.

Not convinced it can be done without some time with Dick and Jane? Think about it. With pirates, for instance, students could read novels and historical accounts about pirates; write stories or research papers on pirates; calculate the miles covered by various pirate ships or the quantities of food and supplies needed to last for trips of various durations; learn about navigation and astronomy; find out about diseases caused by Vitamin C deficiencies; and trace the geographical locations of pirate colonies and shipping routes. And that's just to name a few ideas.

Yar.

Eclectic Styles

As you may guess, the eclectic approach to homeschooling involves picking and choosing and mixing and matching various approaches and methods depending upon what is being studied at any given moment.

Eclectic homeschoolers may use workbooks or textbooks for math while approaching ELA in a more free-form manner that allows students to read books of their choosing and write freely in whatever formats appeal.

It may sound lackadaisical, but the eclectic approach to homeschooling actually tends to require more time and organization on the part of a homeschooling parent. That's because of the need to pull together many different resources and experiences for students, instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all curriculum.

Cooperatives

Occasionally, groups of homeschoolers form cooperatives that meet on certain days of the week and offer various classes or programming. Sometimes it's specific to subjects that may be better studied in groups, or it can just be chosen or designed by the cooperative's members.

Different cooperatives may have different approaches to homeschooling depending on member families. Which means that even though we've placed cooperatives in the middle of our continuum, it is possible to have a cooperative that falls closer to the unstructured or structured end, too.

As long as they still cooperate, that's all that matters.

School-at-Home

Yup, this is exactly what it sounds like: duplicating a typical school day with a structured schedule. Math is 7:00 – 8:00, Latin from 8:00 – 9:00, recess (run in a circle around the yard) until 9:15, etc. Of course, with fewer students (or only one) and less time required for things like attendance, announcements, switching classes, organizing bathroom breaks, dealing with discipline issues, getting books from lockers, and the like, homeschoolers are often able to complete the structured part of their school days in less time. And that gives them afternoons free for other activities or community explorations.

Many homeschoolers who follow this method use purchased curricula from companies like, oh, we don't know…Shmoop.

Further Variation

Within each of these approaches, homeschoolers may adhere closely to different educational philosophies or approaches. That could mean Montessori, Waldorf, Classical, Charlotte Mason, or a host of other theories about just how children should get their education.

As you can see, home school doesn't just mean sitting at the dining room table and watching your kid do math problems all day long. There's a lot of planning, theorizing, and picking and choosing between styles that goes on. So if there's a lot of variety among traditional schools, well, the same can be said for homeschooling.

The thing they all have in common? A lot of holding out for recess.