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What Are the Homeschool Top Main 5 Learning Styles

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Knowing what are the homeschool main 5 learning styles is essential to success in knowing homeschool learning styles.

There are more learning styles, but today I’m focusing only on the top 5 homeschool learning styles.

Besides, understanding how a child learns is one of the best things we can do to empower kids to learn.

What Are the Homeschool Top Main 5 Learning Styles

Kids are born with an incredible desires to learn.

And we’re homeschooling because we want to be the best coach in helping our children understand themselves.

Most of us have either struggled with the way a teacher teachers or one or more subjects.

Barring the fact a special need exists, we could even think we may have a learning disability.

Worst yet, we may infer by our actions to our children that they may have a learning problem.

Styles of Homeschooling

It’s important to know the difference between preferences in learning style and special needs.

Because you are the only one to know if it’s special needs, I’m focusing on educating you about what is a learning style.

So, it’s important to understand what is a learning style or personality.

What Are the Homeschool Top Main 5 Learning Styles. Knowing what are the homeschool main 5 learning styles is essential to success in knowing how to homeschool. There are more learning styles, but today I'm focusing only on the top 5 homeschool learning styles. Besides, understanding how a child learns is one of the best things we can do to empower kids to learn. Kids are born with an incredible desires to learn. #homeschoolstyles

First, let me back up to share just a few points about the approach of the public school system.

You need to know that public school has only one way they approaching teaching your child.

And although they tout that they provide many different teaching styles, they do not.

No, I’m not going to clump all teachers together because nobody likes that done to them. There are wonderful caring public school teachers who try to focus on different approaches.

However, traditionally public school has only used one methodology and one environment.

This one size fits all obviously leaves out children who do not learn with the public school methodology.

Thinking about it, not much has changed in the public school system for abut one hundred years or since it’s institution.

Memorization and conformity are encouraged and individualism is minimized or kids receive discipline and labeled trouble makers.

Therefore, learning about homeschool learning styles will help you tap into the way your children learn best.

Besides, when you know the way your child learns best, you can choose curriculum matched to your child’s learning style.

Too, understand that homeschool approach is the best way to identify the learning style of not only you but your children.

It’s easier to identify the type of learner you have by the homeschool approach which fits your child.

Five Learning Styles or Homeschool Approaches

Look below at the 5 learning styles or homeschool approaches.

1. Unit Study Approach for Families Who Want Free Exploration

2. Workbook Approach for Families Who Want Memory Work and Workbooks

3. Classical Approach for Families Who Put Emphasis on Learning from Ancient Minds of the Past

4. Charlotte Mason Approach for Families Who Nurture a Love of Nature and Living Books

5. Unschooling Approach for Families Who Want Child-Led Learning Without Bounds

Look at these four ways to understand teaching styles.

4 Ways Understanding Homeschool Teaching Styles Makes You Successful

  • You can plan a successful course with your child’s strengths and weaknesses in mind;
  • Specific goals can be set and met because your leaner will know how to meet them;
  • There is individualized education; and
  • Your learner will be eager to learn lifelong instead of struggling with why he doesn’t understand some subjects as well as he does others.

Identifying Your Homeschooled Child’s Learning Personality

Finally, after years of putting the pieces together, I have created an online self-paced course on how to identify your homeschool child’s learning personality.

This course will give you solid beginning points and look what you will learn.

How Understanding Homeschool Teaching Styles Makes You Successful. Do you wonder why it seems like one child understands exactly what you mean when the other one seems clueless? You know it's not because that child is not trying to understand you. It can be frustrating and discouraging to feel like you're not getting your point across. So instead of focusing on trying to funnel all people to categories or labels, I focused on understanding learning personalities.

YOU WILL LEARN:

  • How to understand the way your child prefers to learn so that you can teach him in a way that he enjoys learning;
  • How to pinpoint your child’s learning personality;
  • A starting point in understanding (barring any special learning challenges or disabilities) and accepting your child’s preferred way of taking in information;
  • Understanding when the learning personality emerges; and
  • Teaching tips for each learning personality to stop the head-butting.

Tapping into the way a child prefers to learn is essential to success.

What Are the Homeschool Top Main 5 Learning Styles

Finally, look at some other learning styles resources below.

Other Learning Styles Resources

How Understanding Homeschool Teaching Styles Makes You Successful

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Homeschool teaching styles wasn’t something I understood when I wanted to know homeschool learning styles.

Too, after researching for years and even teaching a workshop about it, there is still much confusion about how to identify homeschool teaching styles.

In addition, terms like modalities, teaching styles, and learning styles are terms that need to be clarified.

How Understanding Homeschool Teaching Styles Makes You Successful

However, tapping into the way a child prefers to learn is essential to success

Do you wonder why it seems like one child understands exactly what you mean when the other one seems clueless?

You know it’s not because that child is not trying to understand you.

It can be frustrating and discouraging to feel like you’re not getting your point across.

Homeschool Styles

First, for years research has been based on 3 types of learners.

They are either visual, auditory, or tactile or a combination of them.

How Understanding Homeschool Teaching Styles Makes You Successful. Do you wonder why it seems like one child understands exactly what you mean when the other one seems clueless? You know it's not because that child is not trying to understand you. It can be frustrating and discouraging to feel like you're not getting your point across. So instead of focusing on trying to funnel all people to categories or labels, I focused on understanding learning personalities.

And some of the characteristics of visual learners are:

  • Normally they learn through their eyes.
  • These types of learners love photos, maps, visuals,
  • diagrams and maps.

Next, look at a few characteristics of auditory leaners:

  • They tend to be good listeners.
  • And they can learn better through music, discussions, and sounds.
  • In addition, they love to record discussions and topics to listen back to later.

Lastly, some of the characteristics of tactile learners are

  • that they learn best by doing.
  • Hands-on projects, acting out, and performing experiments.

However, a lot of research has been done since this.

And although the science is not conclusive about exactly how we learn, we can agree that both children and adults have preferred ways of learning.

So instead of focusing on trying to funnel all people to categories or labels, I focused on understanding learning personalities.

Identifying Homeschool Learning Personalities

When you understand the way your child prefers to learn then you can teach him in a way that he enjoys learning.

To learn about personalities means to understand your and your child’s strengths and weakness.

Additionally, a learning personality means the skills a person uses to gather and perceive information.

So, a learning personality will include learning styles like visual, auditory, or tactile but it also includes personal preferences. That is more unique to individuals.

Too, I feel like understanding a personality is easier to identify than a learning style since many do not agree even on how many learning styles there are.

4 Ways Understanding Homeschool Teaching Styles Makes You Successful

  • You can plan a successful course with your child’s strengths and weaknesses in mind;
  • Specific goals can be set and met because your leaner will know how to meet them;
  • There is individualized education; and
  • Your learner will be eager to learn lifelong instead of struggling with why he doesn’t understand some subjects as well as he does others.

Identifying Your Homeschooled Child’s Learning Personality

Finally, after years of putting the pieces together, I have created an online self-paced course on how to identify your homeschool child’s learning personality.

This course will give you solid beginning points and look what you will learn.

How Understanding Homeschool Teaching Styles Makes You Successful. Do you wonder why it seems like one child understands exactly what you mean when the other one seems clueless? You know it's not because that child is not trying to understand you. It can be frustrating and discouraging to feel like you're not getting your point across. So instead of focusing on trying to funnel all people to categories or labels, I focused on understanding learning personalities.

YOU WILL LEARN:

  • How to understand the way your child prefers to learn so that you can teach him in a way that he enjoys learning;
  • How to pinpoint your child’s learning personality;
  • A starting point in understanding (barring any special learning challenges or disabilities) and accepting your child’s preferred way of taking in information;
  • Understanding when the learning personality emerges; and
  • Teaching tips for each learning personality to stop the head-butting.

Tapping into the way a child prefers to learn is essential to success.

How Understanding Homeschool Teaching Styles Makes You Successful

Other Learning Styles Resources:

How to Choose the BEST Homeschool Curriculum to Fit a Child’s Natural Abilities

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Choosing the best homeschool curriculum to fit a child’s natural abilities is not coddling a child. Also, it does not mean you’re not preparing him for adulthood. It has been quite the opposite in my experience.

Let me back up first to share a bit of my struggle. Learning how to choose curriculum other than my preference as teacher was not easy.

When kids are very young like in the toddler and preschool years, they all share common traits in their learning personality.

Kids learn through playing, tasting, and moving; they’re learning with every breath they take. This is barring any special need.

Understanding that curriculum should be developmentally appropriate at that age was something I had to learn.

For example, pushing a child to write or hold a pencil correctly before their fine muscles develop can cause damage. I’ve seen homeschoolers who’ve had to take their child to therapy to try to correct the shove to push too soon.

It’s like trying to make a child walk before he is developmentally ready. As a mom I understood waiting on a child’s development, but transitioning that mindset to myself as teacher was not as easy.

Aligning Homeschool Curriculum With A Child’s Strengths (and Weaknesses)

When I grasped that my children were unique individuals with inborn likes, dislikes, strengths, weakness, AND a time table for development, I shifted gears in how I chose curriculum.

I delved into choosing curriculum which fit each of my child’s strengths and weaknesses.

I have more to say in a minute about how aligning homeschool curriculum with a child’s strength or weakness is not codding.

How to Choose the BEST Homeschool Curriculum to Fit a Child's Natural Abilities

First, look at these 3 easy ways you can choose the best homeschool curriculum to fit a child’s natural abilities

One/ Understand How Homeschool Curriculum is Categorized

You homeschool because you have goals and your homeschool approach aligns normally with your goals.

Homeschool curriculum is organized by homeschool approach.

To help you quickly understand the different educational philosophies, I have explained each of the 5 popular approaches in this article Top 5 Approaches New Homeschoolers Need to Know.

Two/ Search Beyond Achievement and Aptitude Tests

Next, search beyond achievement and aptitude tests.

Although administering an achievement test can pinpoint areas of weakness in the curriculum, you will need to observe and discuss with your child his natural abilities, strengths, and weakness.

Aptitude tests are used to identify gifted and talented kids in school and diagnostic testing can be used in giving you a clearer picture in the skill subjects which are math and language arts.

A public school teacher with many students may need this type of information to know if her curriculum is working or if it’s weak.

Too, as a homeschooler, you may live in a state which requires testing and these tests can be a starting point on painting a picture of your learner.

If you’re thinking you want to administer those types of tests, look at this test comparison chart.

Also, look at Brewer Testing Services which provides testing for homeschool families.

The point is talents are almost impossible to capture in an achievement test.

However, tests do not take into consideration a child’s natural bent, his level of curiosity, creativity, and imagination.

Quite the contrary, but constant testing may shortchange out of the box thinkers if you only use testing as the absolute authority in how to choose curriculum.

According to research gate, they reported: test takers who are strong-minded, nonconformist, unusual, original, or creative are forced to suppress their impulses to conform to the norms established by the testers.

You can look here at the report by research gate if standardized tests penalize deep-thinking, creative, or conscientious students.

Three/ Observe your child during one-to-one time (and other times too)

Nevertheless, the best way to align natural abilities to homeschool curriculum is the same way we teach which is one-to-one.

Observing a child, asking him questions, and noticing what he is interested in talking about, what is he doing, and what consumes his time when you’re one-to-one with him and when he is NOT formally learning during his homeschool day is a huge indicator toward his bent.

Identifying Your Homeschooled Child's Learning Personality Online Self Paced Course

Did you know that I teach an online self-paced course to give you much insight into discovering your child’s learning personality?

Read about this AWESOME insightful course which is Identifying Your Homeschooled Child’s Learning Personality

Kids, like us, are influenced by their environment and that means they want to please you. They try to work with the subjects you chose for homeschooling and school in the places at your home you have set up for learning.

For kids to let down their walls and give us an idea of how they want to learn, we need to observe them in their own setting.

I’m not saying we accept bad behavior, but in question asking, you can determine his natural bent.

During the formal time of your homeschool day, you may notice which subjects your child struggles in and which subjects they prefer to spend more time studying. If you’ve homeschooled for any length of time you already have a good indicator of how he learns.

For example, some more analytical people prefer to learn math just by a book. Others who may not be math inclined prefer a more video approach.

There are two easy ways you can identify strengths and weaknesses at home.

1.Informal questioning.

Look at some of these questions you could use for your kids who are upper elementary to high school because they can articulate better than real young kids.

  • Does your child prefer to learn alone in his room or with you and at a co-op? If he answers alone, this can be a leaning toward the Logical. If he prefers to be with people, this can be the Feeler who loves people or the Mover who loves an audience.
  • Does your child learn better with a guideline of what is expected or does your “relaxed” approach send your child into stress because he wants a more detailed plan for the day? If your child prefers a more general guideline he could be a Mover or Feeler, both of whom prefer general guidelines and not exacts. The Logical and the Planner do well with exact expectations and time slots for subjects or activities.
  • Does he prefer a desk or table or to lay on the floor or on the sofa? A desk or table could mean the Planner or the Logical who prefer more organized spaces and more light. The Feeler and the Mover sometimes prefer a more relaxed area.
  • Does he prefer to learn through stories or prefers to get the facts? A Mover and the Feeler like stories and to learn about the people. A Planner and the Logical sometimes want to get right to the facts.
  • And of course, what are his favorite subjects?

Selecting Homeschool Curriculum

After your child answers the quick survey above, I’ve created a table to show you how to narrow down to an approach which is the first place to start to match your child’s natural abilities to homeschool curriculum.

This table is just a very few of the indicators of these types of personalities.

You’ll want to take my workshop to get an in depth understanding of each learning personality.

Identifying Your Homeschooled Child's Learning Personality Online Self Paced Course

The Mover

  • needs to move to learn
  • normally prefers physical activity
  • prefers impulsive learning and seizing moments to learn

The BEST Homeschool approaches are:

  • Unit Study approach to give him time to move while mastering material
  • Charlotte Mason approach allows for plenty of outside learning.

The Planner

  • desires routine
  • prefers organized lesson plans
  • likes checklists

The BEST Homeschool approaches are:

  • The traditional approach because of routine.
  • Classical approach because of organization.

The Feeler

  • prefers social interaction
  • focused on relationships

The BEST Homeschool approaches are:

  • Classical approach because of the emphasis on language arts
  • Charlotte Mason because of the emphasis on fine arts

The Logical

  • prefers to work alone
  • prefers logic-related subjects like math and science

The BEST Homeschool approaches are:

  • Unit studies because of the desire to research.
  • Charlotte Mason because of the science leaning.

A Child’s Learning Personality Simplifies Homeschool Curriculum Choices

2. Have your kids draw a picture.

Here is the second easy way to help you determine how your child learns best.

This tip you can use for any aged child provided you don’t tell them what you’re doing. Ask them to draw their deal learning space, what subjects they want to learn, and what would be around them.

Here are the DOS and DON’TS of having your child draw his learning area.

  • Don’t act over official. Your child is smart. He knows something is up. Just relax and tell him that you’re changing up some things and there is no right or wrong, just what he thinks is what you want him to draw. There is no judging or grading.
  • Do not make this an art lesson unless a child wants it to be. The point is pencil drawing to creative to labeling is fine. A quick 5 minute picture is just as worth much as a 50 minute project turned art. Bottom line explain to him you just want a picture.
  • Don’t use the words let me see your school room or school desk.
  • Do say draw a picture of your ideal learning space or area. Where would you learn? Would it be inside or outside? Would you have lots of light or dim light? What would be around you? What subjects would you cover?

Reduce Homeschool Curriculum Fatigue by Teaching to Strengths

Look at my reasons what adjusting your day and homeschool curriculum is not coddling your child.

  • A strong homeschooling foundation means we reject cookie-clutter education and accept that kids are individual learners. Research shows that colleges actively pursue homeschooled kids. NEHRI states: “The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests. (The public school average is the 50th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.)”
  • Instead of focusing just on what kids cannot do, we delve deep to tap into their inner strengths so we can nurture our kids to become who they truly are and not what society tries to form them to be.
  • Instead of labeling children, we teach our children to accept differences as strengths.
  • By teaching a child more than one way to take in information, he is eager to learn lifelong instead of struggling with why he doesn’t understand some subjects as well as he does others. A child knows his weaknesses and strengths like we do and is better equipped as an adult.
  • When a child knows he has strength and weakness, he appreciates that people communicate using their same strengths. It equips a child to have long-term relationships by learning to get along with someone who is opposite his learning personality.
How to Choose the BEST Homeschool Curriculum to Fit a Child's Natural Abilities

Learning personalities, inborn strengths and weakness means our kids come pre-wired and we accept them for who they are, not what we want to try to bend them to be.

What do you think? Do you have figured out you and your children’s learning personality?

Look at more of my tips:

Hugs and love ya,

Teach Your Homeschooled Teen the Art of Studying (without nagging)

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How to Teach Your Homeschooled Teen the Art of Studying (without nagging) @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Teaching your homeschooled teen the art of studying is a bit like not having a parent’s manual that comes with your kids when they enter the world. Well – almost.

Resources exist overwhelmingly for teaching teens study skills in public schools, but teaching our kids at home can give us a slight edge.

However, it only becomes an advantage if we tap into teaching them how to study along the way. Teaching a teen study skills can be frustrating if you don’t begin when they are young.

How to Spoon-Feed a Homeschooled Teen

Learning should be active and not passive. Spoon-feeding and hovering over our teens won’t propel them to learn the art of studying.

Look at 3 things I learned when teaching a teen to study.

One/ Self-instruction is a must.

Many kids do not do well in public school because they feel trapped with confinements on what they should learn. Avoiding the popular notion that teens need a lot of supervision gives teens a chance to experience independence.

Raising independent and self-taught learners means bucking the current system period.

I learned as I have homeschooled longer to give up the control while supervising them. It begins with self-instruction in what your child is interested in.

Starting out, this doesn’t mean a child guides himself completely because not all children are inclined to even attempt learning the boring things.

Many days teaching my three teens has been more difficult and mentally taxing then when they were toddlers because you have to talk with them not at them as they learn self-governing independence.

And yes there should be sanctions when a teen is not self-studying and is wasting time. But there is a reason a teen is wasting time and it’s called unmotivated.

Two/ Motivation is a GREAT incentive.

Motivation for studying what interests a teen comes first, then self-instruction, not the other way around.

In other words, you can’t expect a teen to be self-taught and independent without him having a compelling reason to be. You can’t just heap subjects onto him, like when he was in elementary grades and then expect him to do them. That was your job then, but it’s not when he is a teen.

Micromanaging in the teen years breeds rebellion and you may end up having an adult child that won’t speak to you. Don’t let that happen.

And don’t make the mistake of swinging to the other end of the pendulum and give him total self-governing.

Teen Study Skills

Don’t stress over it, but look at these sanity-saving tips to gradually dole out independence, which then teaches your teen the art of studying.

  • Choose a topic in a subject. As soon as your child demonstrates a bit of independence, recognize it by allowing him to choose a topic in a subject that you require. Don’t ask him to cover science, but require it. But give him the choice, for example, of studying about rocks, magnets or a bird. For us this happened close to second grade for one child, close to sixth grade for another and closer to middle school for another son.
  • Then, choose subjects. After you have exposed your child to well-rounded out subjects, then give him the choices of which subjects to cover. This normally happens around middle and high school.
  • Give him checklists, organize drawers and student planners to gauge progress. Give him a checklist or some way of knowing what he is doing for the day and when he is finished. The art of how to study can be diminished when your expectations are not clear. Not only are you giving your child clear expectations, but you are doing something VERY important lasting him on into adulthood, which is teaching him how to create expectations, goals and standards for himself. How to study includes setting incremental goals and meeting them. He needs accountability to you first, then next to himself. Early on I set up drawers for each child and in the order I chose for him to cover the subject. That model morphed into choices they made later on as to which subjects they wanted to cover first. I also created student planners and my oldest son enjoyed that the most. My youngest son enjoys taking notes on his iPad. And another son likes picture doodling and part words as he note takes. Each child is different.

organized-drawers-promotes-self-teaching-and-independence-tinas-dynamic-homeschool-plus

  • Listen. More importantly, teens want to be heard. Listen and back him up by letting him try his idea. The best place and time to fail from an idea he had is while he is living with you so he can learn.
  • Take him with you to choose curriculum. My boys made a trip with me to the convention fair each year. If they didn’t have a preference in curriculum, they got a chance to look it over anyway.
  • Teach him his learning style and then help him learn that way. Don’t push your way of learning. I know, I’m probably one of the caring pushiest moms ever, but not all of my boys learn the way I do. Use color coding markers, use a written planner, use an online planner, use an iPad, music in the background works for one son (not me), quiet space for another son, flashcards, index cards and writing in a book (yes allowed). Be willing to move from your comfort zone to the learning zone your child works best in.

Teach Consequences But Evaluate Consequence Too

Three/ Consequences is a must.

Learning how to learn means that your child needs consequences, both bad and good for his habits. Shielding our child or always telling them everything not matter how well-intended can turn to nagging.

When I was a teen, I did learn by example. Not all teens learn that way and some have to experience pain.

Teaching my boys that learning by example is more preferable than learning always by experience was important to me, but my boys have to be willing to accept that mindset.

Teaching teens is not always a two-way street, so be prepared for times when they have to suffer bad consequences.

A bad grade worked for one son, but it didn’t for another one.

Telling my son to think about what others will think about him and the example he set worked for another son. He didn’t want to hear my opinion, but teaching him to evaluate what he was going to do or not do when applying himself to how he studied made him think how he would appear to others.

I’ve found that clear consequences, even writing them down has been a useful guide in prodding my teens in the right direction.

After all, college, life and career are full of on the job rules, regulations and earning respect. Don’t forget to teach them at home.

This is the tip of the iceberg of things I’ve learned as two of my sons have now entered the adulthood.

And when your adult sons tell you often how much they deeply value what you taught them about how to study, you won’t be able to hold back tears.

When you take time to teach your teens how to study, you teach them for a lifetime.

Grab my Free Student Planner, 3 Unique Things a Homeschooled Teen Learns From a Teacher’s Manual and I found this book, The Art of Self-Directed Learning: 23 Tips For Giving Yourself an Unconventional Education very inspirational.

Hugs and love ya,

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Mixing It Up: How to Combine Homeschool Approaches (Without Losing Your Mind)

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Mixing It Up How to Combine Homeschool Approaches (Without Losing Your Mind) @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Get off the curriculum hunt and get back to understanding just your child. It sounded sane enough and it was because it was my mother’s advice. Today, in mixing it up: how to combine homeschool approaches (without losing your mind) is not about loving or leaving a homeschool approach, but how to combine your favorite ideas from each one.

When You’re Not a Curriculum Expert

It can be painful to make a decision that you thought was the best for your family. It was for me. Not only was it painful to leave my loved classical approach, but it can have you questioning your ability to teach your kids.

Finding balance is not easy and like others, I made some knee jerk decisions about curriculum with my classical approach and then found myself coming back to some of the things I loved about it. Look at my post, How to Use a Boxed Curriculum Without Giving Up Your Homeschool Approach.

Look at these things that I learned and that I hope will help you to avoid the same insane trip I made.

Analyzing a few of these things before I dropped my homeschool approach would have saved me  needless stress.

Forget What Type of Homeschooler You *Think* You Are.

I know, we all like to say that we are classical, unit study homeschooler or unschooler or whatever type, but I learned that choosing an approach right away is not what is most important.

What is important is analyzing which parts of a homeschool approach will work for your family.

By labeling yourself right away or identifying right away with a group, you think you may have to follow all of the parts of a particular approach.

That is what I did. Because I wanted strong readers, I felt the only way to do that was with a classical approach.

That brings me to the second point, which is to identify the teaching idea or suggestion that makes you excited about teaching.

Examine EACH part of a Homeschool Approach.

Research in great detail about what you do like about the approach you are drawn to.

Again, I did this wrong. I read in generalities about the different homeschool approaches and then I chose a homeschool approach instead analyzing the pieces first.

It reminds me of a point that Susan Wise Bauer said when teaching reading and that is to teach pieces to whole.

Teaching is much the same when you are trying to determine a starting point. What am I talking about?

Look at these fine points that I wanted to teach though I didn’t know how to bundle them up, so to speak, as a homeschool approach.

  • Having a love for learning lifelong was important.
  • Being able to teach not only rigorous academics, but a Biblical view was important.
  • Having lifelong readers was important.
  • Hands-on learning is important, especially for wiggly boys.
  • Learning as much together as we could.

Comparing what is the mainstay points of each homeschool approach with your goals allows you to see the strong points and the not so good points about each approach.

It Only Matters How Your Kids Learn.

Another vital point to mixing homeschool approaches is to read about, become an expert in and learn the best points of each homeschool approach that works for your kids. This was a fantastic point made by my mother.

Again, this is a huge area I made a mistake in. Not only did I overwhelm myself in trying to understand all the approaches, my focus first should of been on how my kids learn.

That is the reason I had to let go of doing classical homeschooling because it is not hands-on focused.

Mix It All Up and Determine Which Approach Has More of Your Checklist.

Then next because you need a starting point for curriculum, one homeschool approach needs to be your dominant approach.

It helps to narrow your focus not only for curriculum, but about following homeschool blogs and reading books that give you tips on how best to teach the homeschool approach you chose.

For example, look at this list below that helped me to see that a unit study approach was a much better choice for my family.

  • Though reading and history are two favorite luvs of my mine, my goal is to have my sons to introduced to a well rounded list of literature. I know the classical approach is primarily history focus. So I crossed out that part about the classical approach. The unit study approach allowed us to read what we are learning about or our topic and it is a much more better fit for my kids.
  • When it comes to history, the classical approach about covering history in order makes complete sense to me and my kids. So we followed the classical approach when studying history.
  • I love the hands-on approach to unschooling because thought it’s not my learning style, most children thrive, including mine, with a large dose of hands-on activities. However, I prefer a much more predictable start and end to my day and do not leave it completely up to my kids (child lead learning) to find out what they want to learn about. We need more organization, but I take the hands-on aspect of this approach.
  • The relaxed approach of unschooling also appeals to us because it is opposite of my personality. I other words, I don’t leave it up to me to make the complete decision because my teaching style in the beginning tended to be strict and austere. (ugly, I know, but it’s true.) I followed how my boys learned with a relaxed approach and that dictated taking that piece from this approach.
  • Another concept that appealed to us that I did not find in the classical approach or the unschooling approach was learning until mastery. Unit study is a mastery learning approach. My children could learn until their appetite was satisfied and some subjects have very little review or repeat the next year because of how in depth your child go when learning a topic.

When I learned, albeit the hard way, that mixing a homeschool approach should start first with understanding the way my kids learn best and not what just appealed to me and letting go of my ideal homeschooling (i.e. fantasy), it allowed me to follow my homeschool dreams.

Knowing where to begin is key.

Are you struggling with your homeschool approach?

102 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum is one of my favorite resources in helping you to determine learning styles and understanding homeschool approaches.

Hugs and love ya,

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