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How Homeschool Learning Styles Helps You to Accept Each Child’s Differences

July 23, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When I first heard about homeschool learning styles was when my first child was 5 years old. I wanted all the homeschool learning styles tips I could get.

And 20+ years later there is still mixed science about how much difference learning styles really makes.

Today, I’m sharing how understanding homeschool learning styles of not only my children, but myself was a positive experience.

Besides, the brain is such a fascinating machine and there is much to know about we learn.

How Homeschool Learning Styles Helps You to Accept Each Child's Differences

Nobody can really be labeled with one hundred percent accuracy. We’re always learning and changing.

So, I will share how learning styles helped me to accept differences in my children.

And now that my children are young adults, I’m glad I trusted what I know about my children and educated myself about learning styles.

Further, I will help you to sort out terms because it’s not necessary to speak educationalese to have a starting place.

Homeschool Style

First, this is the biggest point that helped me to understand learning styles.

And that is to move away from what a lot of educational institutions as well as universities identify as learning styles.

Without making this overly technical, a lot of professionals will write and speak about modalities.

It simply means how children or adults prefer to take in information.

Then, scientist and researchers have classified learners into kinesthetic (hands-on learner), auditory or visual.

How Homeschool Learning Styles Helps You to Accept Each Child's Differences

Also, some of that long standing research has changed to include one more group which is reading/writing. It is called the VARK model.

It stands for Visual, Auditory, Reading/ Writing, and Kinesthetic modalities for learning by (Fleming and Mills, 1992). 

However, the three major ones focused on for years are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. As you can see right away this may or may not be helpful.

Because I was not a public-school educator prior to homeschooling, it was not helpful.

Beginning Point for Types of Homeschool Styles

Hence expanding on how these learning modalities help us teach at home is more important than understanding all the scientific in/outs.

So, instead of focusing on just the components of modalities, focus on your child’s learning personality. What is his learning personality?

This expanded view opened a whole another view of how to teach.

Switch from just learning style to learning personality. Again, this encompasses all the things that make your child unique.

In other words, look below on how I expanded the profile of each of my children to go beyond modality.

  • What is his interest?
  • Is he an introvert or extrovert?
  • Does he naturally flock toward others or prefer long periods alone?
  • Are interests nature based (not because you expose them to him), technologically oriented, or just prefers to read a book about all of it?
  • Does he prefer to just build instead of talk about it?
  • Is he competitive almost defiant?
  • How about inventing? Is that all that matters? His inventions?

These are a few of the questions I started asking myself about each of my children. I added these to their preferred way of taking in information or learning style.

In addition, I examined how I learned and taught my children. With my first child, I had no problem teaching him.

However, my second son came along and all that changed.

I wasn’t sure I was cut out to teach him because none of my tips with my first child seemed to work with him.

Then started my research to learn how to expand learning styles to learning personalities.

One of the best books to this day although it’s older is Discover Your Child’s Learning Style: Children Learn in Unique Ways – Here’s the Key to Every Child’s Learning Success.

And here is their free pdf for an assessment.

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.

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.

I have my course on my sister site How to Homeschool EZ by Tina Robertson.

How Homeschool Learning Styles Helps You to Accept Each Child's Differences

And look at these other resources about learning styles

  • Homeschooling: Learning Styles – What’s the Difference anyway?
  • What Are the Top 5 Homeschool Styles

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Determine Learning Styles, Homeschooling Tagged With: classical approach, homeschool, homeschool learning styles, homeschoolapproach, learningstyles, unit study approach, workbook approach

What Are the Top 5 Homeschool Styles

May 8, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Knowing what are the top 5 homeschool styles is key to narrowing the overwhelm in choosing curriculum. Then matching homeschool styles with learning styles is a seasoned veteran tip. You’ll love the tips on the homeschool learning style page.

Learning a few features of each homeschool style and how to pair it with curriculum saves you money.

I will not only explain styles of homeschooling, but help you to identify which is best for your family.

In addition, what is most important for your children to learn and how they learn it will affect your choice of homeschool style.

And terms like homeschool approach and teaching style are used to talk about homeschooling style. This may or may not be clear.

What is the Definition of Homeschool Styles

So, what is a homeschool style?

Simply put, a homeschool style is an educational approach. An approach is a method to how you teach which is also called your teaching style. It includes your goals and your values. An approach is how you will implement what you want your children to learn. Using curriculum as a tool helps you meet your homeschool style. There are 5 top or major homeschool styles or approaches.

There are no right or wrong, better or worse, or smarter or dumber approaches. I’ve seen success stories and failures with each approach. Part of deciding a homeschool approach is to determine what are your family’s priorities and what is your teaching style.

What Are the Top 5 Homeschool Styles

10 Questions to Ask About Your Teaching Style

Look at these questions to help you identify your homeschool style.

  1. Do you want a consistent schedule or a framework of what to teach?
  2. Is testing a necessary part of your curriculum or do you want your child to demonstrate learning through hands-on and conversations with you?
  3. Will memorization and notetaking be essential parts of your teaching? And will learning be done according to the age of the child or his maturity?
  4. How important is studying nature, being outdoors, and studying art?
  5. Should subjects be learned in isolation or tied together as a unifying theme?
  6. Are you going to follow your child’s lead in everything they want to learn, give them day to day guidance, or use both features?
  7. Does your choices for reading including, textbooks, novels, biographies, classics, or all of them? And how much emphasis will be put on learning about the past?
  8. Which subjects are most important to you to cover?
  9. Where should learning take place?
  10. What emphasis will you place on family learning projects versus one-to-one time with each of your children?

From your general answers above, pair your answers or goals with homeschooling styles or homeschool approaches.

Although these are not all the homeschool styles, these are the popular ones you want to know about right away.

Homeschool Styles

Here are the top five homeschool styles in no particular order of popularity.

  1. Unit Study
  2. Classical
  3. Textbook/workbook
  4. Charlotte Mason
  5. Unschooling

Next, look at some of the features of each homeschool approach and a few examples of curriculum which follow that approach.

As you mull over the differences, look for one or two which fit your idea of how to teach your children.

Features of Homeschool Teaching Styles

First, look at the Unit Study Approach. I didn’t start with a unit study approach, but this is the one I switched to after a few years into my journey.

Unit Study Approach

The Unit Study approach is a method where you teach all your children together on one topic covering as many of the basic subjects as possible. Hands-on application and projects are a huge part of learning with this homeschool style.

For example, take the topic the Amazon Rain Forest and since it’s a science heavy topic, tie in a history slant like I did about Theodore Roosevelt on my Amazon rain forest unit study.

Too, art by Henri Rousseau was my slant on art. There are endless ways to tie in bodies of knowledge and you learn how to tie them in naturally.

Considerations

  • Some subjects don’t fit naturally into some of the topics which interests your children.
  • It can take a while to know how to lesson plan for multiple ages.
  • There aren’t as many curriculum providers for this approach as there are for others.

Curriculum Options

  • Konos
  • Home School In the Woods.
  • Five in a Row
  • Trail Guide to Learning
  • WinterPromise

Classical Approach

Another popular approach is the Classical approach.

I loved it because of its emphasis on history and classical books. The Classical approach follows the trivium method. Learning is divided into stages according to the ages of the child.

Besides emphasis on history like Ancient Greece, books are chosen based on the great minds of the past.

Considerations

  • Because the emphasis is on heavy language arts, some educators feel the subjects are not balanced.
  • Not all families want heavy emphasis on learning about the past.
  • Learning Latin is emphasized.

Curriculum

  • Memoria Press
  • Veritas Press
  • The Well Trained Mind (a book and curriculum provider through Peace Hill Press)

Textbook/Workbook (School At Home) Approach

Next, the Workbook/Textbook approach is one most familiar to us because it’s the same one used in public schools.

And a term all-in-one homeschool curriculum means curriculum which has lesson plans laid out with scripted teacher’s manuals and tests. Look at my posts 21 Fun All-In-One Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum and Big Ol’ List of All-In-One Homeschool Curriculum (a.k.a Boxed).

Considerations

  • Laid out lesson plans may feel comfortable to new homeschoolers.
  • If your child struggles in public school this may not be a good fit for you.
  • If you need accountability in a state which keeps records, this may make it easier.

Curriculum

  • Major companies like Abeka, Bob Jones, and Calvert follow this approach.
  • Easy Peasy All in One is a free online laid out curriculum.

Charlotte Mason Approach

Further, Charlotte Mason approach is another one that is popular. With emphasis on nature and art, the approach to language arts is gentle. Gentle does not mean rigorous, but it’s more relaxed in the early years unlike the Classical approach.

Charlotte Mason was a popular British educator who influenced the homeschool world through her lifetime of teaching.

Consideration

  • Known for the use of living books which are opposite textbooks, her approach is popular because of the beautiful literature it uses.
  • Some curriculum providers do not provide as much structure as others.
  • Too, the gentle approach to language arts does not appeal to all.
  • And emphasis on fine arts may not be your goal.

Curriculum

  • My Father’s World
  • Ambleside online
  • WinterPromise
  • Trail Guide to Learning

Unschooling Approach

Moreover, the Unschooling approach is another popular approach although it has not always been that way. The Unschooling approach seemed to get a bad rap in the early days of homeschooling and still does because some feel it lacks structure.

However, unschooling proponents vary from little structure to none in their day. In the basic definition, it means to follow the leads of the child. Trusting the natural learning process, proponents tout that a child will learn all he or she needs to if we create a learning rich environment.

Considerations

  • Because this learning process is child-led there is concern that some kids won’t be introduced to subjects that may seem unappealing to the child.
  • Additionally, since it’s child-led learning there is no laid out curriculum. Curriculum is chosen based on the child’s likes.

Curriculum

  • An unschooler fills their home with learning games, books of all kinds, movies, art, crafts, kits, science supplies, and uses everyday life to teach their child. My list of 20 Awesome History Books is a great place to start along with 10 Favorite Science Movies and Documentaries for Homeschooled Kids.

How to Identify the BEST Homeschool Style for Your Family

Lastly, the most important part of learning about an educational approach or teaching style is maintaining the focus on YOUR goals. Through the years I’ve learned it’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing and not think about my family’s needs.

For example, when I started homeschooling I felt the Classical approach embodied how I wanted my children to learn.

Quickly, I learned that the Classical approach didn’t meet the needs of my children.

Above all, when you’re looking at these tips below remember you can change anytime as different needs come up in journey.

6 Ways to Identify the BEST Homeschool Style For You

  • Do not think you have to limit yourself to ONE homeschool style. The most successful homeschoolers mix and match homeschool approaches. For that reason, you’ll notice curriculum which hails to two or even three approaches.
  • Know that you do not have to stick with one or a combination of two teaching styles for your whole journey. In other words, do not buy curriculum too far ahead. You may change your mind, or the needs of your children will change.
  • Ask curriculum provider questions about the approach they take in their curriculum if you don’t know it. Most curriculum provider welcome questions, but be aware that a lot are homeschooling families. They need time to return the call or answer your question.
  • In addition, do not think you have to implement every facet of that teaching method.
  • Then, one of the best tips is to also recognize your child’s learning personality. As parents, we tend to teach only to our homeschool style. And although we homeschool to fit our children’s unique needs we tend to forget.

Why Your Child’s Learning Personality is Important Too

Because teaching styles are only part of choosing curriculum easily, I’ve included a link to my online course Identifying Your Homeschooled Child’s Learning Personality.

What Are the Top 5 Homeschool Styles

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.
What Are the Top 5 Homeschool Styles

In summary, these other tips and posts I have will help you to learn more about homeschool styles.

  • How to Use a Boxed Curriculum without Giving Up Your Homeschool Approach
  • Homeschooling: Learning Styles – What’s the Difference anyway?
  • Top 5 Approaches New Homeschoolers Need to Know
  • 5 Signs That You Need to Switch Your Homeschool Approach

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Homeschooling Tagged With: classical approach, homeschool style, homeschool teaching style, homeschoolapproach, unit study approach, workbook approach

10 Key Benefits of Unit Study Curriculum (free printable)

April 28, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Unit study curriculum has ten key benefits. Today, I will identify what is unit study curriculum, how long a unit study should last, and what makes a good unit study curriculum.

Besides identifying what a unit study means, you need to know how to use unit study curriculum with your multiple aged children.

And knowing how to identify what is not a unit study or unit study curriculum keeps you from wasting your time.

First, knowing what is unit study curriculum will help you to see the benefits of it.

Unit Study Curriculum

Unit study curriculum takes one topic and includes as many subjects as possible. It builds an entire curriculum around the topic covering subjects like language arts, math, reading, art, history, science, and geography with hands-on application.

Also, unit study curriculum can build lesson plans around a piece of literature, a famous author or person.

10 Key Benefits of Unit Study Curriculum (free printable)

For a history slant, a unit study can be created using an event or learn about a famous person. Regarding science, a unit study can use topics from past or current events, inventions, or focus on a scientist.

Studying character traits is another way to build unit study curriculum. On top of that art can tie in history, science, crafts, and math when art is the main topic.

Extensive Unit Study Curriculum

Next, identifying the differences in extensive versus limited unit studies will help you to make a better choice.

Extensive unit study curriculum can include lesson plans or lesson plan ideas, language arts and maybe math. Math is the only component for both extensive and limited unit study that is normally purchased separately as well as including some aspect of it in daily learning.

In addition, it should include components of hands-on activities and project ideas.

As you can see the topics can be endless which is a huge appeal to learners of all ages.

A few choices I like for extensive unit study curriculum are:

  • Five in a Row which now includes ages up to middle school and is based on beautiful literature;
  • Konos is another extensive curriculum and is for learners all the way to high school and is based on character traits;
  • Gather Round Homeschool is fairly new to the homeschool world and is for learners to high school and takes more of a Charlotte Mason approach;
  • Tapestry of Grace is another favorite of mine built around the main topic of history, but also has a classical approach intertwined. It too is geared for all ages up to high school;
  • Christian Cottage blends history time periods with science and lots of hands-on activities. Like KONOS and Five in a Row, it has been around for years. Although initially it was up to middle school, it is aimed for use up to high school and is still a wonderful resource; and
  • Trail Guide to Learning blends another favorite subject of ours which is geography with language arts and science. When it launched back in the day it was aimed for middle school and still is a great fit for middle school learners.

Limited Unit Study Curriculum

Next, don’t think because a unit study curriculum is limited that it won’t be of value.

The ideas or content may be excellent starting points or give extensive background knowledge. Perhaps limited unit study curriculum just gives an idea for the day versus a daily lesson plan.

Furthermore, the focus of some of unit studies are narrow; that is a huge benefit when too much information is overwhelming.

Not everyone wants day to day hand holding especially if you have an eager learner. You may just want a framework of knowledge on the topic. There are many ways to use limited unit study curriculum.

A few of the ones I like are below;

  • NaturExplorers was created by a homeschooling mom who gives you a framework of ideas in how to teach multiple children and it’s based on nature. We used it here Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity, Hands-On Nature Study: Make a Fun Bird Nesting Bag, and Easy and Fun Nature Study: Beautiful Birds.
Our Journey Westward
  • Beautiful Feet Literature is another favorite that I’ve used through the years. Although the history is deep, the focus on other subjects can be limited. For example, Beautiful Feet has a science unit study and learning geography through picture books.
  • Home School In The Woods is another one which is comprehensive in information, but narrow on including other subjects besides history. But you’ll love their hands-on ideas for history. At my post Great Empires Activity Study by Home School in the Woods you can see some of the fun.

In my 25 years of homeschooling, I’ve seen an explosion of unit studies. Some welcomed by me, others not so much.

What is NOT Unit Study Curriculum

What is not a homeschool unit study is busy work and it’s not an approach you do alongside another approach.

Because there are no rules, you can be as detailed or loose in your planning as you desire. There is no one way to do a unit study.

Additionally, because it’s an integrated thematic study, prepared laid our boxed curriculum doesn’t usually align with this approach. You need less all-in-one curriculum and more topical or thematic guides and books.

What Makes Good Unit Study Curriculum

With that being said, what makes a good unit study curriculum is one that makes your job easier. Too, it should give you support to create a richer education for your children while saving you time and stress.

How Long Should a Unit Study Last

Then, depending on the ages of your children and their interests, your unit study could last anywhere from two weeks to several months.

A few topics my children wanted to study longer, I wanted to move on to cover other topics for the year. Just know that sometimes you’re the one that wants to move on.

However, I’ve had topics planned to do for a month which only lasted two weeks.

A good rule of thumb is to plan for at least two unit studies a month. That way if your children lose interest in one topic which you had planned to do longer, you can easily move on to your next topic.

Another tip for you is to use unit studies with all your children. Having these solid tips will show you how to use unit study curriculum with all your children.

Using Unit Study Curriculum with Multiple Aged Children

  1. Aim for a resource which targets the age of your middle child or most mature learner. Tweaking assignments to meet the needs of younger learners is easier than crafting ideas for older learners. Especially if you’re new to unit studies, this sanity-saving tip will help.
  2. Doing unit studies together does not mean you have to be on the same subtopic. For example, your family may be studying about sharks. An older learner could write a research paper, your middle learner could practice his reading on a book he or she has selected, and your kindergartner may be coloring a picture or crafting a shark. Different activities while you’re on the same topic is the sanity-saving secret. All doing the same lesson plan is not.
  3. Let each younger learner stop when he or she is immersed. The unit study approach is immersion into the topic. Like everything else, your youngest learner has limits when interest has piqued. Keep going with your older learners until their interest is piqued as well. Chances are you’ll cover the topic again later in your journey and the younger ones will pick up where they left off.

10 Benefits of Unit Study Curriculum

Lastly, the best part of unit studies and unit study curriculum are the benefits.

  1. Including all of your children together with each working at their individual levels, maximizes time.
  2. Children are immersed in a topic which they chose or better known as delight-directed studies.
  3. Willing participants in learning instead of forced learning nurtures independent learning.
  4. Moving at your family’s pace allows each child to be masters of their material. They are working individually for mastering not in comparison to other children their age.
  5. Through hands-on activities and living books, learning sticks. Retention is higher because children are doing and not just reading about the topic.
  6. Instead of learning bits and pieces about topics, children stay on a topic long enough to connect their knowledge to the greater body of knowledge.
  7. Separated curriculum with various topics have no unifying effect unlike the unit study approach.
  8. One giant reference book which spans many ages can be used with your multiple children saving a budget strain. In addition, the books can be used for several years unlike grade level curriculum.
  9. Learning is a privilege and should not be rushed to stay in step with scope and sequence. Using the unit study approach makes the approach fit your family, not keep up with a curriculum schedule.
  10. My favorite benefit is that the whole family is together with a relaxed pace and fostering sibling togetherness. The focus is on maximizing the time and your kids can easily lose track of the time spent learning. Fabulous!

Ultimate Unit Study Planner

I would love to give you a copy of one of my pages from my Ultimate Unit Study Planner! It is a page I start with when I call bubble planning. I plan my thoughts and possible subjects around the main theme. You can see a sample of it here How to Create a Homeschool Unit Study – Step 2: Separation.

10 Key Benefits of Unit Study Curriculum (free printable)

ID: 15102

Free Unit Study Planner Printable Page

10 Key Benefits of Unit Study Curriculum (free printable)

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Exploring Space and Astronomy Free Unit Study for Multiple Ages

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10 Key Benefits of Unit Study Curriculum (free printable)

What do you think? Are you ready to give unit study curriculum a try?

Here are some more unit study helps:

  • 5 Signs That You Need to Switch Your Homeschool Approach
  • The Big List of Unit Study Hands-on (and Hands-off) Curriculum
  • 5 Best Resources to Start a Homeschool Unit Study in a Few Hours
  • How to Grade a Homeschool Unit Study for an Older Child (& high school assessment)
  • Toddler to Teen 100 Popular Free Homeschool Unit Study Resources

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Do Unit Studies, Teach Unit Studies Tagged With: boxedcurriculum, curriculum, freehomeschoolcurriculum, homeschool, homeschool curriculum, unit studies, unit study, unit study approach

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