Styles and Philosophies

Most families who home educate will adopt an educational philosophy that guides their choices. Some choose comprehensive methods easily recognizable as "teaching". Other families prefer the informal styles that bystanders mistake for "they're not doing anything!" Sometimes they aren't "doing anything", especially if they've just started their home educating journey after a stint in institutional schools.

• School-at-home
• Deschooling
• Unschooling
• Relaxed & Eclectic

School-at-home:

this is when parents attempt to recreate an institutional classroom environment, complete with a pre-packaged curriculum, daily lesson plans, weekly tests, kitchen timers to signal change of subject, and sometimes even a separate room of the house dedicated to "school" and furnished with little desks in a row. While this is what many people think of when they hear "homeschooling", it is actually quite uncommon. It is the most stressful way to work with children, and parents who attempt this may burn out quickly. (The term is often used in a derogatory manner.)

Deschooling:

the process of decompression frequently needed by children recently removed from institutionalized educational facilities. During this time (a year is the usual recommendation), the child is not required or requested to do any formal lessons, and no assessments are performed. This is a mental vacation, the end of which is most often "announced" when the child opts to study, to investigate, to research, to learn, entirely for his or her own satisfaction.

Deschooling for Parents by Sandra Dodd

Deschooling by Pattie Donahue-Krueger

Deschooling by L. S. King

Unschooling:

the philosophy that children can and will learn all that they need to learn to move into productive and happy adulthood, without having lessons planned or goals set for them. Unschooling runs from families who use some formal curricular materials (usually for math), to "radical purists" who won’t even suggest a particular book to their child on the notion that such suggestions may be "coercive".

As with any spectrum, most unschoolers tend to cluster near the middle, facilitating their child’s interests and supplying a richly educational environment. The underlying concept is that children will learn even the most difficult or tedious subject if and when they find the need for it in their lives. (Yes, even algebra.)

What is Unschooling? by Earl Stevens

Unschooling Undefined by Eric Anderson

Relaxed homeschooling:

this term is embraced most often by those who feel uncomfortable with the child-oriented term "unschooling". Relaxed homeschoolers tend to feel more ethically secure in setting goals, planning lessons, or making demands on their children.

Eclectic schooling: a little of this, a little of that. Mix-and-match. A bit of unschooling, a few co-op classes, a series of workbooks (usually math), whatever works for this child, for this family, this year.

Unschooling or Homeschooling: What’s the Difference? by Gail S. Withrow

Why My Way is the Only Godly Way by Jenefer Igarashi

Curriculum Dependent No More by Cyndy Shearer

Next page: Comprehensive Methods

Previous page: What is "Home Education"?

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NJ Homeschool Association
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Medford, NJ 08055
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