Homeschooling Methods

Homeschool Methods and Philosophies

There are many ways to homeschool, but the methods can be roughly divided into three categories:

• Academic School-at-Home - Structuring learning at home similar to school, with defined subjects, learning times and schedules, and lots of planned curriculum.

• Unschool - Learning mostly from life experiences, projects, and exploration, with much less focus on books or formal learning.

• Eclectic - A mixture of academic and unschool methods, using some curriculum, classes, library, and life experiences.

See below for some pros and cons of each method.

School-At-Home

The School-at-home approach is frequently the first thing that new homeschoolers try, if their child is being pulled out of school.  Learning from books, defined lessons, worksheets and tests are what is familiar to most of us. It also might be what is reassuring to your student, if they like that kind of structure.

With some neurodiverse kids, this level of planning is welcome - they want to know what is coming up, what the daily tasks are, and when they are "done" to do other things.  Other kids absolutely cannot work with time constraints, lessons that aren't their interests, and a level of busy work that comes with prepared curriculum.

There can be less planning needed for a parent with this method, if you purchase the lesson plans.  Some parents need to work full-time and want their child to do independent work from a lesson book or online provider.  Or perhaps a high school student is aiming for college and wants to beef up their skills for the ACT test or take Honors courses for their transcript.  

Homeschool charters particularly encourage this method, since they are public schools at heart and still have to report "progress" and document things in a students record.  Some charters provide 100% of the curriculum online, through third party vendors, or from customized curriculum written by their staff.  

Unschooling

Unschooling is the opposite of Academic School-at-Home.  It is an educational philosophy that at its core believes education should never imposed on the child.  The child and parent decide together what to learn, when and how to learn it. There are many flavors of unschooling and they can look very different–but unschoolers never force their children to learn something. Children will learn what they need in life when they need it or are ready to learn it.

An unschool day might include taking a hike at the park, baking in the kitchen, reading favorite books, exploring ideas on YouTube, or signing up for classes that interest the child.

Unschooling can be particularly effective for an autistic child who has a PDA profile - automatically refusing demands or requirements.  

Here are some great articles and information:

• Unschooling Your PDA Child and Staying Mindful by Esther Jones

• What to Do When Your PDA Child Cannot Attend School Anymore slide series by Casey Ehrlich

• Principles of Unschooling by Pam Sorooshian

Eclectic Method - some of each

"Eclectic" probably describes most homeschoolers.  It's the middle road, with elements of both Unchooling and Academic, customized to the student and family's needs. Usually there is some element of "required" learning, mixed with student choices.

An Eclectic homeschooler might choose, for example, a math workbook, watching science documentaries online, practicing writing with an Outschool class, and doing a project in the garage. These might be done for a month, a semester, or over many years.  The parent might make some choices and the student make others.

Frequently there is a pattern among eclectic homeschoolers to lean towards unschooling in the elementary years, and get more academic in the middle or high school years.  

For academic learning, there are so many workbooks, lessons and print or digital resources on every topic, available at local bookstores or online. These are usually divided by grade level and in a lesson format with activities suggested. (Math, Reading, Writing, Literature, History, Geography, Science, Technology, Health, etc.) 

For life-learning a child can participate in family life, do nature-based exploration, go volunteering, travel and creative projects.

My child is preschool age - what should we be thinking about?

If your autistic child has been in a county ESD preschool, or you know that his/her diagnosis will make full day kindergarten a struggle, homeschool is a wonderful option at that age.  Young children need lots of time to play, explore, and take academic learning at their own pace, which is different than the modern public school kindergarten or first grade curriculum.  Even at public school, the average first grader gets about 2 hours of actual learning time in a 7 hour day!  At this point, whatever homeschool method you choose, keep in mind that 2 hours a day is only 10% of your child's waking hours.  Relax and enjoy!