What are the Different Ways to Homeschool Your Child?

Are you thinking of homeschooling your child? Are you worried that you can’t because of reasons beyond your control? There are a lot of different ways to homeschool your child that aren’t the ‘tradition’ way. I know we all see these stay at home moms who live on a lot of land and grow all their own food and homeschool their kids. Even though that seems to be all we see…it’s not the only way to homeschool! Learn the first steps to do in order to homeschool here and let’s get started on what kind of homeschool you want!

Types of homeschool

So you may have heard of some of the types of homeschool like Waldorf, Eclectic, Montessori, etc…… but have you ever heard of microschools? Or charter homeschool programs? Some of these ideas are rather new as homeschooling has become more popular since the pandemic. More and more people are realizing that public schools aren’t that great anymore (if they ever were) and are searching for ways to help their kids thrive. The problem is that parents have to work to make ends meat. Or maybe you’re a single parent and can’t stay home with your kids so you’re looking for alternatives to traditional homeschooling. Anyway, let’s dive into what some of these alternative methods.

Dual Enrollment

This is where you do half homeschool and half public school. This really depends on your school district and if they allow this. It also would be hard to do this when your kid is in elementary school because they’re usually in one classroom throughout the day. Some district might have homeschool programs that make this easier, but I would say this is easier when your kid is in high school. This would be good if your kid wants to have certain experiences that you might be less inclined to give them like dissecting a frog for instance. Or maybe they want to be in band or theater or some other class that they wouldn’t normally get at home.

Microschools

These little schools sometimes called “learning pods, is the reimagining of the one-room schoolhouse..” check out this link for more information. So microschools, as the name suggests, are small classrooms of no more than 15 students. This is a great homeschool option if you have to work, but don’t want to send your child to public school because you have a lot of say over what your child is learning! These programs are also very flexible that you can start one yourself and make sure that your child is getting the education that you want.

Unschooling

So this is probably the most controversial type of homeschool method because a lot of people do this differently. So this method is the exact opposite of public schooling. Follow this link too read more about unschooling. So unschooling is where everything is child led. So say your child is very interested in jellyfish. So you as the parent will then go get all the books about jellyfish and do jellyfish math and learn about the letter J. Learning about where the jellyfish live and how many tentacles they have or whatever you can think of!

Charter Homeschool Programs

Just as the name suggests this is a program through a charter school that collaborates with the homeschool families to teach their kids. It’s nice because this lets the kids have all the benefits of homeschooling in a pubic school setting. This would be tricky to come by because not all charter schools have programs like these. You’d have to call charter schools around your house and see if they have something like this.

Online School

This method of homeschooling has blown up in the past few years especially after the pandemic. There are so many online accredited programs that all you have to do is figure out the goals you have as a family and what you want for your kid. There are some K-8 programs or just high school programs.

In Conclusion

These aren’t all of the homeschool alternatives that’s for sure! But I hope this gets you thinking about how you can have the schooling that you want for your kids. Even if you think the traditional homeschool method is for you…there are other ways to help your child succeed.

“The best education does not happen at a desk, but rather engaged in everyday living – hands-on, exploring, in active relationship with life.”

-Vince Gowman

Have a blessed day!