Basic Approaches to Home Education
	Traditional/ Curricular	Charlotte Mason/ Living Books	Classical	Unit Studies	Principled	Unschooled
Characteristics	Textbook learning Similar approach to subjects as most public or private schools	The belief that children are full vessels who simply need exposure to the best of literature and the fine arts Short lessons, followed by time for child to reflect and develop his/her own ideas based on what has been taught	Focus on the past philosophers as a foundation for understanding the present and future Instruction is focused on teaching children “how to think” based upon the three stages of student development	A central theme (book, play, etc.) becomes the focal point for all subjects. As a simplistic example, the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. might provide the following unit study: History: Martin Luther King as a leader, major voices of the Civil Rights movement,etc. Geography: study of the Southeastern states of America Math: distances between Selma and Montgomery in feet, miles, in metric units Language Arts: reading A Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, with dictation and vocabulary words to form a complete language arts study	Focus on knowledge of Christian history, understanding of our mission to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, and living in Christlikeness	Allowing the child’s interest to dictate the learning Trust in the child to learn through exposure to good books and quality learning vehicles
Strengths	Familiarity with parents and children who are transitioning from school outside the home Wealth of curriculum readily available	Child-centered learning Homeschool environment allows full use of this approach with nature walks	Academically rigorous in its approach Emphasis on mastery of verbal and written communication	Excellent for young students or for teaching students who have significant age differences Seamless transitions from subject to subject	Emphasis on developing the student's ability to govern him/ herself and activities based upon knowledge of God and His word	The perception is that the student learns/ applies more since he/ she dictates the lessons based on readiness and interest
Points for Consideration:	Can be time-consuming for student and/or parent dependent upon planning/ teaching time Highly structured learning environment may or may not take full advantage of the homeschool environment	Limited curriculum available (by design of the approach)	Parent has to spend a significant amount of time as a student for class preparation	The possibility for gaps in what the student learns Limited amount of curriculum available, especially for older students	Parent will have to supplement with other options for certain subjects	Parent must be comfortable with allowing the child to become self-motivated and direct the learning As with unit studies, the possibility exists for gaps in learning
Major Curriculum Suppliers	A Beka, Bob Jones University, Rod and Staff, Alpha Omega (to name a few)	A Blessed Heritage, Beautiful Feet, Tanglewood Education*	Sonlight, Veritas Press, Greenleaf, Tanglewood Education*	Konos, Five in a Row	F.A.C.E., The Mayflower Institute, The Providence Foundation	(you can purchase any curriculum here—the crux of this approach is introducing a formal study on any subject in harmony with the child’s readiness and interest in the subject)
Suggested Further Reading		For the Children’s Sake by Susan McCauley Educating the Whole-Hearted Child by Sally Clarkson A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola	The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer Teaching the Trivium by Laurie and Harvey Bluedorn	Success with Unit Studies by Valerie Bendt	How Now Shall We Live by Charles Colson	The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith Christian Unschooling by Teri Brown

* Tanglewood Education combines the Classical and Charlotte Mason approaches.