With the events of the past year and the continuing issues around the country, we find that many more families are joining the homeschooling ranks. And if you are new to homeschooling, you may be a bit overwhelmed with it all and a bit confused about the variety of homeschooling styles.

A few years ago, we created a series of posts explaining several of the different homeschooling styles and have summarized and gathered those links here for you to help clear up the mud.

Classical - The Classical method typically uses the "Great Books" and a "Trivium" structure where learning happens in three stages.

Charlotte Mason - The Charlotte Mason method is based on the principles developed by Charlotte Mason, who believed that we must educate the whole person and instill the love of learning through the development of good habits, short, focused lessons, living books, and more.

Montessori - The Montessori method fosters a child's instinctive desire to learn through hands-on interaction in a thoughtfully designed learning environment and takes a child-directed approach to education.

School-at-Home - the School-at-Home (also known as Traditional Homeschooling) is basically recreating the public or private school classroom in your home.

Unschooling - Unschoolers typically do not use a formal curriculum but the education is directed by the student's interests with parents often learning right beside their child, helping them to discover the ability and skills it takes to learn.

Unit Studies - Unit Studies typically incorporate many subjects and are centered around a specific theme or topic.

Eclectic – A combination of many homeschooling styles, using a variety of curriculum and resources to fit children's particular learning styles and needs. This post explains what we did in our eclectic homeschool.

While this list is not all-inclusive, it does provide a starting point and perhaps some indication as to what style of homeschooling appeals to you most.