Teaching Methods

Traditional teaching methods are what you think of when you think of the usual school textbooks and workbooks. This is a good option for someone who wants to get started with "school at home". Everything is laid out for the teacher step by step.

It is often used by new homeschoolers who like the structure and well prepared lesson plans. It gives some homeschool parents a sense that they aren't "leaving any educational gaps".

Traditional curriculum is used by public schools and often by private schools, so they usually contain quite a bit of repetition and review. The fill in the blank workbooks and separate subject matter textbooks are easily identified but don't fit every family's homeschool vision.

There are many to choose from, but the following are a few examples of popular commercially available traditional teaching method curriculum programs used in homeschools.

Abeka - The A Beka Book approach to Christian education keeps learning lively, interesting, and memorable. Our materials reflect sensible theory that is firmly anchored to practicality. A Beka Book materials have been developed as a result of 50 years of actual classroom experience in Pensacola Christian Academy, one of America’s largest and most respected Christian day schools. ABeka books are used in many Christian home schools.

Bob Jones - Textbooks, books, music, videos, and online resources for Christian education and Christian homeschooling.

Saxon - Saxon Publishers, founded in 1981, is an imprint of Harcourt Achieve. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Harcourt Achieve provides customer-driven educational materials that fundamentally and positively change the lives of young, adolescent, and adult learners and empower those who teach them. The company is also the publisher of the Rigby and Steck-Vaughn product lines.

Non-Traditional Curriculum

This is often a good option for families that want more flexibility.

Non-traditional curriculum can often be used for several children on different levels. The subjects don't always fit into little compartments so you may wonder if you have "covered everything".

Even if lesson plans are included, it usually requires more prep work for the teacher.

There are many to choose from, but the following are a few examples of popular commercially available homeschool curriculum choice that use non-traditional teaching methods.

Beautiful Feet - Publishers of Rea and Rebecca Berg's History Through Literature Study Guides and Fine Children's Literature including the work of award winning authors Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire, Genevieve Foster, Albert Marrin, James Daugherty, and Brinton Turkle. We are honored to publish yesterday's Newbery and Caldecott award-winners for today’s children.

KONOS - KONOS studies one character trait, such as attentiveness, orderliness, obedience, honor, trust, wisdom, honesty, resourcefulness and cooperation for a month or two . At the same time, they integrate into each unit, science and social studies, art and music, great literature and all of their reading, health and safety, and Bible. Each volume is really a teacher’s manual which always includes activities for K-8th grade, so a mother can teach her 8th grader, her 5th grader and her kindergartner at the same time using one curriculum.

Sonlight - A Christian homeschooling company specializing in literature-based homeschool curriculum programs. We provide complete homeschool curriculum packages and individual homeschool materials so you can build the preschool or K-12 homeschool curriculum that best meets your family's needs. Sonlight is based in Littleton, Colorado and serves customers in over 150 countries worldwide.

Leave the Teaching Methods page and return to the HBD Home page