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When you picture homeschooling, what comes to mind? Your child  studiously completing assignments while you stand ready to answer questions? Or perhaps you both are planting a garden, your child learning about nature first hand after using some math and science to help plot it out. Another scenario might not even involve you - -maybe your teen has decided to learn Japanese via a CD course, a language of which you know nothing more than a couple favorite menu items.
These are all real life homeschooling scenarios, and there are many more. Since the modern movement of homeschooling took hold in the 70's, many methods have cropped up. Here are a few of the most popular:
Charlotte Mason Method:
This British educator, who lived from 1842 to 1923, developed a philosophy of education that many today find they can easily adapt to their homeschooling. Her method blends narration, copy work, nature notebooks, fine arts, languages, and instead of textbook reading, a literature based curriculum and real-life applications, and provides the basis for many a homeschooling program. The approach is more natural than found in traditional schools. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Mason
Distance Learning:
This method is mostly used by high school level homeschoolers. With
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distance learning, the teen may be enrolled in an accredited mail correspondence school or cyber school where a diploma is earned. This method has been successfully used by many children in far flung rural areas for decades. Many distance-learning schools offer only traditional school subjects, while others allow for independent study where students can propose subjects and course of study. Some public school districts also offer online courses, mostly at the high school level and sometimes the full high
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school curriculum. Also, some colleges provide distance-learning opportunities for homeschool students. Many cyber schools use a white board and chat for virtual classrooms where students interact with each other and teacher. High speed internet and simple tools like a mic and speakers are often required. This multi media approach appeals to some.
Curriculum Based:
With this method a pre-packages curriculum is used. The curriculum may be religious or secular. Homeschool curriculum often is sold pre-packaged with teacher's guides, textbooks, workbooks, etc. You can also write your own curriculum. This method is more akin to public school learning than any of the other methods.
Unschooling:
The term was coined by the late John Holt, an educator turned advocate  for homeschooling and children's rights. Holt is perhaps best known for his books, How Children Fail and How Children Learn. Holt's philosophy is that children don't need to be forced or bribed into learning but that children learn best when given the freedom to follow their own interests and a rich array of resources. Holt's Growing Without Schooling was the nation's first home education magazine.
Unschooling is student-based learning. To unschool means to let the child determine what he or she will learn while the parent(s) provides the resources and answers questions, this may or may not include textbooks and other academia. There are varying schools of thought within the unschooling method, from an approach that combines unschooling with some parent led learning to "radical unschooling" a highly controversial approach led by Sandra Dodd that includes a practically "no rules" method of childrearing.
Just as with the more traditionally taught homeschoolers, the unschoolers are starting to grow in numbers. Many are being accepted into good colleges.
Unschooled 13-year-old Sean Conley of Anoka, Minnesota became the third winner of the annual spelling bee in the past five years to have been home schooled. One of the many stories found on unschooling Websites includes one about how a child's unchecked anime interest leads to her teaching herself Japanese (with CD's) and going on to tutor at a community college while still in her early teens.
There is the argument that unschooling method can leave gaps, such as in the case of the child who learns html but not how to write in cursive. However many would argue that when the child sees a good reason to learn something, the child will learn it. For example, there may be no interest in algebra until the teenage learns it in order to do well on a college entrance exam that he takes because he finds his career goal requires college.
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Eclectic Method:
As the name implies, this simply means the parent combines methods.
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Enjoy your homeschooling.
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