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I am a voracious reader. Obviously. Since I try to do more and better at everything I need to do, I read a lot about homeschooling and teaching my children. When I first started my journey, I subscribed to just about every homeschool magazine I could find. So which ones are worth spending your precious time and money on?
Home School Enrichment
6 issues / yr. $21.97 for the print edition or HSE Digital is free
Home School Enrichment is available in both a print and electronic format. Published 6 times a year, HSE is around 90 pages long and is presented in a very newsy format…like Time Magazine or the Economist. It has several columns, small print and not a lot of graphics.
There are several columns including On The Homefront, Adventures in History, Creation Science, The Organized Homeschool, and A Closer Look (curriculum reviews). The beginning has short articles on breaking homeschool news in addition to interviews and feature articles on many subjects. While all the magazines (except maybe Practical Homeschooling) are written from a Christian viewpoint, HSE is probably the most overtly Christian with a regular column on Creationism.
If you are a Creationist, Home School Enrichment is probably a great choice for you. I like this magazine, though its not the most attractively put together. I’m still not sure if I’m going to renew this one or not, but luckily I don’t need to decide today. My subscription doesn’t run out until Dec 2016 :). I think I may go back to the digital issues just to save money.
Home Educating Family
6 issues / yr. $19.95
Home Educating Family is a bi-monthly publication put out by the folks at HEDUA (Remember the My Blog Plan review I did? Those folks.). Each issue is about 70-90 pages long and contains articles about family, culture, challenges and homeschooling. In addition, each issue includes product and curriculum reviews on both common and uncommon items. Several regular features are Real Life Mom, Worldview for the Teaching Mommy and Delight Directed Learning.
Their articles are of high quality and useful no matter the stages & ages of your homeschool. Home Educating Family is a well designed magazine which seems to be put together by the same people who design their planners. It’s attractive and printed on sturdy pages which will withstand much re-reading. In addition, the articles in Home Educating Family tend to be fairly timeless meaning the magazines have a longish shelf life. Good thing, too. I think I have 3 or 4 years of it :).
Practical Homeschooling
5 issues / $17.95
Practical Homeschooling is probably my least favorite of the homeschool magazines I read. First, there are only 5 issues a year and they are 45-50 pages each. The interior has a bit of a dated design, but on the flip side, there is a lot of information. They have contests in each issue where children can win Usborne books which is kind of nice.
Practical Homeschooling contains a lot of articles on technical aspects of homeschooling–legal issues, education methods, and things in the news. There are a few regular columns that are quite long without many photos…most as large as 2 full pages of smallish columned print. The columns always include a Day at Our House, a science column (in the issue I received Mid-May, it was about Spring so the timing wasn’t great), an article about Montessori, Apps, college bound & more. It also includes some product and book reviews of many obscure products I hadn’t heard of before that don’t always have a lot to do with homeschooling.
Overall, I just don’t think there is a ton of value in this publication. I read one useful thing in 4 issues and they spent 4 pages telling me about it. Berevity is the soul of wit. It didn’t need to be that long. The practical aspects aren’t very timely (spring activities in the late May issue) or useful to me. I feel like bloggers do a much better job and the blogs are more attractively designed. I dislike PH so much that an issue never stayed around my house long enough for me to even snap a picture. I just can’t get into this one. I’m sure there is an audience that loves it, but its not me. I won’t be renewing my subscription to Practical Homeschooling.
This Old Schoolhouse
Free monthly(ish) digital issues + 1 giant print issue each year ($20)
I was tempted to not add The Old Schoolhouse to my list because it is digital only except for a once a year print issue that is totally worth it! This is the first homeschool magazine I ever read and I even dig out my tablet to read it. I don’t read any other magazine digitally, but I make myself for this one because the content and design are top notch!
If you have an apple or android device you can download a free app to read all their issues. You can read just the articles or flip through it like a magazine. That’s what I do–I like the magazine experience :).
Each issue is huge — 170-180 pages for the last two which were bi-monthly issues. They include features on topics like The Factual Homeschooler, The Joyful Homeschooler, The Inspired Homeschooler as well as monthly columns for classical, Charlotte Mason and unit study learners. And if that wasn’t enough, there are columns from dads, for mom’s, about parenting, as well as subjects like art & science. And those are just the regular features!
The Old Schoolhouse also includes product reviews, curriculum reviews, feature articles, and every stage of homeschooling from preschool to high school. It is beautifully designed and I frequently read them from cover. TOS is well worth the money, both for the print & electronic issues. This is one of my favorite homeschool magazines.
Summary
Overall, of the four homeschool magazines I LOVE 2 of them, one is just okay and one wasn’t my cup of tea. They are:
1. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
1. Home Educating Family
2. Home School Enrichment
3. Practical Homeschooling
Do you disagree with my opinions of these homeschooling magazines? Or do have one I missed? Feel free to share in the comments!
Gail Nelson
29 January 2018 at 5:50 PM (6 years ago)Hey there!
I love how you took the time to really look at each magazine – I publish Learning Tangent Homeschool Magazine and would love to send you a digital copy of it to look over.
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