What is Your Homeschooling Style??

Making the decision to pull my kids out of the public school system was scary.  Suddenly, I was going to be fully responsible for my child’s education and that was a very overwhelming prospect. Before I had kids, I worked for a company that believed in conducting personality assessments of its employees.  As suspected, I’m completely Type A!  I need to know virtually everything about a subject, researching all sides, before I can make a decision…about anything!! So, deciding to homeschool was a huge research project for me!

I read a lot about homeschooling theories and methods, was immediately drawn to some and instantly dismissed others.  In the past several months of actually putting my well-researched plan into action, I have realized that everything I “thought” I knew was wrong!  I don’t want to go too off-topic and tell you all about the one million things that I’ve learned in this one post, so I’m going to start with finding your homeschooling style.

There are thousands of theories on the best way to educate a child.  The public school system seems to change their mind annually, so it’s not a surprise that a new homeschool mom would change her mind, right? Let’s take a look at some of the most popular homeschool methods.

Unschooling

The unschooling community works along the assumption that children are natural learners.  When children are immersed in a rich environment, they will learn through everyday experiences and inquiries about subjects that interest them.  Some unschoolers do use textbooks to cover a few topics, but they largely follow their child’s interests and support them in finding appropriate sources to fuel their learning.

Classical

The term “classical” refers to the way children used to be educated in the classical time periods of Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.  This type of homeschooling teaches to what it’s proponents call The Trivium.  The Trivium describes the three stages of education: Grammar Stage, Logic Stage, Rhetoric Stage.  In the Grammar Stage (grades 1-4), children spend time memorizing facts such as timeline dates, states & capitals, presidents, scientific information, etc.  When children are young, they soak up information and make memory “pegs” in their minds to file information as they grow.  In the Logic Stage (grades 5-8), students begin to ask questions and add more information to those memory pegs.  You can ask a logic stage child to think about a topic rationally and make conclusions.  Finally, in the Rhetoric Stage (grades 9-12), students are learning to dissect information and form opinions about topics.

In addition to following the Trivium, the Classical method of education also follows a rotation schedule for studying history.  History is studied chronologically and is generally divided into four time periods which repeat in each of the three stages.  I read the book pictured above and was instantly drawn to this vigorous method of teaching.  For whatever reasons (maybe I remember being taught this way??), I felt very drawn to this style.

Charlotte Mason

Charlotte Mason’s method of education will be harder for me to describe since I’m still reading about it! Basically, Charlotte Mason is similar to Classical education, but Ms. Mason focuses on living books and short, purposeful lessons where children are completely focused on the task.  Charlotte Mason emphasizes spending a lot of time in nature observing God’s creation.  She thinks children need time out of doors to play and explore.

I’m still reading about Charlotte Mason and her methods of education, but I’m very intrigued.  I have boys and they do not like to sit still very long!  Also, I really like her ideas for using living books so children will retain what they learn because they remember the stories.

Unit Studies

Many homeschoolers use a method that fully integrates all subjects into what is called a “unit study.”   For example, if your child is interested in learning about the weather, you could read books about weather, keep weather logs and build weather measuring tools, calculate rainfall, read about how weather has shaped the country or the community, and cover science, math, geography, and possibly literature in one unit.  The Moving Beyond the Page curriculum that I posted about yesterday would fall into this category.  Unit Studies look at a topic from several angles and all subjects tie into each other.  What a fabulous way to learn!

I’ve covered the different styles that I consider to be the most popular.  Again, there are many, many different theories and techniques and each homeschooling family will use these methods a little differently.  I think it’s important to learn how your children learn best and then find a method that complements their learning style.  Also, don’t be afraid to change your method if something is not working well.  I started this school year following the classical method and now, I’m adding in elements of Charlotte Mason and Unit Studies!  I’m still trying to find our fit and our methods may continue to evolve as my children grow and I become a more experienced teacher.

Week in Review Feb. 23-27, 2015

This week was a little mixed up for us.  My younger son had a planned trip to “Granny’s” Thursday afternoon through Friday.  For this reason, we moved his schoolwork that was scheduled for Friday over to Wednesday and Thursday.  This is one of the great things about homeschooling!  We can be flexible and move things around and still get all of our work done!

I just recently switched my older son’s writing curriculum to IEW-All Things Fun and Fascinating. He was using Writing & Rhetoric from Classical Academic Press and Hake’s (part of the Grammar & Writing package).  He dreaded any and all writing assignments, so I finally decided to make a change, and I’m so glad I did!  With IEW, they take the “what should I write about” out of the equation and they tell your child exactly what topic and information to write about.  All he has to do is follow the model and add “style” to it.  This week, he wrote a great paper modeled after “The Peacock and the Crow.”  I honestly can’t get over the change in attitude over this one little subject!

In history, we’ve been learning about the Ancient Greeks.  We have studied the Greek Gods, Spartan and Athenian culture, and the Greek Wars.  We’ve had a lot of fun with this unit!  This week, we made “Athenian Coins.”  The project was outlined in the Activity Guide for The Story of the World.  The coins were easy to make, but the directions instructed us to draw Athena on one side and her symbol, the owl, on the other…with toothpicks.  Well, it’s really not so easy to draw in clay with toothpicks, but I think these turned out wonderfully.

Recently, I’ve been reading a lot about Charlotte Mason and her educational style.  A lot of her ideas really speak to me, so I’m trying to begin to incorporate some of them into our school day.  This week, my kids started their first “handicraft” project.  I began to demonstrate cross-stitching to them.  I found these great kits at Michael’s for ages 8+ that come with the needle, thread, ring, and full instructions.  The projects are small enough that the kids are not overwhelmed by them and they really enjoyed the lesson.  I was too hands on during that project to take pictures, but I’ll snap some the next time we sit down to work on them!

Have a great weekend!