How to begin if you want to homeschool your children?

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The main advantage of homeschooling is that you choose the exact curriculum for your children.  Are you learning math skills? You can do the math to determine if the Springbok casino bonus is really a great deal.  You are learning to read non-fictional documents in English class? You can read the terms and agreements of the Springbok casino bonus.  In a regular public school, using the main page of a casino website would be considered a major no-no, but when a parent is homeschooling, using creative approaches to help a child understand the lesson is just part of being a homeschooling parent.

Different parents take different approaches to homeschool, but all of the approaches can be categorized into a few major categories.

All-in-one curriculum (or school at home)

This method is also called the “traditional approach” or the “structured approach”.  The instructional methods of teaching involve textbooks and homeschool, the same as in a regular school.  They also cover the same subjects.

This may be the approach a parent takes when the homeschooling option is temporary.  Possible examples: a child has a long term illness, but is expected to be back in a few months. A military family may be temporarily deployed.  

Unit Studies

In a unit study approach, multiple subjects like math, reading, science, history, art, and music all revolve around the unit.  As much as can be possible, all of the school subjects try to connect to the main unit being studied.

Let’s look at an example of a unit study on gambling: 

  • In math class, the student can learn about the different odds of different hands in poker. 
  • In reading class, the student can read the different rules of poker and the different variants of poker. 
  • In history class, they can learn about gambling in history. How did Atlantic City and Las Vegas come into existence? 
  • Why are Indian Reservations in the US exempt from most US anti-gambling laws?
  • How are online gambling establishments changing society and the gambling industry? 
  • In Music, the student can study how music affects mood, concentration, and ambiance of an environment.
  • In art, the student can study the architecture of Atlantic City and Las Vegas, both inside and outside of these buildings. 
  • How is gambling depicted in artwork?
  • Or even, how is the board game Monopoly connected to gambling? (Hint: Atlantic City)

The advantage of unit studies is that if the student is interested in the overarching unit, it can make the lessons learned very memorable.

The main disadvantage of unit studies is that the student is going all over the place, and major topics may be missed.  Also, sometimes it can be difficult to figure out how to include a certain subject in the overarching unit.  

How do I include science in a unit on gambling?  Maybe the student can learn about why alcohol, smoking, illegal drugs, and gangsters are usually connected with gambling.  What do all of those things have in common that would attract similar types of people? Does it have to do with how our bodies act towards different environments and how we react to those environments?  That could fall under the category of biology and health and safety. That could work, but I had to think about it.  

In other topics, no matter how much you think about, it is just not going to be possible to include all of the subjects, so you are going to need to combine unit studies with something else.

Montessori Method

The Montessori Method, developed by Maria Montessori, is a hands-on method for learning.  This is an excellent approach for the younger grades, especially in kids below the age of 10 (5th grade).  But after that point, even though hands-on learning should still be part of the curriculum, the learning will tend to be more and more learning through reading.

One thing to note is that in a traditional “Montessori classroom”, the equipment and furniture in the classroom are scaled down to a child’s size.  This is in contrast to the Charlotte Mason method that we will talk about next. Charlotte Mason believes that children, even at an early age, children should learn to use adult-sized equipment and furniture.  Although Charlotte Mason believed that in good weather, children should be outside learning directly from the world around us, there was no “Charlotte Mason” classroom for a very small child.

If you look in preschool and kindergarten classrooms today, most of them are very hands-on.  But even today, a lot of this hands-on learning seems to disappear once the child reaches 1st grade.

Charlotte Mason Method

There are several different ideas in education that are attributed to Charlotte Mason.  One was the lack of textbooks. Charlotte Mason believed that children should learn from “real books” from excellent authors instead of water down, “boring”, textbooks that nobody would freely choose to read.

The second was the idea of short class times.  Some subjects were as little as 10 minutes long.  Studies have shown that classtime is a bell curve.  There is the uptime getting to the root of learning, the downtime at the end of the learning, and then the middle time.  Usually, kids can hold that middle attention for minutes. Charlotte Mason proposed doing a bunch of short lessons that changed in style to keep the child’s attention.  Mason would move from reading to math, back to a subject that involved reading, to science, etc.  

The third major aspect of the Charlotte Mason method is to divide the day into two major parts.  The first half of the day could be categorized as “traditional schooling” (lessons, practice doing the lessons, traditional subjects, etc.).  The second half of the day was reserved for a child’s independent learning, projects that could take several hours, etc. Some today may call this “unschooling”, as I will describe below.  

The final major aspect of Charlotte Mason was that Charlotte Mason believed that school should start at 9:00 am and end at 5:00 pm, with no homework.  When the child returned home, the child should be free to enjoy family time.

Charlotte Mason also believed that young children should spend as much time as possible outside, 6 hours during the summer months, and 1 hour during the winter months.

When I was homeschooling my child, the Charlotte Mason method was one of the major backbones of my educational philosophy.  Personally, I liked the balance between the traditional school (subjects that the child has to learn, but may not enjoy learning) and the freedom that went with the unschooling philosophy in the afternoon hours.

Unschooling

A lot of people consider unschooling to be an informal approach to homeschooling.  It is the polar opposite of the “all in one” or “traditional school at home” method.  It was a term that was coined by John Holt.

John Holt believed that children should direct their education.

Personally, I like and dislike the unschooling philosophy at the same time.  I think that it has to do with the fact that although I do believe that the unschooling philosophy should always be a part of the child’s education, I do not believe that it should be 100% of the child’s education.

There is always going to subjects that the child has to learn that the child does not want to learn.

My feelings about unschooling may also have to do with how some families are implementing unschooling.  I read John Holt’s books, I did not walk away with the feeling that he believed that children should have free reign over their education. 

I remember John Holt talking about if your child is learning the times’ table and they want to do it while standing on their head on the couch, let them stand on their head.  Don’t force them to sit in a chair. Or if they want to learn the multiplication table while rollerblading around the porch, let them rollerblade around the porch. It was more important they were learning their times’ table, rather than what their physical body was doing while they were learning the times’ table.

I also took unschooling to mean the following. There are certain topics in history and science that a child needs to learn.  It does not matter which order the child learns them in. So if a child is interested in knights and castles, do a unit on the middle ages.  If they are interested in dinosaurs, do a unit on evolution vs intelligent design vs creationism. But by the end of the education, all of the topics have to be covered.  That means that you have to have an overarching plan.

Core Knowledge Sequence

The Core Knowledge Sequence is a list of topics that a group of teachers and educators under the guidance of E.D. Hirsch developed for grades Kindergarten through 8th grade.  The goal was to build a strong foundation for the child to build upon in high school, college, and adult life.

The Core Knowledge Sequence, for the most part, focuses on Science, History, Art, and Music.  This is different than the Common Core State Standards (developed in the US).

Common Core State Standards

The Common Core State Standards focus on Math and English skills that should be learned between Kindergarten and 12th grade.  These were developed by the US government, as opposed to the Core Knowledge Sequence that was developed by a private organization.

Inverse Classroom

This is a type of approach that is seen not only in homeschooling but in traditional classrooms as well.  Instead of a child getting the lesson in school, and then practicing at home with homework, the child is assigned to watch at home a well-made video on the topic being learned.  Then during class time, the student does the “homework”.

There are two main advantages of this method. One, the student can repeat the lesson as many times as needed to understand the topic.  Two, the student that can understand the topic the first time is not slowed down by other students who may need more time to understand the topic.

Finally, while the student is doing homeschool, someone is always present that actually knows what they are doing.  The student can ask questions and get immediate answers. The teacher can also have the student do one problem, check the answer, before having the student move onto the rest of the practice questions.

This is an approach that was not a realistic option 20 years ago, but with the internet, youtube, and other online streaming services, including ones dedicated to education, this option is becoming more and more realistic for both homeschoolers and traditional classes.

I have personally used this approach in 7th grade and above in math using the Great Courses’ different math classes.  The video lessons would be the main teacher and I was there to give practice problems and grade them.

Eclectic

Last, by not least eclectic.  The eclectic method is a method that is a combination of different methods.  For example, the educational philosophy that I used for my own children could be called eclectic, because I did a combination of the Montessori Method, the Charlotte Mason Method, the Core Knowledge Sequence, and the inverse classroom to create a method that unique for my children.

Summary

Different people homeschool for different reasons.  Some for religious reasons, some because in terms of learning, a traditional classroom is not a good match for their child, some for health reasons, and some due to bullying.

Nobody can say if homeschooling is better or worse than traditional schooling. Just as one cannot say that all children are successful in a traditional classroom, one cannot say that all homeschooling children are successful in a homeschooling classroom.

Things can even change with the same family, in the same community, with the same child.  What might have been the right choice in the elementary school years (homeschooling or traditional schooling) may not continue to be the right choice in high school.  Or vice-versa.

That is why I will end with one final piece of advice.  At the end of each school year, take the time to create a summary of the previous year and a tentative plan for the next year and honestly ask yourself (and if your child is old enough your child) if continuing to homeschool is the right choice for your family and your child.

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