Educational Philosophies

A friend on Facebook asked me advice as to what to do to get ready to homeschool her children. Her oldest is 2, so she has a bit of time to research things. This is what I said to her. I would like to share this because it's basically a compilation and record (for myself) of the research I've done on homeschooling methods/philosophies for the past several years.

It's good that you want to start gathering information already. The best thing I can recommend is to do a bunch of reading...I think it's important to decide how you want to home educate your children. Because each way is so different, it's important that you do your research and decide on something that can provide a great foundation for your home education. The reason why I say that is that there are SO MANY resources, educational philosophies, and curriculums. But if you choose an educational philosophy that resonates with you, it will be easier to narrow down what you feel like with work with you and your family. The reason why I say you is that you will be their primary educator, so you need to choose a philosophy that really resonates with you.

Here are some educational philosophies that are worth looking into. Just check out books from the library at first...only buy the ones that resonate with you.
www.homeschool.com has a bunch of other resources if you want to pick and choose your curriculum/resources. They also have a bunch of webcasts that you can listen to that give you a general idea of the different philosophies. I've listened to some of them and haven't thoroughly researched these things. But at least I have a basic understanding what each one is and it has helped me realize if it's for me or not.


School at home:
Basically it looks a lot like school at home...textbooks, workbooks, assignments, quizzes, etc.
www.k12.com is a good example of what this looks like.


Non-traditional types of schooling:
Unschooling: Look up Unschooling on the internet and you'll come across some articles written by a male teacher who got fed up with the educational system and started promoting unschooling. Basically...provide your kids with tools for learning, don't force them to learn, and they will amaze you with how much they want to learn and how much they do learn.

Charlotte Mason: She seems to focus on early education...nature studies, children's natural curiosity. She encourages a lot of reading, especially living books which would be like classics and scripture.

Waldorf: Chants and rote memorization in the early years combined with life skills like knitting, sculpting in bees wax, baking. Waldorf describes what ages learn which skills best. He doesn't push reading and writing until 1st/2nd grade. Lots of nature time.

Lapbooking and Unit studies: A unit study is when you take one topic (like astronomy) and bring in a bunch of subjects to teach it (read stories, work math problems, do science experiments, read history of astronomers). Lapbooks are a popular way of bringing the unit study together in a portfolio form.

Montessori: Systematically teaching your child one skill that builds upon another. Encourages learning at one's own pace. Uses a lot of touch and manipulative. There are many charter schools that use her methods.


Classical education:
Book: The Well-Trained Mind: education based on the Trivium. Early grades focus on the grammar of learning--memorization of facts. Middle years focus on bringing that learning into context. Later years focus on rhetoric--being able to effectively communicate that learning to others. The book is very detailed in the curriculum it recommends and even gives sample scheduling as to how to implement it in the home.

Book: Thomas Jefferson Leadership Education: A classical based education based off of the kind of education the founding fathers received...from mentors, not teachers. The way the mentor (parent or other) guides the child (the learner is in charge of his/her education, the mentor guides and inspires the education but doesn't force it) in learning changes as they move through phases. Preserving the Love of Learning throughout all phases is essential.
Core phase (0-8 yrs) is all about right/wrong, good/bad, work/play.
Love of Learning (9-12ish) begins to love reading, learning, experimenting, exploring, inventing, etc, but still engages in a lot of childhood play.
Scholar phase (13-18) is when the learner buckles down and really studies...often 8+ hours a day. Gaps are filled in, learning really happens.
Depth phase (19-25) is essentially college...where the depth and breadth of learning and knowledge happens.
Mission phase (life) is when you take your knowledge and learning and pass it along to others through the special life mission that is God's gift to you as a unique person.

The philosophy that resonates the most with me is the Thomas Jefferson Leadership Education. But it took a few years after reading the book the first time for me to really agree with it. :) I don't follow their recommendations, I do my own thing. A lot of homeschoolers do their own thing...mix and match. They call it eclectic homeschooling.

I hope this all helps!