Do you have a homeschool philosophy?

[Julie]

Do you have a homeschool philosophy? [I use a little bit of them all]

Here’s a list of some of the more popular philosophies and methods.

Charlotte Mason
A CM education is the style following that of its founder, Charlotte Mason. Its schedule features short lessons (10 to 20 minutes per subject for the younger children, but longer for older ones) with an emphasis on excellent execution and focused attention. Narration, “living” literature, nature study, artist picture study, and habit training are some of the unique aspects of a CM education.

Classical
The heart of a classical education lies in the trivium – the grammar, logic and rhetoric stages. These coincide with natural learning abilities during childhood. For most families, classical education includes a dedication to in-depth studies of Latin, mathematics, the arts and sciences, and a deep understanding of world history and its effects that lure them in. Many classical homeschoolers follow a four-year or six-year cycle of repeating science and history topics.

Unit Studies
Unit studies are a popular homeschooling method because they are typically hands-on, literature-based, and can be molded to fit into other homeschooling philosophies. Individual topics can encompass all of the scholastic subjects or be very specific to only cover science, history or a literature selection, for instance.

Traditional
The traditional method looks very similar to how you were likely taught in school. Children use textbooks for all subjects, complete worksheets and take regular tests. Oftentimes, traditional curricula is also available via DVD, CD-Rom or the Internet. Some people choose to integrate some traditional subjects with another philosophy.

Relaxed, Unschooling, Delight-directed
Generally, these terms imply that the parents have consciously adopted a lifestyle which includes few textbooks or workbooks, and no grades, tests or labels. The child is encouraged to learn at his own pace through hobbies and interests that the he wants to pursue.

Whole-Heart Learning
Whole-Heart learning encourages the use of “living” books rather then text books. This type of family will set goals for the family as a whole and again for each individual child. This lifestyle homeschool has a firm belief that the heart is the key to all learning.

Biblical Principle Approach
The Principle Approach is a philosophy and method of education based upon Biblical reasoning and a Biblical, Christian worldview which requires considering and pondering the purpose of everything in God’s universe.

[libertygranny]

we kind of did a combination of all of them.

[prairiemom]

Began with the concepts of Dorothy Sayer's Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning, and used a Charlotte Mason approach. The framework was literature-based education using a timeline (started with Timelinesetc.com, and LDS-owned company--then branched out.) and used a 4-yr cycle.

[Toni]

We did relaxed, with a bit of traditional thrown in. When the kids reached 6th grade and above, it became more unschooling (except that my son would prefer anything but books, and I didn't have money to buy enough of the things that would interest him. I bought him some kits for things like "air powered car" and other science gadgets. He went through all of them in the course of a day or two. Wish I'd been wealthy.)