Homeschooling question...?

Question

What do you think is the best way to homeschool. School at home, unschool, etc... Give reasons why please.

Answer 1

There's really no one "best" way to homeschool. Just like there's really no one "best" way to school at all. Each student is an individual with different interests, strengths and needs. One of the beauties of homeschooling is the fact that the educational program can be tailored to the student, rather than to the educrats' demands and school board's whims.

How to decide what's best for your family often involves a bit of trial and error, IME. We started out very structured, a holdover from my own public schooling, I'm sure; but then, as we "got the hang of it" we were able to relax and start enjoying the freedoms that come with homeschooling. In other words, math did *not* have to be done every morning at precisely 8:00 and it did *not* always have to be taught from a text or work book. Math could be taught at the grocery store comparing prices, in the kitchen adapting recipes, or at the lake skipping stones.

A little experimenting and a lot of researching and we were able to settle in to the method we prefer. We're a little bit of a cross between "school at home" - because we do use a base curriculum - Alpha Omega's SOS, and "eclectic" because we throw in other programs and studies as suits us. For *our* family, it's the best way to homeschool - but I'd never, ever say it was the best way to homeschool for everyone.

If you're interested in learning more about some of the homeschooling styles, you might want to look at this site:
http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/methods/Methods.htm

(scroll down on the page - there're a lot of ads at the top to get past.)

ETA - Sorry, I looked through your profile and I think you're already a homeschooler, and I answered this thinking you weren't and were just curious about homeschooling methods, so that above link probably wasn't terribly helpful to you. I'm going to leave it, though, in case someone who reads this topic might want to explore further.

Answer 2

This is going to be VERY dependent on the individual family. I've seen some families attempt unschooling because they thought that would be the best, but it didn't work out for them at all and they ended up going somewhat eclectic--a mix of free learning time and some structured learning time. I've seen other families try school at home and it flopped because it was just too stressful for them and they found a middle ground.

And yet, I've seen successful unschooling families and successful school-at-home families. So, the best way to homeschool is going to be what works best for the families, in terms of personal values as well as how the kids react to it.

We are in the eclectic bunch--a bit of freedom and a bit of structure. They get the best of both worlds. :) Why have I chosen this? One of the things I disliked about teaching in the public school system is that every step is directed--when to study what, how much to do at a time, WHAT to study, when to go pee, when to eat, often with whom you will work, etc. I didn't see how this fostered independence later on, self-motivation, life-long learning. And yet, I really feel there are certain basics that my kids should learn. As well, I can bring in topics to our schooling that they might not every think of, but that goes both ways, as they sometimes bring up stuff I wouldn't have thought of. With our eclectic approach, the kids get the basics plus some additional input and then can use those basics to learn more about what interests them in the world around them.

Answer 3

For me the beauty of home schooling is that you can create your own curriculum from the best parts of any number of different methods and approaches, and omit what doesn't suit you.
Personally I'm aiming for the richness of classical, without the rigidity, the wonder of Waldorf, minus the stranger bits, the solid foundation of Core Knowledge with plenty of unschooling flexibility thrown in to the mix.