Homeschool Methods

I'm so excited to be participating in the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop with the Schoolhouse Review Crew!!  We will be blogging each day this week about different homeschool topics, so I hope you can follow along with me and my Crewmates!  

Today's topic is: Homeschool Methods

There are so many methods for homeschooling nowadays, and it can become quite overwhelming to choose.  Before talking about what we do though, I thought it would be helpful to review a few of the more popular methods.

Charlotte Mason: This method is based on the writings of a 19th century British educator who felt children should learn from real books with living ideas.  It involves nature, discipline of good habits, narration, and living books.

Classical: This method is based on the Trivium, which is made up of three stages.  The Grammar stage includes memorizing lots of of facts and language, mainly Greek or Latin.  The Dialectic stage involves the study of logic; understanding what has been memorized and asking questions.  Lastly, in the Rhetoric stage the student learns how to present arguments in a persuasive way.

Unit Study Approach: This approach allows a child to learn a subject as a whole instead of just reading chapters in a textbook.  It takes all of the subjects, such as Science, History, and Language Arts, and focuses the lessons around one central theme, say Astronomy. 

Literature Based: This method uses great books as the centerpiece for learning, instead of textbooks. 

Unschooling: Unschooling allows children to learn through their natural life experiences, including child directed play, game play, household responsibilities, work experience, and social interaction, rather than through a more traditional school curriculum.

Eclectic: An Eclectic Homeschooler is one who looks at the different approaches and methods of homeschooling, and takes little from each one.

So what method do we use?  I'm a big Charlotte Mason fan, and though I wish I could say we use this method, we really don't!  We enjoy nature, do narration, and use living books in our schooling, but a lot of what we do would not be considered Charlotte Mason.

Ultimately I think we fall somewhere between Classical and Literature Based.  Funny Bunny is extremely good at memorizing facts, especially if they are to a song.  We also love to read great books to go along with what we are studying.

Of course, I don't think it really matters, that's one reason we love homeschooling, it gives us the flexibility to do what we want, and change it if it's not working! 

{Want to see what other homeschoolers are doing?  Visit all who are participating at the links below.}