What about the Philosophy of Homeschooling?

What about philosophy? I guess you need to have a philosophy, an idea about learning, before you can decide how you want to teach, meaning which method would work best with both you and your student. What are some examples of the philosophies of hsing? I was amazed at how vast & different the ideas were that exist, so I dedicated an entire chapter to the different philosophies and teaching methods in the course GPSHS: Guide to a Positive Start with Homeschooling.

Things That Make You Go...hmmmm.

Here are a few examples with extremely simplified definitions:

• Traditional Education. Attempts to look just like ‘real school’, meaning the American public school classroom. Uses mostly textbooks, workbooks, videos & computer or online programs, tests and some sort of grading system.

• Classical Education. This model is based on the trivium which divides learning into three phases, mostly dependent on the age and capability of the student. Grammar stage, focusing on the learning & memorization of facts. Dialectic or Logic stage is next and helps develop the student’s ability to think and analyze information on their own. The Rhetoric stage begins in high school and the student continues processing information by learning to communicate ideas effectively to others.

• Montessori. This method was developed by an Italian physician, Maria Montessori (1870-1952). Teachers mostly act as overseers, providing extensive resources and simple guidance. All ages learn together.

• Unit Studies. This approach also utilizes the ability to teach all ages together by studying a particular topic and assigning different levels of activities or projects that reinforce the topic of study. This complete immersion into a subject is also known as ‘cross-curriculum’ studies.

• Charlotte Mason. The Charlotte Mason philosophy focuses on educating the whole child in excellence and worth. Using literature coined as ‘living books’ that make the subject of study come alive to the student. This approach revolves around the atmosphere the student is allowed to learn from, the habits and discipline they are guided toward, and the observance and knowledge gleaned from life itself.

There are literally dozens of teaching methods and philosophies used today. So heads up.

This is Key:

EVERY HOMESCHOOL IS DIFFERENT!!

THERE IS NO EXACT, COOKIE-CUTTER, PRECISE, DO-IT-LIKE-THIS, METHOD FOR TEACHING &/or LEARNING with homeschooling. Just saying and

you’ll probably hear me say that a lot.

Just to keep reminding you to be you!

Every homeschool is different.

Every homeschool is different. It just is.

My goal is to simply help you clarify what YOUR homeschool can look like realistically. To give you confidence in your plan & yourself. To encourage you in creating and maintaining a peaceful, joyful, positive & productive atmosphere in the midst of a busy homeschool life, with whatever method or curriculum you decide to start with.

Here’s the deal…just as you alone are unique in who you are, your experiences & interpretations of such, how you learn, your knowledge or what you know is different from mine, so is your child. Unique in the differences. So is EACH of your children. What?! This is pretty mind-blowing. Yes, they might have similar experiences & life teaching, but these things are interpreted differently by each child, even if they are identical twins!

*This is a rabbit trail*

Think about this a minute.

Our mindset at any given moment affects what we learn and what we retain. It affects our understanding of a circumstance and it influences our future decision making. By mindset, I’m including things like our emotional state, did we wake up with a bad dream on the edge of our awareness, did a picture of grandma trigger some lonely feelings? Things like our phyical wellbeing, how tired or rested we are, how distracted or focused, even external factors like a barking dog next door or a crying baby in the other room, whether or not our body is hungry, etc.

Have you ever had a cashier/clerk be rude to you? Like sincerely, utterly horrid. Has it happened more than once? Same store? Do you begin forming an opinion about that store & location itself based on your experience? What if…what if you just had the best day ever? Like, nothing gonna getcha down! And you had the same encounter… You might just completely ignore the rudeness. The whole ordeal, as bad as it was, could be totally wiped away because you were too happy to have anything that random affect your mood. But if you’re tired and a little frustrated to begin with & something like that happens, it tends to stick in our brain. It has a way of gnawing at us, sometimes to the point of forming future decisions - like whether or not we shop at that store anymore. Weird, huh?

You know your kids are different from each other. But think about them interpreting situations and discussions differently, too, even if all of them hear it at the same time. Because they do. They hear & interpret things DIFFERENTLY - based on who they are already, personality, strengths and challenges, age, emotional & phyical state at the time, circumstances of the day, etc., etc.

In public school we all sat in class, hearing the same lecture, reading the same text, yet retaining something completely different. If the teacher was focused & paying attention, they would make sure all of the students heard, wrote down, & read the same key points at least 3 times so we all had the same chance at passing a test. Hopefully there were only a handful of key points.

Like I said, this is a kind of rabbit trail that will lead to dozens of conversations, but it is worth the thinking. Know that we are all different. We all will experience and interpret based on our own worldview, regardless of the boundaries of such. Let it be. Cut yourself some slack and relax. Take some time to think about what your goals are for homeschooling. More on this later, but when you know why you are homeschooling, the methods and philosophy will be easy to match.