Define Homeschool

When Knut and I looked into keeping our kids at home instead of sending them off to school, we truly did not know how many theories there were to education.  As neither one of us has a degree in education, we never studied it.  However, when talking to friends and relatives who are teachers, many of them have never even heard of these educational theories, and I bet that’s because teaching a group of 3-4 kids as opposed to teaching of classroom of 25 or so kids is going to have completely different techniques.

So before we continue on with our homeschooling portrait series tomorrow, I thought I’d give a brief overview of some terms.

Classical
A classical education may be the oldest form of home educating.  In fact, I wouldn’t limit it to home education, as many schools through the ages used this model.  A classical education is divided into 3 sections called the trivium.

The first years of education are the “grammar” years.  Through the classical theory, children at this age are not into self discovery, or debating issues.  They like facts and memorization.  They are human sponges and absorb and enormous amount of information.  At this point, knowing what to do with this information isn’t the point.  It’s learning as many things as you can when your brain is most receptive to this type of information. 

The second stage is called the “logic” years.  This is around middle school when students begin to question everything.  Instead of learning facts about the the American Revolution, they learn why it was fought in the first place.  Instead of simply memorizing Scripture, they study why God says what he does.

The third stage is called the “rhetoric” years, and that is when they learn to debate those facts.  Going off of the facts learned in the grammar years, and the logic learned in the logic years, a child learns to present what they know, give reasons why, and debate why it is the truth.

This was a popular way to do one room school houses, as the whole classroom would study the Civil War.  The little ones would study which years which battles took place, and the names of the generals.  The middle school students would read books from that time, trying to understand why the war started, and how it ended.  The high school students would debate whether or not it should have been fought, where they stood on slavery, what mistakes were made in the war, and who actually won.

The classical education has a huge focus on language and “whole books”.  You read the classics.  You study Latin.  Lots and lots of reading.

A classical education from the root is secular, although it does encourage the teaching of religion from Greek Mythology to Modern Christendom.

Charlotte Mason
The Charlotte Mason theory of schooling is kind of based off of classical.  This theory especially focuses on whole books and nature.  Lots of nature, lots of reading.  Repeat.  Charlotte Mason was a classical teacher who believed that children should be outside observing nature as much as possible.  She believed that children should be surrounded with the best literature at all times.  The Charlotte Mason method is much more in depth than that, but many homeschooling families love it because you can basically teach your child with a park and a library card.  It’s very simple, and very inexpensive.  That does not mean it does not have great value or is not very effective.  For little boys who don’t like to read, they love it because they get to be outside!

In the early years, Charlotte Mason focuses on verbally testing your children for understanding, and a de-emphasis on tests and writing.  That comes later.  This method is a lot of enjoying the richness of learning and just breathing it in deep, whether than worrying about where your child is at, and is he measuring up to snuff.  That does not mean that children coming out of this type of school are stupid.  In fact, many of them are extremely intelligent and know things that you wouldn’t imagine. 

Science books for this curriculum would be something like a field guide for birds or plants, and definitely a notebooks for sketching things.  Since it is based on the classical model, it is also very language rich, but not on a technical level until much later.

Christian school at home
I’m not sure how to label this, but this is often the model taken by families who want to send their kids to a private Christian school but prefer to teach them at home.  They often want a classroom atmosphere for their kids complete with school desks.  With this model of learning, curriculum is often pulled from the schools themselves.  Abeka is one of the most popular here, as it is a curriculum that is used for a Christian classroom, as well as a Christian home.

This type of schooling often has lots of workbooks, and organized hands on projects.  Kids who love workbooks thrive on this type of learning.  Costs of this type of schooling is measured differently because much of what you buy is consumable, and has to be re-purchased for each child.  However, if you are dealing with a small handful, it can be a very inexpensive route.

Also joining the ranks of this category are computer classrooms, where a parent might buy a set of DVDs where a student will sit down at his or her desk, turn on the television or computer, and learn from the teacher writing on the chalkboard.  With some computer classes like this, there can often be a lot of interaction for the student with the teacher, all with the parent overseeing what is being taught without too much effort.

Public school at home
Many public school districts are now jumping on the homeschool bandwagon.  School districts are recognizing that in some families, the parent’s work schedule completely is against the school schedule and if the student were to go to traditional public school, he or she would never see the parent.    Perhaps there is a bully issue at the school that cannot be resolved, or the student really wants or needs to go at his or her own pace.  With this type of homeschooling, the public school is delivered via computer at home, and the school district receives tax dollars for providing this service.  Again, parents can oversee what is being taught very easily, and it works around the family’s schedule, although what is being taught and how it is taught is completely up to the school district.

Unschooling
Like the other models of education, this one can have varying degrees to it.  The basic concept of unschooling is children naturally like to learn things.  So let them have at it.  Give them books, give them crafts.  Let them loose.  If they interested in cooking, surround them with cookbooks and let them at the kitchen.  If they are interested in birds, give them a field guide and let them outside.  If they are interested in history, give them history books and visit museums.  This theory says life is the best school of all, so let them live.
(Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with this theory.  I love it in the preschool years, I hate it in the older years when I think that things like math and history need to be taught whether or not it is interesting to the student.)

Eclectic
The truth of the matter is, I really don’t know too many families that follow one system to the letter.  For instance, our family unschools for preschool and kindergarten, except I bring in Saxon Math into the kindergarten year.  Beyond kindergarten we use the classical approach with a slight Charlotte Mason bent, with added Christian immersion into every subject, using the Sonlight curriculum and various supplements.  We add languages that our kids want to study, (like Chinese) in the early years, which would follow unschooling, rather than classical which reserves foreign languages for the upper years once English grammar is mastered.  (Knut hates the word “unschooling” by the way, so don’t use it around him.  He thinks it means let your kids fly willy nilly all over the place and let them guide your family instead of the other way around.)

Sound impressive?  That’s the point of theories, I guess: lots of big and fancy words.  The only value that I see in them is knowing which words to research to teach what you want to teach.  They’re great for googling book lists.  They’re great for researching which curriculum to choose.  Educating a child is very hard, but very simple.  They are so forgiving.  They bounce.  Most of what I know from this post I learned over the last year or so.  I didn’t know it when I started, but it was helpful in researching resources to buy.  I like buying resources.  It makes me feel safe.  I hope one day I feel confident letting go and just creating my own history program and having the kids study whatever I think up.  For now, I like exactly where we are.