For me, the most difficult part of home schooling was determining and allocating the materials I’d use to teach. Before I could buy materials and programs however, I had to first decide what ‘type’ of home-schoolers we were and what methods I’d use to teach.
If you begin to research home schooling you’ll quickly learn there are different schools of thought. The most common ones are: traditional, unschoolers and theme or unit studies. There are countless ones and combinations in-between, but these are main three types of home schooling families (or at least out of the ones I know).
Traditional home schooling speaks for itself in many ways. For ease, convenience or preference, many families choose to almost replicate the public school model. This is done to varying degrees.
Some families simply follow their State guidelines and requirements, and purchase cirrculum materials that are also more traditional; text books, study guides and workbooks. I know a few families who contacted their school district and obtained a list of textbooks being used and that is what they too purchased to teach their child. If you’re really lucky, you can find a public school teacher willing to share their lesson plans with you!
I used some traditional aspects when home-schooling. We kept the same schedule and did have a few textbooks; mostly from our library and local bookstore though. State requirements are simply that: required, so the topics have to be taught. Just keep in mind, the methods used to teach required topics are up to you.
Unschoolers are personally my favorite. They basically shake off any traditional practices and focus on life as school. Textbooks are not the cornerstone and many of these parents seem to fly by the seat of their pants… “Well, today Johnny wanted to learn about outer-space so he did.” There isn’t a lot of lesson plans or strict schedules to adhere to.
Unschoolers are really hands on. A lot is done in the community and the premise is simple: all the world is a place to learn; schooling doesn’t take place at a table, with a book for six hours per day. Instead, interacting and experiencing a wide range of activities and topics fits the bill for learning.
Then you have theme studies. This worked well with my son who has Asperger Syndrome. Theme studies combine all the subjects and apply them to one topic. My son was into experiments and science, so our first unit study was on electricity.
For science we built a potato light bulb, for math he learned conversion factors to calculate the cost of using electricity, for history we learned how electricity was discovered and applied. For a field trip we went to a power plant and the entire unit was complete in less then three weeks. Then we started one on birds!
So, if you’re interested in home schooling, there’s much to think about, but avoid becoming stressed. I can tell you that planning is the most stressful part and you can teach your child so many ways, you have little to fear.
By first determining what type of home schooling you’d like to try, you can then begin to look for materials. All this information is pulled together and given to your local school district to be kept as part of your child’s educational records also.
The great thing about home schooling is that you can try one way and, if it doesn’t work out, you can try another. I know a lot of parents who have tried it all at one point in time or another, but can safely say the vast majority choose to use a combination of teaching methods and materials.
You know your child better then anyone else, so sit down together and figure out what type of home schooling family you are.
Good luck and please share your decisions and thoughts below.
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