Musings of a Mentor

Jun. 28, 2005

How do we homeschool?

In keeping with the theme for the day I will give a brief description of how we homeschool. It has changed so drasticly over the last 12yrs. When we started the kids were 8, 4, and 2. We didn't even know 1 other homeschooling family. We did a very "relaxed" school at home approach because I didn't know any better. As we branched out over the years and started working with a cottage school we got very classical in approach. Then we came to some philosophical differences with the cottage school and branched out on our own becoming a strange eclectic mix of classical unschooling.

"Classical Unschooling" what an oxymoron. What it means is we use classical literature, classical languages, classical approaches to math, and do it as each child is inspired. For the last 5 yrs or so we have picked a theme of study for each quarter like "the ancients" or "Middle Ages" or "science" and each child and I sit down and figure out how they personally are going to tackle that theme. The general structure of the day is Math, Language, Lunch, Play (everybody!), Literature/History, Art/Music-- the thing is the schedule is only a rough reference. We have been know to spend the whole day doing Art, reading about it, looking at it and making it if that is where the energy or excitement is that day. We don't cover any certain number of pages in any one text. We use more "real books" than textbooks-- the only exceptions are Saxon for Math and Apologia for Science. The kids keep notebooks for each quarter. They work together to write a newsletter every month. That reinforces what they have learned and usually gets their extended family to write or call them about what they have been studying.

Now, my oldest graduated at 17.Went away to college and is doing an amazing job. She finished her 2nd full year this spring. She has even worked in her chosen field during the summer months for the last 3 yrs, 500 plus miles away from home! My 15yr old is traveling all over the country this summer and fall. She is motivated by new experiences. My 13 yr old spends a lot more time helping his papaw, skateboarding, skating, golfing, and playing basketball than he does "studying", but he just took his ACT and scored a 28. So I don't give him too much grief about how he spends his time. Then I have a whole house full (25 a day) of kids who choose to come over to our house and study with us three-four days a week. I am glad the other kids come over, because I would be very sad indeed if I thought I only had a couple more years left to mentor students!

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Jun. 28, 2005 - Untitled Comment

Posted by 3FoldChord

I like that "classical Unschooling" . Sometimes we are elcectic, sometimes I call us "Gently Guided Unschooling'..LOL

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