My oldest son (and for periods of time my youngest as well) did "Research" for the majority of his Science, History, and Bible requirements.

Our method was VERY simple. Choose a non fiction book or several books on the topic of your choice and study through it. I say study through it because all of the book may not have been read. Some sections of a book may not be applicable to the present subject of study. While studying or after, take notes, photocopy small sections, write essays, etc. and place in binders. That is it. VERY simple. At high school level, approximately 2-3 hours a day was required for the research portion of their education plan. However, many days more time was spent as my son got excited about what he was studying and hated to stop for a break.

I would periodically check through the work and assign grammar/usage assignments that were necessary but I never "corrected" the notebooks. I would guess that 95% of the time nothing NEEDED to be corrected. As it was copywork and notes from sources that they had on hand, they would check spelling and wording, etc to be sure they were putting accurate information into the notebooks. Accurate information was very important to them.

 Side note: I have always LOVED a good used book sale and we have hundreds of good books right on hand. Both of our sons have quite extensive libraries of their own as well. We have also used local libraries a lot over the years (a mild understatement! )

So as you can see, using the research method in homeschooling is very easy on Mom (yahoo!!) and VERY effective for the student.

Till next time,   ~Penni