You can un-school, de-school, or home school. There are other styles of home education, but those are a good basic three to being with. You’ll find information on the three within GoodByeCityLife. If you need to, ask questions in the comment form below.

Once you’ve decided on a style of education, craft a mission statement or plan of action. Now is the time to set certain ground rules and commit them to paper. Home schooling requires a lot of self-discipline. Having goals set to paper, no matter how lenient, help to keep the focus. Personal traits required for teacher and student are: an eagerness to learn, hard work and effort, discipline, time, patience, flexibility and an enthusiasm for sharing knowledge.

In your mission statement you might also want to record your motives, goals and reasons to home school your child. Don’t forget to get input from your sons or daughters and review your statement every few months to make sure you are on track.

Set Up Your Proposed Schedule

How many hours, how often, and on which days? Flexibility is one of the key underlying principles behind homeschooling, but 70% of humans thrive on schedules so this may be a concern for you and your home schooled child. It is only natural that parents, especially in the beginning, feel that their children should be at their books at the time that regular students are in school. That ‘feeling’ is the opposite of home schooling and can be counter-productive.

One of the most ignored but glaring drawbacks of the public schooling system is the sheer waste of time and energy that it promotes. Many periods are simply wasted away and the child effectively derives only 1-3 hours of study per day. There are days when the studies become too intense and other days when no work is performed at all. There is a lot of ‘invisible waste’ of hours in the public school system.

Not so with home schooling. There will be ample time for other activities or bonding time. Time spent actually preparing your child for real life. Not the boredom of a classroom.

Stick to your schedule for a few weeks, then reassess and rewrite if necessary.

The actual number of hours that you need depends on the curriculum you have chosen and the learning style that suits your child. If you are dealing with a subject that is more complex, you may need to sit with the child for a longer period. Using various techniques, it may be necessary to demonstrate what you are trying to teach. For instance, a difficult math lesson may take more time than the equivalent lesson in English.

Given the fact that too many public school hours are wasted in meaningless activities (waiting), extra-curricular activities that your child has no interest in, and ultimately boredom – do not allow public school hours to dictate the hours you’ll spend teaching your child at home. At home, he is getting high-quality, one-on-one lessons that are highly productive. About 1-3 hours of study is a good place to start in the primary grades, but let you child decide if he’d like to do more. The more enjoyable hours you put in, the more learning takes place.

Your child does not have to learn seven hours a day. Allow him to dictate the time after you’ve met your minimum. Flexibility and fun are the cornerstones of homeschooling. Do not stuff too many skills into a single term or year.

Homeschooling does not stop at lectures, books and tests. Field trips, documentaries on television, day to day life such as shopping and banking, and libraries also make up an important slice of the home schooling process – all of which has educational value. It makes sense to intersperse these activities so that learning becomes fun. You may want to finish off the few hours of textbook learning in the morning and dedicate the afternoons to these kinds of activities.

Compassionate and intuitive parenting is truly the secret to homeschooling success. Children make great advances in learning and show more enthusiasm when they are being led by love and respect. They also turn out to be surprisingly well balanced and well informed when they are taught at home.

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There are many different methods and styles of home schooling. The method you choose will decide the curriculum and allotment of lessons for each day.

Below we explore some of the more widely used and influential home schooling styles.

Charlotte Mason Method

Charlotte Mason is known as the founder of the home schooling movement. A home schooler herself, she was passionate in her zeal to lay out the foundations for an effective and complete home schooling program that is fun and educational at the same time. The Mason Method focuses on all the core subjects with emphasis placed on classical literature, poetry, fine arts, classical music and crafts.

Mason used a variety of books from classical literature, which she called ‘Living Books’. Since this method encourages a passionate awareness of literature, the child is read to daily from the ‘Living Books’. After this, the child is asked to narrate what she has heard. This process begins at the age of six, and by ten the child is expected to write her narrations in her book.

Mason believed that development of good character and behavior was essential to the complete development of the child’s personality. Mason also advocated the use of ‘Nature Diaries’. After each short and interesting lesson, the child is asked to go outside and draw observations from their natural surroundings. Through this the home schooled child gains a sense of respect for her environment.

Eclectic Home Schooling

Eclectic home schooling is a mixture of various home schooling styles and techniques. In this style, creative and innovative parents trust their own judgment and pick out topics and study methods that make the best curriculum, not by governmental standards, but for each child individually.

Parents who home school this way are continuously on the look out for the best products to meet the needs of their students. Most Eclectic home schooling curriculums are improvised. Basic curriculum is ready-made and parents make changes in the curriculum to accommodate the individual child’s needs and interests.

The child’s gifts, talents, temperaments, and learning style dictate the methods and subjects taught. Eclectic programs include visits to the museum, libraries and factories, and cover all aspects of day to day life and responsibility.

Un-schooling Home Schooling

Although it seems a contradiction in terms, un-schooling is a very popular and authentic educational style. The Un-Schooling method was led by Boston public educator, John Holt. John Holt believed that children learned best when they are free to learn at their own pace and when they are guided by their own interests. His message to educators and parents was to ‘unschool‘ a child.

This method is a hands-on approach to learning, where the parent takes definite cues from their students. There is no definite curriculum, schedules or materials. This method is the most unstructured of the various home schooling techniques, but has seen some of the biggest success stories.

The Montessori Method of Home Schooling

If you hadn’t heard of home schooling until today, chances are good that you have at least heard of Montessori. Developed from the work of Dr. Maria Montessori, this style of teaching aims at duplicating natural laws that a child faces in life.

The Montessori method of teaching is especially suitable to the preschooler who wants to do everything by himself. Finding ways in which your child can participate in the cleaning, washing, cooking, gardening and other ‘adult’ activities sets the perfect backdrop for the learning experience. By providing such opportunities for independence, the child’s self-esteem is also well established.

This educational method began in Italy, when it was observed that children have acute sensitive periods, during which they undergo periods of intense concentration. During such phases, a child will repeat an activity till he gains a measure of self-satisfaction.

The aim of the Montessori teacher is to control the environment and not the child. Studies of children resulted in observation that children who are left free to interact with their environment developed an innate self-discipline, love for order and natural curiosity.

The Montessori method depends on a prepared environment to facilitate learning. All the materials used in this method are designed to satisfy the inner desire for spiritual development of the child. The materials used progress from simple to complex, and are rather expensive.

Artistic, cultural and scientific activities abound in the Montessori 3-6 class. There is no TV, junk food, or computer. Material is selected carefully and a child is never forced to work, instead the students are encouraged to do things that interest them, and the teacher picks up the teaching from cues given by the child.

The Montessori method focuses on the child’s inborn ability to learn from his surroundings. Thus the teacher aims to encourage the natural curiosity of the child. He is never forced to learn or explore. When the child understands why he needs to learn something, he will love the learning process.

Conclusion

The four teaching styles above are just a few of the variety of methods available to home schooling families. Whatever the method, the underlying factor is flexibility and a keen interest in the desires of the child. The secret is in adapting curriculum and method to each child – to inspire them to learn more.

Laura Childs
This article was originally published on GoodByeCityLife.com in 2008

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I will attempt to address pre-conceived notions, quell your concerns, and explain why so many of us are home schooling our children – the sons and daughters we strive to provide the very best for.

For many it began in the early grades. Frustrated with waking children up at 7 a.m., 5 days a week, just to bundle them up and shove them off on the school bus. Perfectly normal children, who spend a large part of their day tired, surrounded by negative influences, and exhausted by the sheer number of rules and instructions.

Rules Kill Creativity and Desire to Learn

Rules created by education-related corporate fat cats that don’t work with the children all day, yet make rules and restrictions that create insecurities and have little to do with schooling.

Schooling children at home, on the other hand, gives parents more control over the influences that affect their sons and daughters. Their growth and development, new habits and vocabulary are removed from unknown influencers.

If you home school your child, you, and you alone, decide what your child needs to do or learn and which facet of their social skills requires development at any stage of their lives.

Personally Tailored Education, Specific to Your Child

Tailoring a curriculum to suit the needs and interests of any one child is truly one of the most obvious benefits of home schooling.

Individual attention is another salient benefit of home schooling. As an example, if your daughter needs more time to learn math this month, a flexible schedule affords the luxury of putting aside English lessons. Fixed hours of study per subject are non-existent.

A child has the advantage of assigning a longer period of time to the subject that is challenging without additional pressure. The amount of time needed to learn each subject depends solely on the abilities, interests, and natural talents of the child.

Home schooling is an extended family activity. Parents are involved in every step of the learning abilities and practices of their children. Field trips and experiments become family activities – growing your family closer and building memories.

Makes Learning Fun

Education can be fun. Quality time with caring role models instead of a multitude of children with bad habits and perhaps foul language.

The entire family shares, learns, and explores through games, chores and projects. Family closeness becomes the focus instead of negative peer pressure while discovering personal likes, challenges, and talents.

Another strong benefit (and reason for parents to home school) is that competition is limited. No home schooled child needs to prove his talents and abilities while being measured against other children. This is far too often discouraging to a child – being pitted against his friend or peer and feeling inferior or (sometimes worse) superior to those around him.

Confidence remains intact while competition waits, being taught in itself, when appropriate.

Since parents have a deep understanding of their child, they can plan the learning program to pique the child’s interest further. It is also possible to intersperse difficult tasks with fun activities. A tough study hour can be followed by a trip to a museum or educational games at home.

Learning becomes fun and rewarding – never forced.

Parents can also tailor the curriculum to suit the learning style of each child. Some children learn through reading, while others need to write, and still others need to see an action or event to fully understand it. 

Home schooling allows parents to take control over the moral and religious education of their sons and daughters. Parents have the flexibility to incorporate their beliefs and ideologies into the child’s curriculum. There is no confusion in the child’s mind either because there is no variation between what is being taught and what is being practiced.

Most Common Reason to Home School Children

Perhaps the biggest reason parents are turning to home schooling is that so many of us are becoming disillusioned with the public school system. They believe that their children are being pushed too hard or not challenged near enough. With inadequate personal attention or understanding of each child’s educational needs. Nonsensical school house rules are made by executives who sit in offices and never interact with children.

Motivating factors are as varied as the parents who teach at home and the children who learn at their sides. Many repudiate the educational philosophy of grouping children solely on the basis of their age while other parents have unhappy memories of their own public school experience.

Every parent who home schools will agree that educating children in this manner is the best way – if you have the time, the ability and the interest to follow through.

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My daughter Veronica started reading before she was 3. That talent was facilitated by just one hour of our time together at the crafting table. She cut labels for me, I wrote words on those scraps of paper, and she stuck them to objects around the house. For a few months she’d walk from room to room, slapping the labels as she passed, and naming the item. Eventually, she wanted more – to read her own picture books, following my voice along with her finger on the words of each page.

Try it yourself and see. Give it 6 months or so. Stick a small piece of paper on the wall "wall", one on the chair "chair", one on the "door". Use all lower case or all upper case letters (we used lower) to start. After that we used scrapbooks to keep our ‘learnings’ in. The first sheet was a color sheet – color names written in their color – blue, red, green, yellow, etc.

Once a child begins to read the entire world opens up to them.

As children grow they will learn with gusto about the things that interest them. Discover their interests and you’re off and running. Kids are natural learners, we don’t need to impose on them. We do, however, have the responsibility to ensure they don’t grow up lazy. Too much television, video games, and lack of interaction will ruin a child’s creativity and desire to learn. Life becomes complacent, the children become apathetic.

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouths."
Billy- age 4

Educational Games for Home Schools

Games are fine, as long as they have some educational value. My daughter inherited my old work computer and I bought up some outdated and cheap learning games (edutainment), for the old beast.

She played and learned on that computer for over 3 years, right beside me while I worked from home on a newer, faster, laptop. Soon I’ll have to upgrade my own machine and pass it on to her. (In fact, I’m editing this page 9 years after I originally wrote it, she ended up acquiring her own laptop and maintains it herself today.

Social Interaction and Life Skill Building

Take your children everywhere with you – banking, shopping, helping others, whatever you do make them a part of your world. Be sure to talk to them about what you’re doing through the day, why you’re making the decisions you are, and how your decisions affect the household, the environment, your health. You’ll be amazed by the questions they ask while they process your decisions and the learning opportunities within each conversation.

A friend of mine said his kids learned more on a 6 month road trip to Mexico than 4 years of being in high school. Culture, art, language, business, monetary exchange rates, survival, and so on. Both of his children have grown to be highly successful adults, well rounded and appreciated for their good nature, honesty and morals.

Learning Through Play

Some people say that children learn heaps in play, and I do agree with them.

Let them play at home. Learning to amuse themselves at home, instead of being told what to do all the time at school, will serve them well later in life. As a rule, children don’t like to be bored and they’ll come up with something creative – if you can just give them time to do so.

Reading for the Home Schooled Child

I cannot stress enough to parents the importance of reading the printed word. If a person can read they can learn any thing, any time.

Instilling the love of reading is the greatest gift you could ever give a child. However, some children seem to have trouble with reading. Find some teaching elementary level reading at a home school tips.

Finally, if I may add, that life is a journey, let your child lead (even just for a while) and see where it takes you. Children adapt remarkably to responsibility and they will take their educational responsibility mindset into the future.

Laura Childs, A Home Schooling Mom

This article was originally written and posted on GoodByeCityLife back in 1999

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