How did you find your educational style/philosophy?

[chrissy]

I guess that pretty much says it all. There seems to be so much out there between waldorf, montessori, traditional.... Where do I start?

[nicole lisa]

Hmmm. I think I just always had a strong sense of what I was comfortable with and what DS' learning style is. I had done reading in Waldorf education while working in a non-Waldorf school, before I was ever pregnant. And when DS was born we thought a lof about whether we would like him to be in a Waldorf school or not and as he grew we knew he just wasn't sheltered enough for it. He would probably have issues with some of it.

And that was the end of that. The more I watched DS play and work hard at obtaining a new skill the more I thought of how amazing and self directed the journey from babe in arms to walking and talking and running and arguing etc is the more I realized he is his own best teacher. He has never really retained anything when I actively tried to teach and he continually blows me away with what he teaches himself.

So I guess we came to what we're doing and our philosophy pretty organically. It's just evolved through our living and observing each other.

[SagMom]

Ds started homeschooling in the middle of a school year, and I thought I'd just try and continue the courses of study that the school had mapped out, at least until the end of that year. I quickly realized that re-creating school at home was not going to work for ds, so we dropped that plan and I just followed his lead.

I knew from the start that school-in-a-box wouldn't be right for dd--she's a very independent kid and likes to do for herself, so although she went to Kindergarten, she easily fell into unschooling.

We're not religious, and we didn't want anything that looked like school (even unit studies,) and needed to let the kids direct their own learning, so unschooling had all the answers for us.

[UnschoolnMa]

Originally Posted by Joan

We're not religious, and we didn't want anything that looked like school (even unit studies,) and needed to let the kids direct their own learning, so unschooling had all the answers for us.

Yea, that's us too basically.(I am religious, but the kids really are not and it had little to do with homeschooling for us) My kids also left in the middle of the school year, and we just wanted to be done with all things schooly, KWIM. For awhile they thought they wanted assignments, but it was really just that it was all they were used to from being in school. It became clear really quickly after pulling out of school that unschooling was for us. We simply can't imagine any other way. It's respectful to the kids.

[simple living mama]

I came from an extremely strict Irish Catholic family. My dad was very controlling. I swore I would never treat my children like that, ever! But guess what? When my daughter was about three and really starting to assert herself, I fell into the same ugly cycle. I hated myself for it.

I realized pretty quick that what my heart wants and what I am doing wasn't the same. Yelling, spanking, controlling was not how I ever imagined I would raise my beautiful daughter. So I started reading everything I could find on anger, control issues, raising healthy children and healing my past. It all sounded good but it wasn't until I came across unschooling.com (no longer around I'm afraid) discussion that I finally broke the ugly cycle.

It was the one thing that totally made sense to me. It's all about respecting your child as a person. It's about letting go of control, and trusting. Unschooling for us was when parenting really became enjoyable. To see our children love learning and love being around us is more than I ever hoped for. Im thankful I found such a beautiful way to be with my kids. And thankful I have a husband that understands unschooling and is willing to read and learn right along side me.

[feebeeglee]

The very first book I ever read on homeschooling was Homeschooling for Excellence, when I was about 17. They seem like eclectic near-unschoolers in that book... Then I somehow lucked into John Holt and that was that! DH and I spent hours reading to each other and it just was right.

[chrissy]

thanks mamas!
anybody want to recommend some more books to me?

[Linda on the move]

The Homeschooling Book of Answers by Dobson is one of my all time favs.

When my kids were really little and we were considering homeschooling, I read everything I could find from every point of view I could find. Some of it rang true to me, some didn't. We are relaxed, but have found through experiementation that our kids do better with some structure. When we were unschoolers, they just fought with each other and were unhappy. I like to avoid labels because I am much more into doing what works for my kids than following someone else's philosophy. I want our lives and my kids learning to be joyful. My fav. quote is "Education is the kindling of a fire, not the filling of a bucket."

In your first post, you asked where to start. I think you have to start with your child. What works for them? What do they enjoy? How do they learn best?

[KimberMama]

I started out thinking we would send our boys to public school, but began researching homeschooling once my oldest turned 2. I really thought we would be unschoolers, but DH didn't feel comfortable with it (and taking him to a lecture by an unschooler was a complete disaster).

As a sideline, I had been interested in Waldorf and how it fit in with AP. We love playsilks, wooden toys, nature items, etc., and we don't do TV watching (just one family DVD per week) or video games. I liked the idea of preserving childhood.

Last summer rolled around and I needed to find a curriculum. I was interested in Oak Meadow (not really Waldorf, but influenced by it). I couldn't afford Enki or Live Ed. I liked the idea of delayed academics and an arts-integrated program.

However, at the time it seemed like The Well Trained Mind was all the rage, so we read the book and decided to give it a try. Well, we completely burned out in 8 weeks. For us, TWTM turned children into little machines to be filled with facts. My youngest refused to participate and my oldest started saying he "hated" phonics. Wait a minute...this isn't what I had in mind at all.

We took 7 weeks off to decompress and find something else. I just called it "unschooling" time. I know that my children learn all the time even if we aren't doing lessons.

I talked to DH about following a Waldorf model, but he really wanted me to be doing something, so I bought an older copy of Oak Meadow and used that as a resource, leaving plenty of unstructured time for play.

I spent more time researching Waldorf. Time and time again I would get hung up on Steiner's "spiritual science" of anthroposophy. It wasn't working for me. I wanted the holistic experience that Waldorf brings, without the anthroposophy.

So I started looking at Enki again, and really liked what I read. I finally committed to Enki in May, although I have yet to receive my materials.

I would say that our educational style/philosophy is to follow a holistic path. We want to kindle the fire of learning. We want our children to engage their hands, hearts, and heads in learning. While we have "formal" lessons we also leave plenty of time for the boys to just play and explore on their own; in that we are more like unschoolers.

Kimberly

[AnnR33]

There is a great book that mainly talks about all the different "styles" called the Big Book of Home Learning by Mary Pride I must have checked this out of the libary 6x over the last year. It gives a summary of the main "styles" (Charlotte Mason, Montessori, classical, unschooling, unit studies, eccletic, more) and some good resources for each.

good site with basic style info:
www.homeschoollearning.com/approaches/

Check out the Linda Dobson book-Homeschooling Your Child in the Early Years (or something like that) This is one I've read twice and found very helpful in my research!

I checked a lot of books out of the library! Go and browse thru your library's education section and just start picking out books. Some will interest you and some won't but it's a great way to see just what all is available!
I honestly did serious "research" to educate myself and get comfortable with the idea for about 9 mos before I decided what fit us best.

Ironically, when I first read the Mary Pride book I thought the classical style was too stuffy for us and not a good fit at all. After months of research and realizing that you ADAPT things to fit your needs I decided this was the approach that fit my son best (I take a little looser approach though). So don't discount anything right away...

I also joined a local homeschool group even before I was homeschooling and this was a great resource. They are usually pretty cheap to join-around $20 or so and worth the support and advice!
Good luck!
Ann

[AmyY]

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[UUMom]

I read Summerhill when I was 14, and I knew then that i wanted my children to be respected beyond all else. Dh and I hve dabbled in some educational experimentation, depending on individual child, as well as family needs. We knew from the get-go that we would homebirth, breastfeed and let them *be*.

It's an exciting world, is all I can think. Dh and i have often said what a gift it is to be able to nurture these very individual beings. It's an amazing journey we are on.

[catgirl]

Originally Posted by chrissy

thanks mamas!
anybody want to recommend some more books to me?

Real Life Homeschooling by Rhonda Barfield
Homeschool Open House by Nancy Lande

Both fly-on-the-wall books that cover the whole gamut of HSing styles. Very fascinating!

Anything at all by Linda Dobson

[Stayseeliz]

Originally Posted by AnnR33

There is a great book that mainly talks about all the different "styles" called the Big Book of Home Learning by Mary Pride I must have checked this out of the libary 6x over the last year. It gives a summary of the main "styles" (Charlotte Mason, Montessori, classical, unschooling, unit studies, eccletic, more) and some good resources for each.

I recently read "How to Get Started in Homeschooling" by Mary Pride and it was a great overview of all the styles out there. I think I know what I want to do next year but I may change my mind. Depends on DS.

Also keep an eye out for homeschooling conferences in your area..You can get a lot of great info there..