Poll: What homeschooling style - in general - do you follow?

[Lillian J]

I've heard comments a few times that the majority of people who post here are unschoolers, but that's not the way I've perceived it. Maybe we can figure it out with a poll. I'm not sure I know how to do this, but here goes...

- Lillian

[eminer]

I've been wondering the same thing, inspired by the same comments. But I can't see the poll.

ETA Never mind, now I can!

[pookel]

I voted, but I wonder if I shouldn't have, since we're not actually homeschooling at all yet. Is it OK to vote which philosophy we most support in theory, even if we're not doing it in practice yet?

(Btw, I like your poll options. I often find myself saying "but I don't fit any of these categories!" when I read polls, but I think these are really well phrased and clear.)

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by pookel

I voted, but I wonder if I shouldn't have, since we're not actually homeschooling at all yet. Is it OK to vote which philosophy we most support in theory, even if we're not doing it in practice yet?

(Btw, I like your poll options. I often find myself saying "but I don't fit any of these categories!" when I read polls, but I think these are really well phrased and clear.)

Well... I really think it would be better to not vote unless you're actually homeschooling, because people don't always end up doing what they think they're going to do. For me, it turned out to be very different from what I had imagined it was going to be like. Before I started, and at the very beginning, I thought unschoolers were basically flaky and didn't know what they were doing. - Lillian

[pookel]

Originally Posted by Lillian J

Well... I really think it would be better to not vote unless you're actually homeschooling, because people don't always end up doing what they think they're going to do. For me, it turned out to be very different from what I had imagined it was going to be like. Before I started, and at the very beginning, I thought unschoolers were basically flaky and didn't know what they were doing. - Lillian

Ooh ... sorry. I see now there's no way to take back a vote. :

I see I'm far outnumbered by the unschoolers right now, though.

[dharmamama]

I was growing toward unschooling with my two youngest, who are 3.5 and 4.5, but now that my oldest (12 this month!) has arrived, and I had to submit notification, I had to "make a choice" and I chose to unschool.

Namaste!

[Eris]

I think it's possible that you'd get more responses without the "unschooling" lean in the title of the thread ("Poll: What percentage of people here are unschoolers?"- maybe a more generic, "Poll: What sort of homeschooler are you?" might draw more non-unschoolers in?

[Monda]

WE are not unschoolers. We are eclectic, using traditional work and unit studies.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by pookel

Ooh ... sorry. I see now there's no way to take back a vote. :

I see I'm far outnumbered by the unschoolers right now, though.

Oh, it doesn't really matter - I think there will probably votes like that in all categories, so it will all even out. Lillian

[Lillian J]

What style of homeschooling do you do?

Originally Posted by Eris

I think it's possible that you'd get more responses without the "unschooling" lean in the title of the thread ("Poll: What percentage of people here are unschoolers?"- maybe a more generic, "Poll: What sort of homeschooler are you?" might draw more non-unschoolers in?

Yeah, that's probably true - I'm trying to figure out if I can change the subject title....
- Lillian
Edited to note: No, I tried, but couldn't change the poll title...

.

[eminer]

Actually, I was wondering if it might not be helpful to take into account long-range plans. I've noticed that on the preschool-aged threads, many people say that they are basically unschooling at present but plan to follow a curriculum or WTM or such once their children are school aged.

[UUMom]

Totally relaxed, but not unschoolers. I suggest a lot of topics, and have said "I really think this is something important to know, lets try it".

[USAmma]

I chose both
"relaxed" or eclectic - largely child led
and lightly structured & parent directed

I have chosen the curriculum, and there is a set time of day for her to sit down and do handwriting and spelling. In the evenings or a quiet afternoon when little sister is sleeping, we will snuggle on the couch and do a grammar or history or whatever lesson. But those things are more touch and go, when we have a good moment. She also chooses a lot of topics of her own interest such as bugs, plants, planets, the environment and conservation, viruses, the human body, and an expanded version of our history lesson on ancient Egypt.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by eminer

Actually, I was wondering if it might not be helpful to take into account long-range plans. I've noticed that on the preschool-aged threads, many people say that they are basically unschooling at present but plan to follow a curriculum or WTM or such once their children are school aged.

I'm feeling bad enough about possibly skewing the results by the title I typed in - I don't even wanna' think about that complication :

I wonder if I can delete it and start all over... How would I word it to take in all the variables? I do think the length of time someone has been homeschooling has a tremendous influence on what style they choose. What I've seen is that people tend to relax their style as they go along rather than the other way around - unless, of course, it's a matter of, as you cited, people feeling that once it's time to "start," they tighten up at first.

For that matter, I haven't chosen for myself yet - because I began with a relaxed/parent led, went to a relaxed/mostly child led, and ended up unschooling through the teen years.

Lillian

[eminer]

Well that's polling for you. Everyone has plenty of helpful comments on the wording.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by eminer

Well that's polling for you. Everyone has plenty of helpful comments on the wording.

And there are always underlying variables that don't get mentioned when results get published - such as the poll-taker wording the title in such a stupid way as to cause a lot of people to not even bother reading it. Or the other things we've just mentioned... - Lillian

[simple living mama]

Two kids, 9 and 8 and unschooled from the start.

[Lillian J]

I guess another error I made here was in choosing the option to let the names of the poll respondents show. I see there have been 197 hits so far, but very few responses, and I can't help but wonder if anonymity would have brought out more responses.

Oh, well...I guess there's no point in getting too obsessed about one's first poll-taking experiment being a flop.

- Lillian

[GoodEats]

WHAT?!?! People can see that I'm relaxed/eclectic?!?!

I think the number of hits on polls increases dramatically as people check back to see how it's shaking out. I doubt there's a strong contingent of people who looked at the poll and then went away without voting because their names may be published. I think information on which camp we each lean toward is fairly obvious from the bent of our posts and self-descriptions therein. Publishing names isn't really going to "out" anyone.

[onlyzombiecat]

Up until this point, I think our style in practice could qualify as unschoolers mostly... although I don't really identify with that philosophy. I don't answer posts as an unschooler.

I've decided that we need to try more structure (coming from me) though for 1st grade. It is my intention to use a curriculum of my choosing and impose a schedule. My dh and I feel there are certain things dd needs to cover at certain times. I can't say if we will change our minds after trying structure or not. That is the style or pov I would identify with most right now though.

I think it is hard to make a poll on this no matter how you word it.
I suppose phrasing it "what homeschool style do you most identify with currently?" might work if you were doing another poll. I think limiting to 1 choice and allowing "other" as a voting option might help it to be a more accurate representation.