How many of you are relaxed homeschoolers? It is really a hard thing to define even, but what I am referring to is almost a total freedom from what society (or someone else) expects your child's education to be. I am going through a big change and in some ways it is scary but wonderful. My son is not an academic type of student. And, even though I believe he should be ready for life, I don't think the "required" subjects should be required in our homeschool or at least not all of them. My love of textbooks has done a complete 180. I now don't plan to buy history or geography texts anymore (did I just say that). I used to practically drool over the textbook section in the homeschool store. Now, I don't have the desire at all to go look or buy. Obviously some things need a textbook or at least are easier with a text, but not all. Please if you are a relaxed homeschooler, how relaxed are you? Are there any unschoolers here? What does that "look" like in your home? Or, finally, if there are any traditional strict homeschoolers how does the idea of relaxed homeschooling sit with you? I know, I used to think people were crazy not to go through the textbook routine and do everything that someone else decided that we should do. I would think that people were just not doing the best for their kids.
I was just coming on here to post about this. I have taken on the same philosophy as you this year. I am very interested in hearing what a typical day is like for HS'ers with the relaxed/eclectic approch. It is so easy for me to open a textbook and follow all the lesson plans. But I felt since I have the opportunity to HS, I should make it fun and individualized to my child. I'll be honest I feel a little lost though, it is alot of work to try to come up with your own "curriculum" and projects every day.
I would probably qualify as relaxed/ eclectic/ slightly unschooler. I should qualify that statement with this: ds is autstic with auditory processing delays and some physical issues. Ds is nearly 10 yrs old (in Dec) and very high functioning. We opted to hold son back from starting kindergarden until he was 6 going on 7. Our state requires he start kindergarden when 6. But his b'day let us wait. So this year he is in 3rd gr. Math is a workbook. We use Christian Light Education. He is working on second gr and chewing through that rapidly. Phonics/ reading - according to the "experts" ds should be reading chapter books by now. Oh well, sorry for them. I do use a phonics program the has easy readers but I don't follow their schedule. And ds "reads" the readers while listening to an audio version of the readers. About once a week or so I pick one of the readers for him to read out loud to me. I don't make a big deal out of his reading. We get other books on tape from our libray and I try to get the hard copy too. This way the book is read to him and he can follow along in the hard copy. These books are just for fun. History- I use the Sonlight outline but do everything my own way. I go through the library and pick what books we'll read (translate: what books I read to him) What documentaries, films or other visual material we use that match the point in history we're working on. We just finished up Greek and Roman Empires. Should be moving on to the Vikings. But ds got a video series about WW2, the Pacific battles. So I'm considering jumping to WW2 for our next point of history. Also my dad fought in WW2 so I would like to tie it in with family history since ds never met my dad because dad died 25 yr ago. Science is whatever he would like to study. Last year it was tornadoes. We watched gobs of tornado videos, read lots of books about tornadoes. And for his project he constructed a diarama of a tornado going through a farm. It including lego figures, Hotwheel cars and Card stock buildings. He gave a little speach to whoever came over to visit about his tornado model and I took pictures to turn in with his portfolio. This year its earthquakes and volcanoes. I roll with whatever he is interested in. I could write more but.... this is getting long. Hope this helps. Marty
Sorry, I should add we do lots of hands on projects. I plan and research subjects quite a bit to adapt them to ds. Measuring what he has learned is usually by a project or discussion. If he is able to tell or demonstrate something about the subject, I'm satisfied. If he is not able to, the subject is dropped and we move on to something else. Marty
Im a wanna be. I wanna relax but I put so much detail that I am more detailed more enhanced than the public and private schools to do them one better, way too often. I am praying about it! lol I want to relax more , and each year I get that way more so> Really I follow the teacher books or student directed times for learning more than anything else, I follow what they want to do but revert back to my schedule at least once a month cann you call it a scattered style?
I loved textbooks too. Now, I only use it for grammar and math. I use it for vocab or spelling too. I found the children learn so much more from reading and pursuing what they are interested. Does it matter if my child studies the solar system first and then plants when the kids in public school study plants first and then solar system? No, not at all. In fact, because my children study things when they are interested, they actually retain it. Forcing textbooks on children is like pouring water in to a noodle strainer. Nothing gets retained.
We are relaxed. I love textbooks or ANY books. I think just reading in general helped me as I was growing up with learning things, spelling and general knowledge. I have different learners. We have done SOS for 2 years. Dd 14 decided this year she likes books better so she is doing Writing and Grammar and Math in books and History and Science on SOS(Switched on Schoolhouse). Ds16 is doing the same. They are both High School so they have electives that really lead them to hands on projects. This year is Home Ec(dd), Small Engine Repair(ds) and Auto Maintenance for them both. We have a lot of free time - I don't make them do a lot inside although I do nag a lot about them doing at least 'what is on their list'. I made a list of what to get done each day so they would get at least that done. We like to have the time to do things when we need to and they learn from those too - we garden, scrap(part of our income), community service, fishing, taking care of animals, just spending time together, etc. I have a lot of trouble making MYSELF sit down. I like to work in my home and in my yard. My kids do take after me. Someone with 7 kids(yes, they homeschool) once told me not to worry that they might not get everything one year because they will get it next year a little more in depth anyway. So I try not to worry!! I forgot to add that I keep lots of books around and they all read at bedtime because they find they enjoy it (except ds16 - he's usually exhausted at bedtime). I think this is a BIG learning time.
I guess I would have put myself in a "relaxed structure" catagory .... ROFL!!! I worked mainly with work units. Love them!! I used texts a lot through the jr high and hs years, exept with my son who was also not the academic type at all, very hands-on. I did a lot of work study and internship, projects, etc. with him and stuck mainly to the 3 R's otherwise. The kids never used a history or science text before high school unless it was as a reference to write a report. But that doesn't mean I didn't teach it. Again, I used unit studies. For history in Jr Hi I taught on a timeline approach, from early civilization to modern day. Brought in geography (this was from a Christian perspective - spread of the world from the mid-east). I did bring in some curriculums for different things we were studying for short periods, but they were definitely NOT curriculums you would find in any school, Christian or non. So, while I was organized, usually had a schedule (very flexible schedule), and kept our number of school hours up, etc., I often schooled around the year (especially in science and history) and short days, took off long holidays, everything totally "non-traditional". I wonder how many last minute "mental health days" we actually took over the years!?!? I never "unschooled" but always had a very flexible, totally non-traditional approach to teaching.
we consider ourselves unschoolers. My girl is in the 6th grade and have been since late pre-k. We do all our work on the computer or whatever can print off of the computer. We do very little sturctured work but we do all of the required subjects.
Glad you posted this. We used to "unschool" to some extent. As time went on I realized that there were subjects that were required to pass tests later in life and that ds would not EVER be interested in learning it so those demanded some sort of text or workbook. Now ds13 uses Math-U-See, SOS for LA, science and history. We've dropped the ball on fine arts this year. Poor boy, he has just never been geared that way and he really needs something fine arts on his transcripts. Anyway, all that to say that I am also looking into changing my approach to suit my non-academic, highly-motivated-to-be-a-Marine son. :roll: Will that ever mesh??? :lol: Anxious to hear more responses on relaxed yet viable approaches!
I found a great web site, I think it is homeschool oasis. It is great and offers some great insight into what is really important when it comes to our kids. God has practically had to knock me over to get my attention, but now that I am listening it is very peaceful (most the time). As far as what our school day will end up looking like, I am still working on that.
Text books do, however, make great reference books, even if you don't work through them chapter by chapter.
We do use a variety of books for refrence and also use dictionaries, thesaurus and encyclopedias. It really amounts to the way your child learns best. My girl learns best by playing games that are for learning and never is interested in a topic long enough to finish it. Some children learn best in structured learning and others don't.
I wanna be an unschooler too!! can I play?! Ugh. I really want to relax, but then they would just play video games all day. So I need some structure...and now I have a list and we do that and I worry it isn't enough so I add more...and they whine and I assume it is because they have it too good and don't understand how hard it will be in the real world so I add more and pretty soon we are doing 6 hours of workbook type stuff. ugh. help. MY goals are: That they can carry on a conversation on a variety of topics. Math - through Algebra 2 That they have a love of learning. That they are smarter than all the public schoolers that we know. That they are smarter than all the homeschoolers that we know. Ha Ha...and the last two are of course my downfall. sigh.
When I started HS'ing I thought it was all about structure and using "pre-made" curriculum but when I joined the HS group here I realized I may be the only one who uses them. The others in the group allow their children to work at their own pace, one gives her kids a binder for the week and tells them to just have it finished by the end of the week. I will admit I may be on the highly structured side but as I get used to this (it is only my 2nd month) I have begun to relax a bit.
