I'm eclectic. I tend to lean a bit towards the Charlotte Mason approach, but not entirely. I love unit studies and learning based on literature.
My style as a teacher is very schooly, which is not the same as saying that I like to lecture all day. But I do lean heavily on textbooks/workbooks. However, when I was coming up, school was something I did during the day while waiting for the opportunity to learn some stuff on my own. I was raised as an only, so reading was my major entertainment. You'd think that it having been that way for me, I'd be a much more relaxed, unschooly type of teacher... but I'm just not. Of course, now that we're schooling Other People's Kids, the more schooly approach does help me to be accountable to their parents, with report cards and all that jazz.
Last year was my first year HS'ing so I was all about the textbooks. This year I hardly use them at all. I have been doing stuff like file folder games, letting the kids pick their reading books from the library rather than follow a curriculum, board/computer games, arts and crafts, joural writing, educational shows/videos, and printing off worksheets from the internet. I guess you could call my style all over the place. The only textbook I follow is saxon math for my older dd. I still feel the need for her to have a math curriculum, plus she likes it.
We were schooly when I had three to teach, but now wiht just one I am scheduled to a certain extent but mosty I hand him the list each day and he goes down it. We have certain classes that I teach him or we discuss what we are doing on projects etc, then we do other things as me teach he listens then does project/etc. but we are not following a set time slot anymore this dc is more finish the work and decide if he needs a break type of kid and then we go on to the next class as I think we need to... its kind of owrking out this way.
I'm eclectic. I like lots of hands on activities especially with geography, history, and science. I love literature and living books too. So I make up lots of my own curriculum. I do have a schedule that looks specific, but I just use it as a guide. You can see it here.
relaxed and eclectic for now.... I was hoping to become more school at home this year, but so far it hasn't happened.
Eclectic and very relaxed. We tried being like a school with a schedule and we tried different curriculums and this is easier to direct towards what ds wants to learn. Since I have only one that makes it easy. We do start the day at 8:30 and that is it for set times. Sometimes we wait until dad is home so he can participate too.
I'm me. That's all I can say. I do what I think is best, my older kids and I choose the textbooks that they like and I can deal with. Or I just go ahead and choose because they are being the typical teen and whining about school. With my ds who is 4 we do school work very loosely. Some days we get a lot accomplished and others not so much. I'm not sure if we'll home school him or send him to ps because my dh would like him to experience it. I don't want him to go, he's high energy and I think he'll be in the principal's office beginning from day one. Plus, he thinks our Charter school is his school and has friends there. Ah, I didn't mean to get to whining. Anyway, I do things that make sense for us and intrigue all of us and it seems to go well.
I don't know what all those styles mean. I just know what we do. I have a plan for the week, and we do as much as possible each day during the baby's morning nap. Ds gets to choose the subject (within reason), and we go from there. As long as it all gets done, I don't care when, where, or how.
