What to do...?

So here I am, on Christmas Eve, working, reading on the computer in stead of ...?  Dad is working tonight, the children are in bed and I forgot to visit the library today.  So onto the computer to read.

And reading through some Facebook comments I realised how overwhelming / complicated homeschooling can seem.

Just look at homeschooling.  There is:

1.  "School-at-home" - very formal curriculums that follow the government regulations
2.  Homeschooling that is more informal but still uses curriculums to suit their needs
3.  Eclectics that use a mixture of methods and curriculums
4.  Classical approaches
5.  The Principal Approach
6.  Unschooling in varying degrees - even Christian Unschooling
7.  .....

There is:

* Delaying academics - Better late than early; 
or
* Accelerated Eduction


There are different ways to follow whatever one you choose with:

* Computer based education 
                                            or

                                                 * Book based education

* Unit studies - with curriculums or on your own
* Themed studies - using the curriculum
* Project studies

And also

• * Lapbooking
• * Notebooking

We use terms like:  UNSCHOOLING or DESCHOOLING (do we understand it ourselves?)

There are different methods linked to different people:

• Charlotte Mason and Guiding Natural curiosity - with a curriculum or without
• John Holt and unschooling
• Jean Piaget and cognitive development
• Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf schools / homeschooling
• Maria Montessori and the prepared environment
• Raymon and Dorothy Moore and "school can wait" and "better late than early"
• and more...

You can use your television    OR   dump it and never do any screen time (even no computers)

And then we talk about formulating your homeschool philosophy, determining your children's learning styles / personalities, and your own teaching style.  

AND SO MUCH MORE

And all this can be very confusing to new homeschoolers; to those who want to homeschool but don't even know where to begin.  It's even confusing for those of use who might have studied the "subject" for some years.

And to those new comers,  sometimes the best way forward is to just relax, enjoy your children, read a bit more... before you decide.

And now that I clarified this for myself, I'm of to Google more methods, people, curriculums....

or maybe I will run away and have a short holiday before the next school year begins in 2012.

Formulating a home schooling philosophy

  "And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: And you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house, and on your gates." Deut 6:6-9

I've read about homeschooling philosophies, thought about it, discussed some of it, but found it very difficult to formulate our own philosophy. Some of the books I read stated that you should have a philosophy but they never said what it actually means and entails or how to formulate it.

To contribute to a blogging carnival was therefore not for me, I thought. Persistent e-mails ;-) compelled me to see this as an assignment to complete by Wednesday. And to see how to put what I have at the back of my mind, to paper.

The first thing I did was to google “homeschool philosophy” to see what advise could be found on the web regarding forming and writing down our homeschooling philosophy.

I found Homeschool Curriculum Advisor to be of great help. The website leads you through questions and suggested readings of articles into forming your own philosophy. Through reading facts can be discovered and ideas formed or formulated regarding what parents will see as successful homeschooling, what their long term and short term goals are much more.

We are still in the process of discovery and formulation but this website already helped a lot. Over time I do hope to find other websites and books to help us fine-tune our philosophy.

So, this is what we have formulated so far:

We believe in God, that the Bible is God's word to us, that we believe in the creation of everything by God about 6000 years ago, and that God had planned everything before He even started, so He could speak all He planned into life. And even just tell the earth, the sea and the heaven to bring forth all He had planned. He also had a redemption plan set up; so no surprises should the humans He created, use the free-will He gave them .

Reading the Bible I found that God planned families, and that children should grow up in families (that's why they are born in families ).

The above-mentioned scripture will therefore be a guiding light in our homeschool.

Understanding our family, the personalities and temperaments, love languages, the way we learn / our learning styles, the way mom would like to teach (a teacher prefers their own learning style) also will help us in determining how we will homeschool and what curriculum we will use.

My next "assignment" for myself will be to search deeper into what God's plan is for my children and the way to go forward.