When preparing to homeschool, parents usually ask “what is the best homeschool curriculum”. Before exploring the many different homeschool curriculums, you should first decided which style of homeschooling best suits your families needs. There are three main styles of homeschooling: Traditional, Relaxed, and Eclectic. Each of these styles have many subsections that the majority of homeschoolers tend to fall under.
Every parent and child has their own unique idea of how they would like to homeschool. In this article, I will share my experiences with different homeschool styles. I hope this will help you understand how fluid each child’s homeschooling experience can be. It’s essential to realize that what works for one child may not work for another, even if they are siblings. However, as long as you are striving for the child’s best needs, your style of homeschooling is perfect.
What Homeschool Style Did I Prefer
In my previous post, “The Events that Led Us to Homeschool“, I mentioned how I came to love the freedom that unschooling provides. After a year of research, I felt confident that this approach would be the best option for our family. Through researching, I realized how important it is to refer to this style of homeschooling as “child-led learning”. The term “unschooling” is misleading to outsiders. This term even created confusion when I first attempted to explain to Mana about how he would be learning.
Child-led learning is the belief that children are naturally curious and will learn without being forced. The idea is to create an environment where children can explore their interests and learn at their own pace. Educators do not need to impose lessons on the students, as children will learn what they need to know through their own curiosity and real-life experiences. Once a child shows interest in a topic, the educator provides more information about the topic. It’s important that the educator also expresses excitement and curiosity in the subject as well. Through this process, both the child and the educator will discover a passion for learning.
The child-led learning approach can be challenging to grasp and even more so to implement. Years of traditional learning have conditioned us to believe that children must learn the core subjects through set lessons. If the student doesn’t learn math, reading, writing, science, and history they won’t acquire the necessary skills for life. As many of us have been ingrained with this perspective from a young age, it is difficult to shift our mindset away from traditional textbook learning and trust in a child-led approach.
Homeschool Expectation
When I imagined an ideal homeschooling environment, I envisioned the majority of our learning taking place outdoors. I firmly believe that our connection to nature can teach us nearly everything we need to succeed in life. We were looking forward to daily hikes, nature journaling, nature crafts, impromptu lessons, observations, hypotheses, experiments, games, and much more.
I pictured Mana asking me a plethora of questions and quickly jumping from one topic to another. I dreamt of him inquiring about the ocean and its marine life. And envisioned us bonding over our love for snorkeling and eventually SCUBA diving. With a desire to teach him the art of conducting his own research and executing a well-planned experiment sprinkled in. Additionally, I hoped that he would discover a business opportunity so that he could learn the ins and outs of finances and starting a business. To further his personal growth, I had planned various volunteer opportunities and was optimistic that he would find joy in helping others or protecting the environment.
Most importantly, I wanted our homeschooling experience to be full of love and happiness. I envisioned my child’s excitement in learning beside and through me.
Deschooling
As Mana approached the end of his 7th-grade year, I began to feel excited about the adventures we could have together. However, I also learned about the benefits of “deschooling” for children leaving traditional schools and transitioning to a child-led learning environment. Deschooling involves taking a break from all forms of schooling, giving both the child and parent a sabbatical. It is recommended that the break lasts one month for every year the child was in conventional school. Mana had completed 7 years of public school (excluding preschool and kindergarten), so we decided to take a 7-month break from school.
Why is this recommended? The idea behind it is that both the child and the parents need time to decompress, move away from the traditional learning mindset, and discover their interests. During this time, parents should simply observe their child. Take careful note of what they are interested in and what style of learning suits them best. If the student discovers an interest and starts asking questions, follow their lead and encourage them to learn more.
During the deschooling period, I still require 4 things from Mana.
1) He had to read for at least an hour every day
2) He needed to spend at least an hour outdoors
3) He had daily chores
4) I required him to reflect on his day and recall what he enjoyed
Apart from fulfilling the four requirements, Mana took a complete break for seven months. During this time, he engaged himself in reading, spending time with friends, watching YouTube videos, and playing Minecraft. He did show interest in astronomy and creating a YouTube channel, but when provided with opportunities to learn more, he preferred to continue his sabbatical until the seven months were over.
The Start of Homeschooling
After the initial 7 months of Deschooling, we gradually fell into a routine. During the deschooling period, Mana didn’t show much interest in learning. So, I decided to initiate a theme-based approach. I asked him to select a topic that he wanted to explore more. However, he struggled to think of anything and was hesitant to share his choice. I gave him some examples and asked him to take some time to think it over. After a while, he returned to me and timidly said, “Dragons”. After some pondering, I was able to devise a plan on how to incorporate this topic into his learning.
How to Create a Homeschool Curriculum: Dragon Themed
Are you intrigued about how to develop a school plan focused on dragons? Let me explain how I did it.
Firstly, my child had a keen interest in reading books about dragons, so I built our plan on that foundation. To expand his knowledge, he researched the history of dragons across various cultures and civilizations. During this process, he took notes, which he later used to either present his findings or create a summary. I gave him the freedom to choose the format that he felt most comfortable with.
Furthermore, he proposed the concept of creating a dragon mask that would exhale smoke from its nostrils and spew fire from its mouth. It was challenging to integrate mathematics into our project, but we eventually decided to begin with Khan Academy.
Mana’s Struggles with his Homeschool Curriculum
As mentioned previously, we eased our way into our homeschool curriculum. He continued the 4 aforementioned requirements with the addition of one new subject a week. Once he was juggling all subjects (within a week, not everyday) he quickly became overwhelmed and frustrated.
He refused to conduct his research on his own and full-heartedly believed that copying and pasting notes from the articles he read was sufficient. He was 13 at this time and had already conducted many research projects for traditional school in the past. I firmly believe that he was and is at an age where he should have the basic skills to research on his own. Therefore, I retaught the basics to him. Then sent him off to continue on his own, while still close enough to provide support and help.
His interest in the topic of dragons quickly dissipated. He frequently complained that the 7 month hiatus was too long and he can’t remember how to do anything anymore. I informed him that it’s okay to need refreshers and there’s no point on dwelling in the past.
Unfortunately, his ADHD brain wouldn’t allow us to continue with the freedom of a child-led learning approach. And I had to make major changes to how I envisioned our homeschool experience.
Our Homeschool Reality
In the beginning, I was convinced that Mana would prefer the flexibility of child-led learning. However, he expressed that he felt lost without specific guidelines and felt he was not gaining much knowledge. Therefore, I abandoned my initial plan and designed a schedule for him to follow. People with ADHD tend to be more productive when they have a written list to guide them.
I tried to make his list as detailed as possible and included his breaks, meals, and hygiene. However, this list has undergone several changes since it was originally written.
Volunteer Work
Interestingly, the most valuable lessons he has learned so far have been through his volunteer work. He dedicated several days a week working between 6-12 hours a day at a nonprofit horse farm. Many experiences he gained through the horse farm are hard skills he can put on his resume. Some examples include, operating a tractor and bulldozer, woodwork, horse care and maintenance, fence repair, and caring for chickens, ducks, donkeys, and pigs.
Mana was thrilled everyday he spent at the farm. He thrived in the relaxed and trusted environment that the owner created. He even enjoyed the hard manual labor in the hot sun. Finally, I had discovered something he was good at and genuinely loved.
As a bonus, the owner was a doctor and had an extensive knowledge on many topics that he loved to impart on Mana. The woman in charge of training and caring for the horses taught Mana the bond between horses and humans and the history behind it. Mana gained maturity, courage, and discipline through that experience.
Homeschooling Through Mentors
Mana’s free time was spent interacting with the residents of the RV resort where we were currently staying. One of the residents taught him the art of gardening in a bucket and how to care for plants. He also taught Mana how to properly use a hatchet and create new tools from scrap metal. Another resident taught Mana how to cook a variety of meals over an open fire. Mana learned new recipes and discovered a joy in cooking. He also learned to play billiards and quickly became quite skilled at it.
Conclusion
I learned that Mana preferred the hands-on approach of learning practical life skills. After witnessing his new found knowledge and work ethic, I was finally able to let go of the need to learn core subjects.
We now stick to an eclectic approach. My main job is to provide him with more opportunities to spend time with people knowledgeable in their trades. I set him up with a hands-on lesson plan I believe he will enjoy. We follow this plan until he decides to delve into a topic. Once he’s discovered an interest, we drop the homeschool curriculum and I follow his lead. After he loses interest or believes he has learned all he needs, we pick up the curriculum where we left off.
I initially had a certain plan in mind for homeschooling my son Mana, but I had to make adjustments to cater to his unique learning style. As he continues to grow and explore different paths, I will adapt to meet his needs.
Recently, we had a discussion about what he would like to see more or less of in his homeschooling experience, and what new activities he wants to add. Mana is currently 15 years old and is interested in starting a part-time job, ideally an apprenticeship. Additionally, he wants to establish a camping club for kids his age, as there is no such club in our current location.
It has been a joy observing my son’s growth and development, and witnessing his potential in life. I am glad that we switched to a homeschooling approach.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading our story! Please leave a comment and let me know which style you follow and if it has changed since you started homeschooling.
References
https://happyhivehomeschooling.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-homeschooling/
