How Does Your Garden Grow?

By Sandra

This spring our family decided to plant a container garden. We thought it would provide a few practical lessons in agriculture, so we decided on small tomato plants, green and red pepper plants, and baby lettuces. I am not a gardener, don’t particularly care for indoor plants, and certainly don’t have a trademark green thumb with regard to my yard shrubs. Despite my lack of experience, we decided to try this modern “Victory” garden, a knock-off from the popular U.S. garden from World War II.

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Approaches to Homeschooling: Eclectic

By Sandra

So many great choices, why limit yourself to one style? That’s exactly what the eclectic homeschooler thinks! If you can see parts of several homeschooling styles that you like, and can envision using a little of each of them in you approach to homeschooling, this method may be for you.

This approach brings freedom to teach each child differently or identically in styles, as is convenient with the learners in your home, or the subjects the learners have in common. This style requires the teacher to test whether the goal of each lesson has been achieved for each child. It’s common in the eclectic home to have a child narrating, to show understanding with literature, while using a traditional textbook approach for science, for example. There is no limit to the number or ways of mixing styles together, unless the child is not progressing within one approach. If that is the case, the homeschooling parent simply adjusts the approach to better fit the subject and style of the student learner.

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Approaches To Homeschooling: Charlotte Mason Method

By Sandra

If your first impression of the Charlotte Mason method was that it’s the “tea cups and cozies” approach to homeschooling, you wouldn’t be alone. But if you’ve yet to delve beneath the Victorian illustrations and tea time references associated with this style, you may have constructed your opinion on mere twaddle, rather than on the substantive pillars of the time-tested philosophy.

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Approaches To Homeschooling: The Classical Style

By Sandra

The Classical Style of homeschooling engages children developmentally in three stages. This is known as the Trivium, and is comprised of memorization, argumentation, and self-expression (The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer). Classical Style uses language and history to develop a child’s curiosity. It steers away from the use of video curriculum.

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So Who Are Your "Peeps?" - The Socialization Question

By: Sandra

While you’re researching this homeschool phenomenon, you will likely encounter the always-in-vogue socialization question. It will be posed by family, concerned friends or colleagues, or your conscience. If it’s your conscience, don’t ignore it. And if it’s asked by someone else, don’t get frustrated. It is a valid question, to which you’ll soon have a sound answer!

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