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A Net in Time

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guest post

Going Down the Rabbit Hole! (How to Create a Unit Study for your Homeschool)

November 12, 2020 By Annette1 2 Comments

Welcome with me Yvie to my blog today!  She’ll be talking about How to create a unit study for your homeschool. 

Unit studies provide an in-depth (and often hands-on) approach to learning about any topic your students are interested in, providing individualized instruction and instilling a love of learning! 

It may seem overwhelming at first, but creating a unit study is easier than you think! There are just five simple steps to creating a unit study…

How to Create a Unit Study for your Homeschool

What Will You Study?

What is your child interested in? Unit studies are an excellent schooling method for child-led families! To begin, choose one of your child’s interests (e.g., dinosaurs, princesses, Minecraft) and create studies around it. These might include science, history, geography, math, writing, literature, or life skills…anything relating to the topic!

If you want to do regular unit studies, keep a running list of ideas to pull from, and try to plan a couple of weeks in advance. This will give you time to gather the needed materials. Elementary and middle schoolers are going to have more leeway with unit studies, while high schoolers will need more stringent activities to keep up with graduation requirements.

How Much Time Will You Devote To This Unit?

A unit study planner is a must! This one covers a full year, with room for five in-depth units, one per season plus two in the summer. This is a good pace for unit studies if you are using them to complement the regular curriculum. If your entire curriculum is unit studies, you’re going to want to do a couple each month.

Deciding which route to take depends on your schooling style. If you prefer a regular curriculum, but want to incorporate Fun Fridays, you’ll want the relaxed pace. If you prefer a child-led, or interested-based, school, then the more aggressive approach to unit studies will be a better fit.

Either way, the Unit Study Planner is a good place to get organized with the first few units you cobble together. It includes pages for monthly, weekly, and daily unit study plans – this way you can choose the schedule which works best for you! Once you’ve got a few units under your belt, you’ll discover which groove works best for your family!

What Activities Do You Want To Do?

Are you a bookish family? Do you tend toward the outdoors? Prefer to learn through video? Choose something that is the base for your unit….your ‘spine,’ if you will. If you’re a travelling family, you might have location or event-based studies, such as the Boston Tea Party, NASA Space Center, or the Gettysburg Address.

No matter what you choose, you’ll want to include a few basic components:

  • Books – Visit the library and find a selection of fiction and non-fiction books related to the topic. Bonus points for learning to use the card catalog!

  • Videos – There’s nothing like visual representation of more difficult concepts, so scout DVDs and YouTube for related videos.

  • Field Trips – A day trip to the zoo or science museum, or even a longer overnight trip to a big attraction…all of these fit the bill.

  • Hands-on Activities – No one likes sitting at a desk all day, so get up and make something! This might include STEM kits, cooking projects, or art projects.

How to Create a Unit Study for your Homeschool

Schedule or Fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants?

For my personality, there’s no question here…being Type A, I’m always going to answer ‘schedule.’ But maybe you prefer to wing it. That’s ok…that’s the beauty of homeschooling! You get to tailor things to your family.

Whatever your method, you’re going to need to plan at least a little bit…if for no other reason than to have the necessary items to complete your unit. You’ll need to know what ingredients / materials are needed for hands-on projects, and also what resources (books, dvds, etc) are needed for the research and informational portion of the unit study.

You’ll probably want to know ahead of time where the museum is and when it’s open…though you might just get in the car and decide to impulsively visit. It happens. Choose which method works best for you, and your family, and roll with it.

Are You Keeping Track?

Record-keeping doesn’t have to be difficult, especially with elementary and middle school students. The creation of a lapbook or notebook adequately shows what they have learned. With upper grades students, a portfolio that includes books read, photographs of hands-on activities, and research projects will document the unit.

Need Some Help Getting Started?

Homeschool On the Range has several pre-made unit study bundles in their Cottage Shoppe! These are literature-based units that cover vocabulary, critical thinking, history, geography, and learning through hands-on activities. Use coupon code NOVELSTUDY50 to snag your bundle at 50% off through March 31st, 2021! 

Yvie is a veteran homeschooling mom and the high school counselor for The Homeschool House, a non-profit organization.  She helps to create unit studies and enjoys helping other families on their homeschool journey.  When not teaching or counseling, she enjoys reading, spending time in her garden, and traveling the country with her boys.  You can find her at Homeschool On the Range, on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

Filed Under: Homeschooling Tagged With: guest post, Homeschooling

Guest Post: 4 Important Tips for Choosing the Perfect Homeschool Curriculum

August 18, 2020 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

I would like to welcome Amanda to the blog today.  She offered to share a post with you my lovely readers on 4 Important Tips for Choosing the Perfect Homeschool Curriculum.   Doesn’t that sound interesting?  Don’t you just want to dive in and learn more? 

4 Important Tips for Choosing the Perfect Homeschool Curriculum

You’ve decided to homeschool!

Congrats! This is such an exciting and scary time for you I’m sure.

Once a parent decides to homeschool their first thought is to find a curriculum. But it shouldn’t be.

When you decide to start homeschooling, there is a lot of thought that needs to go into your homeschool before you even begin thinking about which homeschool curriculum you will use.

Today I’m going to share 4 important tips that you need to consider before you even begin looking for the perfect homeschool curriculum.

After you go through these, you may even begin to wonder if a curriculum is really necessary or how to even use a curriculum in the right way.

No worries! These 4 tips will help you get a better understanding of what your homeschool day will look like and what you will want to teach.

girls on desk looking at notebook
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

It’s Not All About the Curriculum

choice in curriculumFirst, let’s talk about what a curriculum is and how it can best serve you on your homeschooling journey.

A curriculum is essentially a roadmap with an end destination that will most likely have a million and one pit stops along the way.

Learning is not linear. If it was, we wouldn’t have a choice in curriculum because they would all be the same.

Every child will have different interests and be ready to learn different skills at different times. We each have our own unique learning timeline.

The experiences we have and the environment we grow up in is what shapes that unique learning timeline. This is why every curriculum is different.

marketing school business idea
Photo by Gerd Altmann on Pexels.com

How to Choose the Perfect Homeschool Curriculum

Instead of looking at arbitrary assessment markers, like standards and grade levels, we’re going to deep dive into your child and your goals. Follow the 4 tips below and you’ll walk away with a better understanding of your child and how you want your homeschool journey to go.

Tip #1: Define Your Goals

The very first thing you want to think about are the goals you want for your children. I recommend setting only 3-4 goals per year. To do this, you’ll first start by thinking about where your child is in each important skill (math, reading, and writing). Then set specific goals that will help them move forward in that skill.

Do not…

I cannot emphasize this enough…

Do not go look at school standards or grade level requirements. They are not developmentally appropriate, nor do they take into consideration your child’s unique learning timeline.

The only way to enhance your child’s skill is to move forward one small step at a time.

With the homeschool parents that I work with, I suggest setting one goal for math, one for writing, and one for reading. Each one of those goals should move them forward and enhance their skill in some way.

Now that you know your goals for your child, you can begin looking for a curriculum that will help you meet those goals.

abstract blackboard bulb chalk
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Tip #2: Figure Out Your Educational Philosophy

We are not going to identify with one particular method of homeschooling here.

I want you to take a few minutes to reflect on your past educational experiences. What was school or education like for you?

Then spend time reflecting on what you want education to mean to your child.

Take your answers to create your own educational philosophy. This will take bits and pieces of different educational methods. Once you have your educational philosophy, you will have a better understanding of what type (or method) of homeschool curriculum you can focus on.

Do you see how using these tips are already eliminating so many choices in homeschool curriculum? And we’re not even done yet!

woman in beige coat standing near white wooden book shelf
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Tip #3: Understand Your Child’s Learning Style

I see many homeschool parents get confused about their child’s learning style. They tend to look for a curriculum that’s very heavy in learning with their preferred learning style.

But here’s the thing…

Every child learns best through hands-on experiences, especially in the early elementary ages. It doesn’t matter what their learning style may be.

But it is important to know your child’s learning style and combine it with hands-on experiences.

I recommend finding a curriculum that uses your child’s preferred learning style as the main method for learning then follows that with hands-on experiences to help make that new knowledge concrete.

But here’s the catch…

A curriculum should not focus on just one learning style. A good curriculum will incorporate multiple learning styles. Just because your child may have a preferred learning style, doesn’t mean they can’t learn with another learning style. It would get boring if every lesson was taught in the same way.

Teaching in multiple learning styles also gives your child a chance to look at topics/skills from a different viewpoint.

So I may have confused you there…

The bottom line is to find a curriculum where the main way of learning follows your child’s preferred learning style, but also incorporates hands-on activities and other methods of learning.

gray double bell clock
Photo by Moose Photos on Pexels.com

Tip #4 Discover Your Ideal Homeschool Day

This one is similar to figuring out your educational philosophy, but it takes into account the fact that you’re home.

Spend some time reflecting on what your ideal homeschool day would look like. It’s important to  know what this is.

Obviously, having a perfect homeschool day isn’t going to happen often. Kids are kids!

But if your curriculum doesn’t allow for you to even attempt your ideal homeschool day, then you’ll never get that dream come true. This one is all about having the possibility to experience your ideal homeschool day. 

Make sure your curriculum will allow for that possibility.

By going through and reflecting all these 4 tips before looking at a homeschool curriculum, you should be able to eliminate a lot of choices.

What about you?

Did you enjoy Amanda’s post on 4 Important Tips for Choosing the Perfect Homeschool Curriculum?  Are there any tips you think she missed?  How do you go about choosing curriculum? 

Amanda helps homeschoolers raise self-motivated learners by bringing the adventure of learning right into your living room. She’s the creator of The Captivated Learner and The Learning Lifestyle. Amanda is a single, entrepreneur, homeschooling mama of two kiddos. You can follow her on Facebook.

Filed Under: Homeschooling Tagged With: guest post, Homeschooling

How to Avoid These 9 Homeschool Science Mistakes

April 24, 2020 By Annette1 4 Comments

This post is sponsored by College Prep Science. Copyright 2020 by Greg Landry.   I want to welcome Greg Landry to the blog today.  He has some advice for us to keep us from making common homeschool science mistakes. 

Having taught science to several thousand homeschooling and college students over the past 20+ years, several things stand out to me. I’ve put together a list of 9 homeschool science mistakes and 9 concrete steps we can take to better prepare our budding scientists.

Mistakes 1 and 2

Mistake #1 – Generalizing the names for, and thus the way we teach, science. Call it Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc. and not “General Science”, “Physical Science”, etc., even in the young grades. Doing this virtually eliminates the intimidation that comes with “Physics” etc. in the high school years and clarifies what you’re teaching in the middle grades.

For example, at College Prep Science, rather than a homeschool year of “Physical Science,” we teach a semester of “Pre-Physics” and a semester of “Pre-Chemistry.” Rather than a homeschool year of “Life Science,” we teach a semester of “Pre-Biology” and a semester of “Pre-Anatomy and Physiology.”

Mistake #2 – Not doing enough testing.

Testing in the sciences prepares our students for the rigors of high school level homeschool science, college science, standardized testing, and assures that they are learning the material and how to take tests. Of course, it should be age-appropriate, but we should be testing.

Mistakes 3 and 4

Mistake #3 – Teaching science year-round.

I know that many parents are proponents of year-round school (no summer break), but I believe it’s actually counter-productive. From experience with thousands of students, I believe that students need to know they can work hard for a prescribed period of time and then have a total break from classes for a while.

Mistake #4 – Not starting the high school sciences early enough.

I know it’s easy to put off starting the high school sciences, but it’s important, especially if the students may be a college science major. Critical decisions should be made going into 8th grade. The critical factor is being ready for standardized testing and being able to fit in the needed sciences in the high school years. High school Biology should be taken in the 9th grade for most students and in the 8th grade for very capable students who will likely be science majors.

homeschool science mistakes

Mistakes 5 & 6

Mistake #5 – Not beginning to take the ACT early enough.

Success on this standardized test is critical for college admissions and plays a direct role in how much financial aid a student will receive. Taking these tests twice per year beginning in 9th grade gives students experience and confidence which enables them to do well when they take this test for the final time in 11th or 12th grade. See my article on this topic, “6 Reasons to Ditch the SAT and Laser Focus on the ACT.”

Mistake #6 – Not training students to write good lab reports.

As a college professor, I saw the pain of students who came in as science majors without good lab report writing skills and experience. Students get better at this with experience – there’s no substitute for that. Lab reports are simply the written record of the scientific method. It takes lots of practice to develop the skill needed to do well on these.

homeschool science mistakes

Homeschool Science Mistakes 7, 8 & 9

Mistake #7 – Not creating a lab manual for every science class.

A lab manual is a collection of observations, data collection, and lab reports from a class. This gives students one place to neatly keep all of this information and gives them a sense of accomplishment. It’s impressive to have them lined-up on a shelf from all of their science classes. It’s also required by some states or umbrella groups for homeschoolers and some colleges want to see lab manuals as evidence of labs being completed.

Mistake #8 – Being squeamish on Creation.

Despite what you may hear in the media and elsewhere, God wrote the book on science. We need to boldly teach our students about God’s creation. Science and the world around us support biblical creation.

Mistake #9 – Not using graphing extensively.

Graphing, when done regularly through the middle and high school grades has a unique ability to develop critical thinking skills in students that not only benefit them in math, science, and academics in general, but also in life! We encourage families to have students construct one graph daily as part of their homeschooling day. They can graph anything. Let them run with it and you will be surprised at how creative they are. The resulting skills can be very beneficial.

​Homeschool dad, scientist, and former college professor, Greg Landry, offers live, online homeschool science classes, the Homeschool Mom’s Science Podcast, in-person two-day science lab intensives nationwide, freebies for homeschool moms, and homeschool print publications that students can be a part of.

Filed Under: Homeschooling Tagged With: guest post, Science

Add Board Games to Your Homeschool Routine

March 16, 2019 By Annette1 5 Comments

I love having people guest post on my blog.  Today I want to thank Tyler for visiting with us.  I hope you enjoy Tyler’s post.  

Add Board Games to Your Homeschool Routine

One of our goals in homeschooling since the start has been to find a way to make it fun. My wife and I both went to public school and we knew we didn’t want homeschooling to be ‘public school at home’. However, we weren’t sure what we DID want it to look like. Starting out we were planning fun activities each day. The kids loved it and we could see they were having fun while learning, but we quickly realized we would be burnt out on creating this fun learning environment long before they learned everything they needed to know. So we started looking for something fun (and easy!) to supplement our homeschooling activities. Enter gameschooling.

What is GameSchooling?

Put simply, gameschooling is homeschooling using games to teach. For us, gameschooling is primarily board games, but also includes some outdoors games. Adding board games to our homeschool routine has been an amazing change for our house. For the kids, board games have kept learning fun and engaging. As parents, gameschooling has taken a lot of the stress out of homeschool planning, because we know board games are there to help us teach or reinforce our homeschooling efforts.

Add Board Games to Your Homeschool Routine

How to Add (or Increase) Games to Your Homeschool Routine?

Fitting board games into an already full day of homeschooling can be a challenge. Here are our top five ways to fit games into our homeschool schedule: 

1. Pick a Subject and Find a Board Game A great way to get started using board games in your homeschool activities is to simply pick a subject you are working on and find a board game to reinforce it. Looking for some inspiration? Check out this article on 100 things kids learn from board games, with game recommendations for each!

2. Add a Daily Game Time

Another option to consider if you’re looking to add some gameschooling to your days is to set aside a certain time each day for board games. A lot of modern board games can be played in fifteen to forty five minutes. This makes them a perfect activity when the kids need a break. We love to play board games right before lunch when the kid’s focus starts to be more concerned with what is in the fridge then the topic at hand.

3. Start a Family Game Night

Rather than cram board games into your school day, try out a family board game night. One of my favorite memories growing up was playing board games as a family. Board game night was the one time all the hecticness of work, school, and other activities seemed to fall away and we were able to enjoy family time playing board games. Little did I know I was learning at the same time! If you have a family with a large age range, check out this list of the 10 best games that preschoolers through adults will all love.

4. Use board Games to Wind Down for Bed

I know I can’t be the only one who has kids who seem to get more and more awake the closer bedtime gets. Board games are a great tool to burn some of that excess brain energy off and help your kids wind down for bed. We try to avoid silly games, or active games right before bed, and instead target something like sleeping queens or robot turtles. These games hit the right balance of challenging without being too complex for them to focus on right before bed in our house.

Add Board Games to Your Homeschool Routine

5. Travel with Board Games

Traveling is a great time to try out gameschooling. Regular homeschool activities are difficult when your away from home. The combination of not having your regular homeschool tools at your disposal and kids being excited about traveling is not ideal. If you pick the right board games, they’re easy to play in a car, on a plane, or where ever you might be traveling and they won’t take up much space in your luggage! To get you started, here’s a list of our favorite kids board games to travel with.

Start your Gameschooling Journey!

I hope these tips can help you start (or expand) your gameschooling and see what a powerful homeschool tool it can be. I’d love to hear from you in the comments! If you already gameschool, what is your favorite way to fit board games in your day? If you haven’t started yet, which of these tips will you try?

Tyler blogs at kidsloveboardgames.com. Kids Love Board Games focuses on the benefits of playing family board games, gameschooling, as well as board game recommendations and reviews. Sign up for Kids Love Board Games newsletter and follow Kids Love Board Games on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Filed Under: Homeschooling Tagged With: guest post, homeschool

Four Essentials of Child-Led Learning

February 8, 2019 By Annette1 24 Comments

Guess what!   Amanda agreed to guest post for me today.  Isn’t that great?  Welcome her with me to my blog today.  🙂  She’ll be talking about Four Essentials of Child-led learning.   Student led learning has taken us through world war 1 this year.  

“Mommy, what’s this?” Sicily questioned as she pulled out her kids’ meal toy.

“It’s an arctic fox.” I replied.

“Oh! I like him.”

“Would you like to see if we can find a YouTube video about an arctic fox?”

We headed to the tablet to look up videos on the arctic fox to learn a bit more about this little stuffed animal she got.

The video we found was a snippet from a documentary with an arctic fox searching for food. These little guys hop up and nose dive into the snow to catch small prey.

Sicily giggled non-stop while watching the fox catch mice in the snow.

From there we read books, did a few process art creations, and even pretend we were arctic foxes hunting for mice in the snow.

This love of arctic foxes extended into more arctic animals, so we started to study the polar bear, penguins, and orca.We learned about blubber, ice, and how penguins stay dry.

All this learning from a single fast food kids’ meal toy.

That’s the beauty of child-led learning. One small experience can spark months of learning and many different avenues to travel down.

What is Child-Led Learning?

In our house we follow a child-led approach to learning. That means I follow my kiddos interests for topics of study. Then I follow their lead with academic skills as well. I wait until they are 100% motivated and ready to learn each specific skill.

But it wasn’t always so smooth. I had many failures in our quest to learning at home. But through all those failures and over 11 years of teaching experience, I’ve discovered the 4 essentials to child-led learning.

4 Essentials to Child-Led Learning

Child-led learning doesn’t mean you have to give up all control. You are responsible for the 4 essentials.

When you get these 4 essentials to child-led learning correct, your days become peaceful and your child begins to learn quickly.

Child-Led Essential # 1: Encouraging Environment

You’ve probably heard from a Reggio approach to learning that the environment is the third teacher.

Well I’ve always been an overachiever. I strongly believe that your environment is the first teacher.

Your environment is more than just your homeschool room. It’s your whole life style.

Child-led learning is more of a lifestyle than a learning approach.

This also includes the experiences you give your child, and most importantly your everyday experiences. Have your kiddo help you do household chores, including help pay the bills, cook dinner, and fold the laundry.

The environment in which you provide your child and the experiences you give them, is what ultimately decides their unique learning timeline.

You control the environment.  The environment controls what your child learns.

Your child controls WHEN and HOW they learn.

Child-Led Essential #2: Relaxed Routine

Having an environment that supports your child’s interests and the skills you want them to learn isn’t enough.

You need a relaxed routine that gives them plenty of time to explore in the environment you created.

On a typical day, we plan to have 2-3 hours in our homeschool room with no structure except our morning meeting.

During this time, my kiddos explore whatever I’ve place in the environment. There are always open ended toys, learning games for specific skills they are working on, and invitations to play, create, and explore.

I have a table with materials/books from our current theme for them to explore at any moment.

We try to follow the Montessori 3 hour work period. During the first hour, my kiddos explore and choose freely what they want to play/learn.

The second hour, called false fatigue, usually ends up with them dancing, playing music, or chasing each other around in a circle. This is the hardest part, but according to Montessori it’s needed to reach maximum concentration.

 This second hour is sort of like their coffee break. I tend to leave a snack on the table once they hit this time that they can choose to eat if they want. Most of the time, we cut back on a lot of the chaos of this hour because they almost always choose to sit and eat a snack.

About 45 minutes later it starts to get quiet again. The kiddos are entering the third hour where deep concentration happens. Their brains are ready to learn new and more challenging skills.

 This is the time I will invite them to do the works I want them to do. Sometimes I will ask them to join me in an activity whereas other times I will sit down and start working on the activity myself. Most of the time they will join me, but not always. It’s their choice.

Child-Led Essential #3: Simple, Child-Led Activities

Learning doesn’t require a huge storage of materials or complicated activities. I rarely go out and buy new materials. We use what is available around the house or out in nature. Many of our activities are done with rocks and sticks.

Have you ever heard the saying “Less is More?”

It’s so true when it comes to educating our kiddos. The simplest of activities will be the ones that attract them the most and will have the most learning.

Why?

Because with simple activities and materials, the brain only has one thing to concentrate on.

When you have a bunch of moving parts their brains will most likely focus on the skill you don’t want them to learn.

Take for example, the ever popular preschool activity of tracing letters on a line.

It seems simple, but is it really?

In order for the child to trace on the line, they need to first have the development and strength in their eyes to focus on the lines.

Then they need the hand strength and hand-eye coordination to be able to stay in between the lines.

On top of that, they need good fine motor skills in order to hold the pencil correctly, so they have the pencil control to stand in between the lines.

And last, which is the main goal of this activity…

They need to form the letter correctly.

In order to do this activity perfectly, your child needs to be developmentally ready in all those areas which doesn’t happen until around 5, sometimes even 6, years old.

Keep it simple…

Hand them a blank piece of paper and a pencil.

Their only focus then will be on letter formation.

With enough practice, your child will begin to write smaller and smaller as their muscles develop. There is no need to ever introduce lines until about first or second grade.

Child-Led Essential #4: Trust the Process

This essential to child-led learning is the most important, but the hardest of them all.

You must trust the process, trust yourself, and most importantly trust your child and their unique learning timeline.

Remember…

You control the environment.

Your environment controls what your child learns.

Your child decides when and how they will learn it.

Set up your environment for success by providing materials/books for learning about their interests and the skills they are ready to learn then trust that your child will learn what needs to be learned on their own timeline.

Ready to get started with child-led learning? Click here to download our getting started guide.

To learn more about how we implement child-led learning into our homeschool preschool, click here for our Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Preschool.

About the Author

Amanda is the owner of Learning Through Experiences where she helps beautiful mama’s homeschool their kiddos using a child-led approach without spending a lot of time planning & prepping. She is a former elementary and preschool teacher with over 11 years experience. Amanda has 2 kiddos of her own, Sicily & Kade, who follow this exact child-led approach that she advocates. Amanda is the creator of Learning Through Experiences: A Child-Led Curriculum. In her spare time, she likes to read, garden, and relax in a bubble bath.

Filed Under: Homeschooling Tagged With: guest post, Homeschooling

My Three Favourite Homeschooling Methods and Why I like them

January 18, 2019 By Annette1 2 Comments

YAY!   I just love having people guest post on my blog and today Miss Rebecca is guest posting.  As you can see, she’ll be addressing homeschooling methods.

Out of all the different homeschooling methods, I like three the most, and I’d like to share them with you. In particular, I like these methods because they seem to bring out the potential in our children and teach them about the world around them without burning them out or making learning seem like a chore.

And these three homeschooling methods are:

  • The Classical Method

  • The Charlotte Mason Method and

  • The Eclectic Method

Let’s get started!

My Third Favourite Method: The Classical Approach

Classical education has been around for hundreds of years. It was in its zenith around the time that Charles Dickens wrote his best-selling books. The Classical approach is a vigorous education that teaches children in three stages – the grammar, logic and then rhetoric stages.

It values things like:

  • Latin – because it’s the root of all the romantic languages

  • Debate – because it helps children think critically, speak clearly and organize their thoughts consistently and

  • Memorization – because it helps children remember important concepts that will help them immensely throughout their lives

Why I like The Classical Approach

While the Classical way of homeschooling is a vigorous education that expects a lot of children, it pushes them and gives them a good work ethic. It expects more of children than public schools might, and in that way, it helps children take on plenty of concepts and values that will benefit them in the future.

In short, we’ve lost a lot of rigor in our education today and I think Classical education will help us get this back.

Shortcomings of The Classical Approach

The biggest shortcoming of The Classical Approach is its inflexibility and rigidity. Picture a flogging for a poor Dickens boy who hasn’t reached his schoolmasters expectations. If not paced correctly, can it expect too much of some children.

But this is why Charlotte Mason invented her educational approach…

My Second Favourite Method: The Charlotte Mason Approach

The Charlotte Mason method was invented when Mason saw the strictness of the Classical approach and thought things should be gentler. As such, the Mason method has a lot of similarities to the Classical approach because Mason was trained as a Classical educator herself. (Indeed, many people who choose either the Charlotte Mason or Classical homeschooling methods tend to also enjoy teaching with elements of the other method).

While there are similarities, the Mason method is particularly known for:

  • Testing children with narration – this is when children are tested by parents asking them what they learned, and children narrate back their answers. This can be done orally, in writing, drama, interpretive dance or even STEM building!

  • Nature walks – Charlotte Mason was the founder of Scouts! She thought children should spend more time outdoors discovering nature

  • Habit training – All education should train us in good habits, so we benefit society as well-rounded individuals. Mason was a Christian and rooted her beliefs in Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection for our sins and benefit

Both Classical and Charlotte Mason homeschooling methods value lots of reading by children separately, and in a group with parents. Homeschooling parents who adopt either of these methods can be found reading tomes to their children for many hours each week. As such, children learn through exciting and challenging texts, instead of texts which are boring or given to children so they can pass an exam.

Why I like The Charlotte Mason Approach

Many Charlotte Mason homeschools are warm places of learning where families bond together as they learn together. For instance, if we look at narration we find harsh exams are replaced with parents simply asking their children what they’ve learned.

A lot of learning is face-to-face, and children and parents learn things together. I love that about the Charlotte Mason approach!

Shortcomings of The Charlotte Mason Approach

The Charlotte Mason approach expects a lot of parents. For example, reading for so many hours is lovely, but it can become a burden if the curriculum isn’t flexible.

I heard of one mom who turned back to use traditional homeschooling (school-at-home) methods because they lost their voice due to reading aloud so much.

And this leads me to the benefits of eclectic homeschooling…

My Favourite Method: The Eclectic Approach

Eclectic homeschooling is picking and choosing parts of different homeschooling methods and curricula that you like and using them in your homeschool. Eclectic homeschooling is like a buffet, you choose what you like.

Why I like The Eclectic Approach

Out of all the different educational methods, my favourite method is the eclectic homeschooling method. I like it simply because you can take the best parts from every educational theory and leave the bits of rubbish.

The eclectic method also lets you individualize your way of homeschooling to fit your child. This means that while one homeschooling method might work best for one child, it may not work for another.

And this makes sense as we’re all individuals and we all like or dislike certain things. It’s no surprise our learning preferences, strengths and weaknesses also work this way.

Shortcomings of The Eclectic Approach

Maybe the biggest thing you need to be aware of when you choose the eclectic homeschooling method is its ability to lead you everywhere if you don’t have a plan. For this reason, I advise you to write down your homeschooling plan so you don’t go down a rabbit hole as you discover all these other amazing ways to homeschool.

Conclusion: My Three Favourite Homeschooling Methods and Why I’m in love with them

Being able to our own way of homeschooling is a huge blessing. We have a smorgasbord of excellent homeschooling methods and resources at our fingertips. And this means we can choose the best ways of homeschooling to suit our own families. Among other educational theories, I believe the Classical and Charlotte Mason approaches are worthy of great consideration if you’re considering homeschooling. Hopefully, you’ll be able to join them all together to form a wonderful eclectic homeschool!

Rebbecca Devitt is the author of Why on Earth Homeschool: The Case for Christian Homeschooling. She’s the wife of a husband who is her best friend and makes her laugh and a son who is too cute for words. She’s dabbled in Nursing, Medical Science, Medicine and Law before settling down to her dream job—being a full-time mother! The family live in Wollongong and actively participate in their wonderful church, Wollongong Baptist Church. Rebbecca has written for various blogs including Homeschooling with Heart, Why on Earth Homeschool and her own Christian homeschooling website, How Do I Homeschool. As you can guess, her passion lies in helping people to homeschool well.

Filed Under: Homeschooling Tagged With: guest post, homeschool

Five Tips for Teaching Yourself Art

January 9, 2019 By Annette1 15 Comments

I would love for you to welcome my neice to my blog today! WOOT WOOT! 🙂 Nicole writes over at Inkwyrm about book reviews and writing. I think she does a fantastic job at both. Anyways, she’s looking at selling some of her art work (as a gal’s gotta make a living right?) and I thought, how nice it would be if I could support her efforts! To that end…. Here’s Nicole.

Hello everyone! My name is Nicole K., and Annette asked me to be a guest blogger for today’s post to talk a bit about what I do, so here I am!

I am an artist and writer in Alberta, Canada, and I’ve been doing art all my life. Starting around eight, I began to take my art more seriously. Ever since then I’ve been doing it steadily. I currently do a range of art styles, with my background mostly being pencil and leaning toward realism. My usual is style based off of anime and manga, mostly using ink and alcohol-based markers, with a few other mediums thrown in.

Aside from a stint of lessons when in elementary school (a short stint), and the public school art classes, I am an entirely self-taught artist. Every art skill I have because I sought out the information myself, whether it be through people I knew who were better artists than me, looking up tips online, or through stubborn experimentation.

Today I want to talk about that, and give five tips on teaching yourself art.

Tip #1: The internet is your best friend

You can find just about anything on the internet, and art tips and skills are no exception. Using the powers of google and YouTube have saved me MANY times as I’ve struggled through a piece, from looking for references to looking for ways to keep watercolour paper from wrinkling. Not sure about how to use an art supply? Look it up. Want to know how to do a different type of texture? Look it up.

The internet is your best friend, and there’s no shame in using it.

Tip #2: IT’S OK TO COPY

Speaking of the internet, references are one of the BEST things you could ever use. I’ve heard from people time and again ‘I’m not an artist, I can only copy’, but I say NO to that. Where copying someone’s art and calling it your own is one of the worst things an artist can do, it’s perfectly fine to copy a piece for practice. During my high school years, where I developed most of my current style, all my time was spent copying other people’s work. It’s how I learned proportion, expressions, body language, linework, and SO MANY other things that I apply to every piece I do now.

Don’t know what something looks like? Find a reference online and draw it. Then draw it again from a different reference. The more you copy, the more you understand what you’re drawing, and the better you can do when trying to draw it from memory.

Tip #3: Mistakes are OK

Make mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, it means you aren’t learning. Mess up, see what went wrong, and use that knowledge for future improvement. Try new things, and don’t be afraid of messing it up. That’s what sketchbooks and scrap papers are for.

Tip #4: Learn to take advice

Understanding that there is always something that can be improved upon is a huge part of learning. You don’t have to follow every piece of advice you get, and you don’t have to listen to every criticism you get. Be willing to listen if somebody points out an issue with your art. Having a critical eye for your own work can be hard when it’s a picture you’re really proud of. Remember that most people who give honest advice aren’t out to get you, they just want to give you a hand and help you improve.

Again, you don’t have to follow all advice you get, and some advice won’t be good, but hear them out anyway. You never know what you might learn.

Tip #5: NEVER tell yourself that you will never be good enough or have no ability.

A couple years ago, I taught an art class at a kid’s summer camp that my church held, and this was the first thing I told my students.

There are few things I hate hearing more than “I’ll never be that good”, or “I’ll never be able to do it”, or “my art sucks and I hate it.”

Guess what? ALL ARTISTS HAVE FELT THAT WAY BEFORE.

Your favourite artist? They’ve felt that. The most successful artists? They’ve felt that.

ALL OF THEM HAVE FELT LIKE THEY CAN’T DO IT.

But you know what they did? They refused to give up. They looked at their art, and instead of saying “I’ll never be able to do it”, they said “I can’t do it yet, but someday I will”.

DON’T. GIVE. UP.

Getting down on your art does nothing. We all have good days and bad days for art, but what matters is getting past the bad days and pushing onward, moving forward even when it’s hard. If you have to, leave a piece for a while and come back with fresh eyes. Relax. Art is supposed to be fun, so have fun with it and stay positive. We’re all in this together.

In Closing

If you are trying to teach yourself art I hope these five tips gave you ideas or a hand up. If you like what you’ve read and seen here, you can find me on my instagram where I post most of my art (@inkwyrm), my facebook page Inkwyrm Art, or check out my own blog Inkwyrm, where I post book reviews and talk about writing.

Thanks Annette for having me as a guest! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Me adding this information.  My neice is selling Commission pieces of art.  She’s not selling stuff she’s already done (it’s too dear to her heart) BUT if you have something you’d like her to do (like dragons! or your favourite game character or whatever).. give her a shout via her facebook account  or her Instagram (above) and she’ll be happy to work with you.

The pricing is $50 for an original and custom 5×7 piece, of any character you like. This includes drawings of yourself or loved ones. Larger pictures and more characters are available at a higher price. 

Filed Under: Art Tagged With: Art, guest post, Homeschooling

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I am centered by the love of God and family. Smiles are brought about being a Writer, Poet, Hiker and reader. Growth occurs as I educate my son, raise him up in the fear of the Lord, love up on my critters and live as a pastor’s wife.

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