While you are exploring, take the opportunity for your children and yourself to go through a period of deschooling before you jump into homeschooling, especially if your child was previously in public school. There is an adjustment period that a child (and often the parent) goes through when leaving school and beginning homeschooling.
To fully benefit from homeschooling, a child has to let go of the school culture as the norm. This is deschooling, and it is a crucial part of beginning homeschooling after a period of time spent in a classroom. This period is a great time to explore the homeschooling methods and learning styles if you haven't already done so.
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Transcripts and Delight-Directed Learning
Unschooling - Education Outside the Box
To understand unschooling, you really have to look back at the history of education and homeschooling. The standard used to be for children to be taught in the home. However, by the mid '70s, homeschooling was nearly extinct. Over 99% of school-aged children in the United States were attending institutional classroom schools. By that point, people seemed to have forgotten that children had ever been successfully educated without going to school. Slowly, though, an increasing number of parents began to recognize that they were in a battle for their children's hearts, minds, and time. They saw the control that the ... Read More »
Introduction to Waldorf Homeschooling
Despite the fact that there are over 100 Waldorf schools and kindergartens in the USA (and about 1000 more in countries as diverse as Mexico, Latvia, France, Germany, Israel, India and Egypt), Waldorf education is not well known. Indeed, amongst homeschoolers, those of us who work with Waldorf are almost invisible! My hope is to address this imbalance and to help get the word out about a form of education which others might find beneficial to their children. Read More »
Definition For Classical Education
Awakening the Soul Through Liberal Education (Charlotte Mason Method)
Charlotte Mason In a Nutshell
Introduction to the Unit Study Approach
Waiting For Unschooling To Work
Remarkably, the best homeschooling advice I received came when my first child was a baby. My friend Barb, an experienced homeschooling mom who loaned me stacks of Home Education Magazine and Growing Without Schooling, told me that to homeschool I only had to "provide a rich environment, involve children in everyday living, and help find answers to their questions." That sounded very simple, and it is; the challenge is in trusting that such a plan is enough. Read More »
Eclectic Homeschooling
I am now beginning my fifteenth year in homeschooling so I feel well qualified to tell you how our homeschool has evolved into the eclectic approach. My oldest daughter, Laura, graduated from homeschool high school in 2002 and from a one year Bible college in 2003.However, I am still homeschooling my son Stephen, aged 15 for tenth grade and my daughter Mary aged 10 for fourth grade. Over the years I have tried many different curriculums and eventually I just learned to stick with what works for both myself and my children. I also learned that there is no such thing ... Read More »
The Moore Formula
Dr. Raymond Moore and his wife Dorothy Moore are sometimes called the grandparents of the modern home schooling movement. For over 50 years they have been educational professionals, and for the last 30 years have been sharing their research and their "formula" for successful home schooling, a program that is low-cost, low stress, and yet brings ... Read More »
The Steiner Waldorf Approach to Education