What Kind of Home Schooler?

Did you know that there are different types of home schoolers? There are those who practice unschooling (I'm much too type A to pull that one off, but I try to take a few of their ideas in child led learning), proponants of classical education (which follows a pattern for teaching through a child's development and linking subjects together), educators that utilize unit studies (which is just as it sounds, they pick a topic and learn about it perhaps integrating all the subjects into, something like dinosaurs or ancient Babylon, then move on to the next), the eclectic home schoolers (who take what works for their family from this approach and that approach and mixes them until they are a good fit), and many other schools of thought too.

Last fall when we fell into homeschooling I raided my public library. I pulled out a very thick book called A Well Trained Mind. I was so thrilled by what a read. It outlined a rigorous and well planned course of study. I needed a plan, but it was also so clear that I didn't need a set text. I could work with library books--an inexpensive method, though time consuming. (I've settled in to some more texts this year, to reduce my planning time.)

I especially loved the way that social studies was taught sequentially and in connection with art and literature (what a grand idea--linking it all together, so the history of art and literature fall in to place naturally) and the ordering of science, so that rather than repeating each topic every year and slightly expounding on it, it is taught on a rotation like high school or college.

So, if you wondered what kind of home schoolers we are...there you have it. We are basically Classical Home Schoolers.

I liked the book so much, I even bought my own copy, though quite a few years newer it's as great as I remembered it. It's sure to be filled with sticky notes in no time! The only downside to it, if it is even a downside, is that in the new edition it does frequently recommend other books that the author published. I happen to like those books, but it might be off putting to some.