Home School Philosophies

I thought I would start our homeschool blog with an overview of the different home school philosophies that I have looked into the past 4 years as I prepared to homeschool. We have come to LOVE The Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy (and phases of learning) which I will give a brief explanation about below. We have also incorporated unit studies, literature based education and the Charlotte Mason philosophy.

1.     Thomas  Jefferson Education (TJED)

There are seven principles of successful education. When they are applied, learning occurs for any learning style or interests.

Classics, Not Textbooks

Mentors, Not Professors

Inspire, Not Require

Structure Time, Not Content

Simplicity, Not Complexity

Quality, Not Conformity

You, Not Them (I get to learn too!)

Core Phase (which my boys are in and it is so FUN!)

Is that magical time of nurture and growth, almost like a cocoon from 0-8 years of age.

The environment is perfect for defining what the individual will become. Later, in other phases, exposure to the challenging circumstances and ideas help the individual grow strong; in Core Phase, such influences can distort and hinder the optimal development of the individual. The lessons of Core Phase are taught through work and play as a family. They are:

right and wrong

good and bad

true and false

relationships

family values

family routines and responsibilities

learning accountability

the value and love of work

The lessons of the Core Phase are best learned through daily experiences in home life, uncomplicated by the secondary goals of academic achievement. The best efforts of the parents will be in modeling for the child an active spiritual and scholarly life, and in nurturing healthy relationships. This is an ideal time for reading and discussion of good books, listening to and discussing good music, watching and discussing good media programs, playing at art and building with Legos or erector sets and other similar activities.

Lessons in self-discipline, perseverance and pursuit of excellence are modeled by the parents, and experienced by the young child, in mostly physical ways. These might include household chores, caring for animals and gardens, helping in a family business, and cooperating in a daily routine.

Little children start to internalize the virtues of excellence and perseverance as they do their part with family duties and in service to others. During this Phase children are taught the basics of the family’s faith, and how to arrive at and recognize truth. The child should be prepared to make choices, heed his conscience and to know in his heart when he’s being inspired. Children in this phase should be instructed and trained rather than disciplined.

Love of Learning

The emphasis here is on Love above Learning.

These are the years when children dabble with subjects, getting to know “what’s out there”. If they have come from the Core Phase in good order they are often fearless, feeling like almost everything will be interesting and believing that they will be able to do whatever they set their minds to.

Children learn accountability through their family obligations, chores, personal grooming, attitude, etc. School time is simply “fun,” with no sense of obligation to be responsible or committed to a particular path.

The most important thing to learn during this phase is Love of Learning. Just remember: by supporting their love of learning they will truly excel in some areas that will later be a spring board for learning in other areas that they might not yet be interested in. And if they enter their youth with a profound excitement for and love of learning, there is absolutely nothing that they can’t “catch up.”

Scholar Phase

Age Range: commonly 12-14ish through 17-19ish, often later for boys than for girls

Scholar Phase naturally follows for a healthy youth who has an active Core Phase and rich Love of Learning. This transformational time coincides with puberty, and the young person can now think abstractly. This is important because during this time a healthy youth is able to comprehend fully that requirements are not reprimands, achievements are not affirmations, and acquisitions/deficits are not her.

Peer involvement that supports her best self (including educational philosophy and goals) is important during Scholar Phase

2.     The Well Trained Mind

This philosophy divides learning into two areas: skill areas, and content areas. In the content areas (history, science, literature, art, music), classical learning provides a framework within which the child can explore those areas which delight him the most. The Well-Trained Mind suggests that you use a book of world history as an outline for your study. Stop and explore topics or subjects within a topic that sparks interest in the child. The child is given freedom to explore those things which they find most fascinating yet the early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study. In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments. In the high school years, they learn to express themselves.

(I do agree that when a topic sparks a child’s interest you let them dive into learning and exploring through books, writing, art, etc. I personally do not feel comfortable restricting their area of study solely on ancient history in the early years, i.e kindergarten, when they have no concept or understanding of time in history.)

3.     The Montessori Education Philosophy

“To aid life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself, that is the basic task of the educator.

Ours was a house for children, rather than a real school.

And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.”

- Dr. Maria Montessori

(I rave about Montessori school for children. I agree that if give a child space and opportunity to learn in a safe environment they can flourish beyond our expectations. However I do not feel that in a homeschool situation that there needs to be a completely separate room for school with mini-everything, such as mini dishes, mini brooms, mini cups, etc in order for them to learn. My home inside and out is the classroom. If they want to learn how to pour water, come to the kitchen where I cook. Stand next to me at the sink and practice with real cups pouring. Cook with me with real kitchen utensils. I am completely blow away home so many Montessori mothers get caught up in having to purchase thousands of dollars worth of mini stuff for their kids. I have been amazed at how much learning my kids do with so little “stuff.”)

4.      The Absorbent Mind or Charlotte Mason

Charlotte Mason was a British educator who lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

 Her method, the Charlotte Mason method, is centered around the idea that education is three-pronged: Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.

By “Atmosphere,” Charlotte meant the surroundings in which the child grows up. A child absorbs a lot from his home environment. Charlotte believed that atmosphere makes up one-third of a child’s education.

By “Discipline,” Charlotte meant the discipline of good habits — and specifically habits of character. Cultivating good habits in your child’s life make up another third of his education.

The other third of education, “Life,” applies to academics. Charlotte believed that we should give children living thoughts and ideas, not just dry facts. So all of her methods for teaching the various school subjects are built around that concept.

For example, Charlotte’s students used living books rather than dry textbooks. Living books are usually written in story form by one author who has a passion for the subject. A living book makes the subject “come alive.”

She taught spelling by using passages from great books that communicate great ideas rather than just a list of words.

She encouraged spending time outdoors, interacting with God’s creation firsthand and learning the living ways of nature.

(We have meshed Charlotte Mason philosophy with TJED. The philosophy seeks to educate the whole child and not just the mind. We also use Unit Studies which include the use of literature which incorporate the literature based philosophy.)

5.     Classical

The heart of a classical education lies in the trivium – the grammar, logic and rhetoric stages.  These coincide with natural learning abilities during childhood.  For most families, classical education includes a dedication to in-depth studies of Latin, mathematics, the arts and sciences, and a deep understanding of world history and its effects that lure them in.  Many classical homeschoolers follow a four-year or six-year cycle of repeating science and history topics.

(This is the last philosophy I will leave a comment next to.  My thoughts on the classical education is we felt it was too controlling. I didn’t want to be told what to say to my child or drill my kids with flashcards for them to memorize facts they don’t even comprehend or have real desire to learn. I feel that this education is more appropriate for children entering the scholar phase of life.)

6.     Unit Studies

Unit studies are a popular homeschooling method because they are typically hands-on, literature-based, and can be molded to fit into other homeschooling philosophies. Individual topics can encompass all of the scholastic subjects or be very specific to only cover science, history or a literature selection, for instance.

7.     Traditional

The traditional method looks very similar to how you were likely taught in school.  Children use textbooks for all subjects, complete worksheets and take regular tests.  Oftentimes, traditional curricula is also available via DVD, CD-Rom or the Internet.  Some people choose to integrate some traditional subjects with another philosophy.

8.     Whole-Heart Learning

Whole-Heart learning encourages the use of “living” books rather then text books.  This type of family will set goals for the family as a whole and again for each individual child.  This lifestyle homeschool has a firm belief that the heart is the key to all learning.

9.     Biblical Principle Approach

The Principle Approach is a philosophy and method of education based upon Biblical reasoning and a Biblical, Christian worldview which requires considering and pondering the purpose of everything in God’s universe.

10.                        Unschooling Philosophy

Some homeschooling families let go of all the external controls in the child’s learning, and dare to trust the child to direct his own learning. Unschooling is an American term which has come to describe this kind of learning. In unschooling, the learner determines his own program of learning in accordance with his needs and interests. Parents facilitate the child’s learning and provide a learning-rich environment. One of the key characteristics of Unschooling is the amount of autonomy given to the learner. The learner feels in control of his learning because he gets to make all the choices about that learning. The assumption that children are in fact persons, as complete and perfect in themselves as adults, has a major impact on one’s educational approach. Thus Unschoolers have a commitment to themselves not to teach unless the children themselves request teaching about something in particular. Rather, they try to work out what the children are learning and then facilitate that learning. The learning is owned by the learner, and the learner takes responsibility for it. Various types of Unschooling exist, from Unschooling where there is no use of formal curricula at all, to Unschooling in combination with formal curricula. Some Unschoolers use a pre-packaged/textbook maths curriculum for example. Some use Unit studies to give some structure to the day.

11.                        Delight Directed

Many parents work alongside their children to develop their own scope and sequence based on the child’s interests. Delight Directed learning enables the parent to help groom their child for their future purpose and hopes to enable the then adult child to work within their passion and interest. This type of learning philosophy requires the parent to create a productive and rich learning environment. It also requires that the parent validates a child’s interest whether it is spending time mixing solutions of sand and water at a young age or designing hundreds of paper horses or collecting a vast amount of rocks.

12.                        Unit Study Philosophies

Unit studies are designed to let your child study a theme or period from all angles of language, history, geography, science etc.

Example: Space

Read biographies of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong

Build a rocket (science)

Visit the observatory or planetarium (field trip)

Build a model of the planets (Technology)

Create the planets of our solar system with paper mache (Craft)

Write an essay on the first trip to the moon or development of space travel

Watch “The Right Stuff” and “Apollo 13”

13.                        Literature Based Philosophies

These homeschool philosophy reviews are almost all based on the Charlotte Mason principal of using good literature, called “living books” to teach all, if not many of the recognized school subjects.

14.                        Accelerated Education

This philosophy advocates that a child begin learning as young as possible and accelerates at a rapid rate to complete their high school grades by as early as 10 yrs old in some cases. It is based on a 12 month school year, 5 days a week. This would then mean that the child would enter into college courses in their early to mid teens. Advocates of this system see it as a way to capitalize on a child’s ability to learn at a young age. It must be noted that some highschool students choose to accelrate themselves and are motivated to finish their school years early.

(NOTE: I found some of these well worded summaries on the internet.)