This post is all about one of the biggest debates I’ve seen around homeschooling your kids. Well, except for maybe the whole homeschooling and socializing thing. If you use a box curriculum, or *gasp* workbooks some would argue that you aren’t a “real” homeschooler because you’re just replicating school at home. Then if you’re an unschooler or lifeschooler, the box curriculum folks can say that you aren’t a “real” homeschooler because you can’t possibly be really teaching them all that they need to learn.
I’m just here to say, we’re all real homeschoolers. If your children stay home, and are educated at home by you or other family members or even a tutor, you are a real homeschooler. For us? We do a combination of tons of different homeschooling methods. With Mr. C we use lots of workbooks because he’s a workbook learner [just like I am], but with A-Man he wouldn’t comprehend anything from a workbook because to him pictures are just pictures and have no greater meaning. Homeschooling is unique to every family and every child. So why the great debate? Anyways. Here’s my two cents.
Homeschooling or School at Home?
It Doesn’t Have to be Either/Or
If you value the unschooling way of homeschooling, no one is saying that you have to order a bunch of workbooks and sit at a desk all day. That said, nothing says you can’t either. Some subjects/grade levels work better with unschooling, like science and history where we can be truly interest led. Some children struggle to grasp math concepts without daily practice, so a work book could come in handy. And some school at home parents that go the whole nine yards with desks and a school room could loosen up the rules a bit if they want. Go for a nature hike outside and call it science. Or if you’re like our family, watch Magic School Bus or Sid the Science Kid. Decide to bake a cake during math to work on fractions, or let your child cut the family pizza into specific parts. There are tons of ways to learn organically when your family needs a break.
How We Integrate Both
We use both strategies with Mr. C, and we will with A-Man when he is old enough to start as well. For the “core” subjects we tend to use workbooks. Phonics and math are skills that we need daily practice in, and this is the best way that Mr. C learns. However we chose full color workbooks that are fun to use, and we definitely take days off and watch Super Why and call it a reading lesson. For science and history we chose spine books (apologia and story of the world) and we incorporate a lot of interest based learning there. We chose Botany for science because Mr. C is obsessed with all things plants, so we get to do experiments that he finds interesting and skip lessons that are tedious or boring. I mean, he’s four years old, we have plenty of time to learn together. With Mr. C we do a lot of play based learning, and we work his sensory processing disorder therapy into our homeschooling. We use sensory bins and playing educational toys and puzzles to help him to learn.
So if you’re not fully convinced that you should have kids in their desk all day, but you are also not sure your kids would want to learn multiplication if you gave them complete freedom, maybe think about using the best of both philosophies. And if you are doing one method completely and it works great for your family that’s great! Try not to bring others down because you don’t feel they are “real homeschoolers”.
What works best for your family?
I learn best if I have a little of everything. For me, workbooks are for getting the gist of it and hands-on work is for mastery.
That is a great point! People remember what they do much more than what they learn theoretically, so it’s really important to have both. :)