{Day 13} Are There Different Ways To Teach The Same Things?
{For an overview of all 31 Days of Homeschooling click HERE.}
If there was ever a reason why homeschooling trumps all other forms of education, it would be this one. Allowing students to learn the way they learn best is a tremendous advantage of homeschooling, and why the results are often so superior.
It’s no secret that some children learn differently than others. While organized schools must teach large groups of children the same way at the same time, homeschool parents are able to constantly adapt to the needs of their own children. While organized schools traditionally use textbooks and classroom lectures for teaching, homeschoolers can discover the ways their children learn best, then adopt the strategies used in the home to maximize the learning potential of every child.
This is where the idea of selecting a homeschool method comes in. A homeschool method, or teaching philosophy, is a phrase used to describe the general strategy that will be used for teaching and learning activities in the home. Some homeschoolers choose a teaching method that heavily involves the use of textbooks. Others decide to use a method that relies more on hands-on experiences, online activities, independent discovery, learning using classic literature, or something else.
Common homeschooling methods have names like:
- Classical Education
- Charlotte Mason
- Curriculum Approach
- Leadership Education
- Enki
- Montessori
- Unschooling
Selecting the method that best matches the children and fits in well with the family’s lifestyle creates a richer learning environment. When a match exists between people, methods, values and ideals, learning is optimized with little or no additional effort at all.
In addition to selecting a general teaching philosophy, homeschoolers can also choose the learning tools they want to use. As long as curriculum goals are being met, the way the material is delivered doesn’t matter at all.
For example, teaching math can be accomplished with a book. But it can also be accomplished using an abacus, using pictures, by watching videos, by playing math games on a computer, or by using counting sticks. Teaching reading can be accomplished using sophisticated reading systems, or can be reinforced by providing stacks of early readers, by reading together, by listening to audio books and following along, by holding read-aloud sessions for the family, by using electronic tablets and pads, or using any number of other ways.
Learning history can also be accomplished by using textbooks. But a great many homeschoolers also learn history by visiting museums, watching educational programming, re-enacting characters from the past, attending plays and lectures, conducting research on-line, reading biographies and more. Science can be learned in books, too. But it can also be learned by exploring nature, talking to scientists, reading articles and periodicals, and visiting companies and talking to the staff.
In my latest book, The Homeschooler’s Guide to Science Fairs (on Amazon), I talk about the importance of having students select topics they find interesting, or are meaningful to them. That’s because the most learning occurs when students are very interested in the topic they are studying. This theory also applies to selecting the learning tools that best match and most motivate students. This idea can be used across the curriculum, and not just for science, too.
Imagine a place where children have access to a world of resources and are able to use those resources any time, anywhere, in any way they like. That is what homeschooling is like. Exploiting the ability to learn in many different ways is what makes homeschool the most perfect school of all!
Further reading:
The best homeschool curriculum ever
Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau is a college professor who traded in her tenure to become a homeschool mom 20+ years ago. A homeschooling pioneer and the founder of many groups and organizations, she works to advance home education, and is an outspoken supporter of education reform coast to coast. Her book, Suddenly Homeschooling: A Quick Start Guide to Legally Homeschool in Two Weeks, is industry-acclaimed as it illustrates how homeschooling can rescue children and families from the public school system, and how anyone can begin homeschooling within a limited time-frame, with no teaching background whatsoever. A liaison for regional school-to-home organizations, a homeschool leader, and a women’s life coach, Marie-Claire mentors in a variety of areas that impact health, education and lifestyle. A conference speaker, she has appeared at FPEA, H.E.R.I., Home Education Council of America, The Luminous Mind, Vintage Homeschool Moms, iHomeschool Network, and many other events. Her articles have appeared in and on Holistic Parenting, CONNECT, Homefires, Homemaking Cottage, Kiwi, Circle of Moms, and hundreds of sites and blogs nationwide. Marie-Claire can be reached at contactmarieclaire@gmail.com.
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