On multiple occasions I’ve heard well-intentioned homeschoolers say things to people like, “You’re going to homeschool? Oh, you have to use (well-known homeschooling curriculum that shall remain nameless)! It’s the absolute best! We’ve used it for 12 years and we love it! Believe me, if you use (nameless curriculum), your children will simply excel!”
Yeah. Right. Because my children are exactly like yours. Same personalities. Same interests. Same abilities. And I teach just like you, too, right? And now that I think of it, our homes, families, and schedules are also precisely the same, aren’t they?
Obviously I’m being sarcastic. God created human beings with all these amazing and wonderful differences. Your strengths aren’t mine. My weaknesses may not be yours. Our family responsibilities and our schedules and our circumstances vary in unbelievable ways! So to say that any one curriculum or homeschooling approach is going to work for absolutely everyone is pretty nonsensical.
But early on, before I came to know more about the vast world of homeschooling and the wealth of options available, I fell prey to the use-this-particular-curriculum-and-you-can’t-go-wrong philosophy. So when I tried a “miracle curriculum” with two different children and neither of them excelled and I found myself simply hating it, I thought there was something wrong with me!
For years, all I knew of homeschooling was some form of the traditional approach. Traditional homeschooling, in case you don’t know what that means, is homeschooling the traditional-school way, via textbooks and/or workbooks. There are several fine and reputable traditional curricula companies and the material they produce is of a good quality. I’m not here to knock those companies or to criticize anyone who has met with success using them.
In fact, I recommend the traditional approach for beginning homeschoolers. When you first wade out into the homeschooling waters, the options can be overwhelming! Traditional homeschooling curriculum publishers like A Beka Book or BJU Press provide a good starting place for parents who aren’t sure which direction to turn. And these are often referred to as “boxed curricula,” because you can generally purchase all your core subjects plus electives from the same company and have the whole kit-and-kaboodle arrive at your home in a single box. What could be simpler? The material is divided into clear grade levels, so you know exactly where to place your child, and lesson plans are generally included or can be ordered separately. For a lot of people, even those who are experienced homeschoolers, having that work done for them is a big plus!
But while I don’t fully regret trying out the traditional approach for a time, (after all, doing so gave me a chance to get my footing in home education,) I am so thankful I haven’t continued with it!
Why? There are several reasons, really. For one…
I realize I was initially drawn to traditional homeschooling because it most closely mirrored my public school education.
This alone gives me great pause now!
I stepped into homeschooling carefully, hesitantly, thinking good homeschooling had to follow the pattern of a public school. That’s all I’d known, after all. But when you consider that American public school students consistently rank at the middle or bottom among industrialized nations, why on earth would I want to adopt a homeschooling approach that follows the public school model? People blame our failing schools on a lot of things and I’m not trying to make the assertion that traditional educational methods are the sole problem. They certainly are not. But it’s just as certain these methods do not and cannot guarantee our children’s success, so why be beholden to them, simply because it’s what’s familiar to me?
Another reason I’m glad I ditched the traditional approach…
Traditional homeschooling textbooks are BORING!
If you want to make learning dull, stuff lots of dates and tidbits of information, (though nothing too in-depth,) into a thick, dry textbook and make a kid read it and answer questions about it. Few things can possibly put a child to sleep faster than that!
I’ve looked at the textbooks from traditional homeschooling curricula companies, even purchased a few of them, and you know what they look like? They look an awful lot like the boring textbooks we used in public school, except with occasional Bible verses or references to God scattered through them! I’m thankful for Biblically-sound textbooks, but while those public school textbooks were secular and boring, these are Biblical and boring. Sorry, but boring is still boring!
Consequently, the very best teachers I had in my public school years were those who ditched textbooks. I remember a handful of teachers issuing the books, (because they had to,) and then telling us not to bother bringing them to class. Why? No doubt because they found the textbooks as dry and boring and as lacking in important, in-depth information as I did!
I realize that not every part of the education process will be fun and exciting, but if it’s possible to present material in a different, more interesting way, why on earth wouldn’t I want to at least give it a try?
Traditional homeschooling may involve less work for the parent, but it often includes much more busywork for the child.
I know having lessons planned and material organized for the parent is a big plus where traditional homeschooling is concerned and I don’t fault a mom or dad who needs that and takes advantage of it. But I would also argue that what is easiest for the parent isn’t necessarily what’s best for the child.
I strongly believe in the importance of parent-to-child interaction during school. Many traditional curricula are set up so as to avoid any more of that than is absolutely necessary. For me, that’s problematic to begin with! But I also.think reading and answering questions, which is a very traditional way of schooling, is a rather poor way of determining the depth of a child’s comprehension and learning. It encourages fragments of thought and tends toward rote memorization of facts that a child will then spit out onto a test and forget forever afterwards.
Traditional homeschooling curricula I’ve seen and used also include lots and lots of review work. Some parents love that, insisting the constant review really drives the information home to their children. And if that’s the case with your child, wonderful!
But for some children the workload can be completely overwhelming, especially given the fact they may grasp the material quite well without pages and pages of review.
I’ve heard some say, “Leave out some of the material if you don’t feel you need it or if it’s too much for your child.” But there are a couple of problems with that. For one, with some traditional homeschooling curricula, the work must be completed in full for the child to get credit for the course. Secondly, and this was my own issue, when you’ve paid a fairly hefty sum for a curriculum, tossing out half of it seems an incredible waste of money! What’s the point in paying for a curriculum where half the material, (or less,) is useful to you?
Personally, I don’t want my selection of a curriculum to be based solely on what’s easiest for me and I don’t want to see my child bogged down with a lot of unnecessary busywork.
The traditional approach makes it difficult to tailor your homeschool to suit your child’s specific needs.
This is the greatest benefit I have found in ditching traditional homeschooling. I have a child who struggled unbelievably with the traditional approach in reading and in math and while I had been assured the curriculum I was using would help any and every child grasp the necessary concepts, it wasn’t proving true in our family. Yet when I tentatively switched to a more multi-sensory math curriculum, for example, my child’s comprehension improved incredibly. When I left off with the dull readers and moved to reading real books, reading comprehension immediately began to improve. When I abandoned the concept of reading and answering questions and went instead with hands-on learning and a narration-style review of material, I found that my child’s ability to understand and later recount information was much more complete and thorough.
“That’s fine!” say some. “Use the traditional approach and then just add in whatever else you need.”
The problem with that is two-fold. First of all, many traditional curricula do not allow for add-ins unless you intend for your children to be schooling 10+ hours in the day. By the time a child has completed the scheduled work, there’s little time or energy or brainpower left for more!
And, honestly, why would you be committed to using a traditional curriculum if it’s not meeting your child’s needs? If a child can learn the information in nontraditional ways, and especially if they can learn it better, doesn’t it make sense to toss the traditional methods, no matter who is using them and who insists they’re the only reasonable choice for good homeschoolers?
Because often I think that’s at the core of the devotion to traditional homeschooling. It’s not necessarily the superiority of the method; it’s devotion to an educational norm. Just as a lot of non-homeschoolers are very uncomfortable with homeschooling because it is such a foreign concept to them, I also believe a lot of traditional homeschoolers are uncomfortable with a nontraditional approach because it’s so different from what they’re used to. Sometimes it may even seem to run contrary to everything they’ve known about education.
But that’s one of the beauties of homeschooling, I think; being able to tweak your system to fit your family and change curriculum if it isn’t working or create your own curriculum if nothing you find suits your fancy! If your homeschool doesn’t fit the traditional model, it shouldn’t matter so long as your child is learning! Pressure from a friend or a family member or a homeschool group, even if well-intentioned, should never be a determining factor in how we decide to teach our children. And if it is, boredom and discontent and burnout could be the result for student and teacher alike.
I have found such joy and freedom in abandoning the traditional methods and taking a more eclectic approach. Maybe sometime I can even share some of the curricula and methods we use in our home. The important thing, I feel, is finding what works for you and your children. If that’s the traditional approach, that’s marvelous! But if not, never be afraid to try something different! You might just find, as we have, that taking a different direction has been the best turn we ever could have made in our homeschooling journey!
Wonderful post! I have enjoyed reading through your blog! I nominated you for a Leibster Award 🙂
http://teaching2stinkers.blogspot.com/2013/07/liebster-lovelies.html
I have to confess I didn't even know what a Leibster was! But I intend to figure it all out! 🙂 Thank you so much for visiting, Jenn. I'm delighted to know you've enjoyed what you've read. Thank you!
I would love for you to share and link up at my weekly TGIF Link Party if you haven't already this week. Your favorite posts, most popular, recent or new! The party is open every Thursday night and closes Wednesday's at midnight. Followed by (Not SO) Wordless Wednesday! http://apeekintomyparadise.blogspot.com/.
I would be honored if you join us and follow to stay connected Have a wonderful week!
Hugs, Cathy
Thank you SOO much for the invitation! I'll visit TGIF. So glad you dropped by today!
Very interesting post. I always love reading about different ideas on Homeschooling. So would you call your method "unschooling" or what type of schooling is working for you?
Iris♥
The Blue Birdhouse
Hmmm. I usually just say I'm an eclectic homeschooler, using a blend of several methods in our homeschool. But I must confess I don't look at the unschoolers with the raised eyebrow I once did! There are aspects of their approach I find very appealing and I suppose I've implemented bits and pieces of that kind of thinking into our homeschool as well. But I use lots of Charlotte Mason, some classical, unit studies, and this year I plan to add lapbooking as well. It's a mix that is working for us and I've come to love it!
Others are very comfortable with a traditional approach and find great success in it. But I'm always saddened when I meet homeschoolers who know NOTHING BUT the traditional approach and are MISERABLE in it! Homeschooling simply doesn't have to be that way! There can be amazing benefits in trying other methods.
So glad you asked! Thank you for stopping by!
I love your post, Tanya, and couldn't agree more. I'm another mom who looked askance at unschoolers, but now I have appreciation for so much of their philosophy. While I don't see us as ever self-identifying as unschoolers, we've had a challenging year and have semi-unschooled this year out of necessity. Honestly I think my kids have learned more, and I know this relaxed approach will continue to influence our homeschool in the future.
That's probably a good way of saying it–we've spent some time "semi-unschooling", too, and it's been very beneficial for us all. For one of my children, a more relaxed approach has been the catalyst for her learning. It's helped her tremendously! But I believe it's really been beneficial for all my kids. And for their teacher, too! 🙂
Thank you for visiting, Stephanie!
Nice post! We also homeschool, graduated our first one this year, and use what I would call an eclectic mix. We're always been drawn to a good literature based curriculum, but you really have to look at each child and decide what's best for them and how it can best fit into your whole family. Sounds like you're doing great. Visiting here from A Mama's Story link party.
I totally agree with you. One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling should be the ability to tweak your approach for the good of your family and each individual child.
Congratulations on graduating your first! I have one year before I have my first high schooler, so I'm half nervous, half excited about that! Anyway, thanks so much for stopping by!
We recently started homeschooling our children (pulled them from public school last October and started schooling in January this year with an eclectic style) so I am very new to all of this. Our daughter is in the 9th grade this year and my husbands deepest concern is our children having credits and a diploma to show for all of their school work so they may go to college (if they choose) and obtain a good career. The only way I know to do this is to use a curriculum that is accredited. I have enjoyed reading your blog and appreciate it very much. Any tidbits that you can give would also be much appreciated!
So glad you found my blog! And so glad you're homeschooling! I don't have any high schoolers yet, (I'll have my first next year,) but I do know of many homeschoolers who have gone on to college without any kind of accredited diploma. I know many take the junior college route and then transfer to a 4-year university later. Others insist if you can make a good enough score on the ACT or SAT and/or a college entrance exam, most schools couldn't care less whether you have an accredited diploma or not!
Regardless, attitudes toward homeschooling have changed dramatically and more and more colleges are very open to homeschooled students. I even heard one homeschooling mom explain that her daughter was accepted into a local state university after an admissions director looked through examples of her high school work, including lapbooks. He even made the statement those lapbooks had given him a greater look into a student's abilities and knowledge than any other kind of assessment could do.
Maybe it's something I can write about more in the future. Thanks so much for reading!
I've heard the terms "lapbook" and "lapbooking" but do not know what that means…Guess I'll be looking into it! Thank you!
Just a note: I changed my profile name to my name rather than the other. 🙂
Do a search on lapbooking and you'll probably find more information about it than you know what to do with! It's something I'm just beginning to implement in our homeschool myself. The more I learned about it, the more intrigued I was and I really think my kids will enjoy it this year.
So glad to have a name for you now, Brandy! 😉
I agree very, very much!
We've been homeschool for 10 years now and we ditched the 'traditional' about the 3ed year in (too long).
My babies are biggin's now- one graduating and one starting 9th grade.
And now we are so excited to revisit baby time and preschool time with foster children.
Hope to have you visit sometime at both blogs:)
Deanna
http://ohomeohearts.blogspot.com
http://theheartshunger.blogspot.com
I'll try to visit both soon! Thank you so much for coming by, Deanna!
Non-traditional is our style too.
My wise husband said, many years ago, "We are not sending our children to a traditional school, so we will not educate them the traditional way." I thought he was nuts, but I'm so glad I listened to him!
I enjoyed reading how you worked through this whole process. I still have to remind myself that we really do not have to 'do school' like the schools!
Enjoy a new and exciting school year!
Thank you so much! I wish I had realized from the start that homeschooling didn't have to be traditional-school-at-home. Sometimes I still catch myself thinking in that traditional school sort of way. (Years of public school will do that to you!) Usually I just shake myself and remember again all the wonderful options available to me as a homeschooling mom. I have the freedom to take approaches traditional schools could never take.
We're anxious to get the school year rolling here at home. I hope you enjoy an awesome school year as well!
Such a good post! I've written similar things on my site. It's weird though, even though I share your thoughts on the subject, and I fully believe in educating a child according to his personal strengths and interests, I still find myself wanting to buy something! It's like my ideology and my ability don't match! I even lean toward some of the principles of "unschooling" (not all) but I get tripped up when it comes to making it happen. I struggle with providing my children with natural learning opportunities. Especially since there are only 2 and they are almost 10 years apart!
But this was refreshing for me. Thanks for taking the time to explore it so deeply!
You're so welcome! And, believe me, I still find myself thinking in that traditional this-is-how-school-is-supposed-to-be kind of way! Breaking out of that is NOT easy and I still struggle with it from time to time! But I'm learning! And we're enjoying the journey!
Thank you for coming by!
What a lovely write-up, Tanya. I share your sentiments. 🙂
Loved reading about how teachers ditch the required text and then pulls together lessons in a way that really reaches the children. These really are the talented teachers, aren't they?!
It's interesting, also, that within one family, children can differ so much with their preferred learning style .. and as a parent we need to accomodate that. My eldest really enjoys schedules and the feeling of accomplishment after finishing a recognised 'text book', so I let him go with that and take every opportunity to find other things to flesh it out .. and slow him down (hee hee!)
My youngest, however, is really a child who needs to move away from textbooks to lapbooking, making wall posters and reading lots of 'living books'.
It's a very interesting journey being a homeschooling parent, isn't it? I love how much I'm learning .. and learning about my own children though this.
Wishing you all the best with your adventures there!!
Catherine (in Australia)
Thank you, Catherine! It wasn't an easy process for me, I'm afraid. I started homeschooling with traditional-school thinking and I wanted each of my kids to fit in the same mold and learn in the same way. But it didn't take me long to realize that WASN'T WORKING! When we started trying new things and experimenting with new approaches, not only did it seem to relieve a lot of the stress on my kids and put FUN back into learning, it also liberated ME as the teacher! We've been a remarkably HAPPIER homeschooling family since we made the changes. And we're continuing to change as needed! That's one of the beauties of homeschooling–the flexibility to alter the educating process when necessary.
I am so glad you stopped in today! The homeschooling journey is an adventure, for sure. I wish you the very best in yours as well!
Interesting read! You've given quite a bit of what does NOT work for you. Would you consider a post giving what you DO use? I ask because we're somewhat in the middle of things right now, and am very interested in what all you "veterans" have learned. 🙂
You're in luck! I've actually already done just that. Click on the Homeschooling tab at the top of this page and there you can find my posts about my curriculum choices for the 2012-2013 year. There will be some changes in the upcoming year, but things will largely stay the same for us. Check out "Our Math and Science Curricula 2012-2013", "Our History Curriculum 2012-2013", and "Latin, Spelling, and Charlotte Who?–Our Language Arts for 2012-2013."
Hope that's helpful to you! So glad you asked!
Thanks!! 🙂
You're bang on! Each family is unique and there is no mold that produces easy, seamless education. We need to find what works for each of us and not worry about what everyone else is doing. PS. I do believe this is the first time I've been to your blog…thanks for linking up with me at Walking Redeemed last week so that I could find you here!
Thank you so much for hosting! I'm still fairly new to link ups and I'm enjoying the connection with other bloggers so much. You have a beautiful blog, by the way! 🙂 I'm delighted you visited today!
I'm so glad to find another homeschool blog to follow! 1st year homeschooling, and and new blogger. Followed you 🙂 http://adventuresofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/
Welcome to the exciting world of homeschooling! I'm so glad you've decided to follow our little family on this homeschooling journey. I wish you the very best in your own adventures!
This is a great article! It sums up my feelings on a lot of pre-packaged curricula. We ditched traditional homeschool pretty early on because "school in a box" just wasn't working! I was unschooled for my high school career and it was absolutely wonderful.
I love the flexibility of schooling "outside the box"! I'll never go back to boxed curriculum. The more you study and the more willing you are to break out of the traditional mold, the more you can learn about approaches and curricula to make learning easier and a lot more fun.
Thanks so much for stopping by, Alyssa!
Could you please layout an example of your homeschool day? I am new to the Charlotte Mason method and would love some encouragement. I would appreciate any help I can get.
Thank you and God Bless,
Erica
That's one of those things I wondered so much about when I first started homeschooling. What was a homeschool day supposed to look like? I will tell you I'm not a CM homeschooler exclusively, but I definitely sprinkle that approach throughout my homeschooling day. I need to do a post about that and maybe I can very soon!
Thank you for reading, Erica!
Howdy Tanya,
My wife and I are doing the Box Method for homeschooling and Hating it. It's 10-12 hours of class to cover all thats needed and we find ourselves slaves and the kids tanking in the focus side of things. We would love to know more on the non-traditional ways.
Main question is State tests. How is that done, and "what is required that cannot be left out for your kids to be moving to the next grade"?
Not sure if you'll answer but we are losing out on life trying to give our kids one.
Help!
Thank You
If you're schooling 10-12 hours a day, no wonder you and your kids are completely burned out!
Fortunately, I live in a state where standardized testing is not required. THANK GOD. And I don't say that because I'm fearful how well my children would perform, but because I think regular testing naturally pressures people to teach toward success on the test, not necessarily toward real learning. That's part of the reason I believe tests generally offer a pretty poor assessment of a child's education.
Of course I can rant about tests all day long, but if you're living in a state that requires testing, your kids HAVE TO TAKE THEM whether it's a good measure of your child's learning or not! My sincerest sympathies.
Rebecca Rupp's book, Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School, might be very helpful to you. But you can also do basic Google searches with the name of your state and "grade level expectations" for each grade and you'll find tons of information to let you know what you need to be including for each child. Then if you piece together your own curriculum for one or for every subject, you know the basic things that will need to be covered.
And in all reality, our approach to homeschooling is very eclectic. I suppose there are subjects where the curriculum we've chosen might be considered more traditional; others, not at all so. And we're flexible throughout. If I may just offer a little advice…maybe you could start small, dropping your boxed curriculum in just a subject or two, perhaps bringing all your kids together to do something like history or science. With high schoolers that can be harder, I realize, because there are necessary credits that have to be squeezed in there. (I'm dealing with that myself for the first time this year!) But it can work very well with younger children, especially doing group projects or allowing them to do the same assignments but with each doing them at their own level. Combining grade levels is not only easier and less time consuming, but it encourages learning and makes it more fun as well.
Mixing up curricula can make a big difference as well. Yes, it's more for you as the parent to keep up with, but sometimes the extra time and effort you put into keeping it organized is more than made up for in other areas. Maybe the math curriculum you're trying to use with your kids just isn't a good fit or maybe the English curriculum works great with one child, but includes too much busywork or unnecessary review for another.
Believe me, I remember well being miserable in an all-traditional schooling approach. Sadly, it even pushed me to quit homeschooling for a year. Fortunately I went back to it with a very different attitude and with a determination to learn as much as I possibly could about different approaches and curricula. I can assure you we all have been so, SO much happier since and I believe you could be as well. I hope your family can make the kind of changes that can turn your homeschooling away from the drudgery it has become.
I don't know if I've helped you much here! Maybe I need to do another post on this. In the meantime, feel free to contact me with questions any time! I always do my best to respond to comments as quickly and as thoroughly as I can!