"Should I, Shall I, Can I, Will I?" Part Two - Page 4
© Joan Archer
This method seems to work best with children who have not yet been turned off to learning, and who are reasonably able to self-direct. This is also for those parents who are more able to tolerate the Plaguing Self Doubt that afflicts many homeschoolers who panic in secret and fear that their child may not be getting the most comprehensive education possible, no matter how attentive the parents are and how well the child is performing. I am personally too "educationally squeamish" to try this route entirely. My boys would be studying television programs all day, left to their own devices!
Other parents make a curriculum up out of a mish-mosh of assorted books and materials, but have a structure to their school. This is called Eclectic Homeschool, and is the type we use. We started out being Traditional, but with the boys on re-entry from Public School, the differences in structures were more than they could stand. We went through several months of arguing, discouragement and re-adjustment before we became Eclectic. It allows more freedom than Traditional, although it maintains stricter guidance than Unschool. The parents select some curricula because it will be important to the child to know it, even though he/she may not think so right now. For example, my sons and I are studying the Bill of Rights of the American Constitution. It is slow going and occasionally very dry, but I think they will see the benefit of it all in the future. I teach it now, so that they can begin to formulate their ideas relating to it as they endure the critical teen years. An Unschooler would probably just skip it for now, and go at it if and when their child expressed an interest in that subject. A traditional homeschooler might wait and study it as part of their curriculum when their history book said it was time to.
Some parents do Afterschooling, which is homeschooling after the formal school day. This can be in order to further illustrate the things learned during the formal school day, or to teach those things which the parents feel the school has neglected to teach. Usually, this takes the form of educational field trips or supplemental curriculum. This did not work for us, as the boys were exhausted by the time they got home from school and did not want any more education in their day. We could hardly blame them. No one wants to go to work all day, and have to do exactly the same work when they get home at night. We did try to do weekends then, but we'll just record their attitude here for posterity as "resistant," which is about the most polite term I can think of to use! You also run the risk of confusing the children between your information you have provided, and the information provided by the teacher. This can become very counter-productive.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Joan Archer's Homeschool topic, please visit the Discussions page.