After deciding that homeschooling is what you want for your children, you need to work out the method in which you would like to achieve this. There are many styles in which you can go about homeschooling which can be confusing when starting out.
Here is an overview of some of the ways you may choose to homeschool.
Montessori – This method of learning comes from Maria Montessori who was born in 1870. She believed that children were born with a unique potential that needed to be revealed. Founded in 1907, Montessori education encourages children to learn individually at their own pace in a child-friendly environment. To find out more check out these sites:
Charlotte Manson – Charlotte Manson was a British educator who lived in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. She believed in using living books instead of text books, short lessons, nature notebooks and copy work. To find out more check out these sites:
Unschooling – To take the “school” out of educating. This style of homeschooling has no curriculum, no peer comparison and no schedules. Instead you actively engage in providing resources and experiences that support your child’s passions and their desire to learn. This is more of a lifestyle based method of homeschooling. Here are some sites where you can find out more:
Natural Learning – Is a lot like unschooling. Some say that in America it is called unschooling and in Australia it is called natural learning. Natural learning is more about how learning takes place naturally by following daily life routines. You allow yourself to be constantly learning and wanting to learn. Take a look at this website that explains the difference between unschooling and natural learning: Unschooling vs Natural Learning. To find out more about natural learning, check out these pages:
Eclectic – Being an eclectic homeschooler means you borrow ideas from a range of different homeschooling styles. This style allows you to be flexible and find a learning style that suits you and your children.
Distance Education – With distance education, you are registered through a school who send you the materials you need to educate your child. This way you, as the parent, do not have to write your own curriculum, you just have to make sure your children do the work required of them by the school.
Steiner / Waldorf – Austrian educator Rudolf Steiner first published his book, “The Education of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science,” in 1907. He believed that a child’s learning is based on stages and his way of homeschooling relies on lecture-based experiential learning. The child learns through exploring the subject by using arts and crafts, music, movement and group social skills.
Unit Studies – With this method of learning, you organise your child’s learning of a particular subject/theme for a certain length of time. For example if you were doing a unit study about golf, some of the activities you would do are reading about golf, watch golf, write poems and stories about golf, add up golf scores, view movies about golf. You would focus on learning and doing activities on golf for a certain amount of time before moving onto another subject/theme.
If you live in Australia and are looking at homeschooling, you need to check out the requirements for the state that you live in and the curriculum.
- Queensland / Queensland
- New South Wales / New South Wales
- Northern Territory / Northern Territory
- South Australia / South Australia
- Australian Capital Territory / Australian Capital Territory
- Victoria / Victoria
- Tasmania / Tasmania
- Western Australia / Western Australia
- Home Education Australia
- Home Education
If you are looking at homeschooling in Australia through Distance Education, here are some links to some of the schools you can register through.
- Brisbane School of Distance Education
- Jubilee Christian College
- Australian Christian College
- Faith School of Distance Education
- Groves
We are more of the eclectic homeschoolers. Our boys are registered through Jubilee Christian College and they receive their PACE’s to complete through them. We also add lots of other activities as you can see from this blog. We have used lap books and unit studies in the past, but have found as the boys grow, the way they want to learn changes, so we just go with the flow.
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