Q&A: Homeschooling approaches

by Crystal Paine

Crystal , I am wondering what "approach" your parents used in educating your family. Also, what you are drawn to for your own family's needs. Just wondering. -Christi

Hi, Christi!

Thanks for the great question. My parents started homeschooling when homeschooling was still a pretty new phenomenon. It was before the internet, before satellite schooling, and back when The Teaching Home was in existence (and I think the only homeschooling magazine in existence. Maybe Mary Pride's was, too?). There weren't a lot of methods or textbooks or approaches to choose from. It was back when you dreaded people asking you where you went to school because you knew that you would probably get a really weird look and who knows, they may even turn you in for truancy. We tried never to go out of the house during school hours, unless it was in the backyard for P.E. Having a social worker knock on your door was a real threat, we knew plenty of people who had experienced it.

Homeschooling has evolved a lot since then - some times I'm thankful for this (especially that homeschooling is no longer viewed with such negativity), other times it would be nice to go back to when things were so much simpler. You just had a few curriculum options to choose from, a few support groups to be involved in, and a few activities available. It seems like before all the options were available, most homeschooling families were more home-centered and family-oriented.

Though homeschooling evolved, we didn't really evolve with it. My parents always believed that the most important thing for us to learn was True Wisdom which is rooted in the fear of the Lord (Psalm 111:10).

Though our schedule always changed some from year to year, a basic day in our homeschool went something like this:

From day one, school always began with singing hymns, sharing prayer requests, and at least 15-20 minutes of prayer. Oftentimes, we would also work on Scripture memorization after this time.

After this, we usually spent an hour or so altogether working on some group project or studying something together. This varied from year to year. One year we studied Biblical Hebrew and Psalm 119. One year we studied Proverbs. One year we studied the armor of God. One year we studied the Old Testament Tabernacle.

The next hour or two was devoted to working on our own on our individual subjects. Mom always carved out at least 15-30 minutes to work with each of us individually. Sometimes we would be working through a Bible Study together, sometimes we'd be working on creative writing, sometimes she would be reading through a book with us, sometimes she would be helping us with our math or English.

As the older children were able, they were assigned at least 15-30 minutes to work with younger ones teaching them a particular subject. This allowed Mom the ability to have focused one-on-one time with each child and also allowed us older children the opportunity to learn to teach subjects.

Unless it was some rare occasion, we always had lunch together - something simple that one of the children was assigned to make (usually a big salad and something on the side). After lunch, Mom read to us for at least 30 minutes. We went through countless books during this read aloud time over the years. Most of the time, Mom read biographies or autobiographies of famous Christian men and women - often missionaries.

After our read-aloud time, we usually had another hour or so of "together time." This was usually an academic subject. For two years we studied Spanish (my mom lived in Mexico for part of her high school year and is pretty fluent in Spanish, something that most of us children have picked up), one year we did Biology Lab (i.e. dissection of frogs, fish, worms, and so forth), one year we did Greek and Latin roots, one year we worked through three grammar curriculums. If the subject was above the younger children's heads, Mom would have them sit quietly nearby and work on something. It was amazing how much they would pick up just by listening in while coloring or doing some other busywork!

Then we worked for another hour or two on our individual subjects. After 2 or 3 in the afternoon, we usually had projects to do around the home (cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc.) or outside projects to work on (gardening, weeding, mowing, watering trees, etc.).

The afternoons were also often used for music practice time. Though we did not do many extracurricular activities which required leaving to go somewhere, my parents did have all of us take music lessons. This was one thing which was very important to them and we all thank them today for investing in us in this way. We all took at least two years of piano lessons and then kept with piano and/or went on with another instrument. Since most of us thoroughly enjoyed music, we often spent 1-3 hours practicing per day.

After dinner (which we tried to always eat together as a family), we were usually free to do whatever we had left to finish up or to read or spend time together as a family.

We used a variety of homeschooling curriculums over the years and I don't think it could be boiled down to one method or another. My parents weren't the type to find one model or method or mold and stick with that. We usually didn't stick with one publisher of a certain subject for more than a few years in a row. Each curriculum/publisher has it's strengths and weaknesses and by mixing things up a bit, it helped us learn things in different ways from different approaches.

Whew! That was a long answer and I don't even know if it answered your question. However, it was fun for me to reminisce on my homeschooling years. Jesse and I are exciting to begin our homeschooling journey with our children. We will probably also not fit into one method or model box either, though we both lean heavily towards Classical education (with me being more of the Charlotte Masion sort of gal). It will be interesting to see where we end up and how we end up homeschooling. The most important thing to me is that we train our children in the fear of the Lord and that we teach them to love learning. If we can accomplish those two things, we will be satisfied.
 

Crystal Paine is a 24-year-old homeschool graduate from Topeka, Kansas. She is the blessed wife of Jesse and joyful mother of Kathrynne. Visit her site, Biblical Womanhood, for books, articles, encouragement, and inspiration!