Different Ways to Homeschool (What Works for Us?)

Just like anything else in life (specifically, anything new), you’ve got to try different things on for size. We tried a more “structured” approach to homeschooling. We bought textbooks and I created spelling lists. But I soon found out that Becca learned best by doing. (And the structured approach was too much like “real school.”)

So if I were to define our style of learning, I’d say that we’re “Eclectic Unschoolers.”

What is an Eclectic Unschooler, you ask?

I would define unschooling as “child-led-learning.” (I must mention here that unschooling does NOT mean un-parenting. We’ll probably end up touching on THAT subject another time.) ;o)

And eclectic, meaning “taking bits and pieces from different sources.”

Our first homeschool activity happened to be “design your own leprechaun catcher” with our new homeschool group. Becca has never been one to jump into new situations easily. I kinda had to talk her into it. But we went and she had a blast. What did she get out of it (or more specifically, what did she learn)? She got some “socialization” (there’s that “S Word”), she got to do some fun arts and crafts, she learned a little bit (or a lot) about design and she opened her mind to something new. All in all a great day.

Since then, we’ve gone on numerous field trips (more than I can ever count), we’ve been in many co-ops (some of our favorites were Circle Round and LIFE Class--where we studied Mysticism and Mythology and World Studies). We were involved with a pretty amazing homeschool Girl Scout troop, and then started our own Juliette (independent Girl Scout) group. We’ve traveled, we’ve read, we’ve created, and most importantly, we’ve learned.