What Eclectic Homeschooling Means to Me

I have to keep reminding myself that we are an eclectic homeschooling family.  Just because I like some aspect of a given approach doesn't make us followers of said approach.  I keep falling into that sort of literalism, where I start to think I'm, say, a Charlotte Mason kind of homeschooler, but then I worry about the various aspects of that approach that I actually don't see myself incorporating and waste time worrying about it.  So here's a quick run down of what currently resonates with me from various approaches I have researched.

Montessori
I had forgotten that we incorporated the elements of developmentally-appropriate independence into Natalia's daily life long ago, and that these have been growing with her.  We do not do Montessori trays, even though I have tried.  There's a lot of prep that goes into them, and she has shown minimal interest in them. Instead, I've finally looked at what I like about some of the activities, and I've built those skills into our daily life.  So dry scooping is now dog feeding.  Liquid pouring is now pouring herself drinks at meal times.  I don't give her random things to wash/scrub/clean for the sake of practicing those skills.  Instead, she actually washes veggies or dishes or her hands with me. She dresses herself, after picking out her outfit for the day.  I don't have a dressing frame for her to practice.  There's no need for her to know how to do and undo buttons if her clothing doesn't include them.  One other aspect of Montessori that I think snuck in long ago has been the simple, wooden surroundings and natural light.  Definitely high on our priorities when setting up her playroom and even when purchasing our house - I insisted that there be windows low enough for her to easily see out of at her curent 3 feet tall. This has proven to be an indispensible part of the sort of lifestyle and educational environment I want for my kids.  Oh, and we do not own any toys that operate on battery. Period.

To sum up:
* practical life skills encouraged through daily life
* developmentally-appropriate independence encouraged regularly
* simple and natural environment

Charlotte Mason
There are a few specific approaches to learning that I really like from CM, even though most I cannot yet implement.  Nature study as a whole has been giving me a headache, as CM recommends an amount of daily outdoor time that seems ridiculous to me, even when it's beautiful outside.  This week was the first time we were able to spent a couple of days doing things outside, and I just didn't see the need to spend more than two and a half hours outside.  We are not preparing to live outside, so while I definitely value some time outdoors, I was worrying myself for no reason trying to figure out how to be out more.  Going forward, as summer comes to a close and decent weather returns, I see us having our windows open a lot, airing out the house, being able to appreciate fresh air that way, and spending a couple of hours a day outside, while also looking at ways to incorporate nature study indoors, such as through our nature corner.  I am satisfied with that being sufficiently beneficial.  As Natalia gets a bit older, I look forward to her starting a nature journal.

I also really like the CM approach to language arts, which I utilized when I taught adults ESL. Namely, narration, copywork, and dictation, along with a lot of reading for pleasure.  I don't foresee spelling word lists or handwriting lessons, or even - hold onto your seat people - formal phonics instruction.  In light of what I'll discuss below (under Classical), if memorization comes easily for young children, then I see nothing simpler than mere exposure providing all the memorization Natalia needs in order to internalize what sounds are made by which letters in which contexts, and how words are spelled.  I see no reason to interfere with this process by talking about grammar rules and all their varied exceptions.  Sounds like a waste of time to me.

While I do like the idea of utilizing living books for our history and social studies, I see two problems with this.  One, the ability to aquire all the books that would be necessary to cover any given timeperiod thoroughly.  And two, not having anything summarizing how the various books tie in together, at least from my perspective as the facilitator of the information.  Instead, I will definitely use some sort of history "spine", yes a dreaded textbook, and branch out from there to find as many living books as possible for each time period being studied.  In light of another paragraph below (about Unschooling), I will let Natalia's interest dictate how much time, and how many books, we devote to any given time period, so that if she's not particularly interested in something, at least we covered the basics from the spine.

To sum up:
* nature study as a precursor to later science learning
* nature notebook
* narration, copywork, dicatation, and reading as the core to literacy
* living books whenever possible, more so when interests are high

Classical
Two things resonate with me from this approach.  One is the focus on memorization in the early years, because I see no reason not to take full advantage of a child's natural interest in memorizing things.  What better time than then to present valuable facts for the child to memorize and then be able to use as a foundation for more in-depth learning later on.  Yes, it seems like mere dry facts now, but I'm looking at the big picture, and I think it'll be that much more fun and interesting to delve deep into subjects if Natalia already has a working knowledge of key facts about whatever it is she is studying later on. (Note here that I will pick and choose which subjects will be relevant for memorization work.  For instance, there will be no grammar rule or spelling memorization, but things like capital cities or species of the animal kingdom, yes.)

The other thing, which is technically also a part of CM, is the historical timeline.  I'm a visual learner, so I love the idea of having a horizontal display of history, something that I wish I would've had access to when studying history myself.  I see our curriculum being history-based, so there will always be a large time line that we can always add to as we learn whatever it is we learn from the various subjects we'll be studying.

Both Classical and CM have their own ideas on the importance of foreign language, but as a multilingual family, I see their suggestions of Latin and French as being, shall we say, classist.  I absolutely think every person should be comfortable conversing in at least one language other than their native language, but I completely disagree that the decision as to which language it should be, ought to come from outside the family.  In our family, Polish and Spanish are co-native languages, and the foreign language that we are studying is ASL.

To sum up:
* memorization of relevant facts in various subjects during the early years
* historical timeline as a visual representation of what we're studying
* importance of foreign language study

Unschooling
I've had a love-hate relationship with the idea of unschooling, but as I become more and more confident in myself as an eclectic homeschooler, I'm realizing that just like with the other approaches, I need to take what resonates and not worry about the rest.  I cannot phathom homeschooling without having a pre-planned curriculum.  One of the reasons I want to homeschool is because I enjoy that aspect of it.  That said, I am completely flexible on taking detours as Natalia's interests dictate.  Just because something is on the agenda doesn't mean it must be covered, at least not right then.  So in that regard, I am taking the unschooling approach of allowing plenty of time for child-led interests to be pursued.  What I don't see is having no direction at the start, because I do think there is value in learning that sometimes we have to do things we may not necessarily love to do.  That is an attitude that will come in handy in adulthood.  I don't want my kids to grow up expecting to only ever do what they feel like doing, because the world just doesn't operate that way.

I also like John Holt's explanation of how children learn naturally, in particular in his "Learning All the Time" book, and specifically when it comes to early math skills.  Rote counting, for instance, is not valued as a skill in itself.  Math should be useful, relevant to real life.  So my focus will be on talking about and pointing out numbers, groups of items, measurements, money, time, shapes, etc. as we come across them in our daily lives, much like I've done with the practical life skills a la Montessori.

To sum up:
* allowing plenty of freedom and flexibility to veer off the planned curriculum or lesson plan in order to pursue the child's interests until they wane
* a natural approach to numeracy

Reggio Emilia-inspired
Project-based, child-led learning for the early years, this "approach" sounds very similar to Unschooling from the perspective of following the child's interests and seeing the parent as a mentor rather than teacher, but also shares aspects with Montessori regarding the idea of the environment itself being a "third teacher" (RE personifies what is hinted at by Montessori).  What's unique about it that resonates with me is the emphasis on documenting the child's work, and a few very specific aspects of play that I want to make an effort incorporating into our preschool.

To sum up:
* keeping a portfolio of the child's work
* using mirrors, light, shadows, and color (mixing in particular, may be my own take)

Bringing it all together, our eclectic homeschool approach is as follows:

NOW
* practical life skills encouraged through daily life
* developmentally-appropriate independence encouraged regularly
* simple and natural environment
* nature study as a precursor to later science learning
* keeping a portfolio of the child's work
* using mirrors, light, shadows, and color (mixing in particular, may be my own take)
* importance of foreign language study
* a natural approach to numeracy

* Natalia is taking swimming lessons with Daddy for the next couple of months
* we plan to order Signing Time for our ASL foreign language curriculum soon

LATER (starting around age 6/K except where otherwise noted)

* keeping a portfolio of the child's work (in lieu of testing) (ongoing)
* nature notebook (starting at 4?)
* narration, copywork, dicatation, and reading as the core to literacy (narration and reading 4+?)
* living books whenever possible, more so when interests are high
* memorization of relevant facts in various subjects during the early years (4/5?)
* importance of foreign language study (ongoing)
* historical timeline as a visual representation of what we're studying
* allowing plenty of freedom and flexibility to veer off the planned curriculum or lesson plan in order to pursue the child's interests until they wane (ongoing)
* using mirrors, light, shadows, and color (through Kindergarten)

* I am currently leaning towards Math-U-See as our math curriculum.
* For a science curriculum, I'm interested in Real Science 4 Kids at the moment, but that's because it's the only science curriculum I'm very aware of, thanks to a homeschooling webinar.
* The history curriculum I keep hearing about is The History of the World, but of course it's too soon to commit still.