“Avoid compulsion and let early education be a matter of amusement. Young children learn by games; compulsory education cannot remain in the soul.” – Plato
When families begin homeschooling, they often start by exploring how children learn, and familiarizing themselves with the many different educational methods and the different learning styles of children.
The articles and resources below provide a wealth of information and support for understanding Learning Styles and Methods
Winging it with Curriculum:Everything I Needed to Know I Learned from Geese – Stefanie Hofman
Everything I ever needed to know about homeschooling I learned from geese. Our recently thawed pond heralded the departure of winter and the arrival of spring. In Minnesota, spring brings cherry blossoms, red buds and Canadian geese. Unlike the colorful blossoms, the geese are not altogether welcome given their loud honking and prolific droppings. One day, from behind the willow tree, a new family of geese slowly wended its way onto my lawn. Seeing Mama and Papa Goose with seven geese babies piqued my sympathy and curiosity and I no longer wished to chase them off my yard.
Learning Logs - Ivy Rutledge
By writing down the things that do and don’t work for her, she is becoming aware of her best methods, helps, strengths and weaknesses. Metacognition, this is called in professional teaching circles, but it’s not rocket science and doesn’t need a fancy name; we’re just teaching her to know what she likes and where she would like to go with it.
Learning together has been a wonderful adventure for us, and we have been rewarded with the wonder of watching our children’s exploration and discovery turn into ideas that unfold in unpredictable and special ways.
Learning to Love Math by Alison Moore Smith
There are methods of teaching mathematics which encourage a love and interest in math, and those which tend to kill the joy. If I could give you one piece of advice, it would be this: Please avoid the drill-to-kill, memorize-to-mummify, repetition-without-reason textbooks!
What can you do to bring out a love of math in your kids?
It’s OK to count on your fingers1or pebbles or candies or pennies or rods or sticks or blocks even for advanced students. Use hands-on stuff and always have a manipulative to fall back on. Mess with real stuff first; experiment, discover. The algorithm comes last!
Leaving Public Education by Ellen C. Bicheler
One of my biggest challenges came from the scrutiny we received from the general public and in particular the neighbors about our methods of homeschooling. When the neighbors first asked Lindsay what she was doing for homeschooling, she would say, “Nothing.” She would say this because we were no longer studying out of textbooks. We were going to the pond to study pond life. We would supplement this with talks from naturalists and books from the library. Lindsay was no longer studying a prescribed curriculum and I guess nothing resembled her classroom from the previous year.
The Many Faces of Home Education - Tamara Orr
Perhaps homeschooling’s most precious advantage is that it is completely malleable; it can be shaped to whatever you need it to be. Instead of forcing your child to fit into public education, you have the chance to mold education around your child. While this is empowering, it can also be frightening. Where do you start? Whose theories are right? The decision to homeschool demands that you do some real research. First, you have to find out what your options are and then slowly, you can select the one that you think will fit you and your partner’s personality/philosophy of education, your children’s personalities and your lifestyle choices.
A Visit with Mary Hood – Janine Calsbeek
Chat with Mary Hood about learning centers, and you’ll get a short course on unschooling.
Pull the books and educational “stuff” out of the closet, she says. Put them where kids can see them. Keep things somewhat orderly, clean, and well-lit. React to your child’s initiative. If you really want a kid to read a certain book, don’t assign it. Just throw it on the couch.
This is Mary Hood, author of The Relaxed Home School, touted by some as “the Christian John Holt.” She is somewhat of an unusual item, you must admit. Her theology leans towards the conservative end, yet her educational style is, in a word, loose.
There’s no conflict in her mind. She sees how her children learn, and knows they learn best when they’re motivated. Her goals for her family include supporting everyone’s natural love of learning, not beating facts into their heads.
A Birthday a Day by Rebecca Rupp
Our kids’ learning styles seem to mesh better with what are popularly called “unit studies:” assorted projects, activities, and readings centered around a topic of kid-chosen interest. Here again, we’ve always invented our own, accumulating craft and science kits, and turning out piles of homemade activity books on such subjects as the Civil War, whales, stars, frogs, the heart, the eye, trees, bees, and map-making. Many of our past unit study topics were generated from the calendar, centering around the birthdays of famous persons, historical anniversaries, and unusual holidays. In past years, for example, we’ve celebrated – in detail – the birthdays of George Washington Carver, Benjamin Franklin, Louis Braille, Amelia Earhart, Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Boone, P.T. Barnum, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hans Christian Anderson, Tycho Brahe, Galileo, Susan B. Anthony, and Helen Keller; commemorated the launching the Sputnik, the Wright Brothers’ flight at Kitty Hawk, the opening of the Erie Canal, the completion of the transcontinental railroad, Boys’ Day in Japan, the opening of Tutankhamen’s tomb, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, and – month by month – the entry of all fifty states into the Union.
An Interview With Dr. Thomas Armstrong by Janie Bowman
Question: For parents teaching more than one child, any tips on how to juggle different ages and learning styles in the same family?
Answer: I think the more kids you have the more you should rely on peer tutoring, cross-age tutoring and having kids teach each other. You know, going back to the old one-room schoolhouse where kids of different ages typically did a lot of teaching of each other certainly takes a lot of the strain away from the parent of having to meet everybody’s needs.
Resources
- How Children Learn by John Holt
- Unschooling: Favorite articles, resources, websites and more
- Considering Methods & Styles of Homeschooling by Lillian Jones
- Carschooling by Diane Flynn Keith
- Determine Your Children’s Learning Styles from A-Z Homescooling
- Educationese: Learning the Language
- Unit Studies: Creating your own curriculum
- Deschooling: Leaving schoolish ways behind
- Learning Styles from Brightkids@home
- Myth #4 “You Need Teacher Training, Dearie” -Linda Dobson
- Nurturing Children’s Natural Love of Learning by Jan Hunt, M.Sc.
- Plan from Ann Lahrson-Fisher
A common question from those new to homeschooling is “How will my child receive a high school diploma?” and the corresponding question is “How will he or she get along without one?” The answers are as varied as the homeschooling families themselves, because ultimately the question of whether or not to pursue getting a diploma of some kind becomes a family decision.
Testing, like many other educational concerns, should be a personal decision. Some questions to consider before making this decision include: which tests will be used and why, how might the testing process affect the learner, how will the test results be used, and are there less intrusive alternatives that can be utilized instead? Testing, in the home environment where parents are always very aware of how well their children are doing, is unnecessary and intrusive. Testing is under fire from many teachers and educators ,and many educational establishments are attempting to eliminate standardized testing in their schools. Very careful consideration should be taken before any testing is done to children for any reason. Looking for good information and perspective on standardized testing? Try these resources:
Why don’t we get the best out of people? In one of the most popular TED Talks ever presented, 
Home Education Magazine’s long-running and frequently updated 
Shannon Entin is the publisher of PHAT Mommy: where parenting, homeschooling and technology come together, and she is also the Editor of Blissfully Domestic’s Digital Bliss channel. She shares 
Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College, has conducted and published research in comparative, evolutionary, developmental, and educational psychology; published articles on innovative teaching methods and alternative approaches to education; and is author of an introductory college textbook on psychology. He is currently working on a book about the lifelong nature and functions of human play, tentatively titled Born to Play, and he writes a blog for Psychology Today titled Freedom to Learn: The roles of play and curiosity as foundations for learning. 