Posts Tagged ‘John Holt’

Learning Styles & Methods

Monday, July 5th, 2010

“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


Tags: A-Z Homescooling, Alison Moore Smith, American Homeschool Association, Ann Lahrson-Fisher, Carschooling, Children's Learning Styles, Creating your own curriculum, decision to homeschool, Deschooling, Diane Flynn Keith, Dr. Thomas Armstrong, Educationese, Ellen C. Bicheler, Home Education Magazine, homeschooling, How Children Learn, Ivy Rutledge, Jan Hunt, Janie Bowman, Janine Calsbeek, John Holt, learning styles, Learning Styles and Methods, Lillian Jones, Linda Dobson, Love of Learning, Mary Hood, Methods & Styles of Homeschooling, methods of homeschooling, one-room schoolhouse, Rebecca Rupp, schoolish ways, Stefanie Hofman, Tamara Orr, teaching more than one child, The Relaxed Home School, Unit Studies, unschooling
Posted in Articles & Info, Good Resources, Questions/Answers | No Comments »

Unschooling

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

What is Unschooling?

Have you ever described ‘red’ to a person who is color blind? Sometimes, trying to define unschooling is like trying to define red. Ask 30 unschoolers to define the word and you’ll get thirty shades of red. They’ll all be red, but they’ll all be different. Generally, unschoolers are concerned with learning or becoming educated, not with ‘doing school.’ The focus is upon the choices made by each individual learner, and those choices can vary according to learning style and personality type. There is no one way to unschool.

If you don’t do school, what do you do?

Read, play, sing, dance, grow things, write. All of these things and more are things unschoolers do. We do them because they interest us and bring us joy or because they help us accomplish our dreams. We do the things that have meaning in our lives and contained within those activities is real learning.

You mean I’m supposed to let them run wild?

Unschooling doesn’t mean not being a parent. Children need loving adults interested in helping them grow and learn. Choosing to build a lego village will include the opportunity to learn math and culture, maybe even history depending on the type of village. We do chores, have a family life, and participate in the wider community. The children are actively engaged in living and learning during all of this.

But what about math?

It’s easy to see how children can learn many things without using traditional, formal methods of teaching, but many people see math as a huge stumbling block, mainly, because most of us have learned to hate math because of the way it was taught in school. There are a great many ways to encounter math in the real world. Geometry can be found in quilt making, algebra in painting a room. Shifting perspectives, from textbooks to the real world is sometimes difficult, but math that is actually used is math truly learned.

Is this legal?

Yes. Each state has its own specific guidelines that many unschoolers choose to live within. Some, like NY, are more difficult than some others, but there are unschoolers in every state in the union. Below is a link to the law for each of the 50 states. Choose your state to see the law and for information on how unschoolers are meeting that law.

How do you know they are learning?

You will know by listening to them speak, by watching them play, just by being with them. You will know they are leaning at 8 the same way you knew they were learning at 18 months. You will see them use their skills and knowledge. This does take some effort on the part of the parent. The information is not contained on a worksheet or within a report. It is not all nice and neat and tied up with a grade. It’s spread out over the course of the day while the children are living their lives. You have to be observant and tuned into your child, in order to know. The nice thing about this is that it’s great fun to observe your children so closely, to be so in tune with their lives. It brings contentment to both parent and child to know each other so well.

What about discipline?

What most people mean when they ask about discipline is not the external system of punishment and rewards, but of an internal understanding of self discipline. Jumping through onerous academic hoops will not necessarily lead to self discipline. Our children gain a sense of how important self discipline is by watching us. Our ability to model a self disciplined life is much more powerful than handing in book reports in time. Helping children reach their own goals will mean there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss stick-to-itiveness, follow through, and how sometimes it’s worth doing the things that are no fun in order to reach the desired goal. These lessons have much more meaning when they are in conjuction with goals the children set for themselves.

Can unschooling be structured?

It depends on what you mean by structure. Imposing external structure onto the learner, by specifying materials and methods, is not unschooling. A person creating structure to suit his or her own purpose, that is unschooling. Some people are by nature methodical, and we want our children to respect and work with their own internal rhythms. Our job as parent is to help them create what they need. For example, it is entirely possible that one child will learn everything in a more relaxed, free flowing way, except for one subject- perhaps history. With history that child may want a time line and a access to materials in chronological order. If it works for the child and is created at the behest of the child, then structured, methodical learning is also unschooling.

Adapted with permission from the Unschooling.com website. All content copyrighted.

Tags: homeschooling, John Holt, learning, unschoolers, unschooling
Posted in Questions/Answers | No Comments »