My Homeschooling Style

I was doing some reading this morning and I came across a fascinating article that provided a look into my teaching style. It was very interesting to see, and also very accurate. I’m sharing this because I believe that it’s important to know your teaching style so that you can better teach and influence your children (even if you are not homeschooling them, I believe you are still their primary teacher).

Here are my results after taking a short assessment. I’ve also provided a short description of each teaching style for your review.

According to Mardel.com the Charlotte Mason method “allows students to learn from life. They will read from real books, study nature in the outdoors, study art and music, and prove learning through narration—telling back in their own words what they’ve read and learned” Oh my word…this is me!

According to Mardel.com, Unit Studies take “one topic (ex. Sharks) and tie in as many of the other subjects into that one topic as possible. You may study a particular topic for weeks, fleshing out all of it’s possibilities and links” Oh my word, this is also sooooo me! Every month we have studied a different topic.

So far we’ve studied these topics…

September: All About Me (birthday, likes/dislikes, body parts, address etc.)
October: Insects
November:The Solar System
December: Sharks
January: Winter

According to Mardel.com., “Unschooling is the method that allows students to follow thier own interests wherever they may lead. This method assumes that children are natural learners and will follow that inclination to a logical and fruitful end.” I do believe that children are natural learners, but the reason that this is listed as number three and not the primary method of teaching is because I do have the majority of control over what Ryleigh learns. Although we list some things that she is interested in and delve right into them (ex. Insects)…I structure and plan her learning.

According to Mardel.com., “Classical learning is a highly disciplined approach to homeschooling that emphasizes serious reading, writing, rhetoric, and classical literature. Latin and Greek, reason, debate, research, etc.” I am not surprised that this is fourth because I am just not into a high disciplined approach, however I do place a lot of emphasis on reading and writing.

Last but not least is the traditional approach. According to Mardel.com., this approach has students “following a curriculum supplier from the school district or by the parents.” Although I am results driven, I am not a proponent for tests or homework in kindergarten, and I also like to be able to choose the curriculum that works for Ryleigh.

Although Charlotte Mason edges out as my top method of teaching, it looks like I am somewhere in the middle of all of the styles. I kinda always knew that I have an eclectic taste for fashion…but I didn’t know that it would come out in my teaching as well!

My priorities and thoughts about homeschooling are as follows:

I get to spend this amazing time with my daughter
I get to see what her strengths and weaknesses are. Then I get to invest into her strengths, and work on her weaknesses.
I get to incorporate art and music into her life everyday.
I get to watch her learn how to read and write better and better.
I can choose how I want to “test” her to make sure she is retaining information.
I push her in certain areas because I know that she wants to be challenged in certain subjects such as math, art, music, and science. *I have a kid who loves math!* She takes after her father!!!
I can slow things down for her if needed.
We can learn about random things that aren’t always “required by kindergarten”, like the Eiffel Tower, and the Planets, how the heart works, Salsa music, and the White House. *Real subjects that we’ve encountered lol*
I can be as relaxed/flexible or as planned/structured as I want to be. I tend to be a mixture of relaxed/planned.

You can take the assessment on Mardel.com and find out for yourselves. It is fun and interesting.

Here is a video about our January 2017 Focus for Homeschooling.