Eclectic Homeschool

There are many different ways to homeschool your kids. Montessori, unschooling, game schooling, child lead, cyber school, ect. I have been homeschooling for 10 years and have found it is better to take a little bit from each thing. When starting out it is all about figuring out what works best for your children and family. Making schedules and finding curriculum. I found I could not find one curriculum that fit all my kids . I tried numerous ones to no avail. One curriculum just didn't work . My daughter needed something with a heavy animal science background. My middle boy needed something with extra reading help, and my youngest needed more hands-on and reading help. I started piecing together the curriculum. Taking some Montessori, some knotgrass, as well as others. This worked well and continues to work for us.

We are very child lead learning. With a touch of unschooling in the mix. we have one day a week the kids have to do whatever they want learning wise that is Friday. They let me know what they are interested in learning for literature,science,and history/social studies. Every other week we take the time to have a game where nothing but board games are played. I try to break up the stress of learning and make it easier to retain what they learn.

We also use alot of life experience for learning such as; cooking, housekeeping and organization, laundry, budgeting, carpentry, and car maintenance. To name a few , anything you do can be educational for your children. Lawncare, how to repair a lawn mower or tools. Car maintenance such as changing the oil, getting gas, washing the car can all be used as a gradable course. Designing a webpage or blog. It is all usable as a teaching tool.

Even video games can be educational. They teach problem-solving, coding, critical thinking, and many more skills as well as reading practice. Minecraft helps teach coding. Lego has coding software and games. Even Roblox can be educational there are many coding programs for roblox. Teach My Monster to Read is another good game that helps teach reading and phonics. The Jumpstart series has games for pre-k to sixth grade as well as spanish . There are math games and software you can get from visa to help kids learn budgeting, checking skills, and home finance.

Then the scheduling oh the horror of scheduling. Some weeks went smooth and scheduling was so easy. Everday went as planned. Then other weeks were riddled with obstacles. I swear it was as if we weren't supposed to get anything done. Then I read an article on a website I can't remember now ; that said "if you are having trouble keeping your schedule let it go." That to me seemed poignant. It also said that the point of homeschool was to teach our children and being flexible was an important lesson for everyone to learn. Now i always have backup plans if my original schedule doesn't pan out I let the kids do learning games , read books on subjects we are learning, or make something ; like cooking, building with wood or legos, or crafts. still learning but fits the schedule we need.

Shopping store trips can be used as an educational experience. Going to the park, or on a hike theses are also educational . Going to the beach or to a near by town all educational.

So remember when starting out or trying to figure out what to change to make your homeschooling easier. Never be afraid to customize the experience. Have fun creating your childs education.