Homeschool Philosophy
This page of resources belongs to the Homeschool Help Library.
We think it's so complicated - curriculums, resources, and "socialization". Unschool, classical, Waldorf, Montessori - on and on. How do you choose? How do you know what's right for your child? your family?
You listen.
You listen to your heart, you listen to your partner. You listen to your own dreams and desires (you know the family life you want; build your homeschool around that). You listen to your child. You listen to the Spirit.
There's a lot "out there" competing for our attention. It's distracting and pulls us away often from the answers we will find if we just stop to listen.
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My Philosophy of Education
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What follows are my core philosophical axes.
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Explicating core political & spiritual values
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The values that guided my homeschooling, undergird my mothering, my relationships, and my politics.
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Homeschooling as a political act
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Compulsory means alienate and undermine students/children from achieving the ends of developing autonomous thinking and action in solidarity-building relationships with family and community. This is both an educational and political stance.
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As we finish homeschooling 3 kids through high school
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Years of experience that have confirmed what was once just theory - it's possible to do something different with education and to build the kind of relationships I envisioned for family life.
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Sitting front row to a person's becoming
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It has been delightful to see the threads connecting my kids' early childhood and their late teen/launching years.
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The October homeschool update (with a wee bit of parenting melancholy, philosophy, and practice), part 3
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Schooling has never been compulsory or mandatory for our kids, done against their will or personal motivations.
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Project Based Learning as both a mindset and methodology
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I use the term mindset to encapsulate the idea of "an approach to life", and methodology as shorthand for the "how to do it".
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Practicing a philosophy of life
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Homeschooling is an expression of a life philosophy and values.
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More than a fuzzy feeling
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Hope is not fuzzy, feel-good emotion, or wishful thinking, but a faith rooted in the soil of adversity and perseverance through trials.
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Getting Out the Door ~ Together
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I believe strong, healthy families provides the best structural framework for reaching our potential, for getting out the door, making ideas happen, getting things done, and doing the work.
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The Study of Skiing (or how I feel about prizes, bribes and grades)
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Learning is its own reward.
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Developing Self-Discipline
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Children can learn to apply themselves to difficult tasks, and become self-disciplined adults by investing large amounts of time, energy, and effort in designing their own studies and self-directing their learning.
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Drudgery & Discipline
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The complete title of this series is Discipline in a Love of Learning, Freedom Based, Interest-led Homeschool.
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Remembering the early elementary years (and the development of an education philosophy)
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A trip down education philosophy memory lane and a reminder about what's important moving forward.
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Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment
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Why do we push our learners instead of partnering with them?
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Instagram and Interest-led learning
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People, including children, learn what they "need to know" by doing things that interest and inspire them.
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Knowing the learner (a story from the strawberry field)
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The only thing you really need to study and tune into is your kids.
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A definition of study
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We have to get over the definition of study as being "schoolish" activities - reading, writing, and exam taking.
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Why can't learning look like this?
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One of the causes for tension in a homeschool environment is that we apply a different standard of study, a different method of learning, to our children than the one we model ourselves.
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Take me to Your Dungeon Master
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Our young adult takes ownership for her learning and I learn to let go.
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Raising Kids that Craft (or not)
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We make time for creativity in our homeschool curriculum because it is one of our family's core values.
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Am I Living it Right? (is the wrong question)
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Life is a struggle, but the struggle should not be in our mind, questioning whether we're allowed to live in freedom and make the choices we want for our life.
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Celebrating Thirteen ~ Care to Dance?
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Encouraging their personal growth, while still keeping connected and committed to family life. It's going to be dance I tell you.
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Waldorf Inspired Homeschooling ~ An Interview
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An interview with my sister-in-law about her family's Waldorf inspired homeschool.
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In the Middle Years ~ Our Homeschool Philosophy (Video)
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As our kids get older there are changes a foot in our homeschool routine.
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holiday un-school
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I love many of the unschooling methodologies but can't totally buy into the philosophy.
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Be your own family
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You might want to try some of the things that have worked for me but only if they fit with who you are as a family.
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Figuring out Homeschooling Late Elementary
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Equipping our children with academic subjects so they are prepared to pursue whatever their life's goals are upon graduation.
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A Relaxed Approach to Homeschooling the Early Years
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Our guiding principles for learning and growing during the early elementary years.
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Graduation Goals and a Long Term Vision
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Our goal is to provide roots our children need to feel secure and the wings they need to fly.
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Homeschooling Highschoolers
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Our kids are still little but we're thinking ahead to the high school years.
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Kindergarten, Easy Does It
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The baby starts kindergarten on her own terms.
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Education and Doll Making
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Giving our children the freedom to learn, grow, explore, experience, play, create, fail and succeed in the safety of a family's unconditional love and support.