Educational Methods & Philosophy

There are many ways to educate your children, and, if you're just getting started in home schooling, just choosing the approach you wish to take can be overwhelming, never mind the curriculum itself! If you're interacting with more experienced home school families, the stuff they're doing might intimidate you into thinking you can't possibly home school your kids, but stop! Take a breath. You just need to sit down, ask yourself a few common sense questions about what you want to accomplish, and get a handle on what options there are.

As we see it, all approaches to education should fall under a broad "covenantal approach," in which parents deliberately focus on training their children to love and reverence their God, respect their parents, and explore their world. From our perspective, that's the main reason to home school. But when one talks about "approaches," one typically means the philosophy driving the way you educate your kids. There are limitless methods to teach your kids, but they seem to fall under five main philosophies.

These are: 

 "Eclectic" home schooling, explained conservatively, is to blend elements of all of them (generally what we recommend). "Eclectic" can also refer to a much more liberal, anti-Christian education; We obviously suggest steering clear of that approach.

Did you find this review helpful?