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Do You Lean Toward Any Method Or Philosophy?


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Waldorf, Montessori, "just color and eat dirt," something else?

 

We follow a lot of HighScope practices in our house, accidentally and intentionally. Not surprisingly, that isn't too different from my own preschool and kindergarten experiences. I love the Plan-Do-Review idea where the children decide on activities and follow up on them afterwards.

 

I've read what might be an embarrassing amount of Piaget. Conception of Number was very interesting but tough to follow. I love Conception of the World and Origins of Intelligence.

 

What do you love to read about in the area of early childhood development? What styles do you draw from when you're deciding what you will do in your home? Do you take a philosophy as a whole, or do you pick and choose your favorite parts from a variety of sources?

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So far, I'm very eclectic. I don't have any older kids, but I found the same thing just in parenting styles. I read a huge array of books and then take what seems to make the most sense for my famiky and use it. Theresa is left behind.

 

For schooling, so far, I'm all over the place! I love the Waldorf focus on nature, imagination and handcrafts. I like the Montessori prepared, self correcting activities, I love the logical, thorough order of WTM, the emphasis on making learning part of family life, mentoring and treating teenagers as responsible adults (and the prep that takes place earlier in childhood) in Thomas Jefferson education. Charlotte masons ideas about living books have affected the way I approach math, among other things. All these things have contributed to the way school happens and I'm sure it will continue to evolve as I conitnue to learn more!

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Pretty much what my signature says lol.

 

I now lean towards Waldorf-inspired for its arts-centric outlook, and Montessori for Cosmic Education and most of all, their practical life stuff. So Oak Meadow, A Little Garden Flower, Alan Whitehead, New Child Montessori would be the mix of it. We use a local phonics program though thats more something like a mix between jolly phonics & All About Reading. We also follow a lot of the Project Based Learning by Lori Pickert (have my dog-eared well worn copy right near me now) which is partially inspired by Reggio, which I like the look of (haven't looked much into Reggio though, so not sure of the exact similarities.

 

We still have tech as a big thing in our house though, its just limited to "worthy" time (stuff like Happy Scientist, Magic Schoolbus, Leapfrog Letters, phonics etc). They don't watch live TV due to the ads and ability to change channels, but I put on movies for them (non-school movies would be things like Moses, Princess and the Pea, Polar Express etc).

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When my kids were in PreK and K, were very unschooly. We did a lot, but it was mostly by choice of stuff I was strewing, and field trips and things the kids wanted to do. As we neared the end of K, we started getting more and more formal... which had always been loosely part of my plan, but I do find that different ages helps shape your perspective.

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I lean towards Montessori for the prepared environment and self-correcting. I think it has helped me focus a lot on geography at a young age, which goes along nicely with my international/language focus. Otherwise, we're pretty eclectic - lots of free art and musical exploration and imaginative play. Mostly I follow my DD3's lead and have lots of activities available for her to choose from. Right now I think she's on a science, music, and puzzle kick, with lots of reading and math thrown in for good measure.

 

As for what I read - I guess I'm going to go read about HighScope, as I hadn't heard of that before! :)

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Over the years, I lean towards the method depending on the needs of the child at that time of their life. At one point we did Montessori stuff because one of my child needed to learn using those methods. We used some Waldorf method when we used the Sentence family over the summer. Most of the time though it seems I am basic classical learning style although we are with a charter school (due to finances) and use computers/tv. So ecletic I guess or even school at home without bells, recess, bathroom passes, chalkboard, It seems school at home is what we do now that we have a newborn in the house. All I can get done is just have the kids do their workbooks and some fll, wwe, elemental science. They do their study island and zingy online.

 

It doesn't so much matter how you name your method or philosophy but whether or not your child (ren) are learning. Also just because you use a classical education or montessori material or curriculum doesn't mean you are fully using that method/philosophy completely.

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Pretty much eclectic - aka: whatever works. :)

 

I love latin centered stuff, Charlotte Mason, and the ideas in WTM. We use workbooks, unit studies, living books, hands on, go out in nature as much as is feasible, and just live. He's special needs so it's more of a "this works and is made better by adding this so we'll do that too and that will review it...etc"

 

It truly is a lifestyle and it's one we're finding we love - challenging as it can sometimes be. (Getting up at six AM so he can see the sun rise and the morning birds out there eating seeds then read about the birds isn't always so fun though his drawings of them can be.)

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For my preK-K age kids generally just play and eat dirt. THis year my dd5 is doing a combo of Waldorf, WTM and dirt lol

 

When it comes to little ones I am more of a better late than early type of mom BUT with dd5 she begs and cries for "real school" she doesn't even count her waldorf curric as school time, that is just super sam and stories. To her real school doesn't count until I pull out the language arts, phonics, math and science. then it is "real" school and she just eats it right up. She is not so much into the play and eat dirt like her brother was at this age. (my older 2 were in ps at this age so not including them in this discussion)

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