Are you a "school at home" hser?

[iquilt]

We don't have a school room, but we do have assignments that happen at the kitchen table or patio table at least 4 days per week. Daily lessons include reading (I have one learning to blend, one finishing OPG and one reading daily for fluency practice) and math (all in Horizons currently). Everything else we do is flexible, and usually on the couch or the floor or wherever, whenever. Science this year has been a lot of field trips. History is listening to SOTW on CD (thanks Jim Weiss!) and maps when they are interested (they love the maps so we do these almost weekly). We have weekly library trips where we have some books to pick up and many to browse. We have available many wonderful options for their time when they are not finishing required work. We have an audio center in the front room, a sewing machine where my oldest is making a quilt, books everywhere to pick up and read or ask to have read, computer time limits for favorite websites and games, a gameroom (corner of the guest room) stocked with many different games, art supplies in a cabinet in the kitchen, and of course they can play in their rooms or outside. When we recently moved into a bigger house I tried to set up a school room but I simply couldn't contain everything that we do into one room!

[shinyhappypeople]

Would you define TWTM approach "school at home"?

Or Ambleside/ CM approach?

Or any of the many other various structured programs that do require actual sitting down and doing work?

How they are implemented around here is pretty structured- morning and early afternoon studies, but no strict break times, no homework, and plenty of free time. No text books either.

So, it doesnt feel like "school at home" but might look like it to an unschooler. But on the spectrum represented on these boards, I think we are pretty relaxed.

 

This thread has helped clarify my thinking a lot. Thank you :)

 

I don't think the philosophy dictates the execution. So, I think you be a relaxed TWTM'er or Ambleside or whatever.

 

In my mind, seatwork doesn't mean it's necessarily a "school at home" approach. I think it's more a combination of everything (or almost everything) being parent directed (when, what, how), especially the when and how.

 

There's nothing wrong with that, but it worked so poorly for us that I'm surprised at how many families are able to do it successfully. I thought my experience with it was common, but maybe not... live and learn :001_smile:

[AngelaNYC]

I replied... we're RELAXED to the point of almost being unschoolers. We readily kick aside formal lessons for other stuff, especially on sunny days.

 

 

This. :001_smile:

[melissel]

There's nothing wrong with that, but it worked so poorly for us that I'm surprised at how many families are able to do it successfully. I thought my experience with it was common, but maybe not... live and learn :001_smile:

 

Well, remember where you are at the moment, too. Most of us (not all, of course, but the majority) are probably here because we were initially attracted, and probably continue to be attracted, to a certain educational style. I would think that people for whom that framework was unsuccessful would go in search of another community. I was originally hanging out at the Mothering.com HSing board, but they really lean more toward the relaxed/unschooly side, and I wasn't finding my needs met there. The stronger structure of the WTM style appealed to me, and, well, now I'm an Amateur Bee Keeper :lol:

[Mejane]

We're pretty relaxed. I love planning, but the actual follow-through? Not so much. :)

[Jenny in GA]

I never understood the term "school at home." Technically, the only people who can claim they don't "school at home" are pure unschoolers.

 

When I was unschooling, I always thought it was odd that almost every homeschooler would say, "Oh, we don't do school at home! Homeschooling doesn't mean you have to school at home!" etc, but then in another conversation they would talk about handwriting, math curriculum, spelling tests, and so on. Um, aren't math worksheets schoolwork, and aren't you doing them at home? I don't get it.

 

I guess I always thought the term "school at home" was just a term invented so people could brag about how they were NOT that: "Oh no, we don't school at home! That would be terrible!"

 

Jenny

[Jean in Newcastle]

I never understood the term "school at home." Technically, the only people who can claim they don't "school at home" are pure unschoolers.

 

When I was unschooling, I always thought it was odd that almost every homeschooler would say, "Oh, we don't do school at home! Homeschooling doesn't mean you have to school at home!" etc, but then in another conversation they would talk about handwriting, math curriculum, spelling tests, and so on. Um, aren't math worksheets schoolwork, and aren't you doing them at home? I don't get it.

 

I guess I always thought the term "school at home" was just a term invented so people could brag about how they were NOT that: "Oh no, we don't school at home! That would be terrible!"

 

Jenny

 

I understood "school at home" to be having a traditional (actually 1950's) school structure at home. In some homes that means lines of desks with the mom/teacher standing/sitting at the head of the schoolroom writing on the write/erase or chalkboard. In some homes that means watching a DVD of Mrs. Soandso lead the class and opening the textbook to the right page when she says to do so. (The child may or may not be sitting at a desk). In all cases, I understand it to be textbook/workbook based.

 

I have a couple of friends who school at home. They are not ashamed or unhappy that they do so. It is a model that they chose and embrace. I do not choose that model (I use a few workbooks, even fewer textbooks. I would say that our model is more literature based.) We are all friends.

[6packofun]

We are family centered learners who follow a classical model for education. So, there's a lot of reading aloud, a lot of discussion, and even some projects. There is also a formal grounding in things like grammar and spelling (although both are radically different from how those subjects are approached in the local schools).

 

Can you please define "family centered learners?" I just wonder what that means in relation to education or if it's just a way of saying that family is important to you--as it is for most of us?

[KrissiK]

I'd say we're "school at home!" What's the problem with that? I'm not homeschooling because I think a "school structure" is bad. I'm a former teacher. We do school in the morning and then in the afternoons we do our own thing. We like it that way.

[mcconnellboys]

I'm not sure how to respond. We do try to stick to an 8-3:30 schedule, because if they ever go back to school, have early classes when they go to college, have a job that requires them to have the typical 8-5 schedule, I don't want it to be so foreign to them that they are freaked out by it.

 

That said, we sometimes sleep in if we're tired, sick, the weather's bad, we're coming off a long day before, etc. We take time out of our school day almost every day to do outside classes, field trips, and other opportunities that become available. We take a long, leisurely lunch most days, eating out and often eating with friends or Dad and talking for 90 minutes or so......

 

We do some work in "workbooks", such as Spelling Workout, Singapore, etc. But we add in living books to most of our subjects over time; even things like math and language arts. I put together my own studies for history, lit, and science, rather than using texts for those. And we read tons and TONS of books a year! We also see lots of plays, musical performances, go to various homeschool days, exhibit in many competitions - whatever is offered that looks good to us for the year.

 

We sometimes chuck school for a "park day" if others are going..... We feel free to change up what we're doing during the course of the year. I do absolutely plan out my entire year in advance. And we do *do* most of those things. But we never do *all* of those things. And we do many *other* things instead of those things that we don't do. I think all of these make us not at all like "school at home"......

[Mom22ns]

My kids have done ps and they would tell you that what we do is nothing like school at home. However, by your definition, I think we do.

 

We start first thing in the morning and run straight through until 1 or 2:00. We have a lot of structure to the day. I give a weekly schedule. Each child knows when they work with me for different subjects, when we are all together and when they have time on their own to accomplish their independent work.

 

We vary our schedule so that it works best with the weather, so we can get outside for PE for example. We move our location, most of the time we have school in the family room in the basement, but we also have school on the couch upstairs in front of the fire in the winter and in the tree house when we have spring fever. Yesterday we read history by a lake we were biking around for PE.

 

None of us think of it as school at home, but we are high structure, high routine, high schedule. I am not relaxed or unschoolish. My kids would hate it if I was. They want to know what is expected and be able to do it.

[Ellie]

We went from unschooling to relaxed, never made it to structured.:)

[StartingOver]

I am rigorous & structured, but I would never call what we do "school at home". Where and how we do those subjects is never the same. I would say 80% of the homeschooling in my home over the last 22 years, has been done with good literature on the couch. Either reading, discussing and debating with my children. We have desks, and do sit at them occasionally. But you can also find us out in the yard, on the beach, at the park, etc. We could drop it all for a day on the beach or a trip to the aquarium.

[Annie Laurie]

I never understood the term "school at home." Technically, the only people who can claim they don't "school at home" are pure unschoolers.

 

When I was unschooling, I always thought it was odd that almost every homeschooler would say, "Oh, we don't do school at home! Homeschooling doesn't mean you have to school at home!" etc, but then in another conversation they would talk about handwriting, math curriculum, spelling tests, and so on. Um, aren't math worksheets schoolwork, and aren't you doing them at home? I don't get it.

 

I guess I always thought the term "school at home" was just a term invented so people could brag about how they were NOT that: "Oh no, we don't school at home! That would be terrible!"

 

Jenny

 

Yep. I don't like the term because I see it applied like this all the time. It seems to suggest that those of us who have some structure or use curriculum have our kids doing mindless activities because it looks like what we did in school ourselves, so it's familiar. That it's not "real" learning.

 

But in order for it to be like what I did in school, I'd have to divide my kids by age group and get some more kids in here so they could develop peer attachments over family bonding. Then I'd have to interrupt whenever they were making a connection, excited about something, or lost in a book, and ring a bell and tell them that it's time to move on. I'd have to give them all the exact same curriculum across the board, whether or not it suited their learning style or was understood by them. And I'd also have to keep pushing them forward, to stay at "grade level", regardless of if they were ready to move on.

[Tap]

:smilielol5::smilielol5::party::driving::auto:

[momof2jb]

We tend to go with the flow. I have weekly requirements with intentions of completing, but sometimes life gets in the way. A trip to the zoo, day in the yard, afternoon reading aloud together, visit to grandparents, morning at the park, a midweek camping trip - these things are so full of learning moments. Flexibility and freedom, that's why I started homeschooling in the first place - I want my kids to enjoy life and spend time doing the things they will remember when I'm not here anymore. Don't get me wrong - the boys are learning and we have a "school room" and curric that we like to follow.

 

Anyway - thats how we roll.

Serena

[KrissiK]

Yep. I don't like the term because I see it applied like this all the time. It seems to suggest that those of us who have some structure or use curriculum have our kids doing mindless activities because it looks like what we did in school ourselves, so it's familiar. That it's not "real" learning.

 

But in order for it to be like what I did in school, I'd have to divide my kids by age group and get some more kids in here so they could develop peer attachments over family bonding. Then I'd have to interrupt whenever they were making a connection, excited about something, or lost in a book, and ring a bell and tell them that it's time to move on. I'd have to give them all the exact same curriculum across the board, whether or not it suited their learning style or was understood by them. And I'd also have to keep pushing them forward, to stay at "grade level", regardless of if they were ready to move on.

 

Thank you for saying this. I was just reading TWTM during t-ball practice today and I'm thinking, "this is what I do, why do I get the impression that it's a bad thing? I need to teach my children how to read and use a curriculum to do it. Why am I all of the sudden feeling picked on?"

[3peasinapod]

We are structured as to when we do subjects. Sometimes we mix them up, though. Also, sometimes we do school on the weekends. We do a lot of school reading on the weekends, but the girls don't consider this school. School to them is math and LA. We use a grid-type schedule for our school, but we don't use it day-by-day. We just pick stuff that seem to go together best and do a chunk in the morning then do some more in the evening.