The best thing about homeschooling is that you can completely have a customized homeschool approach for you and your children. You can customize it to each child, giving them the best education for their needs instead of generalized learning.
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Customized Homeschool Approach in Your Homeschool
Many homeschoolers find something to like in various approaches, but they can’t find an exact fit among the main philosophies.
Other homeschoolers just prefer to design their own curriculum for their own reasons. And others “mix and match” among the various types of curricula and philosophies. If you are not sure whether you should design your own approach or how to go about customizing your home school, here are some tips and ideas.
Determine how your child learns
This is probably the most important step in deciding what approach to take to customizing your home school. There are actually tests available online that allow you to discover your child’s learning style. Teaching according to your student’s style of learning can make the difference between success and struggle.
Learn homeschool philosophies
Familiarize yourself with the various homeschool philosophies. Do some research into the types of homeschooling approaches out there – you may be surprised to find out there are so many! Look at the mainstream ones first, and then look into some of the “offshoots” of the main approaches.
Talk to other homeschooling families
Talking to other families is really important when customizing your homeschool and discovering what approach is right for you. Not only will you meet and develop relationships with other homeschooling families, but you will also glean ideas for all sorts of lessons and approaches. No need to reinvent the wheel when you might be able to work with a friend to create something together.
You might need more than one approach
Multiple children require a different approach than just one child. This is something to remember as you do your research – would this work with three, four, six, or eight different ages? If a certain homeschool approach involves a lot of field trips, for example, and you have a lot of children/students, that approach could be impractical.
Create Your Customized Homeschool Approach
Don’t be afraid to design your own curriculum. Sometimes, homeschooling parents can get stressed and worried over whether or not they have the “perfect” curriculum for their kids. But sometimes that stress and worry can translate into a rigid curriculum that is not a good fit for your students.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. Does your student love machines? Design a unit study that covers the core subjects through the subject of machines. Explore the topic of machines through the core subjects. You could do the same thing with a student who loves art, science, music, dance, math or reading.
Take advantage of free homeschool information online. Look at various lessons and how they are laid out to get ideas for your student. You can look at these as springboards for your own customized approach.
Probably the most important aspect of customizing your homeschool is to observe and know your kids.
- What works for them?
- What makes them tick?
- How can you work with, not against, your child’s interests and style of learning?
- When you embrace this approach, it sets your child up for a lifetime of learning.
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