If you’ve ever donated blood, one the perks (besides the free cookies and orange juice!) is the nifty card you can carry stating your blood type. A helpful piece of information to know!
Those personality tests can shed light on why it drives you nuts that your spouse squeezes the toothpaste tube wrong – you’re a Type A personality!
And don’t get me started on specialty coffee types!
Why do we like to know our “types”? Is it because we like labels? Not likely! It’s probably because knowing a type helps us better understand something or someone and better predict their needs. You wouldn’t give B blood to an A blood person and you know that 3 days doing nothing at the beach will either finally help a Type A to unwind – or it will kill them!!
The same goes for homeschooling. As this educational trend has grown, so has the number of different “types” of homeschool families. See if any of these describe you:
Unschoolers These homeschoolers feel forcing children to learn a predetermined list of skills and knowledge at a predetermined age goes against the natural way a child learns. Unschoolers believe that allowing children to follow their naturally inquisitive instincts will result in the study of math, language, history, music, etc. Hands-on, experience-based, “real-life” learning is important to unschoolers. And while they may use curricula and/or text books, they do so only because it supports the learning. The ultimate goal for the unschooler is not what the child knows, but that the child knows how to learn.
School-at-homers These homeschoolers may like some of what traditional school offers but not the whole package! They may choose curriculum that follows common core standards or choose a prepackaged curriculum that walks them through learning similar to public school. These prepackaged options can be consumable options (books/workbooks/DVDs), online options, or a combination of both. They may even opt for a virtual academy which is literally school at home – an online school complete with teachers! School-at-homers generally do not have a problem with what is taught at school but rather with how it is taught (or not taught!).
Trailblazers have in mind where they want to be, meaning what they want their children to learn, and they will take whatever means necessary to arrive at that point. They may make use of some online courses and they may create their own curriculum. They may take into consideration a student’s interests and comfortable learning pace, but they lead the way and determine what and when is taught to their child. They feel the parent knows best what the child should learn, not the child (as the unschoolers believe) or a set of standards (as the home-at-schoolers believe).
Of course, families can be combinations of these types or may be one type when their children are at one phase and find themselves closer to another type at a different phase of their family’s life. There is no right or wrong type. All types have been known to produce capable students who succeed in life.
And all types have this in common: They have chosen a learning environment other than brick-and-mortar schools. Whether for academic, safety, philosophical or religious reasons, all types have said, “No thank you!” to the educational status quo.
Finally, all types have THIS in common: Global Student Network has something to help you on your family’s educational journey. Whether a course here and there for the unschooler, or a virtual academy for the school-at-homer, or various curricula to help the trailblazers, all can be found at www.globalstudentnetwork.com.
So before you and yours go back to (home)school, spend some time thinking about how you would best describe your homeschool. You might find it insightful and helpful in preparing for the new year!
Sources:
http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/earl_stevens.html
Copyright © 2013 J. Hoffman / GSN (NV)
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Email: JHoffman@GlobalStudentNetwork.com