Things I Like about Various Educational Approaches

 Textbooks: methodical. Thoroughly covers the baselines. Easy to look ahead and see what you’ll be learning next (both I and my daughter benefit from anticipation and planning). Gives you practice in the educational system used by colleges. Often specifically written in a way to help the student develop in that subject.

—my daughter was so much more excited about school when I bought her a workbook because she could look ahead at the cute pages to come.

Charlotte Mason: reading living books can be more enriching than relying on textbooks alone. Creative regurgitation as a learning/retention method makes so much sense. And it is closer to what you will need in real life (outside of the educational system).

—my daughter already loves telling me all about everything she learns.

Classical: You really do develop your brain to match what you’re immersed in. I can see a huge difference in children who watch mindless cartoons vs ones who engage with quality material. Plus, the cycles make sense and make it easier to teach your children together. I love the idea of studying something and then, 3 years later, studying it again. Your brain catches what it’s ready for, and builds the foundation for the information you’ll pick up the next time through.

—this reminds me of the way I would introduce concepts or skills to my firstborn. If something didn’t stick the first time, I moved onto other things and circled back to it later.

Unit studies: I love the way it brings everything together. Your subjects aren’t disjointed but form a coherent whole.

—I feel like some subjects, however, might be a poor fit and the material might be lessened if it were stuffed into a unit study.

Unschooling: not going to lie, this one probably isn’t a great fit for me. I feel like the parents have to be super smart about how they introduce stuff and super attentive to follow through on the subjects and super aware of the required scope and sequence to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. And I’m just not confident in my ability to teach this way. Plus, I firmly believe that there are some subjects that stretch our brains in new ways and that we don’t always embrace the stretch. So a child who is always free to follow his/her interests may never learn to grow beyond them.

—despite my misgivings, I must admit there is some merit. I watch my firstborn pursing knowledge wholeheartedly and she has shown me that a child’s drive for education is stronger than I initially imagined.

All in all, I think my homeschooling approach is going to be a bit eclectic, mixing some from each style to create my own unique schooling.

How about you? What are your thoughts on the different methods?