Eclectic Homeschooling with Master Books
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Over the years, we’ve swapped and flip-flopped a lot in our homeschool. We’ve had seasons where we loved bookwork. Seasons where we’ve put the books completely away and just learned from life. We’ve done word puzzles, science experiments, read-alouds and any other way of learning that you can imagine.
And to be honest, they all worked well for us.
While I’d love to say we are rigorous bookworms or fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants, the truth is, we do best when we mix a combination of ALL learning styles.
There are a couple of learning styles that my kids thrive with the most: Charlotte Mason, unit studies and unschooling. It all works together to create an eclectic homeschool that my kids and I all love!
Learning Approaches We Love
Charlotte Mason:
The Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling is based off of the teachings of the British educator from the 19th century.
Charlotte Mason has 4 core ideas:
- Nature Studies:
Students learn through nature and the world around them. Some simple ideas include nature walks, nature journals and observing nature in every day life. - Living Books:
Instead of learning through boring textbooks, Charlotte Mason suggests learning through living books. Living books are books that draw the reader in, in a narrative style, making the reader want to learn more about the subject. A good example is the Little House on the Prairie series. - Copy work:
Students use a quality piece of literature to perfect their handwriting, spelling and grammar skills. - Dictation:
Charlotte Mason suggest having students listen to stories then dictate them back to the parents to show what they’ve learned. As they get older, they begin to do written dictation, retelling stories in their own words.
Unschooling:
Unschooling is just what it sounds like, not doing school at all. But don’t let that fool you into thinking the students don’t learn. In fact, it’s likely that unschooled students retain the most information of all learning styles because they’re genuinely interested in the subject at hand. Unschoolers don’t use any sort of
curriculum, but instead, follow the child’s lead.
If your child is interested in Minecraft, you might explore mapping, home building, biomes, ratios and much more. You are still covering all of your general subjects, but in a way that interests your child.
Unit Studies:
Unit studies are basically just themes or topics that you study. You can include all of your subjects by using this method, although it is a bit harder to include math in your unit studies.
A lot of people already use unit studies, without even realizing it. For instance, around Thanksgiving, many schools will study Native Americans and the first Thanksgiving. Students can do art projects, write essays and look at maps of America.
Eclectic:
Eclectic homeschoolers use a mash-up of all the other styles of homeschooling. They may choose to unschool science and history, while taking a classical approach to math and a Charlotte Mason approach to language arts. Most homeschoolers will discover, over time, what works best for their family and blend it all together for the perfect fit.
Piecing together the perfect curriculum using our favorite approaches became exhausting REALLY QUICKLY.
I was spending hours trying to balance finding the perfect living books with hands-on activities. For months, I was searching for unit-related snacks and wishing I could easily include some type of writing in our day.
I was straight-up worn out! Until I found Master Books.
Eclectic Homeschooling with Master Books
Master Books has taken the hard work out of an eclectic education. Instead of spending hours sifting through resources, trying to find something that works for each of my kids, I can simply open-and-go!
Each book and activity used in Master Books is effective, of strong faith and engaging. Kids will love the change of pace, while busy moms, like myself, will love the ease of use.
The combination of traditional schooling with hands-on activities, living books and short lessons make Master Books the easy solution to simplifying your homeschool. Master Books literally took all of the best ideas about homeschooling and combined them to create an affordable and easy-to-use option!
My kids absolutely love the mixture of puzzle games, educational coloring books, exciting real-life stories and journal-type books.
Master Books Has It All!
For years, I thought that finding a curriculum that was easy for me to use and well-written was out of my budget. But Master Books offers curriculum for all areas of our homeschool, for a great price!
- Math
- Language Arts
- History
- Geography
- Science
- Health
- Faith
- Cultures
- Apologetics
- Morning Basket
- And more!