As Christian parents who want to 'light fires' in the hearts and minds of our children, we can take the best of all of the teaching approaches and allow God to design our courses of study. Our famiy uses several different approaches depending upon which subject and which child I am teaching. If you recall the learning styles article that I wrote, you will see how one particular method would benefit a certain type of learner while others would not. Keep in mind that the more you teach and know your kids, the more confidence you will have to try new approaches and maybe even step into some new areas!

Parents with several school-aged children often try a modified unit study approach with all children studying the same general period of history, the same area of science, and the same language arts skills, just at different levels of intensity and with different teaching materials. One child may do well with workbooks, one may need more "hands on,' and. an-other may thrive just by reading books about the historical period or area of scientific inquiry. The important things are that the children are learning and Mom or Dad are not pulling out their hair trying to keep up with four or five different children taking six or more different subjects.

When we are sensitive to our children's needs and to the leading of the Holy Spirit we may find that what worked well one year doesn't work the next or what frustrated a child in the past suddenly has become come easy. Sometimes we forget that children change, their needs change, their interests change, and their level of skill changes. Our challenge is to be flexible, adjusting our course as we go so that we maximize our children's learning potentials and keep that "fire" alive. The beauty of home schooling is that we can pick and choose, selecting teaching materials and products that have the most promise for our situation and budget. We can discard unworkable materials at any time. We can integrate any or all of the teaching approaches we like as we seek the most productive means of educating our children.

Learning from Each Teaching Approach

Here are some useful concepts that can be gained from each of the leaching approaches and used to each family's advantage:

• We discover that the ability to think is sadly lacking in modern children and a Classical Approach to learning produces students who not only think, but also can use language eloquently and persuasively.
  
  
• With the Trivium we are reminded that the ancients were far superiorin education compared to our modern man. The importance of knowledge has how to learn has greatly declined. Understnding how our minds progress in the learning process helps us to better understand and teach.
  
  
• The Principle Approach teaches that there are certain Biblical principles that underlie every area of study. It also teaches the effectiveness of the "4-R" approach of having the child keep a notebook of his research about a subject, of the Biblical principles he discovers, and personal application of those principles.
  
  
• From Charlotte Mason's Living Books and Life Experiences Approach we learn the importance of treating children as persons capable of learning without being "talked down to." Children can learn through "masterly inactivity" (being able to respond to original sources in art, literature, and nature without having the meaning interpreted to them by adults), through exposure to great literature, and through being allowed to exercise their imaginations through play.
  
  
• The Unit Study method stresses the inter-relatedness of all knowledge, and that studying one topic in depth produces greater learning than fragmenting knowledge into separate, unrelated bits of information just as Einstein suggested.
  
  
• Raymond and Dorothy Moore's Delayed Academics method warns us to be sensitive to our children's level of physical, emotional, and mental readiness and to give them a broad spectrum of life experiences.
  
  
• Robinson values the lost classics and reminds us the the ultimate goal for our children is to be able to learn on their own. Having the means to investigate on your own and learn whatever subject we desire.
  
  

Try and create a comfortable, physically and emotionally affirming, relaxed learning environment. Look for and eliminate destructive hidden messages and background thoughts (examples. expectations that are either too high or too low, manipulating methods, favoritism, dislike of the subject, negative terms of speech, comparisons between children, perhaps resentment for quiting your job for the sake of your kids, etc.)

Use every opportunity for:

1. visual aids such as actual objects or replicas, drawings, photos, diagrams, charts, colors, videotapes.
2. auditory aids such as sounds, music, poetry and poetic language, discussion, speaking while doing, recitation, singing, storytelling, reading aloud, reading into a tape recorder, sending relatives taped booked reports
3. kinesthetic aids such as manipulatives, working with clay, handling models, drama, dance, acting out, clapping, pounding, or passing a ball back and forth while reciting, playing games, eye hand coordination
4. discussion through question and answer, intensive listening, and conversation. Play listening games to build attention spans (see article on this)
5. lots of print exposure through reading and writing, let the kids see you reading and writing too
6. using the imagination through visualizing shapes or processes; picturing a condition, person, or situation in the mind, what was it like to be a pilgrim, etc.
7. direct experience such as nature walks, field trips, lab experiments, building models, seeing and working with real things
8. "bridging' by relating new information to something already known by using metaphors, parables, analogies
9. organization and logic by categorizing, classifying, analyzing, reasoning through the logical basis of the subject, finding the core concept
10. time for reflection, time for being listened to, time for thinking - do not over plan activities!

Included In each area of study should be:

• focusing: discussing what the activity is about, what will be done, and the results expected; giving an overview of what will be covered; introducing new vocabulary.
• application: soliciting feedback, summarizing, applying the concept, having kids narrating back to you or dad what was 'learned' today
• ritual: an ongoing structure or schedule of sorts

To help you I have included online a section from my newsletter that is called 'Letters from Leslie'. In these letters I discuss the many things facing a homechooling parent when it comes to time, schedules, curriculum, avoiding burnout and lots more. Please stop by and read a few...
Remember that the best answers always come when we are on our knees in prayer.

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