The Charlotte Manson method of education started in the early 1900s by the British educator of the same name.  Charlotte Manson brought about a change in the method of homeschooling at that time, focusing on access to a quality education for all classes of society irrespective of social class or gender.

One of the main aspects to Charlotte Manson’s approach was the introduction of ‘Living books’. These, unlike normal text books, were texts written in first person form by a single author with a lot of passion about the subject written. Living books were usually written in a narrative form, making them engaging to read as well as understandable and interesting. Children were then encouraged to cement their learning by providing a narrative on the subject just covered. This way, children and their parents could actually tell what the student had learned, making the results of studying more transparent.

Other features of the Charlotte Manson method to education include:

• The use of narration to bring about a new subject; Children find this easier to listen to and digest compared to normal ‘lectures’;
• The importance given to handwriting; Children are made to write short passages to improve their handwriting. Copy work is a daily activity in this method. Only one copy work should be done each day.
• Each child is made to write down a passage through the form of dictation. This allows them to improve their listening ability as well as writing ability. As children do this task, they are exercising multiple learning areas at the same time. The parents or the teacher is supposed to watch over the child writing the dictated passage to catch any mistakes and correct them immediately.
• Listening to songs and looking at paintings and other pieces of art is an important part of this method of education. This brings about a sense of art appreciation among the children. This is made even more productive by asking the children to narrate their observations.
• An emphasis on appreciating nature. Daily walks, outdoor studies, and visits to natural places are common. Children are made to carry a ‘Nature Notebook’ which they can use to write or draw anything they have seen.
• Habit training, including good manners, neatness, truthfulness, obedience and kindness, is practiced and reinforced in this method. These habits are best taught when the child is young.

The current idea of boy scouts and girl guides dates back to the time of Charlotte Mansion. This approach has a great emphasis on learning by experience and learning from nature. This tradition, bought about by Charlotte Manson’s ideas, is practiced all over the world.

The Charlotte Manson method is extremely effective for children as it utilises short books and narrative ways of teaching through its use of living books. This method places a lot of emphasis on learning by experience, and is very helpful in developing creative thinking and an artistic mind. The Charlotte Mason influence is also regarded by some as ‘heaven’ for youngsters with considerable interest in art, music and linguistics.

Unschooling is a method of learning and does not refer to the content being learnt. Unschooling refers to a process of ‘self-learning’. This is considered the process of knowing your own interests, your openness to learning about these interests, and pursuing them under your own steam. With unschooling, you create your own agenda and follow it up to learn the things that you think are integral to your interests.

Unschooling is considered a subset of Homeschooling. The ‘unschoolers’ vary from the ‘homeschoolers’ by the fact that they create and manage their own learning. With regards to the history and the origin of the idea of unschooling, John Holt almost certainly coined the term. He is considered the father of unschooling. He believed that modern concepts of a grading system, fixed curriculum, and the competition that is generated as a result is counterproductive to the learning process by a child. He believed that natural methods of learning by experience and from curiosity were more effective in helping the child develop a critical thought process. Activities like game play, household responsibilities and social interactions were the key areas that were identified to provide new life experiences conducive to the child’s ‘natural’ education, all the time guided by a responsible adult.

The main concept behind the unschooling philosophy of homeschooling is that children are natural learners. Children are known to learn things by their own innate curiosity, and need the freedom to explore their own areas of interest. If this is stifled, the child may lose the ability to nurture their own curiosity, and their performance in established grading systems may be poor. The idea of unschooling in this context believes modern education is inefficient because it requires every child to learn a specific subject matter in a particular manner, at a particular pace, and at a particular time regardless of that individual's present or future needs, interests, goals, or any pre-existing knowledge the child might have about the topic.

Another philosophy that is behind unschooling is that not all children learn the same way. The modern day concept of fixed methods of teaching with a “one-size-fits-all” attitude may not be effective to some children and in some cases may even be harmful. Some children may not find a subject or topic interesting until they find a hook for their own curiosity in the subject. If they are forced to study on regardless, they may get bored and eventually fail. Each child also has a different learning style. Some learn better by reading books while others learn better by listening to a lecture. A teacher is ideally supposed to individually cater to the best learning method of each student. This is best achieved by the ideologies of unschooling.

Parents play an important role in unschooling. Parents are, of course, more experienced within the world than their children, and hence have a better access to resources and learning materials. These resources not only mean books and study materials, but also include stories about their experiences, places of interest, activities that are useful, and other things based on their experience.

With the development of modern methods of homeschooling and unschooling, there are several organizations and gatherings that help unschooling children socialize. There are centers directed for the benefit of unschoolers as well as gatherings like “Not back to school camp” which is an annual gathering of over 100 children aged between 13 and 18.

If you are looking for a way to homeschool a number of children of various age ranges, enjoy reading books with them, want to enhance their writing skills, delve into stories of historical figures and events, and minimize the use of textbooks, using Charlotte Mason’s methods may be just the right path for you to follow.

Charlotte Mason was an educator in England in the 19th century. She wanted children to learn from “living books” not textbooks. She felt children should go outside and experience nature, make observations, and record them in a nature journal. She advocated that children learned and retained information best when they listened to or read good literature and had the opportunity to narrate orally what they remembered from the reading. Their writing skills developed from reading good literature, studying it, and copying it into copy work journals, and writing down dictation. This is a simplified summary of her philosophy, but it gives you a starting point of her basic ideas. To fully understand and implement her methods you can read her original works or books that have been written summarizing her methods.

Using Charlotte Mason’s methods, you would teach history chronologically, and can include Bible instruction if you wish. Lessons are kept short so that the child does not dawdle and includes foreign language and art and music appreciation. There are suggested curriculum you can follow at the following websites:  Ambleside Online and Simply Charlotte Mason.

Some homeschooling families combine the use of Charlotte Mason methods with unit study topics. They use notebooking pages to write their narrations, copy work, and dictation to document what they have learned about the theme they are studying. For example, if your family is studying the Middle Ages, you would read living books about the Middle Ages or stories set in the Middle Ages, provide copy work for your child from the book or written work from that time period, and tie in a science topic like disease (black plague) or any scientists’ biographies from that time. You would also include art and music appreciation of artists and musicians from that era. You can find ideas using a combination of Charlotte Mason’s ideas and unit study methods at the following site: http://charlottemasonhomeschooling.wordpress.com

This is just an introduction to the wonderful homeschooling experience you and your children can enjoy when implementing Charlotte Mason methods in your daily routine. For further information, read any of the following books: A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning by Karen Andreola; A Charlotte Mason Education and More Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison; and When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today by Elaine Cooper, Eve Anderson, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, and Jack Beckman.

For free practical ideas in using Charlotte Mason methods, combining these with unit topics of study, and links to many educational resources, please visit Katie’s Homeschool Cottage at http://charlottemasonhomeschooling.wordpress.com

The available definitions for Eclectic Homeschooling are as wide and varied as the possibilities it provides.  Many non-homeschoolers imagine homeschooling to be very similar in structure to public schooling, although at home.  They assume that homeschooled students sit at a desk all day, working their way through a set curriculum, as well as completing assignments and exams.  Indeed, this is the way that some families choose to homeschool, and it can work very well.

Eclectic homeschooling, however, involves utilizing resources and information from anywhere and everywhere.  Rather than be restricted to one set curriculum, they may utilize a variety of text books.  But, eclectic homeschooling certainly doesn’t stop there. Eclectic homeschooling also includes using a variety of methods, tools and even locations, to educate your children, as well as letting their needs and desires determine what is taught and how. Many parents of special needs children homeschool their children in an eclectic fashion.

Eclectic homeschooling is a form of homeschooling that is simply bursting with potential, because your family’s educational journey is only limited by your imagination… and, perhaps, funding.  Many parents will take a child interests and turn it into a fun school subject or use a variety of books to teach literature instead of buying a program or a boring anthology of works. Eclectic homeschooling families are often very talented at discovering what works. While some parents will buy a curriculum and persevere, following it to the letter, even if their kids are struggling, this should never be the case in homeschooling. Don’t be afraid to change!  If the kids are struggling, and there is little progress, maybe its time to look into another way to doing things.  This is where eclectic homeschooling really comes into its own.  If it’s broke, definitely fix it.  It’s your kids and their future, and they are the reason we are homeshooling in the first place!

Unschooling

Somewhat closely associated to Eclectic Homeschooling is the concept of unschooling.  This method of education takes advantage of the fact that children are natural learners.  Instead of setting a rigid structure, unschoolers allow their children’s interests to direct their education, with the parents, as homeschool teachers, acting as facilitators of the learning process, rather than directors/writers/dictators.

Unschooling can be surprisingly effective when well-guided, allowing the child to maintain an interest and some influence over his/her own learning materials, utilizing real life activities, as well of books and standard resources.  Orthodox unschoolers believe that learners self-determine what is important to know in the world and, as there is more to learn than can ever be learned, the skills learned in self-directed learning will keep students in good stead throughout life.  Also, they argue that there is no such thing as particular topics of study being critical to know, or more important than other subjects in the grand scheme of things.  Therefore, whatever direction of study the student chooses is the right one for them.  Critics of unschooling, however, express concern that unschoolers may avoid topics that are not of interest, and may therefore be lacking in particular aspects of education and/or social skills, including those deemed important for the workforce.

Regardless of the style of homeschooling adopted long-term, many homeschooling families make good use of unschooling as a transition from government schooling to homeschooling, allowing the child to create new educational associations, and slip into the new freedoms that homeschooling allows.

Our 7 and 9 year old boys were memorized every minute as I read Robinson Crusoe, they actually balked when I stopped reading  (the reading took three nights).

Classics: Should You Read the Originals or Adaptations?

Literature for the masses or literature for the lazy? Does it matter? We used a children's adaptation to read Robinson Crusoe (apologies to Charlotte Mason - she prefers the originals).

Long chapters and difficult language can overwhelm and obscure the richness of the story. i.e. my boys listen better and enjoy the story. My goal is first to encourage a love of learning. The original Robinson Crusoe included cannibals and was a bit daunting for younger children.

If you chose a children's adaptation be sure it includes Crusoe's religious experiences. Some adaptations will leave this out to meet the public school agenda.

The Book: Robinson Crusoe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe) is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1719 . The book is a fictional autobiography of an English castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island and documents Crusoe's spiritual journey as he comes to peace with God

The Author: Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Defoe) wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets, articles, and poems. Among the most productive authors of the Augustan Age, he was the first of the great 18th-century English novelist.

Robinson Crusoe Lesson Plans

• Religious Purpose in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe - This book is a heavily religious novel. This is signified through three instances in which religion emerges as a major theme at pivotal points in the plot.
• Robinson Crusoe Island Adventure Lesson Plan from Crayola. Write original Island Adventures with detailed characters, setting, and plot, then construct an island environment using a paper bowl and Crayola® Markers.
• Island Survival - In this activity, students will participate in a simulation of life on a deserted island. They will be challenged to use their critical thinking skills and knowledge of islands to "survive" and ultimately return to safety. Grades 4-12.
• The Original Survivor - PDF. With this unit, students will understand the connection between classical literature and the human experience. Grades 4 & up.
• Robinson Crusoe Island of Despair Study Guide- PDF
• Robinson Crusoe Teaching Unit (Prestwick House) - A complete teaching unit and reproducible individual learning packet including a chapter-by-chapter study guide, topics for discussion, vocabulary, and a multiple choice and essay test with answer key.
• Robinson Crusoe Lesson Plan from Reading A-Z - Vocabulary, questions, grammar and other activities.

Classic Literature With Similar Themes

• Island of the Dolphin
• Treasure Island
• Kidnapped
• The Last of the Mohicans
• Swiss Family Robinson
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
• The Mysterious Island

Family Guides to Great Reading

Books with annotated lists of classics, Bible stories, biographies, and more.

• Honey for a Child's Heart
• Honey for a Teen's Heart
• For the Children's Sake
• The Read-Aloud Handbook
• For the Love of Literature
• The New Read-Aloud Handbook
• Books That Build Character
• What Stories Does My Son Need?
• Building Moral Intelligence

Ron Davis, author of The Gift of Dyslexia, has brought to light how the learning disability of dyslexia is caused by the successful use of visual thinking skills at an early age. This "gift" works well for recognizing real life objects, but not printed symbols such as alphabet letters and words. Those with dyslexia are disoriented and confused and although they often find alternate ways to appear that they are learning, they are very frustrated and their self esteem suffers.

In his book, Davis addresses these issues and offers insights into a dyslexic's gifts and their struggles. He explains that "multi-dimensional thinking (using all the senses) takes place much faster than verbal thinking. Dyslexics also tend to be more curious, creative, and intuitive than average. They tend to be highly aware of the environment, inventive, and good at real world tasks. Their special mode of thought also produces the gift of mastery: once they have learned something experientially, they understand it on such a deep level that they know how to do things intuitively without thinking about how", (taken from www.dyslexia.com/bookstore/giftbook.htm).

The Gift of Dyslexia, by Ron Davis Ron Davis then presents what can be done to help. First, he offers orientation counseling to help them learn to turn off disorientation to focus the perceptions through mental exercise. Second, he has the students learn the basics of the language through modeling symbols and word concepts in clay, which allows for their 3-dimensional perception and express their creativity. Third, the work on spelling and reading is done through training the student in left to right eye movement and to look for groupings and patterns within words. He helps them attach visual representations and use mental pictures to learn words, which is definitely one of dyslexic’s strengths.

Every aspect of his program is so helpful to these dyslexics and allows them to take pride in their "gift" and find a clear way to perceive not only print, but much of the world around them. He does not offer, however, in his program an explicit, phonics component. Research has shown how multi-sensory phonics instruction can open up new neurological pathways and rewire a dyslexic's brain to be able to access the automatic language center in their left occipital lobe (information taken from Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz).

This can open up an entire world for them so that they have other strategies to apply when dealing with unfamiliar words. There is solid evidence found in studies done at Yale University by Dr. Sally Shaywitz and at Harvard by Dr. Jean Chall that supports the need for this type of phonics instruction to help at the decoding level and allow those with dyslexia to have a system to deal with the two-dimensional printed word.

Davis suggests in his book to use the symbols found in the dictionary for pronunciation purposes, and then emphasizes the importance of attaching meaning to the words studied to help deepen and further embed the learning. He also says in his book, "...it is important that the student also be coached through all the speech sounds".  (Davis, Ron. The Gift of Dyslexia. Pedigree, 1997. p. 209)

Discover Intensive Phonics takes the learner through all 42 sounds and does employ a marking system that uses the diacritical markings for sound representations to help the students see what is happening within a word. Discover Intensive Phonics also attaches meaning to each word used in skill instruction, which deepens and further embeds the learning. Davis also teaches the importance of training the student’s brain and eyes to scan from left to right in the proper sequence (The Gift of Dyslexia, pg. 213-218). Discover Intensive Phonics also addresses this issue by always instructing the letters and syllable sounds working left to right and by having the student work in a consistent pattern within the word to help with proper sequencing.

There has been great success with the Davis Dyslexic program and great success with explicit, multi-sensory phonics instruction. Although they are different approaches, there are many areas in which they overlap and are remediating in the same way. Discover Intensive Supports many of Davis' suggestions and provides the important component he states is necessary, and that is sound instruction. One compliments the other and both can be another piece in the puzzle of dyslexia and allows for individual needs and preferences.

Save Over Half of  Your Preparation and Teaching Time!

Unit studies are especially beneficial if you are teaching more then one child. If you are teaching three children each seven different subjects using textbooks and workbooks - that's a WHOPPING twenty one subjects to prepare and teach.

A family with three children using textbook methods might have one child study the Civil War another learning about Ancient Rome while another is studying the American Revolution in history. In Science one child may be studying plants, another the planets and another reptiles.

In Bible, one child may be studying Moses, another studying Joseph and another studying Paul. With unit studies, history, geography, art, music, science and Bible can all be taught together to all ages. Each child studies the topic at his level.

All children can go on field trips together, many projects can be done together, writing assignments vocabulary words will be about the same topic, just on different levels.

For example, while studying animals a younger child may be able to classify birds, mammals and insects. While an older child would classify animals in much more detail such as: Arachnids, crustaceans, etc. The older learns and helps to teach the younger while the younger learns from the older child.

Delight Directed: Planning

Delight-directed learning, with a set plan like Heart of Wisdom unit studies, begins by allowing children to be a part of the planning process. During the planning phase, allow the student to participate in choosing the resources for that unit (fiction novel, colorful reference book, video, Internet site, interactive multimedia, etc.). It’s very possible that a child might balk at the unit as a whole but later find a spark in one of the individual lessons.

To continue with the food analogy, a child might, say, groan over something he sees cooking, but after a taste, finds it pleasing to his palate.

Teaching Multi-Ages:  Sample Day

Mother is teaching Jenny (fifteen), John (thirteen), and Joseph (ten) a unit on the Middle Ages.

During the unit planning the three decide together on the resources. They look through the resources at Homeschool-Books.com or in the back of The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach book at the Middle Ages Resources. The three choose Kingfisher Illustrated Encyclopedia, and Eyewitness Medieval Life from their home library. Mother orders a novel,The Door in the Wall (from the library or a vendor) to read aloud during the unit.

While reviewing the lessons the children show the most interest in knights, castles, and medieval feasts. Before the unit begins they will pick up books on these topics from the library. Several opportunities will occur during the steps in each lesson to bring into play the delight-directed methods. Let’s look at an example of how each of the three children might discover their own level of interest in the lesson on knights.

The sample below is a lesson based on Heart of Wisdom teaching methods (combination of organized 4-Step unit study, Charlotte Mason approach, teaching to all learning styles).

Unit: Middle Ages. Lesson: Knights

In Step One (Excite), Mother is watching each student for a spark.  Step One activities evoke feedback which shows how interested each child is in the topic and suggests the possible duration of the lesson. As they brainstorm to make lists,John and Joshua both show an intense interest in this topic.

In Step Two, Mother reads the provided text in the unit, and then turns to the resources chosen during the unit planning phase. She reads aloud from the suggested pages in the Kingfisher Illustrated Encyclopedia and Eyewitness Medieval Life. John and Joseph spend time reading through the suggested web sites and library resources,and print out several illustrations of a knight’s armor and weapons.  Jenny also browses the Internet sites and chooses an image of a knight to add to her portfolio,but she leaves the boys to explore the sites as she moves on to Step Three assignments.

In Step Three, Mother allows each child to choose an activity:

• John (13) chooses to complete a writing assignment. Mother encourages this assignment because he needs more writing practice and he enjoys this topic. John writes a separate draft paragraph for each of several topics: tournaments, jousting, suits of armor, crossbows, and the Crusades. He searches or uses the Internet to find illustrations for each summary.

• Joseph (10) chooses to create a shield with a coat of arms. He uses colored pencils to design a coat of arms similar to those he viewed from the resources. He the makes the shield from cardboard and pastes or glues the coat of arms onto the shield.

• Jenny is not as interested in this topic so she copies a paragraph from Eyewitness Medieval Life and moves on to a math lesson (more about Jenny later).

In Step Four, the students choose how they will share their work.

• During this step,Mother and John are busy revising and correcting John’s drafts .After the corrections John glues illustrations to the summary pages and includes them in his portfolio. He chooses to add more on this topic to his portfolio and shares it with his grandparents.
• Joseph shows his shield to his father and explains his coat of arms.
• Jenny adds her writing and illustrations to her portfolio and shares the work with her brothers.

In this example, all three children have learned about knights. John has obviously learned the most. We know all three have learned significantly more than they would in a typical school where the children would read perhaps one boring paragraph about knights.

John and Joseph will continue on this topic in the coming weeks by choosing a novel and/or illustrated reference books from the library on knights ,or by learning more from the Internet. Their wise mother will continue to fan the flame as long as the fire burns (weeks or months). If no spark had appeared during this lesson, the amount of time spent on this lesson would have been dramatically different.

Jenny did not do a lot with the lesson on knights because she did not have a spark of interest. Later, however, Jenny’s spark shows up in the “Food in the Middle Ages” lesson. She ends up spending several hours researching and planning an authentic medieval feast for her family. She designs an elaborate menu for her portfolio and reads the library book Medieval Feasts to Joshua.

Four-Steps Summary

1. During Step One, look for the spark.
2. In Step Two, the spark will be your signal to encourage your student(s) to go on to more resources. If the lesson ignites a spark for one child and not another (which will probably be the case) don’t force all the students into spending time on further study. Take a trip to the library, or order books, or allow computer time for Internet search.
3. In Step Three, allow each child to choose the activity in which to do something with what he or she just learned. This could be anything from simple copy work or an involved project.
4. In Step Four, allow each child to choose how to share the material.

Teaching is much more than providing facts — real teaching means causing to learn. The delight-directed methods work when we provide opportunities for meaningful experiences,and then wait and watch for moments when children’s eyes light up. Then they’re off and running, determined and motivated to learn!

Shortly after my son started kindergarten in public school he said, "I hate school, and never want to go back."  Being a typical boy, he didn't want to discuss it further.  I was a little amused, and somewhat worried.  I felt it was a little early for him to have such a negative view of something as important as his education.

The next day we left for school a little early so I could ask his teacher why he would say he hated school.  My son greeted his teacher, and went to play with some of the other early arrivers.  His teacher was surprised to hear he was unhappy.  She told me that nothing had happened the previous day, but she would watch and let me know if she noticed anything out of the ordinary.

Days later my son continued to comment that he hated school.  This seemed unusual since I knew he liked his teacher, and was making friends with some of his classmates.  I chose to volunteer in his classroom for a few days hoping to see what the issue may be.  It became clear to me the first day.

1. There was a child in his class who clearly was a special needs child, and he was quite a handful for the teacher.  She was spending more of her teaching time just trying to "control" this one child.
2. The average age of the class was 4 going on 5 years old, my son was 5 going on 6.  His maturity level and ability to learn the lessons were way above the rest of the class.  He was bored and tired of waiting for the other children to "catch up".

I discussed my observations with his teacher, but she had no ideas for a solution to the problem.  So, my son finished the year with no enthusiasm for moving on to first grade.

I spent the summer break trying to find answers while encouraging my son to keep a good attitude about school.  Speaking with other homeschoolers in my area discouraged me from the idea.  They told me of the money they were spending on curriculum, and the hoops they were having to jump through for the state.  Taking care of my mother is a full-time job, and our financial situation would not support the idea of homeschooling.  Some people even criticized me saying my sons problems with public school may be a more valuable lesson for him to learn from than homeschooling would be.  I decided to give public school one more chance.

Things just went from bad to worse.  My once shy, reserved, not very outgoing son became the class clown, and was almost suspended the third quarter of first grade.  The discipline recommendations made by the principal for his "unruliness" were absolutely unacceptable to me.  I tried to explain why I believed he was behaving so inappropriately, but they didn't want to hear it.  Even his teacher became distant, and no longer wanted to work with me to resolve the issue.  Enough was enough.

It didn't take me long to find K¹², and I read everything I could about this program.  Going back to a "brick and mortar" school was out of the question, but with K¹² we would still be with the public school.  This meant the curriculum was free, the school provided a computer, and there was a teacher to assist when and if I needed it.  The Virtual Academy was not very strict on how the curriculum was implemented, which meant I could adjust it for our families' beliefs.  It seemed like a win-win situation.

I couldn't have been more right.  My son breezed through the second grade curriculum, and three months before the end of the year he started third grade curriculum.  He is now excited about learning again.  He has more confidence in his abilities, and our relationship is stronger than ever.

Some people don't understand my decision, others applaud it, and others still criticize the whole idea. For the most part the negative nay-sayers are either misinformed or just plain ridiculous in there opposition to homeschooling.  It is a personal choice, and as a parent I believe it is my right to have that choice. I hold nothing back, and am not ashamed to base my decision on my unconditional love for my son, God, and His guidance.

The Steiner Waldorf approach to education emphasizes on the use of practical, artistic and conceptual elements into education. This method of education was established by Rudolf Steiner, the founder of a philosophy called anthrophosophy. The Steiner Waldorf approach is based on the fact that the role of imagination in learning is integral for the development of creative and analytical thinking. This educational approach is aimed at providing an environment where young people can develop free thinking, which can be a basis for developing their own personalities as responsible individuals by fulfilling their destiny.

The Steiner Waldorf approach to education is based on scientific study of the development of children’s learning capabilities. Three major stages have been observed in the developmental stages of a child and particular methods of learning which are most effective to that stage are identified in this approach. Early childhood learning is the stage for children below 7 years of age, elementary learning is for children between 7 and 14 years, and high school level education is for adolescents.

Early childhood learning

Learning in early childhood should be practical activity oriented as the learning in this stage is largely sensory based. In a typical Waldorf school, the classroom environment is homelike, includes natural materials, and provides examples of productive work in which children can take part. There are lots of outdoor activities involved accompanied by songs, poems and games. There will be specific times for stories and fairytales to encourage imaginative thinking. Exposure to normal media like television and mainstream music is discouraged at this age.

Elementary education

Elementary education should be more imaginative and artistic so that the child gets an idea of life and the surrounding world, and develops their own ideas. Typical activities at this age would involve visual arts, drama, vocal and instrumental music and crafts. The lessons being taught here are not based on standardized textbooks but each child is made to create their own list of coursework. Each child is allowed to learn in their own pace to allow the child to grasp the concepts or learn a skill based on their capabilities.

High school learning

High school learning, during adolescence, should be based on ethical ideas and social responsibility as the youth should develop the capacity for abstract thought and conceptual judgment. This level of education has a higher concentration on academic subjects.

Since the establishment of the first Waldorf School in 1919 the numbers of schools have been increasing exponentially worldwide. This is the world’s largest independent educational system. The idea behind Steiner Waldorf approach to education resonates with the modern idea of homeschooling. Both emphasize on an environment where a child learns on his or her own capabilities. Both philosophies emphasize that children should not be forced to study before they are ready to learn. The curriculum in both can be varied to according to specific needs. Both the methods stress the importance of teachers engaging with each child individually to ensure they are treated as individuals.

The Montessori approach to Education is an alternate educational method developed by Maria Montessori during the 1900s. This approach is specifically suited for younger children at elementary school levels and is based on self-directed activity by the child and clinical observation by the teachers. The Montessori approach places emphasis on adopting the child’s learning environment to suit the needs of the child. Normal learning in the Montessori approach involves lots of physical activity that helps in absorbing abstract concepts as well as practical skills.

Historically, the Montessori approach began as a post graduate research paper by Maria Montessori on the intellectual development of children with developmental disabilities. She began developing an environment that would typically help these students. Her approach towards the intellectual development of children with disabilities was a huge success. She immediately began moving her research towards children without disabilities. Her techniques in creating a learning environment was extremely effective and helped children learn faster and grasp new knowledge and skills easily. The Montessori approach is self-directive, interactive and material oriented. The key feature involves a teacher observing the children performing the selected tasks.

The main idea of Montessori approach towards education is based on the following premises:

• Children are capable of self-directed learning.
• By using teachers more as ‘observers’ than ‘lecturers’, key areas of development of a student can be identified.
• Learning a skill (even sitting, walking, reading and counting) is natural in a particularly sensitive period. Beyond this period it gets difficult and frustrating.
• Children aged below 6 have a better capacity to absorb concepts.
• Children should be the masters of the school room environment.
• Children learn better when they ‘discover’ things themselves.
• Children learn alone during periods of concentration. They are not to be disturbed by teachers at this time.
• Children learn better if they touch and feel real material objects. This also aids in better development of the brain.

Implementing the Montessori approach as a part of homeschooling would first require the creation of a good study environment. Children should be in a pleasing classroom that would encourage them to study at their own pace. They should have easy access to outside environment. It is considered good if the classroom has plants, windows and small pets, if possible, to have an experience of the natural world while studying.

The studies in this approach are divided into distinct areas. ‘Practical life’ would allow the children to develop a sense of care for themselves, others around them and nature. Children learn how to perform daily activities like using basic kitchen utensils, dressing up, doing chores, cleaning up and so on. The ‘Sensorial’ area concentrates on training the senses. This is done through visuals, audio and other methods. Shapes, colors and sizes are taught. The Montessori approach emphasizes on learning the exact terminology for things being taught. The ‘Cultural’ area covers topics on cultures all over the world. Pictures of other nations, festivals, maps and other helpful materials can be used for this. The ‘Science’ area is meant to develop the natural questioning ability of the child. The children are encouraged to wonder about the way things work in nature. The ‘Language’ area concentrates on teaching the basics of language. The Montessori technique has developed an excellent way of using shapes for parts of a sentence to make things easy to understand. The ‘Math’ area is all about math. Here again, there is a lot of overlap with the sensorial area as visual aids are often used to make the understanding of numbers and operations simpler.