Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Eclectic Homeschooling?

I think homeschooling in and of itself is eclectic but I had no idea that there was an approach called eclectic that is a subset of the whole homeschooling movement. So I started doing research on the topic and this is what Time4Learning provides as an overview of eclectic homeschooling:

"One of the challenges of homeschool education is selecting a curriculum that meets the needs of each child. Many families find that what fits one child, may not fit another, or that what worked well one semester, may not work the next. Or in some cases, what works for one child in one subject, does not work for the same child in another subject.



Eclectic homeschooling is the result of parents’ endeavors to provide a highly specialized education plan for their children, based on the children’s strengths, learning style, and interests. Eclectic homeschoolers see value in a variety of different educational methods. While actual statistics are hard to come by, we believe most homeschooling families use an eclectic approach to their children’s education."

I think maybe a better description of the eclectic homeschooling approach would be common sense with dedicated parents willing to do what it takes to find the best match of learning styles for each of their children and teaching methods.