Yesterday as I described my day, I realized that we are relaxed homeschoolers, and so I titled my posts appropriately. Before then, I had never given much thought to our homeschooling style or philosophy.
Your style of homeschooling will stem from your beliefs toward homeschooling. If believe that Latin is an important base to English education and that history should be taught in the order that it happened, then you may lean toward classical homeschooling. If you think that your child should learn what they are led to learn, then you lean toward unschooling. If you feel like education should happen as a byproduct of life, and don’t mind paying for tutors and instructors to do the “hard work”, then you lean more toward relaxed homeschooling.
Relaxed homeschooling is a by product of homeschool co-ops and the abundant availability of homeschool classes. Over time, many homeschooling parents have gravitated to teaching what they love best to a group of homeschoolers, and letting other homeschooling parents do the same. By pooling their resources, both parents and kids are allowed to relax and really enjoy the learning process. I realized early in the homeschooling process that I just had no connection with history. Teaching history was painful for me. Learning history from me was stressful. The relaxed, group teaching approach allows the kids to learn history in an environment that is conducive to learning history.
If your kids are, or have ever been in public school, you will understand what I am saying. In elementary school, children typically learn all of their subjects from one teacher. You may have noticed that one year they were more excited about science than any other subject, and another year, they were more excited about math. It is because the excitement of the teacher rubs off on the kids. There is a reason that high school subjects are taught by different teachers. Relaxed homeschooling borrows from this public high school model.
The best part about relaxed homeschooling in my opinion is it takes the teacher out of the mom. Just like when we were in public school, I am their homework helper, their counselor, and their advocate. I do not have to switch hats and balance roles. Sure, there are still subjects that I teach my kids, but they are within my strengths and not a struggle to teach.
If this approach to homeschooling were not possible, I probably would have never started homeschooling. When questioning my mentor (the person who was my personal homeschooling role model) about homeschooling and my fears about being locked in my house all day teaching my kids, she said, “You don’t have to teach anything and still homeschool”. She then rattled off all of the local classes available to me. “I can do this!” I thought… and so I did.