Knowing where you fit into the continuum of education styles can help set your mind straight about choosing materials and categorising your curricular options.

The scale as I see it goes from Radical Unschooling at one end, to strict adherence to an externally prescribed curriculum at the other.

My observation is that many families who remove their children from school tend to stick wholly quite close to the curriculum end of the scale, at least until they find their feet and the freedom from the 'box' of institutional education methods.

The same could be said of those who themselves have been educated in the system, but on the whole this type of parent knows that they want to do something different and tend towards thematic units - somewhere in the middle of the scale.

Those at the Radical Unschooling end of the continuum seem to be non-sectarian types.

Now that is not to say that you can pigeon-hole any parent or family but is more of an aside.



The other style, which we lean towards is eclecticism - cool word eh?! Being eclectic means taking a little of this style and a little of that philosophy and blending them together like a hearty rich casserole.

Understanding that this too was a 'style' was encouraging, as it supported where we found ourselves at. It was like a huge sigh of relief that being eclectic was 'normal' too!

How that looks for us is that the areas that we feel are central to our children's education or ones where progressive learning is advantageous are ones that we tend to have a textbook material for, others for a child's age/stage may be more organic (self-discovery, 'teachable moments' or unschoolish), and still others will tend to the thematic approach as their curiosity is piqued and we race off to the library or the internet for further extension. It works well for us otherwise I'd be a bit sheepish about sharing it all here with you.



What is your style?

• Do you prefer everything laid out and planned for you?
• Do you want your child to have full creativity to learn what they need to learn solely by interacting with life?
• Do you want to get down and dirty with your children and learn alongside them perhaps more as a family?
• Or are you somewhere between these three styles? Or a mix?

Go for a surf on the worldwide web and read up about the philosophies, styles and pedagogies out there. If you are already homeschooling, have a look at the materials you have and decide where they fit on the continuum - this will help you see and celebrate your personal style.