What Homeschool Styles and Philosophies do we use as Eclectic Homeschoolers?- Part Three: Unit Studies, Unschooling, and Life Skills

This week is all about homeschool styles, and how we pick and choose, as well as WHAT we pick and choose from the different homeschool philosophies.

Aren’t familiar with homeschool philosophies? Head to our FREE Homeschool Help page and see what philosophies resonate with you!

We pick and choose from a few different styles:

Charlotte Mason- See that here

Montessori- See that here

Unit Studies, Unschooling, and General Life Skills- You’re already here!

What are Unit Studies, and how do we use them?

A unit study is:

Unit studies are, essentially, choosing a topic of interest and exploring that topic through the avenue of a variety of school subjects. Sometimes it is easy to incorporate all subjects into a unit study. Other times, the scope is more limited. Either way, a unit study can be a great tool for homeschooling parents. (wellplannedgal.com/what-are-unit-studies/)

I view a unit study as a themed approach to teaching more than 2 subjects at once. We generally do history or science, language arts, and electives. Sometimes math can be involved, and sometimes we include BOTH history and science! Depends on the topic of study.

A unit study is a fantastic way to have a teacher prepped, student led lesson. You can find unit studies on most any topic nowadays!!

A few of my favorite unit studies:

You can also check out Theultimateunitstudy.com

We use unit studies as a basis for a LOT of our studies. The basic things we cover in a day are Devotionals, Read Alouds, Language Arts (Writing, etc), Math, History OR Science; and a unit study can take care of several of those items!

What is Unschooling, and how do we unschool?

We have an entire blog post about Unschooling, you can read that here!

The basic definition of unschooling will change depending on who you are talking to, and what biases they currently have. I tried to find as unbiased definition as possible:

From Wikipedia: Unschooling is an informal learning that advocates learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning.

It is a common misconception that unschoolers are crazy radicals, that never encourage or require any type of learning. I am sure there are some like that out there! But being an unschooler has less to do with “What should I teach this child?” and more with “How can I help this child love learning, and thrive in their current and future environments?”

In the blog post, a good example of this is:

“Unschooling removes the fears we often have about our children and questions like “Are they behind?” “Do they need to be doing more right now?” “What if they never learn to ____?” etc. Unschooling gives full joy in learning because we as homeschool parents don’t force children to participate in things that do not interest them or things they aren’t ready for. We aren’t overwhelmed by specific schedules or methods, instead, learning happens organically through living. The beauty of this is we can “strew”, expose, and continue to immerse our children in rich education and “spread a learning feast”, but let them partake in what they desire. ” From Stephanie, Stories Begin at Home

How do we “unschool” in our home? Easy.

Reframe what education is to you. Anything that is learning, and is useful to your child, counts.
Invite, invite, invite. Invite don’t require. “Hey, do you want to help me cook dinner tonight?” is a super simple invitation, that can teach your child self sufficiency, fine motor skills, math, following directions, and working as a team.
Our structured schooling time lasts usually an hour, and our lessons are quick and easy. My motto is to stop while they are having a good time, rather than waiting til they are upset. This will make them want to come back for more!!

Unschoolers CAN use curriculum. You don’t have to, but the key is to MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU!!!

Here are some great examples:

How do we teach life skills, and what life skills do we teach?

Life skills and unschooling are incredibly intertwined. Practicality in education is one of the most important things you can have, in my opinion. It is why so many kids of our generation asked “Ok.. when will I use this knowledge?” and were often met with, “Well, you won’t have a calculator in your pocket for the rest of your life!” HA. Well, I know I do.

Education needs to mean something. Most kids don’t want to just learn something for the sake of learning something! It needs to be applicable, it needs to make sense, and it needs to be engaging.

Life skills are taught more easily when they are taught by DOING, especially by doing something alongside a mentor. As a parent and teacher, we are our children’s first mentors!

A mentor is: “an experienced and trusted adviser”

Another important aspect of teaching life skills, is that not all skills need to be taught at once. Maria Montessori, Italian physician and educator and creator of “The Montessori schooling method” was a big believer in allowing the children to work within their own environment. If you are passionate about teaching life skills so that your children can grow up to be self sufficient, and productive members of a family and/or society, reading some books about her method would be an extremely good move! This one is my favorite:

What life skills do we teach?

How to make your own bed, and clean up after yourself. (This can take a while, and that is ok!)
How to cook, and prepare meals. As well as knowing how to clean up and put food away.
Grocery shopping, meal prepping, and list making.
Food storage preparations!
Starting a fire, camping, and survival.

Fun fact! Back when I first decided to homeschool, I was standing in my kitchen when the prompting came to me… “You need to homeschool. You can teach them things that the school system won’t.”

A few of the resources we have for teaching life skills are: