Homeschool Fever

You are browsing the archives of unschooling.

This book contains articles collected from the Home Education Magazine from 1984 to 1994. Since homeschooling was just becoming “legal” during this time (legality in all 50 stages didn’t happen until 1989!), these folks were the pioneers of the modern day homeschooling movement. The articles / essays are grouped into categories such as [...]

* If you are familiar with current homeschooling theories such as Unschooling and Charlotte Mason, you will recognize much of those theories in here!
Basic principles

Follow nature
Uniformity in all things
Continuity sequence and serial order
Practice expression and sense impression
Popular and complete education. Pansophy. Encyclopedic training.

General method

Learn to do by doing
Present to as many senses as possible
Things before [...]

So you want to learn more about homeschooling?
Here is a general overview of what you need to study up on.
Educational Beliefs / Philosophy of Education
Why do you want to homeschool?  What reasons do you have in mind?  Are you looking for a quickfix for an attitude problem or do you firmly believe in home learning?  [...]

Pre-1850s - Many children are educated in private schools or in the home; grammar schools are available in many larger towns, but attendence is not forced.  Parents had the right to choose and it wasn’t questioned!
1842 - Charlotte Mason is born in England
1852 - Massachusettes declares a compulsary education law for all
Mid-1800s - McGuffey Readers [...]

John Holt, a teacher, is best known as the “Father of Unschooling”, based on his views of education that called for radical reform of the American education system during the 1950’s - 1970’s.
His work evolved from teaching, to recognizing that the current educational system needed a change, to realizing that change was not likely to happen, [...]

The best thing about homeschooling is the freedom that families have to tailor their education to their children’s individual needs.  Because of this, many people do not devote themselves to just one method - but instead incorporate a wide variety of methods based on their child’s learning abilities in each subject.  For instance, many families [...]

Unschooling was made popular by John Holt’s theories on learning developed during 1950s-70s. 
This method of teaching a child at home revolves around child-directed learning, meaning that parents are more of a “coach” and not a traditional teacher.  The parents ensure that the child is exposed to a wide variety of experiences and books, but no [...]