Rigid schedule or relaxed homeschool?

The people with rigid schedules are trying to copy schools. Schools have rigid schedules because they are dealing with huge numbers of children at once and rigid schedules are needed to keep their factory-like schools working smoothly.

At home, rigid schedules are not needed. In fact, they often don't make sense at home. At home, children may need very little time for a lesson one day and more for a lesson on another, so having a set amount of time for each lesson doesn't really work. Some days, you might have a project that requires extensive time in a subject--and why split it up and do it over several days when it makes more sense to do it all at once while the materials are out and the kids are enjoying it--so you may work for hours on that subject one day and then skip it entirely for a few days.

Most homeschoolers I know don't keep grades unless their child is at the high school level. Most will check the child's work and then have the child correct any errors, and not bother recording grades because they are more interested in learning than numerical or letter grades. (Grades were invented by schools as a way of letting parents know how the child is progressing. If the parent is teaching the child, the parent *knows* how the child is doing without grades.) At the high school level it is different, since colleges will want transcripts with grades and credits listed. (You might want to read "And What About College? How homeschooling leads to admissions to the best colleges and universities" by Cafi Cohen for more information on dealing with transcripts and other aspects of college admissions.)

Relaxed homeschooling makes more sense in the home environment, where one is dealing with a small number of children. It gives the parent a chance to make the education enjoyable and to inidividualize things as needed, to take advantage of impromptu opportunities, and leaves the parents (and children) less stressed.

Relaxed homeschooling doesn't mean that the parents don't have goals that they intend to accomplish (whether a certain number of pages covered a week, or a certain set of topics to be covered during the year, or covering subjects a certain number of times a week, or whatever). But homeschooling is more like a cottage-industry of old versus the huge factories that are schools. The cottage-industries were run more informally because such formality isn't required in them.

As for children choosing their own classes, that can be done with rigid schedules or more relaxed forms of homeschooling. Letting a child choose at least a few classes or projects can make them a more willing partner in their own learning, can take advantage of their own interests to increase learning, and train them to more self-starters. Even with a child choosing a class, a parent could choose to impose a rigid schedule, but it isn't usually necessary.

Hope this helps.

The best way to do homeschooling is different for each family. What works for one family, won't necessarily work for another one. It's the reason homeschooling is a better solution that the standard model that government schools use.

Some people thrive on structure, others work better with a seat of the pants approach. Homeschooling allows this sort of flexibility, even within the same family. I have one child who needs the structure and another who works better on a more impromptu fashion. We've found a way to successfully combine these to give both children what they need.

One of the perks of homeschooling is that children have the flexibility to learn what interests them. Let's face it, we all learn much better if the topic is one that we enjoy. Homeschooling allows more choices of what to study and when.

As far as grading is concerned, this depends not only on the family, but also on any governmental regulations depending on where the homeschoolers live. I've found that rigidly keeping grades isn't all that important for my kids until the middle school and high school years, although I do assign grades in the earlier years to give my kids feedback and an idea of the general quality of their work.

When it comes to homeschooling, the idea of "what's best" doesn't really have much meaning. What's best is what works for each individual family.

Personally, I don't give my children any grades from kindergarten through 8th grade. But when they begin high school, I do.............simply because I want to have something to put on their transcripts. (So they do take some tests, etc. but not even in every class. There are other ways to evaluate; tests are not the only way.) My children do plan to go to college, so that is why I give grades in high school.

If you are a relaxed homeschooling family or unschooling family, you don't have to give grades - even in high school. And you can still make up a transcript for college -- but you will have to put some sort of grades on it. For example, if your child studied a subject and you believe they 'mastered' it, then you put an "A" on their transcript, even though they never had tests, etc. And unschoolers also make up portfolios, which can be helpful for college admission.

Here's a link about transcripts for unschoolers.

http://www.squidoo.com/unschoolingtranscripts

I really don't see a point in being concerned with credits, grades etc until high school, so we take a progressive approach. I use a very child led approach going at their speed for elementary school. For middle school I start being a bit more focused on testing, keeping to a schedule etc. This way by high school it is easier to create a well documented transcript and the student is use to the structure they will experience in college.

i want to say that credits, gardes, and tests, all of these are very important for studying. it is just about how we can achieve our goals quickly and effectively. they are basic methods for doing everything. there are something about motivation of learning. interest is the most important one inside, so let kids choose their classes and make sure all the candidate are positive and useful. if you have enough time, rigid schedule is better than relaxed one, but if you don't have time and patience, don't ask kids to do more, that is not fair.