As a homeschooler myself I enjoyed delight-directed learning, library-based homeschooling, unschooling, and lots of unit studies and learning through projects. My education as a homeschooler was fun, but very spontaneous and disorganized at times.
As a homeschool mom, I began to study many philosophies of education and thought I had to pick just one at first. We started with Classical Education and Unit Studies, but that all fizzled out when I started homeschooling my second child who was adyslexic super creator and the third who was a genius type of neurodivergent detective!
By my fourth formal year of homeschooling my 5, 6, 7 and 8 year olds, I had introduced a eclectic array of homeschooling techniques that were inspired by Charlotte Mason, Jon Holt, Maria Montessori, Edith Schaeffer, the Bible, and my mother! All while mixing in the classical techniques that worked well for my oldest son.
People asked us if we were unschoolers, because my children’s activities revolved around their needs, curiosity, passions and childish career dreams. With children these ages, we did so many projects instead of workbooks to understand how the world works… and how to master it!
Combining travel, adventure, nature, real books, art, people and love created the theme of our learning adventure that revolved around three meals a day in a big Victorian house on Main Street. But unlike unschooling, we were seeking organization, a schedule and rhythm to our learning process. We were trying everything and experimenting with everything based on my leadership in the home, while honoring the curiosity of each child. We called it Fun-Schooling.
