Choose an Educational Philosophy: Top 6 or Mix

A focus on balancing your family needs and education philosophies.

Family:

We believe family is the single most important influential factor on a child as it relates to the development of their sense of identity, culture, and security. Children form memories, traditions, and life-long bonds with their families. Each family has their own special qualities that makes them unique. This is also true of how homeschooling families approach education.

The statue of Socrates, Academy of Athens, Greece

Educational Philosophies:

Education is important to all homeschooling families, but how each family homeschools is as unique as the family themselves. Some of our families have opted for the traditional philosophy of education used in brick and mortar schools, while others have exercised their #powerofchoice as a result of differing philosophies on how best to educate their children. At IEM Schools, families have the opportunity to choose one or more varieties of educational philosophies to meet their family’s needs. When you exercise your #powerofchoice and choose your educational philosophy, these are a few you might consider:

Top Six or Mix:

1. Waldorf : An arts based, multisensory approach to education. Learning focuses on the individual child’s strengths, interests, developmental level, temperament, and learning style. It’s an integrated model interweaving arts, skills, movement, and academics. Waldorf families typically avoid textbooks and more traditional learning materials.
2. Charlotte Mason/ Living Books : A literature-based approach meant to instill a love of learning. The core curriculum consists of well-written, factually sound books. Students are asked to reflect-on, comprehend, and retain information learned through books.
3. Montessori: A child-directed model of education. The child determines the amount of learning that takes place in each area. One of the core focuses of this approach is the development of an environment where children can explore and learn within their surroundings.
4. Unit Study : Based on in-depth explorations of specific topics and interdisciplinary learning. Unit Studies generally include a variety of activities and a multitude of resources. Within families students’ ages, abilities, learning styles, and developmental levels can be accommodated with individual assignments.
5. Project Based: Student-driven approach utilizing complex questions, challenges, and problems to engage students in learning. Students acquire knowledge through inquiry inspired by real-world problems. Investigation of the problem may include research, experimentation, the production of models, and the presentation of findings.
6. Classical: Based on the Trivium (stages of learning aligned to developmental stages). The goal of this rigorous approach is teaching children how to learn and think for themselves. This model uses original works by great thinkers as well as teaching core subjects, thinking skills, and language skills (generally Latin).

Power of Choice:

IEM families have the #powerofchoice to ensure that they are meeting the needs of their children’s individual learning styles. They can also choose the appropriate educational philosophy to create the most successful learning atmosphere possible. The choices are endless: choices to educate their children how they learn best, choices in what educational model they’ll choose, choices in what their children will study, and choices on how kids will spend their days. Which of the top six will you pick? Or will you mix them? The #powerofchoice is yours.