# What is your homeschooling "denomination?"



## Pergamum (Dec 26, 2011)

There seems to be many little camps within Christian homeschooling (Greek, Hebrew, Classical, Charlotte Mason)....


How many of these camps are there?

And which camp do you belong to?

What is the best camp? Most biblical? 

Which curriculum's reflect which philosophy (i.e. Rod and Staff reflects what camp?)

(p.s. I seem to like the books of Charlotte Mason and we focus heavily on history and literature and oral exam and Q and A, we are teaching greek and I will also be prepping Noah for public speaking soon, too).


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## fishingpipe (Dec 26, 2011)

My wife currently uses a variety of curricula including Rod & Staff, Saxon, etc. depending on the subject. From K-2 she just made up her own as she was certified K-5 by the state public education system. That saved us a bunch of cash in those years and will save us some with our Kindergartner now.

We don't belong to any of the groups or camps out there. We don't know of any in our small region though I know there are some an hour away in Raleigh and Greensboro. Even with the current curricula we use my wife strays from them at times depending on the learning needs of the kids. I don't think she'll ever find the perfect one, so the liberty to change things up and not feel like we have to stay with what the curriculum suggests is nice.


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## TexanRose (Dec 26, 2011)

I think there are appealing elements in each camp. Most recently I read "The Well Trained Mind" which advocates a classical education. Prior to that I did some reading about Charlotte Mason's methods. I guess we haven't really settled into enough of a routine yet for me to be able to say which "camp" we will be in long term.

I have observed that math and science don't seem to be a big priority in many of the "trendy" camps, the emphasis being, as you stated, on history and literature, etc. Frankly, I don't understand this lack of emphasis, and plan to encourage my kids' current interests in math and science as much as possible, especially given that they will find it much easier to get a job and support a family with a degree in the sciences than with a degree in history or literature.


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## JBaldwin (Dec 26, 2011)

I like the breakdown that DeMille provides in "A Thomas Jefferson Education". I have paraphrased it below. Instead of naming curriculum, it defines the three different styles or approaches to education. It seems that all the different "denominations" fit into one of the categories or a combination of them. 

1. "Public education or Conveyor belt education" -- the curriculum provides information the student needs to know. The student learns the information and is tested to ensure he knows the information. This is what public schools and a lot of private schools do. Any curriculum that meets up to the "state standards" fits into this category, if you teach the curriculum the way it is intended to be taught. BJU curriculum fits intot his category, because it follows SC state standards. In this method the student is taught "what to think". 

2. "Professional education" -- the student's education is geared toward a profession like medicine or law and everything the student learns is toward that end. The method or approach is similiar to the first one, except that the material is more difficult, and the student is taught "when to think". 

3. "Leadership Education" -- Student is taught the classics, languages, math, and the student does a lot of work on their own. Material is pulled from many sources, fewer if any textbooks, and lots of reading. The student is questioned and taught "how to think". 

Personally, we have leaned more heavily towards leadership education or "how to think" approach, because it falls in line with the thought put forth in Acts that the Bereans were more noble than those at Thessalonica, because they searched the Scriptures daily to see if the things they were taught were true. To me this shows that God considers it important for us to seach out the truth. 

By the waym Charlotte Mason, Well-trained Mind, and Classical Conversations fall more into the "leadership education" approach.

---------- Post added at 02:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:58 PM ----------

One thing I neglected to add about the "leadership approach" is that the student is mentored in different subject areas.


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