Homeschool Philosophies - @ The Curriculum Choice

As I've mentioned before, we've elected to homeschool. Many often ask what we use, what literature, how do we do it,... If you are currently homeschooling, you're busy getting materials together, and this may be of interest to you, but most likely you've long since known of this excellent site. The Curriculum Choice is an active site reviewing materials that even the seasoned homeschooling parent will find of current interest. However, the entry I found of most pertinent interest, as we take our official maiden voyage down the road of learning, is about the varied but current homeschool philosophies. I won't try to summarize what the authors have so well outlined, but I'll mention my personal leanings.

I have found that each has it's own personality & philosophy creating a rhythm for the day. It seems that as you use material, it seems to define you. For instance, as much as I LOVE the Konos material, and completely want to do unit studies based on FIAR, I can't break away from The Well Trained Mind, literally. Cindy who wrote a review of my new favorite, 'The Story of the World: Vol. 1 Ancient Times' , describes her school 'as a Charlotte Mason, Unit Study, Classically inspired' homeschool. I can relate. I don't see our new school as fitting one exactly, but fundamentally classical in nature. I would say, of course the way you use the materials defines the nature of the education, however some amazing folks such as Jessie Wise, and the folks at Konos have created such excellent materials they are creating new titles for former philosophies. With thanksgiving, I look forward to the months & years ahead, and hope to have opportunity to explore ways to incorporate as much as we can into our homeschool. I'm sure it will evolve. I have been up to now, working on creating good habits, for what will be our home & school. As our soft start moves into 2nd gear, we will be like most determining what works for us, what doesn't, what's available, and what we have to create on our own. There is little doubt in my mind, like most things, there's many wheels already created- I don't have to go re-inventing it. I'm grateful there is an abundance of parents who share their wealth of knowledge in this area. I really appreciate when mom's post a typical day's schedule, or a particular incident that to which the day had to adapt. I don't have a list that is formalized yet, but Darcy at My 3 Boybarians has a great post - the Not Back to School blog roll/link list. The list for this last week is Curriculum Choice. There is also a week for showing off your school room. We're still working on that so we'll wait to show that.
Off to make a schedule for this week!