I really enjoyed this book. It goes hand in hand with TJ ED. Raymond and Dorothy Moore were in the public school scene for many years then switched over to the homeschool side. They give so many great ideas for new teachers whether homeschooling or in a public classroom setting.
| Home Style Teaching: A Handbook for Parents and Teachers |
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Some key points that stood out to me were:
- "Teaching is using books discretely. It is encouraging people to learn how to think."
- Actual teaching time should probably take no more than an hour and a half; for older children no more than 3 hours,
-"Two principles which child development research clearly supports are one: that the success a child will achieve in learning any particular skill is dependent upon his maturity - his mental, physical, and emotional readiness. Two: That the child becomes competent in a much shorter time when he is older than when he is younger.
- "Dr. Joseph Wepman of University of Colorado says reading failure could be reduced to 2% if we were to delay formal schooling until at least 8 or 9."
I love TJ ED, but because Josh did not learn how to read until he was 18 years old we both feel strongly that teaching our children to read as soon as they are capable is what is right for our family. We are just trying to teach them in a more informal setting; making it as fun and creative as possible. TJ ED philosophy says "no formal schooling until 8 year old". To me that means, keep it simple. Don't expect children to sit for a hour of instruction; it doesn't mean, teach them nothing, no instruction at all. I read to him about 2 hours through out the day, sometimes more. We do sight words and phonics games; he does well with that. It has been just over a week since I have made Benson do any worksheet and today was the first day I pulled out a math and phonics worksheet. We spent about 5 mins. on each one and even that was stretching it a little. I know I will have to be careful to not bombard him with worksheets; it's just so easy to pull one out. We are making progress and I am sure it has helped him to see me box up all his K12 stuff and send it off. We are done with that. This is a new beginning. I thought it might be fun to make ourselves some school shirts. We'll see how that goes.
