Mike Smith:
Kym, in your new book Booster Shot: Energize Your Homeschool with Unit Studies, you talk about having a “philosophy of education” and how it relates to unit studies. Can you explain this to our listeners?

Kym Wright:
Let me first say that deciding your educational philosophy isn’t as daunting as it sounds. Knowing the right questions to answer makes it easy. The children’s attitude of learning makes a big difference. As the parent, do you want them to love learning? Do you want them to enjoy everything they do? And only do what they enjoy? Or do you want them to just do the work so they can go on to the next thing? That will help you determine which type of curriculum you want to use. Also, our lifestyle and basic values determines the subjects and the method we will use to teach. If we value like country living and a slower pace, we might teach animal husbandry, gardening, quilting, and such. But, if our life is based in a silicon city and computers are our love, we will focus more on a computerized life, creating websites, handling city traffic, building the resume—those types of goals.

So your lifestyle and values are also reflected in the activities you choose for your unit studies. If nutritious meals are important to you, then you might include bread baking in your units. Or perhaps making meals from scratch.

But there is no right or wrong philosophy of education. It’s all in what’s important to you. And what you want to pass on to your children, and in turn, to your grandchildren.

Mike:
Well, thank you, Kym. And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.