Homeschool Math Curriculum Comparison: Classical Education Vs. Unschool
Are you winter weary of the math curriculum blues? Have you thought more than once about switching up curriculum for math in hopes that it would inspire your kids to throw a party everytime they do math instead of water logging their latest math workbook with their tears?
Have I got a fun homeschool math style comparison that you don’t see everyday and don’t want to miss!
CLICK HERE and see the video I just posted comparing Classical Education math WITH Unschool Math!
I’m super excited to show you this unique homeschool math curriculum comparison!
Back in 1999, I joined forces with the new principal, Pastor Bill Major, and his lovely wife, Diane in Newark, DE. Together, we started up a tiny yet mighty new Classical education school, Heritage Christian Academy (HCA) with 30 students. Diane taught K – 2, I taught grades 3 – 5, Miss Caruso, taught grades 6 – 8, and Pastor Major taught the high schoolers. We used the Principle Approach, which is a Classical Christian education curriculum utilizing a body of deep rich Biblical teaching first developed by Rosalie Slater and Verna Hall in the 1960’s.
NatureGlo teaching at HCA, a Classical education model. 1999
FULL DISCLOSURE: I no longer am affiliated with any faith and I label myself simply as “spiritual”. However, my online math and science unit study courses are from a neutral worldview and serve both faith and non-faith homeschool families. I leave out origins and don’t address any faith in my courses. You can plug your worldview in. I have great respect for each and every worldview chosen by you homeschoolers that I serve.
In this video I go in-depth and behind the scenes of what appears to be two dramatically different approaches to math. On the one side of the spectrum, with Classical education, you have a very teacher/parent driven methodology utilizing math curriculum, which means, heavy on workbooks, textbooks for some if they choose to use a traditional math curriculum. There are some very cool hands-on Classical education math curriculum options. On the other end off the spectrum, I compare Classical education math with Radical unschooling math. The differences you may be surprised by, BUT, there are also some very interesting shared characteristics.
Did you know that since the dawn of humanity, humans have unschooled their kids? Therefore, Unschooling is the oldest education method, yet reintroduced and popularized by John Holt in the 1970’s.
One curriculum I’ve used and loved is RightStart Math, which I taught to my elementary students at HCA. For several years I taught RightStart math using the AL abacus along with it’s fun card games. It’s a truly brilliant curriculum and the students had great success learning math from it. However, I knew there had to be more.
The missing piece was a deeper “living math” connection with the natural world, getting outdoors, and creating what later became my MathArt online course for kids ideally ages 10 18. Pastor Bill invited me to write what I now call MathArt, but, back then it was called and began as “Math Lab”. I taught Math Lab to our elementary and middle schoolers from 2003 — 2006.
Nature’s 5 Most Common Patterns are what got me on the road to creating “living math” or MathArt
CLICK HERE and check out HOMESCHOOL MATH CURRICULUM | Classical Education Vs. Unschool video.
P.S. If you haven’t yet subscribed to my YouTube channel, I invite you to do so. I’d also LOVE and ADORE reading your comments about the video. Thank you!
Talk soon!
Gloria Brooks aka NatureGlo