Try out our brand new Homeschool Philosophies quiz! This version has a few philosophies that we revised to give you more accurate results. We’ve also added in two new philosophies.
Find out how you score with Charlotte Mason Education, Classical Education, Montessori, Project-Based Learning, Reggio-Inspired Learning, Thomas Jefferson Education, Traditional Education, a Unit Studies Approach, an Unschooling Approach, and Waldorf Education.
Share your results in the comments. Did anything surprise you? Do you think it is accurate?
Score for Charlotte Mason: 8
Score for Classical Education: 3
Score for Montessori Education: 15
Score for Project-Based Learning: 9
Score for Reggio-Inspired:9
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 3
Score for Traditional Education: 11
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 12
Score for Unschooling Approach: 9
Score for Waldorf Education: 6
Mine were Montessori, Unit studies, and traditional
If I didn’t have to work and my husband was on board with the idea I would probably homeschool my 9 yr old. His ADHD and anxiety over tests and fitting in with others along with his chronic insomnia has made learning in a traditional school setting hard.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 3
Score for Classical Education: 3
Score for Montessori Education: 9
Score for Project-Based Learning: -3
Score for Reggio-Inspired:-3
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 3
Score for Traditional Education: -7
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 3
Score for Unschooling Approach: 6
Score for Waldorf Education: -3
Score for Charlotte Mason: 23
Score for Classical Education: 23
Score for Montessori Education: 19
Score for Project-Based Learning: 11
Score for Reggio-Inspired:23
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 18
Score for Traditional Education: -21
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 16
Score for Unschooling Approach: 19
Score for Waldorf Education: 13
The questions make me wonder what the logic is behind the scenes to tally them. There are quite a few questions that could apply to all styles of education, but I could see being weighted toward a particular style based on the question writer’s preconceptions. For example, there are several questions about the use of screens. Any educational style could use or avoid screens depending on the parents’ preference.
Eclectic homeschooling here! Surprised Waldorf and Montessori weren’t my top scores!
Score for Charlotte Mason: 18
Score for Classical Education: 16
Score for Montessori Education: 15
Score for Project-Based Learning: 20
Score for Reggio-Inspired:20
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 10
Score for Traditional Education: 5
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 15
Score for Unschooling Approach: 18
Score for Waldorf Education: 18
Score for Charlotte Mason: 5
Score for Classical Education: 6
Score for Montessori Education: 9
Score for Project-Based Learning: 6
Score for Reggio-Inspired:12
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: -3
Score for Traditional Education: 6
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 3
Score for Unschooling Approach: 6
Score for Waldorf Education: -3
I’ve never even heard of some of these before! Reggio-inspired??
Traditional (18), Reggio (12), Unit Studies (11); Charlotte Mason (10).
Not much of a surprise, really: I used to work as a teacher in public k-12 schools, and my family has treated homeschooling as a supportive supplement to a public k-12 education.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 16
Score for Classical Education: 21
Score for Montessori Education: 21
Score for Project-Based Learning: 16
Score for Reggio-Inspired:20
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 11
Score for Traditional Education: 0
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 13
Score for Unschooling Approach: 21
Score for Waldorf Education: 13
Score for Charlotte Mason: 17
Score for Classical Education: 13
Score for Montessori Education: 16
Score for Project-Based Learning: 16
Score for Reggio-Inspired:17
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 14
Score for Traditional Education: -20
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 11
Score for Unschooling Approach: 14
Score for Waldorf Education: 14
Yes, I hate traditional education. I know Montessori method quite well and I have never heard of the Reggio-Inspired. Now I will learn about it.
First-year homeschooler here. I’m somewhat surprises and somewhat not. I have kids that are 20 & 24 that went to traditional school. My youngest, 7, is now being homeschooled, grade 2. I never had a bad experience with schools, but find she learns so much more from us, our travels and hands on experience.
My top ones were…
Unit Studies Approach: 19
Unschooling Approach: 15
Charlotte Mason: 14
Classical Education: 14
Project-Based Learning: 14
I took it twice. Once for my philosophy about children up to early teens, and once for my philosophy for teens/young adults.
For younger children I got Unschooling and Montessori as my highest. That didn’t surprise me too much. What did surprise me is that I got Reggio, closely followed by Unschooling and Waldorf as my highest scores for older children. I definitely thought I leaned more classical/charlotte mason-ish for older ages. Guess I need to relook at these!
Was not at all surprised that Montessori and Unit Studies showed up so high! I laughed when I realized how NOT traditional I was, though. Ha! I was also somewhat surprised by how low my Waldorf score was.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 14
Score for Classical Education: 19
Score for Montessori Education: 19
Score for Project-Based Learning: 13
Score for Reggio-Inspired:16
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 9
Score for Traditional Education: -14
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 21
Score for Unschooling Approach: 17
Score for Waldorf Education: 5
Score for Charlotte Mason: 17
Score for Classical Education: 25
Score for Montessori Education: 21
Score for Project-Based Learning: 20
Score for Reggio-Inspired:25
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 21
Score for Traditional Education: -15
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 21
Score for Unschooling Approach: 23
Score for Waldorf Education: 15
Score for Charlotte Mason: 5
Score for Classical Education: 0
Score for Montessori Education: 14
Score for Project-Based Learning: 19
Score for Reggio-Inspired:21
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 3
Score for Traditional Education: -19
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 11
Score for Unschooling Approach: 21
Score for Waldorf Education: 3
We are just starting our home educating, and these scores come as no surprise! I will look up Reggio-inspired learning as I’ve not heard of it. The -19 score for traditional is spot on, and the main reason we’ve deregistered our children to follow a different path, one that will reduce all our stress and anxiety levels!
My highest score was 25 for Reggio-inspired. I guess I need to study Reggio more LOL. I tied at 23 for Charlotte Mason and Unit studies. I totally bombed out with -18 for traditional ed. Ha ha! I’m a secular (but re-worded to non-religious) Relaxed Eclectic homeschool educator!
Score for Charlotte Mason: -3
Score for Classical Education: 5
Score for Montessori Education: 12
Score for Project-Based Learning: 3
Score for Reggio-Inspired:17
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 3
Score for Traditional Education: 15
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 3
Score for Unschooling Approach: 6
Score for Waldorf Education: -7
Yep. That seems pretty accurate. The one thing that is completely missing is how important our Catholic faith is in our homeschooling and how much that drives our every educational decision.
Hi
My top are Unit Studies, Montessori and Classical. I think that the results reveal the truth. I am a former high school teacher and love reading, reading, reading!
My goals for my children are reflected in the results.
I did not find my scores to be a surprise and they accurately reflect my beliefs. Sometimes the questions were difficult to answer, because I endeavor to avoid the use of force with our daughter. My preference often supersedes the more traditional education preferences posed by some of the questions. Lacking the option of an explicit anti-force response, I selected “Neither Agree or Disagree” for several of the questions.
Score for Project-Based Learning: 25
Score for Unschooling Approach: 23
Score for Charlotte Mason: 16
Score for Traditional Education: -16
Great quiz! Very accurate! I was within 5 points of most of them reflecting my truly eclectic nature! But this does help clarify some things for me. So thank you for putting this together!
Score for Charlotte Mason: 14
Score for Classical Education: 11
Score for Montessori Education: 3
Score for Project-Based Learning: 6
Score for Reggio-Inspired:0
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 6
Score for Traditional Education: -8
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 16
Score for Unschooling Approach: 9
Score for Waldorf Education: 0
Score for Charlotte Mason: 8
Score for Classical Education: 6
Score for Montessori Education: 13
Score for Project-Based Learning: 3
Score for Reggio-Inspired:16
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 0
Score for Traditional Education: -21
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 19
Score for Unschooling Approach: 21
Score for Waldorf Education: 18
A tie between Unit Studies and Waldorf, followed very closely by Charlotte Mason. I’d say that it is pretty accurate as we use Living books and focus on unit studies and what my children are interested in learning. I received a -21 in Traditional, which is very accurate! I do not believe in traditional education or the use of dry, lackluster textbooks.
Not really surprising. I found sme of the questions difficult to answer though because different approaches work for different children. I had one who enjoyed workbooks and structure but with extreme flexibility and freedom. And the other who insisted on being in charge of her own learning, “If you don’t teach me to read now, I will teach myself!” – age 4. It was interesting to see that traditional education was -13, didn’t expect that. Though I would argue that homeschooling is traditional education, I’m assuming you mean the current brick and mortar style schooling when you say traditional education.
Your Results:
Score for Charlotte Mason: 13
Score for Classical Education: 9
Score for Montessori Education: 14
Score for Project-Based Learning: 6
Score for Reggio-Inspired:11
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 0
Score for Traditional Education: -13
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 12
Score for Unschooling Approach: 17
Score for Waldorf Education: 2
Unit Studies , Classical, and Charlotte Mason were all very close. I think I favored the Unit Studies, but we all loved reading a good book, so we read a lot. I think that we varied approach depending on their age, what I found that I thought they needed as well as what I thought they would be interested in. Those were great wonderful, happy, challenging days that are behind me now.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 8
Score for Classical Education: 11
Score for Montessori Education: 11
Score for Project-Based Learning: 11
Score for Reggio-Inspired:10
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 9
Score for Traditional Education: 0
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 20
Score for Unschooling Approach: 10
Score for Waldorf Education: 3
Take a look through your results. The higher the number, the more you agree with that philosophy. Do your results match with your viewpoint? If you have a negative score, it is likely that you disagree with some of the major points of that specific philosophy.
Most homeschoolers will find that they have several philosophies with similar scores. This may be because many homeschoolers are eclectic or it may be because several of the philosophies overlap in some areas
Unschooling makes the top grade, Reggio, is a short hop skip and a jump later, followed by Unit Studies, CM, Classical, and Project Studies all tied for 3rd. I don’t even know what Reggio Style is, but I am going to find out. Overall, a very accurate assessment.
I had scores in the teens for most everything except -23 for traditional and 5 for unit studies, which are accurate. My top 3 by choices (not scores) are unschooling, Charlotte Mason, and another one — Ruth Beechick — which could also be called “3-R relaxed”. The 3-R’s must be taught, but there are relaxed ways to do it. Then parent-directed interest-driven relaxed learning in the other subjects — until hi-school, then curriculum for college (if so desired) becomes most important. (remaining as relaxed as possible)
I homeschooled 4 this way — 3 have graduated college, and one is a year away from that.
As a veteran homeschool mom this is pretty well dead on. We were eclectic in our approach and avoided anything that looked like government schooling. I fell more into unschooling as the kids got older and into their teens. We did a lot of outdoor activities, which would be Charlotte Mason I did not hold to one philosophy and still don’t-whatever works best for each child and family. All 8 of my kids are now grown and all are successful. The oldest 4 went to public school, and the youngest 4 were homeschooled, and no one can tell the difference as each one is successful in their own right, and all are educated.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 20
Score for Classical Education: 2
Score for Montessori Education: 13
Score for Project-Based Learning: 16
Score for Reggio-Inspired:10
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 0
Score for Traditional Education: -23
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 6
Score for Unschooling Approach: 20
Score for Waldorf Education: 8
Reggio was 17, hysterical bc my aunt owns a chain of extremely expensive RE ‘child dev ctrs’ 😆
I had to go look up what it was honestly.
The rest was pretty standard, anything hands-on-ish was higher than not. Thanks for sharing!
-7 Traditional. Close to right. I love to read with my kids but I detest the strong emphasis on writing of the Charlotte Mason method. Unschooling and Classical were a tie at 11 each and it’s a good fit because we are a mash-up of all those styles!
I have been homeschooling since 1982. One approach you don’t mention is Raymond Moore. He was our original inspiration. I had one year of unschooling in a public school classroom in the mid 60’s and that was more Lord of the Flies. Michael Farris’ early books, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay’s For The Children’s Sake, and Dorothy Sayers also influenced. I had some definite ideas of my own as well. We used many community resources. Some did dual enrollment for part of high school, some did Classical Conversations in high school, some did stray classes, some apprenticeships in high school. Lots of extracurricular activities. Our children are: a lawyer, a media production entrepreneur, a fine artist, a writer who sustains his family with credit management, a marketing manager for a large firm, a jack of all trades, an IT wiz and engineering student, a professional nanny who moonlights as a server at a high end tea room in a historic mansion, and a senior in high school with aspirations to a business degree. Yep, I would call our method eclectic.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 18
Score for Classical Education: 15
Score for Montessori Education: 16
Score for Project-Based Learning: 10
Score for Reggio-Inspired:11
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 8
Score for Traditional Education: 0
Score for Unit Studies Approach: -6
Score for Unschooling Approach: 8
Score for Waldorf Education: 14
Score for Charlotte Mason: 17
Score for Classical Education: 16
Everything else was below 10, but I panicked for a moment. I thought Traditional Education score was 18, and I said, “WHAT?!?!!!” Then I looked again and saw that it was NEGATIVE 18…..that makes more sense!
Unit studies, classical, unschooling. I love the idea of unit studies, but we really did an eclectic mix of classical and unit studies with some workbooks thrown in here and there. I was surprised by my unschooling score since I never thought of us in terms of unschooling. I do believe that all of life is a learning experience, though, and that household chores are essential to life skills.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 8
Score for Classical Education: 3
Score for Montessori Education: 15
Score for Project-Based Learning: 9
Score for Reggio-Inspired:9
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 3
Score for Traditional Education: 11
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 12
Score for Unschooling Approach: 9
Score for Waldorf Education: 6
Mine were Montessori, Unit studies, and traditional
If I didn’t have to work and my husband was on board with the idea I would probably homeschool my 9 yr old. His ADHD and anxiety over tests and fitting in with others along with his chronic insomnia has made learning in a traditional school setting hard.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 21
Score for Classical Education: 20
Score for Reggio-Inspired:19
I have no idea what Classical or Reggio-Inspired means. So I have some research to do! I welcome any tips or resources!
Your Results:
Score for Charlotte Mason: 3
Score for Classical Education: 3
Score for Montessori Education: 9
Score for Project-Based Learning: -3
Score for Reggio-Inspired:-3
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 3
Score for Traditional Education: -7
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 3
Score for Unschooling Approach: 6
Score for Waldorf Education: -3
Score for Charlotte Mason: 23
Score for Classical Education: 23
Score for Montessori Education: 19
Score for Project-Based Learning: 11
Score for Reggio-Inspired:23
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 18
Score for Traditional Education: -21
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 16
Score for Unschooling Approach: 19
Score for Waldorf Education: 13
Pretty much accurate!
The questions make me wonder what the logic is behind the scenes to tally them. There are quite a few questions that could apply to all styles of education, but I could see being weighted toward a particular style based on the question writer’s preconceptions. For example, there are several questions about the use of screens. Any educational style could use or avoid screens depending on the parents’ preference.
Score for Montessori Education: 16 tied with Unit-Studies: 16
Score for Project-Based Learning: 21
Score for Reggio-Inspired:21
Traditional Education was -19. Not surprised at all.
I thought I leaned toward Unschooling. Will have to research Reggio-Inspired.
Eclectic homeschooling here! Surprised Waldorf and Montessori weren’t my top scores!
Score for Charlotte Mason: 18
Score for Classical Education: 16
Score for Montessori Education: 15
Score for Project-Based Learning: 20
Score for Reggio-Inspired:20
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 10
Score for Traditional Education: 5
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 15
Score for Unschooling Approach: 18
Score for Waldorf Education: 18
Score for Charlotte Mason: 5
Score for Classical Education: 6
Score for Montessori Education: 9
Score for Project-Based Learning: 6
Score for Reggio-Inspired:12
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: -3
Score for Traditional Education: 6
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 3
Score for Unschooling Approach: 6
Score for Waldorf Education: -3
I’ve never even heard of some of these before! Reggio-inspired??
Traditional (18), Reggio (12), Unit Studies (11); Charlotte Mason (10).
Not much of a surprise, really: I used to work as a teacher in public k-12 schools, and my family has treated homeschooling as a supportive supplement to a public k-12 education.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 16
Score for Classical Education: 21
Score for Montessori Education: 21
Score for Project-Based Learning: 16
Score for Reggio-Inspired:20
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 11
Score for Traditional Education: 0
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 13
Score for Unschooling Approach: 21
Score for Waldorf Education: 13
Score for Charlotte Mason: 17
Score for Classical Education: 13
Score for Montessori Education: 16
Score for Project-Based Learning: 16
Score for Reggio-Inspired:17
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 14
Score for Traditional Education: -20
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 11
Score for Unschooling Approach: 14
Score for Waldorf Education: 14
Yes, I hate traditional education. I know Montessori method quite well and I have never heard of the Reggio-Inspired. Now I will learn about it.
First-year homeschooler here. I’m somewhat surprises and somewhat not. I have kids that are 20 & 24 that went to traditional school. My youngest, 7, is now being homeschooled, grade 2. I never had a bad experience with schools, but find she learns so much more from us, our travels and hands on experience.
My top ones were…
Unit Studies Approach: 19
Unschooling Approach: 15
Charlotte Mason: 14
Classical Education: 14
Project-Based Learning: 14
And Traditional Education BEING VERY LAST AT: -2
I took it twice. Once for my philosophy about children up to early teens, and once for my philosophy for teens/young adults.
For younger children I got Unschooling and Montessori as my highest. That didn’t surprise me too much. What did surprise me is that I got Reggio, closely followed by Unschooling and Waldorf as my highest scores for older children. I definitely thought I leaned more classical/charlotte mason-ish for older ages. Guess I need to relook at these!
Reggio, Montessori, Classical
This makes sense since my children are ages 5, 4 and 2. I am excited about our new homeschooling journey.
For those veterans, what are some of your favorite resources for the above style?
Was not at all surprised that Montessori and Unit Studies showed up so high! I laughed when I realized how NOT traditional I was, though. Ha! I was also somewhat surprised by how low my Waldorf score was.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 14
Score for Classical Education: 19
Score for Montessori Education: 19
Score for Project-Based Learning: 13
Score for Reggio-Inspired:16
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 9
Score for Traditional Education: -14
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 21
Score for Unschooling Approach: 17
Score for Waldorf Education: 5
Score for Charlotte Mason: 17
Score for Classical Education: 25
Score for Montessori Education: 21
Score for Project-Based Learning: 20
Score for Reggio-Inspired:25
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 21
Score for Traditional Education: -15
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 21
Score for Unschooling Approach: 23
Score for Waldorf Education: 15
Score for Charlotte Mason: 5
Score for Classical Education: 0
Score for Montessori Education: 14
Score for Project-Based Learning: 19
Score for Reggio-Inspired:21
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 3
Score for Traditional Education: -19
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 11
Score for Unschooling Approach: 21
Score for Waldorf Education: 3
We are just starting our home educating, and these scores come as no surprise! I will look up Reggio-inspired learning as I’ve not heard of it. The -19 score for traditional is spot on, and the main reason we’ve deregistered our children to follow a different path, one that will reduce all our stress and anxiety levels!
My highest score was 25 for Reggio-inspired. I guess I need to study Reggio more LOL. I tied at 23 for Charlotte Mason and Unit studies. I totally bombed out with -18 for traditional ed. Ha ha! I’m a secular (but re-worded to non-religious) Relaxed Eclectic homeschool educator!
Unschooling..regio and charlot manson and project end up equil
Score for Charlotte Mason: -3
Score for Classical Education: 5
Score for Montessori Education: 12
Score for Project-Based Learning: 3
Score for Reggio-Inspired:17
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 3
Score for Traditional Education: 15
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 3
Score for Unschooling Approach: 6
Score for Waldorf Education: -7
Yep. That seems pretty accurate. The one thing that is completely missing is how important our Catholic faith is in our homeschooling and how much that drives our every educational decision.
Charlotte Mason, tied for Unschooling and Unit Studies and then Project-based.
We are very much alike. Unschooling and Unit studies tied at 25. Charlotte Mason at 18.
Hi
My top are Unit Studies, Montessori and Classical. I think that the results reveal the truth. I am a former high school teacher and love reading, reading, reading!
My goals for my children are reflected in the results.
I did not find my scores to be a surprise and they accurately reflect my beliefs. Sometimes the questions were difficult to answer, because I endeavor to avoid the use of force with our daughter. My preference often supersedes the more traditional education preferences posed by some of the questions. Lacking the option of an explicit anti-force response, I selected “Neither Agree or Disagree” for several of the questions.
Score for Project-Based Learning: 25
Score for Unschooling Approach: 23
Score for Charlotte Mason: 16
Score for Traditional Education: -16
Great quiz! Very accurate! I was within 5 points of most of them reflecting my truly eclectic nature! But this does help clarify some things for me. So thank you for putting this together!
Score for Charlotte Mason: 14
Score for Classical Education: 11
Score for Montessori Education: 3
Score for Project-Based Learning: 6
Score for Reggio-Inspired:0
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 6
Score for Traditional Education: -8
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 16
Score for Unschooling Approach: 9
Score for Waldorf Education: 0
Score for Charlotte Mason: 8
Score for Classical Education: 6
Score for Montessori Education: 13
Score for Project-Based Learning: 3
Score for Reggio-Inspired:16
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 0
Score for Traditional Education: -21
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 19
Score for Unschooling Approach: 21
Score for Waldorf Education: 18
Pretty accurate 🙂
A tie between Unit Studies and Waldorf, followed very closely by Charlotte Mason. I’d say that it is pretty accurate as we use Living books and focus on unit studies and what my children are interested in learning. I received a -21 in Traditional, which is very accurate! I do not believe in traditional education or the use of dry, lackluster textbooks.
Mine were Reggio-Inspired:23, Waldorf Education:23, and Unschooling Approach:19. AWESOME Just what I like
Classical 14, Charlotte Mason & Unit Studies 9
Traditional Schooling -15
This is pretty accurate for us. We started off very classical and have become more eclectic over the years
Not really surprising. I found sme of the questions difficult to answer though because different approaches work for different children. I had one who enjoyed workbooks and structure but with extreme flexibility and freedom. And the other who insisted on being in charge of her own learning, “If you don’t teach me to read now, I will teach myself!” – age 4. It was interesting to see that traditional education was -13, didn’t expect that. Though I would argue that homeschooling is traditional education, I’m assuming you mean the current brick and mortar style schooling when you say traditional education.
Your Results:
Score for Charlotte Mason: 13
Score for Classical Education: 9
Score for Montessori Education: 14
Score for Project-Based Learning: 6
Score for Reggio-Inspired:11
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 0
Score for Traditional Education: -13
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 12
Score for Unschooling Approach: 17
Score for Waldorf Education: 2
Classical, Charlotte Mason, and Unit Studies (unit was quite a bit less). Very accurate for us!
Unit Studies , Classical, and Charlotte Mason were all very close. I think I favored the Unit Studies, but we all loved reading a good book, so we read a lot. I think that we varied approach depending on their age, what I found that I thought they needed as well as what I thought they would be interested in. Those were great wonderful, happy, challenging days that are behind me now.
Your Results:
Score for Charlotte Mason: 8
Score for Classical Education: 11
Score for Montessori Education: 11
Score for Project-Based Learning: 11
Score for Reggio-Inspired:10
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 9
Score for Traditional Education: 0
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 20
Score for Unschooling Approach: 10
Score for Waldorf Education: 3
Take a look through your results. The higher the number, the more you agree with that philosophy. Do your results match with your viewpoint? If you have a negative score, it is likely that you disagree with some of the major points of that specific philosophy.
Most homeschoolers will find that they have several philosophies with similar scores. This may be because many homeschoolers are eclectic or it may be because several of the philosophies overlap in some areas
Unschooling makes the top grade, Reggio, is a short hop skip and a jump later, followed by Unit Studies, CM, Classical, and Project Studies all tied for 3rd. I don’t even know what Reggio Style is, but I am going to find out. Overall, a very accurate assessment.
I had scores in the teens for most everything except -23 for traditional and 5 for unit studies, which are accurate. My top 3 by choices (not scores) are unschooling, Charlotte Mason, and another one — Ruth Beechick — which could also be called “3-R relaxed”. The 3-R’s must be taught, but there are relaxed ways to do it. Then parent-directed interest-driven relaxed learning in the other subjects — until hi-school, then curriculum for college (if so desired) becomes most important. (remaining as relaxed as possible)
I homeschooled 4 this way — 3 have graduated college, and one is a year away from that.
As a veteran homeschool mom this is pretty well dead on. We were eclectic in our approach and avoided anything that looked like government schooling. I fell more into unschooling as the kids got older and into their teens. We did a lot of outdoor activities, which would be Charlotte Mason I did not hold to one philosophy and still don’t-whatever works best for each child and family. All 8 of my kids are now grown and all are successful. The oldest 4 went to public school, and the youngest 4 were homeschooled, and no one can tell the difference as each one is successful in their own right, and all are educated.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 20
Score for Classical Education: 2
Score for Montessori Education: 13
Score for Project-Based Learning: 16
Score for Reggio-Inspired:10
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 0
Score for Traditional Education: -23
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 6
Score for Unschooling Approach: 20
Score for Waldorf Education: 8
Your Results:
Score for Charlotte Mason: 14
Score for Montessori Education: 16
Score for Unit Studies Approach: 19
Charlotte, Classical, Montessori. Affirming. Thank you.
I will,have to read up on Montessori- apparently I agree with it but dont yet know,much about it. Haha I got -16 on Traditional.
-17 traditional
+17 unschooling
Can you believe I taught in the public school system 29 years?
Whoah!
CM, Montessori and Classical – very accurate!
Reggio was 17, hysterical bc my aunt owns a chain of extremely expensive RE ‘child dev ctrs’ 😆
I had to go look up what it was honestly.
The rest was pretty standard, anything hands-on-ish was higher than not. Thanks for sharing!
Charlotte Mason – 23
Unit Study – 14
Waldorf – 13
-7 Traditional. Close to right. I love to read with my kids but I detest the strong emphasis on writing of the Charlotte Mason method. Unschooling and Classical were a tie at 11 each and it’s a good fit because we are a mash-up of all those styles!
I have been homeschooling since 1982. One approach you don’t mention is Raymond Moore. He was our original inspiration. I had one year of unschooling in a public school classroom in the mid 60’s and that was more Lord of the Flies. Michael Farris’ early books, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay’s For The Children’s Sake, and Dorothy Sayers also influenced. I had some definite ideas of my own as well. We used many community resources. Some did dual enrollment for part of high school, some did Classical Conversations in high school, some did stray classes, some apprenticeships in high school. Lots of extracurricular activities. Our children are: a lawyer, a media production entrepreneur, a fine artist, a writer who sustains his family with credit management, a marketing manager for a large firm, a jack of all trades, an IT wiz and engineering student, a professional nanny who moonlights as a server at a high end tea room in a historic mansion, and a senior in high school with aspirations to a business degree. Yep, I would call our method eclectic.
Score for Charlotte Mason: 18
Score for Classical Education: 15
Score for Montessori Education: 16
Score for Project-Based Learning: 10
Score for Reggio-Inspired:11
Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 8
Score for Traditional Education: 0
Score for Unit Studies Approach: -6
Score for Unschooling Approach: 8
Score for Waldorf Education: 14
These were my top 2:
Score for Charlotte Mason: 17
Score for Classical Education: 16
Everything else was below 10, but I panicked for a moment. I thought Traditional Education score was 18, and I said, “WHAT?!?!!!” Then I looked again and saw that it was NEGATIVE 18…..that makes more sense!
Results look pretty accurate to me.
Unit studies, classical, unschooling. I love the idea of unit studies, but we really did an eclectic mix of classical and unit studies with some workbooks thrown in here and there. I was surprised by my unschooling score since I never thought of us in terms of unschooling. I do believe that all of life is a learning experience, though, and that household chores are essential to life skills.