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Homeschooling Terms for Newbies
by Amy Ringger

As much as I might like to make definitions that are unbiased, I realize that this is very hard to do.  If you want to know what type of homeschooling we attempt, see our other pages at A+ Homeschooling.

  • Newbie
  • Notebooking
  • Living Books
  • Relaxed Homeschooling
  • Unschooling
  • Charlotte Mason
  • Narration
  • Copywork
  • Abbreviations of Homeschooling Curriculums
  • Unit Study

 Newbie- Has someone called you a "newbie" to homeschooling?  That means "newcomer". It is usually meant in a nice way.

Notebooking -- A way of homeschooling that you may already be doing somewhat and didn't know it. Popularized by Nathaniel Bowditch in the book Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.

This method usually refers to a child keeping notes or collecting information of interest to him in a binder or folder because said child wants to learn more about the subject of their interest.  This can be done in many different ways.  A timeline can be considered a notebooking adventure, as also can a poetry booklet.  The notebooking method can be child-directed or parent initiated till the child catches interest.   See our notebooking page for more ideas.

 Living Books -- The term “Living Book” has been popularized by the writings of 19th century educator Charlotte Mason.

A living book holds my attention because of its wonderful way with words, or illustrations that captivate my interest. A living book is one that I don’t mind reading over and over to my children because I learn from it too. A living book will spark interest in a subject because the author presents the topic in a way that compels the reader to learn more.

A living book can be such for some people and not others based on their background and frame of reference, which is why I usually recommend finding books at the library before purchasing them for yourself. A living book is written by an author who enjoys the subject they present. Often living books refer to non-fiction, but is not limited to that category.

 Relaxed homeschooling-- A term popularized by author Mary Hood.  This is more a philosophy of homeschooling, rather than a method, and is characterized by not being characterized by tailoring a child’s education to what they need individually at a timetable that is good for them.  In other words, make loosely structured goals, but relax and go with what your child’s interests are meeting the goals in different ways for each child.  A well-disciplined child will have interests and will make goals for themselves.

One child might need a textbook for a certain subject at a certain time a year or two before or after their grade level.  Go with what works.

Mary Hood is an inspiring author, and I probably haven’t done justice to this term because I haven’t read her books for a few years. 

 

Unschooling—After a few years of hearing this term, I have realized that this term is hard to define, so not to offend anyone, I will give my impressions.    An unschooling household surrounds their children with educational opportunities, but does not direct the child to learn something at a certain timetable or expectation.

 

Charlotte Mason style learning—A gentle art of learning.  Charlotte Mason was an early 19th century educator in England.  She advocated short blocks of learning times with play and work times.  She also suggested using “living books” instead of curriculum for learning and suggests art, nature, music study as a part of a young child’s education.  She has many good ideas, but I have notice that some of her ideas are better suited for large classrooms, and need to be slightly adapted for home use.  Several authors have written books on using Charlotte Mason methods in homeschooling.

 

For example, narration—Charlotte Mason talks about the use of oral narration as the child telling back what they’ve learned in a book or experience.  As the child matures, they gradually switch to written narration from their experience.  Narration is a indispensable part of a child’s learning because when they tell what they know, they are putting their thoughts into their own words, and later writing them down.  A child who can tell a story in sequence will later be able to write a story in sequence.

I have not yet consistently accomplished using oral narration after reading a book.  I know when my child understands a book I’m reading to them when they beg for more.  I will sometimes ask questions, but still don’t see the use of them telling back to me when they already know that I know what the book is about, BUT... 

I use narration in what I call “natural narration” such as when the child comes to me from outside, and has had a unique experience and are so excited to share it.  The boys love to tell about their latest Lego creation and how they built it, etc.  I try to listen carefully and encourage those times.  I also strongly encourage them to tell someone else something that happened or something they've learned about lately, such as when they talk to Grandma on the phone, or Dad at supper, or someone who visits.  Or tell someone about a good book they read.  We use narration in writing journals, then use those incidents in our family newsletter.

When the child begins collecting information on a topic that interests them, they summarize information from library books that they are reading and collect the information in a tablet or notebook binder.  Do you ever write down a recipe that you’ve made up?  Or tell someone else about how to make a certain entrée or dessert?  That is narration in action.  

Copywork—A student copies by hand excerpts or sections of great literature in order to learn the techniques of writing for their original work.  The slow pace of copying focuses the attention of the details of the written work.  This technique has been used by authors of the past, such as Jack London.

Copywork is used extensively in many methods of homeschooling.  The copywork can be use in conjunction with Bible memory, literature study, letter writing (child copies a poem or quote to send in a letter to someone), poetry, and much more.

Abbreviations of Homeschooling Curriculums--

(Not an exhaustive list) If you get homeschooling newsletters or are on homeschooling lists, you may see various abbreviations of popular curriculums. Now you know what they are talking about.
MFW = My Father's World
SOW = Student of the Word
TWTM = The Well Trained Mind
AWOA = A World of Adventure
FIAR = Five in a Row
B4FIAR = Before Five in a row
BYFIAR = Beyond Five in a Row
EEaH = Early Education At Home
CM = Charlotte Mason
SP, SN, SE = Simply Phonics/Numbers/English
SG = Simply Grammar
EFTTC = English For The ThoughtFul Child
LLATL = Learning Language Arts Thru Literature
FLL = First Language Lessons
PLL/ILL = Primary/Intermediate Language Lessons
MCP = Modern Curriculum Press
AO = Alpha Omega
CLE = Christian Light Education
MOH = Mystery of History
MOTH = Managers of Their Homes
ETC = Explode the Code
BTS = Building Thinking Skills
SOS = Switched on Schoolhouse
BJU = Bob Jones University
EG = Easy Grammar
DG = Daily Grams
WRTR = Writing Road to Reading
SOTW = Story of The World
LFBC = Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum
RGAA = Remembering God's Awesome Acts
CGC = Considering God's Creation
CLP = Christian Liberty Press
R & S = Rod & Staff
MMM = Making Math Meaningful
MUS = Math U See
RME = Reading Made Easy
BF = Beautiful Feet (history)
HWT = Handwriting Without Tears
SOT = School of Tomorrow (paces)
HOP = Hooked On Phonics
SSRW = Sing Spell Read & Write

EBOOK:

A book that is in a digital format on your computer. Typically, you buy the book online, and it is sent to you by email, or you download it to your computer from a website.

UNIT STUDY: 

Unit Study:  Loosely defined, a unit study is a period of immersion in a certain topic.  A unit study can be done as a family or individually. 

 

For example, we have been studying cooking Asian foods for the past couple of years.  During the first month, we cooked Asian foods extensively several times a week until we got accustomed to the techniques.  Now, we don’t cook it as often as we did in the first few months, but we can pick it back up easily because we immersed ourselves in it for a time. 

 

A benefit of unit studies is a high retention of the learned techniques and/or topics.  Once you deeply study something, the children continue to learn about it and apply it to their lives.  You also increase your vocabulary and familiarity of things when you talk about or see them often. (How many of you have preschool boys who can recognize a Home Depot sign because of an extensive remodeling project? J)

 

Some unit studies that you purchase can be very detailed with lessons plans and many activities while other unit studies can be prompted by an interest in the family and studied via library books on the topic with not many planned activities.  I used to think that I didn’t homeschool with unit studies because I had never bought one with detailed lesson plans, but now I realize that we’ve been doing them for a long time and I didn’t know it!

 

Our poetry ebooklet is a mini-unit study and our email course is more advanced version with a bit more structure.  Our writing a family newsletter is a unit study, and also our nature notebooks and the creating books study.

 

 

See our homeschooling boys page for an anecdote on what happens when you do poetry unit studies with boys!
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