What Is An Orthodox Christian Homeschool?
An Orthodox Christian Homeschool is a family that is Orthodox Christian and homeschools. Too simple? Yeah...probably... But, sometimes truths can be simple. The bible talks about how diverse the body of Christ is, so it would only make sense than that each Orthodox Christian Homeschool is going to be different. Just look at our churches, they are filled with all sorts of people. People with different strengths and different weaknesses. Our homeschool will be no different.
However true this answer is, it's not going to completely help with the work of homeschool. Choosing curriculum, making schedules, planning lessons and than the actual teaching of your children. But, the answer above is still useful in terms of focus and not thinking that we have to be doing something entirely different than other homeschools because we are Orthodox Christians.
In homeschool, life meets academics and mixes with each other in such a way that it can be challenging to see where one ends and another begins. For many this is a good thing and what makes homeschooling so special. There are several approaches to homeschool and you can read about Unschooling, Charlotte Mason, Classical to name a few of the main ones. Most of us will find ourselves to be eclectic where we just sort of incorporate all sorts of methods and curriculum depending on our children and the season of our lives. So, depending on what sort of method or approach you use will also determine your homeschool. Orthodox tradition will meld nicely with any of those approaches. I mentioned in another post and will mention again the book Blueprints for the Little Church, is a great resource for bringing the Orthodox traditions and teachings into your home. So, essentially the first step is to read about various methods for homeschool and getting your hands on the Little Church book. This will set up a foundation for your homeschool in terms of academics and also lifestyle.
I am not familiar at all with unschooling, so I cannot really talk much to that. I am very familiar with Charlotte Mason and the Classical approach. I myself am eclectic and over the years I have mixed and matched between Charlotte Mason and Classical approach.
When I plan a school year first I will put all the church Feasts and activities into my planner. I work out a morning routine with prayers and bible reading and decide what sort of spiritual things I want to address this year. Should we talk about Divine Liturgy, Mysteries, Bible stories, or Christian Life? I even think about character and habits to work on for each child. I will ask myself what do I think we need to focus on this year? I than will try and search out resources for that and see on my shelves if I have any resources for that. I will also just come up with ideas and how to implement them and use my homeschool planner for that. I am using an Erin Condren planner and have a post and YouTube video where I talk about using that.
I plan a basic routine to our day from when we wake up to about 3 or 4pm. With my young kids we would finish with academics by lunchtime. Gradually, as they get older it takes longer until all of a sudden in 7th and 8th grade our academics are taking all the way to 3pm or later. But, for young kids you still may want to have a routine or plan for the afternoons. Maybe you have a homeschool group and do a Co-Op or a park day or maybe you want to use the time for doing arts and crafts or just have them play outside. It's good to sort of come up with a basic plan from morning until later afternoon. Atleast for me it has been. Now whether or not this plan is followed perfectly is not the point, sometimes it's just good to have a basic routine, even if you end up taking a nap each afternoon and not being all that productive. I am a fan of naps!!
Now that you have a foundation and a basic routine or idea of what your days are going to look like it's next time to choose curriculum, and that will have to be another post!
