I have a more formal listing of my Philosophy of Education, but I wanted to list some of my methods for accomplishing my goals. These are ways I teach or things I look for as I choose materials.

• Multi-age: I like to keep my kids together as much as possible. So this means I usually do not buy anything that says “Grade One” or “Grade 8.” I heard someone call it the bus stop method. She starts teaching with the bus full. She keeps dropping off kids beginning with the youngest. In the end you have worked your way up to what your oldest needs to hear.
• Four-Year cycles: If you keep the end in mind as you teach, there will be a day when you are teaching a high-school student. There are four official high-school years with this child. I teach to the oldest and try to find more age appropriate material for the younger kids on the same topics as my oldest. This is the basis for our Bible, History and Science Studies. I have a four-year cycle for these three core subjects and we will just keep rotating through the four years. This ensures that no matter what ages I have, I will always have the oldest prepared and taking the courses they need.
• Math: I don’t like the spiral approach to math at all, nor do I like a lot of rote memory. I like mental math and having my children totally grasp concepts. For us, that means Singapore Math.
• Notebooking: All we learn is documented and recorded into notebooks. I really like the $1 bound composition books. You can use them for most every subject! But we also use lots of 3-ring binders.
• Living books not textbooks.
• More Charlotte Mason like copywork, narration, and dictation
• Beginning with the Bible everyday
• Phonics and spelling with a systematic phonics program=Spell to Write and Read
• Teaching most of the Language Arts skills by incorporating them in our three core subjects of Bible, History, and Science. These skills are learned better by having to use them.