Project Based Homeschooling {book review}

"Remember the goals of project based homeschooling: to help your child direct and manage his own learning, to help him make his ideas happen."

Lori Pickert, from Project-Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners

I ordered this book not knowing what at all to expect. Honestly, I feared I was wasting my money on yet.another.how.to.homeschooling book.

I am happy to report that I was very wrong. What I have experienced while reading this book and since changing my mindset a bit has been amazing. Honestly, I think it was just a paradigm shift for me and not so much a drastic change in the way we homeschool. The author's blog is also very helpful!!

I have one child who homeschools the "project based" way on her own. And I do mean to a T! As I have read this book, I have found myself nodding and agreeing and reading in wonder at how much this book describes Hannah!!

But, I do have 2 other children and I would like to slowly but surely encourage this type of self-directed learning in areas that might interest them.

Here are some of the key points to this "method" that make a lot of sense to me:

• helping our kids become self-motivated learners
• encouraging them to learn new things
• teaching them how to find out those new things - research, etc.
• giving them the tools & resources & space they need
• play = learning
• hands on = learning of the best kind
• learning and researching things they LOVE and are interested in
• allowing your child the freedom to determine AND manage their work

I love this. All of it. The book has lots of lists of "suggestions" for how the parent can help and what the parents role is in the different stages of your child's project. I love these lists, very helpful for me. Sometimes, when thinking about something new, it is helpful for someone to gently come alongside me and say, "yes, do this. no, not that." 

Something else that I appreciated about this book was that the author didn't try to persuade you to do it her way or the highway. "...the point of project-based homeschooling is to devote some time to helping your child direct and manage his own learning. This does not have to comprise your entire curriculum. (Though it can.) It does not have to be the primary focus of your learning life. (Though is can.) But it is essential." (Project Based Homeschooling, p. 10.) I love this freedom she allows so much. I didn't feel bound by her methods and suggestions, but I was very encouraged that doing at least some of this in my home would be a very good idea.

What I *hope* to do on my blog is share some projects Hannah has done in the past {documentation} and share how we progress in this in the future. (I already have 2 posts in the drafts on the blog waiting to be published of Hannah's previous projects.)

"In project-based homeschooling, you zero in on what interests your child and stay there as long as she is interested. She's not on her own; you're there with materials, support, feedback, interest. With the same enthusiasm and passion that you might transfer a beloved skill (breadmaking, woodworking, tennis), you help your child acquire the skills to think, learn, make, and do."