Break free from rigid school-at-home models. Explore eclectic homeschooling to customise learning styles, core subjects and electives for your child’s unique needs.
When you first start homeschooling, it’s completely natural to fall into the trap of recreating school at home: buying pre-packaged, “canned” graded programmes, packed with rigid timetables, standardised textbooks, online classes and endless tests but forcing a school system into your living room usually leads to parent burnout and takes the joy out of learning.
That’s where eclectic homeschooling comes in. In our world, being “eclectic” simply means picking and choosing the very best resources, teaching styles and curricula from different approaches to fit your unique child. Instead of squeezing your child into a one-size-fits-all box, you get to build a customised, DIY curriculum where the learning adapts to the child. This turns education into a fun, personalised adventure where your children can truly thrive.
Discover the importance of eclectic homeschooling and specially selected ‘electives’.
The majority of schools in South Africa are obligated to use the national curriculum, which is a one-size-fits-all programme designed for classroom use on masses of children.
As multiple critics have pointed out, it’s a system that has many weaknesses.
“If the purpose of learning is to score well on a test, then we’ve lost sight of the real reason for learning.” ~ Jeannie Fulbright
“The lesson of report cards, grades, and tests is that children should not trust themselves or their parents but should instead rely on the evaluation of certified officials. People need to be told what they are worth.” ~ John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing us Down
“We have sold ourselves into a fast food model of education, and it’s impoverishing our spirit and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies.” ~ Sir Ken Robinson
The accompanying cartoon highlights one of the main weaknesses of this made-for-the-masses system.
In traditional schooling, standardised tests force every child into the exact same tree-climbing test, leaving many feeling inadequate or even stupid!
Homeschooling flips that entire model on its head. Instead of measuring your children against a standard they were never designed for, home education asks: “Show me what you are good at!”
From there, you get to build a tailored educational pathway that lets each of your children excel and reach their fullest potential.
Our Eclectic Homeschooling Experiences
In this video, Wendy and Shirley share what their own eclectic home education journeys look/ed like and encourage parents to tailor-make their children’s home education to suit their interests and needs instead of buying a boxed curriculum.
Educational Freedom in South Africa: Why You Don’t Need a Prescribed Syllabus
In South Africa, the law does not prescribe a specific curriculum for home education. You have the total freedom to select whichever learning materials, methods and resources best suit your child, without being tied to the national curriculum used in schools.
While this freedom is incredibly liberating, choosing learning materials from such a vast array of options can naturally feel a bit daunting for new homeschoolers. That’s why we have a guide to help you with Choosing a Homeschool Curriculum
The ‘School-at-Home’ Trap: Why Replicating the Classroom Leads to Burnout
Even for those who have already started, the variety of options can undermine their confidence, as parents tend to wonder if they have made the best choice for their children. Many parents are constantly comparing what they are doing in their homes with what children in schools or other homeschools are doing.
It takes some time to build up confidence, experience and a good knowledge of the many choices and then to have the wisdom and discernment to pick good options for each of your children.
Most parents starting out with homeschooling still have a very school-based idea of what education involves.
Their limited understanding based on the classroom model is only one slice of the pizza that could be called Education. There are other models, including home education and all its variations, like Charlotte Mason homeschooling, unit studies, delight-directed learning and more!
Because it’s a huge responsibility to take on the education of your children yourself, instead of delegating it to a school, new homeschoolers very often choose a very highly structured, all-in-one curriculum package which is very like what they experienced at school:
- a textbook for every subject
- a time-table to stick to in order to get through the syllabus for each subject in a prescribed time
- assignments
- tests
- constant assessment and
- examination services
What they are in fact doing, is replicating the school system at home. Trying to keep up with a rigid timetable usually leads to parent burnout.
Parents tend to choose something that is familiar to them because they feel insecure and a curriculum package that covers ‘everything’ and offers accountability gives them security. Some of these ‘canned curriculums’ even offer different coloured boxes of textbooks for each grade!
Martie du Plessis of Dynamis, a homeschool consultant, reports that after two years, most homeschooling families are stressed out or burnt out and either put their children back into schools or decide that they need to change the curriculum that they use.
Take a look at our School-at-Home vs Eclectic Homeschooling comparison to see which path fits your family best.
It’s heartbreaking to watch parents struggle through months, or even years, with a curriculum that drains all the joy out of learning at home.
Now, if you’re using an all-in-one curriculum and it’s working brilliantly for your family, that’s fantastic—stick with it! If it isn’t broken, there’s no need to fix it. For a few families whose learning styles match that structured setup, it works well but for most, the pressure and rigidity of trying to keep up with a highly structured school-at-home programme quickly spoils the entire homeschooling experience. We’ve had countless mothers break into tears, describing their homeschool struggles!
In our decades of homeschooling, we’ve found that the hardest part for most parents is letting go of the school model we grew up with. Replicating traditional classroom teaching simply isn’t what works best at home.
If you are just beginning your journey, read our guide on Tips for Starting Homeschooling to help you build confidence before selecting your materials.
You see, once we take our children out of school, we have to take the school out of the children …as well as 12 years of schooling out of the parents!
So, eclectic homeschooling is the alternative to doing school at home!
Researching Homeschooling Options: Finding the Best Curriculum for Your Child
Research shows that over 80% of homeschooling moms are thorough researchers who take their time, collect data and carefully weigh every option before making a decision. That’s a wonderful thing when your child’s future is on the line!
But here’s the key: while research is vital, so is flexibility.
If a curriculum or resource simply isn’t working, give yourself permission to drop it immediately. Don’t let a bad fit ruin another school day.
The homeschooling world is full of rich philosophies and diverse learning materials. As a dedicated researcher, you can explore these different approaches, pull the best elements from each and adopt a truly eclectic strategy. Instead of buying a rigid, canned curriculum, you can piece together carefully-selected resources tailored to your children’s unique personalities, strengths and learning styles. You can build a personalised DIY curriculum where each child can truly excel.
Read how Unlocked Learning at Home can equip your children to excel in their strengths and stand out from the crowd!
Are you worried about the high school years? Customising your child’s learning early on still keeps all your High School Options wide open when it comes to high school homeschooling and matric certificates. Whatever you choose, you will build a strong academic foundation to equip your children for the choices that follow.
Best Curriculum Resources for Eclectic Homeschooling: Our Tried-and-Tested Favourites
On our homeschooling journeys, we found that the materials we like best and stick to, or which we have used repeatedly at different ages and stages, are those which have been written by homeschoolers, for homeschoolers, usually by a person who is knowledgeable in a given field and passionate about sharing that subject.
As a result, these products are designed for the homeschool scenario and they have a very personal ‘feel’ when you use them.They were not designed for the school system and then adapted for home education!
Although there are many other products to choose from and a growing number of made-for-homeschooling products, here are tried-and-tested products made by homeschoolers for homeschoolers that we love:
Made by Homeschoolers, for Homeschoolers: Resources We Trust
- Social Studies – Barefoot Days / Kaalvoetpret, Footprints, Voetspore, and Sonlight Curriculum
- Excellence in Writing – Student Writing Intensive, Fixit Grammar, Theme-based writing lessons, Writing with Style
- Math-U-See, Saxon Maths
- Science – Footprints Nature Quest/Natuurskattejag, Exploring Creation (junior grades) and Apologia (senior grades)
- Homeschool Electronics
- A Child’s Geography
- Artistic Pursuits
- French – Nallenart
- Lively Latin
We do not use all of the above at one time, each in its own season. Some products have only been used by specific children with that specific interest.
Electives or Essentials? How to Choose the Right Homeschool Subjects
When customising learning around your child’s unique passions, the line between an elective and an essential completely disappears.
Many homeschool suppliers list subjects like the following as optional extras that can be added to the core curriculum: art, music, critical thinking, foreign languages, finances, computer coding etc.
While for some children, these may just be add-on subjects to enhance and extend their learning experience, if you have a child who is curious or talented in a specific field, then electives are no longer options. You should consider those so-called elective learning materials as essentials for that particular child.
By taking an eclectic approach, you can customise your children’s education to suit their unique personalities and gifting.
For example, in our homes, one child did an electronics course as part of his formal learning, another took art lessons for a season and yet another learned computer coding. Another family invested in Lego robotics equipment as part of homeschooling for their engineering child, another regarded music lessons as a core subject for the musically gifted child, while graphic designing or animation could suit another child!
Traditional school subjects are not the only options!
More than Academics: Shaping Character through Tailored Education
Most of us start out thinking that homeschooling is about academics, it’s about getting our children through a prescribed curriculum so that they can obtain a certificate at the end of the process that says ‘matric’.
However, what mass schooling can never achieve, that homeschooling can do well, is the shaping and moulding of each child’s character and unique make-up. (Diligent, resourceful parents of schooling-going children can facilitate this too, but not as easily as diligent homeschoolers can!)
Schools manage people, education changes hearts.
“Authentic education is where the parent finds the best pathway to develop a child to the fullest, through a network of people and resources. The pathway is determined by the core elements in the child and therefore true development of people must take into account how God has created the person. In this way the parent or educators work with God to raise up godly people.” ~ Martie du Plessis, Education vs Certification
The Bible says in Proverbs 22:6 that parents should “train up a child in the way he should go…”
How can any curriculum system that resembles the institutional school system not hinder the process of developing a child’s inborn strengths and uniqueness?
Education involves equipping children for life and there is no one-size-fits-all way to accomplish this! This is The Heart Work of Parenting.
Unlocking Your Child’s Full Potential with Eclectic Homeschooling
Eclectic homeschooling, customised education, with specially selected electives is the way to develop our children to their fullest potential and to “light the fire” – the love for lifelong learning in our children.
Remember the cartoon: we are not all monkeys who excel at tree-climbing! Some of us run fast in short-lived sprints, some of us plod along consistently and some of us knock down trees and change the educational landscape!
Unlocked Learning at Home explains home education can equip your children to excel at their strengths and stand out from the crowd, if YOU will let them!
As Sir Ken Robinson proclaimed:
“Sometimes getting away from school is the best thing that can happen to a great mind.”
How Footprints Helps You Build Your Eclectic Homeschool Journey
Adopting an eclectic approach doesn’t mean you have to invent everything from scratch or wander through your homeschooling journey alone. At Footprints, our literature-based curricula are purposefully designed to give you an academically strong, flexible foundation while leaving plenty of room for customisation:
- Flexibility by Design: Footprints acts as an anchor for social studies, history and literature, allowing you to easily layer on your preferred choice of maths, science, languages or specialised electives.
- Child-led Exploration: Our unit studies encourage discussion, living books and hands-on discovery, making it simple to adapt lessons to match your children’s natural curiosities and unique learning styles.
- Made by Homeschoolers, for Homeschoolers: Built out of real-life home education experience, Footprints frees you from the rigid constraints of a school-at-home syllabus so you can guide your children with confidence, joy and true educational freedom. Everything you need is provided for your convenience, but you can implement it flexibly to suit your family.
- Exceed CAPS Requirements: Footprints homeschool programmes meet and far exceed CAPS requirements. Footprints vs CAPS: What’s the Difference for South African Homeschoolers?
Read more about why you should choose Footprints and explore the various curriculum products we offer for different ages and stages and plot Your Learning Pathway with Footprints
Explore the suggestions on these pages if you want to take charge of your children’s learning and pick and mix a selection of personalised home education curricula, to give them a fabulous, fun and effective education, while meeting and exceeding the “minimum requirements” for academic success!
Coming up in Part 5 of this Tips for Starting Homeschooling Course: Choosing a Homeschool Curriculum