Do we use literature based learning?
The “Experience Approach” method is loved by our parents because it offers a small amount of planning, wonderful books, and a format that allows teaching multiple ages together.
The “Experience Method” is centered around the literature approach. The literature approach is focused reading and enjoying both fiction literature and non-fiction books that are filled with exciting content and hold your family’s interest. These literature materials allow several desirable learning goals to be accomplished:
Families read many of the books aloud together, which allows a format for open discussion. The open discussion (combined with the quality of the books themselves) fosters thinking skills and encourages discussion about important issues. Over time, these discussions bear fruit in your children; they will develop an ability to answer open-ended questions, make educated guesses, propose possible solutions, and even defend a point of view. This is true education!
The literature and discussion format means you can school several different ages at once, since you can tailor what you focus on and what you skip over depending on the ages and interests of your students.
As an added bonus, the books provide a flexible learning environment that is portable and easily adaptable to the needs of most families.
Program guides schedule all of your resources and let you simply “open and go” each day.
BUT REMEMBER! It is important to note that WinterPromise combines the literature approach with some of the best aspects of other approaches to form a multi-faceted program. These aspects include the ideals championed by Charlotte Mason, a flavor of the “Classical” method, and fantastic, do-able activities. We also add the fun of notebooking and timeline building, plus a few workbooks, DVDs and technological media, too! Notebooking resources aid in retention, workbooks allow students some independent work, and activities help make memories together as a family. Finally, our programs are linked to the internet and have DVD suggestions to really pull together other media avenues for learning. In addition, rippling throughout the curriculum are activities based on “Multiple Intelligences” research. In essence, we’ve taken the best of all these approaches and left behind the downsides. It’s the best of all worlds!
