Thanks, Russell!

As a Christian, teaching my children through a Christian worldview is certainly a priority for us and for many I know. We happen to belong to a community/church of homeschooling families who follow a classical method of education (Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric) which is heavily focused on classics and a rigorous academic load.

I personally do not prefer that method for several reasons, but for many it is an excellent route. I lean more toward a relaxed method, where the 3 R's are mastered and beyond that there is room for exploration and study in the direction of one's interests. We are a very entrepreneurial family and my kids naturally have a less academic inclination but are very gifted in other ways.

Just as an anecdotal measure of this more eclectic strategy, one of my daughters went to nursing school, made straight A's and excelled. She had never taken a formal test, diagrammed a sentence (though I was an English teacher and loved that) or many other traditional practices. She had no trouble acclimating to the college classroom and honestly out-performed most of her companions.

She is a hard worker and she did what needed to be done when there was a need/interest to do it. That philosophy gets lost in the shuffle and needs more credit.

As a rule though, at least all the many, many homeschoolers we know, there are wide variety of methods but all with a focus on strong foundations in the skills/knowledge necessary to pursue whatever areas of interest are chosen.

Is that what you meant? :-)