What is the "Experience" Approach?

WinterPromise is so unique, we've come up with a new term to describe what learning approach we embrace. WinterPromise is more than a unit study, more than a literature program, and even more than Charlotte Mason. We are in fact all of these, and more besides. We utilize these learning methods and ideas, as well as adding in some workbooks, a flavor of the "classical" method, and integrate technology. 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.

The result is a cohesive "mosaic" of learning, a multitude of "Experiences" -- many different small pieces that together form a wonderful learning opportunity and a chance to build your family culture and make some memories!

This "Experience Approach," then, relies on wonderful literature, fantastic do-able activities that support intelligences goals, repetition that is exciting (not simply repetitive!), and a "joy of learning" approach.

The "Experience Approach" allows students all different types of experiences:

• Going inside books of quality to ride the seas or blast into space!
• Delving into experiments that demonstrate a truth about the world around them.
• Trying craft or building projects that use what they've learned and reinforce it in their minds.
• Observing nature around them and recording what they see.
• Completing interactive notebooking pages that reinforce daily learning.
• Engaging in directed play that supports learning goals -- like building a pyramid tent or fighting an Israelite battle.
• Learning important dates and their significance through games played with our own timeline cards.
• Involving themselves in community or ministry service that reinforce what they've learned and give them a heart for lifelong self-sacrifice.
• Creating their own works of art and studying the works of great artists that have gone before.
• Listening to music of the period.
• Building topical, event or place maps that help history unfold and reinforce important facts in history.
• Watching documentary films that really take you "there" in history or science!
• Completing easy-to-use, well-illustrated or colorful worktexts.
• Coming up with their own innovative ideas and seeing how well they work.
• Learning Bible truths, and then putting them into practice with service ideas or prayer journaling.
• Experiencing various media online, like listening to a radio drama or meeting a Dust Bowl family.
• Building a timeline of their own, and even adding their own art, reports, and even field trip photos and memories to it!

To help you remember the core of what we are, just remember the "Experiences" form a "Mosaic" of Learning . . .

M - Mason-Inspired Joyful Learning O - Open and Go Schedules & Ideas S - Simple, Practical Homeschooling A - Active Learning & Admirable Literature I - Intelligences-Based Learning Opportunities C - Christian Instruction

 
How Does Literature Fit In?

Our program has a strong literature base. The use of great literature is popular with many homeschoolers because it offers a low amount of planning, wonderful books, and a format that allows teaching multiple ages together. This keeps each day centered around reading;  your family will enjoy both fiction literature and non-fiction books that are filled with exciting content. 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.

You’ll want to learn more about the Experience Approach and its core aims by heading to the page, Basics of a Charlotte Mason Education >