What exactly is Hands-on Homeschooling?

Hands-on homeschooling is a method that focuses on "doing" to help children grasp a subject or concept. For example, instead of just reading about how to multiply, the child would use manipulatives to "act out" the problem for a different way to visualize the problem. This can be an very effective method for helping children who are kinesthetic learners and who might have a difficulty connecting the dots without concrete real-life examples.

How to teach using a hands-on method

The main proponents of this style of schooling would be Charlotte Mason and the Montessori method. Both focus on creative activity and exploration as an important part of a child’s learning and development, rather than just sitting in a chair for five hours and completing workbook pages and reading textbooks. 

A good place to start would be to go to the Simply Charlotte Mason website. There is a wealth of free resources and information on how to get started with her gentle methods.

Dr. Maria Montessori developed her teaching methods by observing children and how they best learned. The Montessori method focuses more on setting up an appropriate learning "environment" to aid children in learning. MichaelOlaf.Net is a great website for learning more about the Montessori method with several free e-books to download.

Using a hands-on approach supplementally

Both of these methods can also be combined with other methods as well, as they are easy to adapt. For instance, maybe your child does well with a computer-based math program. Your could still use Montessori or Charlotte Mason methods for literature, science, history, etc. Maybe you really want to use the Abeka’s curriculum. Your could still supplement with hands-on unit studies from Greenleaf Press or Beautiful Feet for history to make it more interesting.

Charlotte Mason and Maria Montessori both advocated a gentle and more natural approach to education rather than "forced" learning. These methods are not for every parent and child but are well worth learning more about. These methods are also very well suited to children who don’t do as well with more traditional homeschooling methods.