Homeschooling vs. Schooling At Home

There are always big discussions about what type of homeschool you have.

Is your approach classical, eclectic, Charlotte Mason-based,or Montessori just to name a few?

Do you concentrate on unit studies?

Are you an unschooler?

Do you homeschool or do you school at home. Whoa..isn't that the same thing? Throughout our first year it was apparent to me from talking to fellow homeschoolers that homeschooling is NOT the same as schooling at home.

I have no idea what type of homeschool we have. I do know though that we lean more toward the school at home approach...and I hate it.

I don't think that's how homeschooling was meant to be, but I have no idea how to get away from it. You see my husband and I were both public school children. We know no other method of schooling besides sitting at desk doing pencil and paper exercises and taking tests. That's not what I want for my children which is one of the big reasons we decided to homeschool, but how do you get away from it when it's the only way you know.

I have friends who homeschool who spend very little time each day doing pencil and paper work. I want to be more like that. Yes, I am aware of the dangers of comparing ourselves to others(see my post here about that).But I can't get over the fear that my children aren't going to learn if we don't teach using workbooks and tests. Now I know that for the basics of reading and parts of math seatwork is needed, but there is so much more to learn that does not involve sitting at a desk for a few hours each day.

This year we are planning to have more fun and do more exploring. We are still going to be doing a good bit of seatwork, but there will be many more fun activities for first grade than we had in kindergarten.

My question for those of you who see homeschooling as more than school at home is how can I move past these preconceived notions I have? How can we become more of a homeschooling family and less of a worksheet completing, test taking, boring, no fun here type of school?