I found my outline in a
book I read called The Well Trained Mind.
Has some great stuff, and some stuff I won't use, but that is ok too. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/classical-education. The website has some good stuff to get you started,
but if you really want to dig in, buy the book.
You can also use a pre-set up curriculum that is similar, if you'd
like. I found one called Classical
Conversations, which is designed to be totally home schooled, but can be used
as supplemental too. Has a REAL
Christian bias, but if you can deal with that, the information is easily laid
out for you and easily bought, since it is a huge business.
But I decided to somewhat
follow the Well Trained Mind process. It
goes like this...For the first year, we are studying things from the Ancient
period. The goal is to start at the
beginning of early human history, and spend a couple years going through the
whole timeline of history (more on that later). It gives the kids an overview
of data and stuff that happened in order, so ideally it makes more sense. Going through it in order helps place
everything in perspective rather than studying chunks of historical data out of
context. Example - Margaret studied
ancient Greece this year, and also jumped into America, our government and the
Constitution. Kind of jarring difference
when the two could have had some real relationships pointed out.
So - 1st through 4th
'grades' are the first run through of the timeline. Gathering data and
information. This is called the 'grammar
stage'.
-
First grade - Ancients - BC
5000 to 400 AD
- Second Grade - Medieval/Early Renaissance 400-1600 AD
- Third Grade - Late Renaissance/Early Modern 1600-1850AD
- Fourth Grade - Modern
Times - 1850- Present
Then, you do it again,
but with a different focus. Middle school
is the argument or logic stage. Theory
is that kids are naturally questioning and arguing (on a different level of
complexity) at this age and going with that natural tendency allows them to
review the data on a different level.
More in depth, and questioning how and why things happened how they did
and when they did.
Final stage, high school
levels, is the rhetoric stage. Review
the same data again, more in depth, focusing on areas of interest for the teen,
and accessing primary sources. The Iliad
isn't so daunting when you have already touched on it twice before. Learning how to assimilate data into your own
ideas and share that data with others.
Public speaking with clarity and conviction, and the real craft of
writing clearly are the focus.
How we are doing it: I
have both kids working on the first grade process just to make it easier on me,
but Margaret does hers more in depth. What
we do is read a bit about the subject we are working on (right now we are
focused on Ancient Greece). Either
poetry, fables, myths (kids are OBSESSED with Greek gods right now), bible
stories (if so inclined, but interesting to compare to Greek's explanations of
how things were made/controlled), biographies (we just checked out Socrates and
Alexander the Great), historical events, philosophies, basic culture and
religions, science which is ideally based on what they were thinking about at
that time in history (so the ancients were looking at plants, the human body
and animals), art, music, etc. All
focused on that period and that culture.
After we read about whatever
topic was chosen that day (myth, biography, history story, whatever), I have
the kids copy a sentence (or three for Margaret) out of the text. Practicing physically writing neatly and well,
plus exposing them to more complex language and grammar instead of 'See spot
run'. Now for those who aren't writing
yet, have them practice letters or color a 'journal' about what you read. Twice a week, we do narration. Narration is after the reading, I have the
child narrate back to me what the story was about, and write that down. I do the writing for Donovan since he can't
do it well yet and I don't want to pressure.
Prepares the kids for active listening, learning to think about the
important parts of the story, communicating thoughts, and eventually prepares
them for books reports.
Twice a week we do some
math skills drill (just did a multiplication flash card game yesterday with
Margaret. Going to practice with money
later this week). Haven't gotten to science
yet, but have checked out a couple books on juvenile science experiments to try.
We are starting with Ancient
Greece since that is something really interesting to the kids, then will move
to Ancient Rome, Africa, Arabia, China, India, Aztecs and Mayas, and thinking
about looking at the Northern Europeans like the Nordic Explorers and the
Polynesians too. Basically, hit all the important
cultures during that time period.
The great thing is, that
since I am not totally homeschooling, we can do whatever we want, or whatever
is needed most at the time and take as long or as little time as we want. Kids are eating it up, since it is a lot of
me reading to them, with just a bit of writing or discussion afterwards. They are REALLY looking forward to the
science experiments. After the 'assigned reading' the kids are free to do their
own reading. Margaret just got a
book on puppies (always puppies) and Donovan wanted a book on Superman and
Space, so we are adding Astronomy to our science too.
So there you have it.
That is what we are doing for now and why. Hopefully it will last. For now, it is fun. Margaret and Donovan told me today that they can't wait for summer so we can do more of 'mommy's school'. I must say, I am having fun too!
