This whole weekend passed…Since when did I ever get my whole list of to-do’s completed?

That’s just it. ..I didn’t. But I did get something exciting.

I’d ordered a bunch of books from Amazon for my daughter’s homeschool. Yesterday when they arrived, I felt like a kid in a candy store. (The UPS truck tends to do that to me!)

Here’s what we ordered…

The Story Of The World by Susan Bauer

The Story Of The World Activity Book by Susan Bauer

The Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of Word History

Blackline Maps of World History

The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

>The Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia

and the Kingfisher Human Body Encyclopedia

This is all based on Susan Bauer's book "The Well Trained Mind".  I also got a copy of "First Language Lessons for the Well-trained Mind".  All VALUABLE resources!!

The history texts are AWESOME. They’re full of bright, colorful pictures for the early elementary child with lots of descriptions, and a timeline. The idea is to study a period of civilization from the ancient times all the way to modern times - one period per year from 1st grade through the 4th grade, and then start all over again from 5th to 9th, and again through the 12th grade. It’s a great way to study history…in order. Unlike the way most schools teach history (american history/ Native Americans — skip to Civil Rights — skip to unit study on Thomas Jefferson– skip, skip, skip), the Classical Education method believes in presenting material in an orderly fashion so it makes sense to the learner.

And me being a neat freak, of COURSE I love this way of doing things.

Let me tell you, when those books arrived…I felt like a kid in a candy store!! (and so did Nyomi)

Maybe it’s because homeschooling is definitely a calling for me. I absolutely LOVE the fact that the education of my children is in my hands. It doesn’t feel like a task. It’s a joy.

In fact, one of the reasons I’m so excited about teaching her World History and Science this way is because my education in these areas was not nearly as concise. I went to public school and my graduation class had about 500. My teachers did the best they could for classes of 25-30 kids each period, but the majority of our work was worksheet and answer key based where we learned to barely get by and cram for the next night’s rote memorization test on spelling words or the periodic table, etc.

One of the things about the Classical Education method that threw me for a loop was the idea of having young school age kids simply memorize for the sake of memorizing. At first I thought the idea of this was pathetic at best.

I come from a Child Development background where living studies and real life projects are honored above seatwork and drill…

But the more I looked into the classical education ideas, I realize the truth in the trivium. That kids ages 5-8 are generally sponges, still ready to soak up ideas and facts (ex.- multiplication tables, counting 1-100, reciting poems). All of these drill work activities are a daily part of the classical education method. It’s called “exercising the brain”. Kids at this age just love to recite things for fun.

They recite commercials and they have a great memory…so the idea is to give them the facts at THIS stage while they’re eager to learn.

The next stage of the trivium would be logic stage when they actually begin to piece their ideas together…

Well, Nyomi and I are also still working on French. We have a lot of French resources at hand but no set curriculum. So, we’re just using the different tools I have available.

Her dad is a great resource and he speaks to her in French whenever he can. And lately we’ve been listening in on The French Pod Class which is an AWESOME, awesome way to get exposed and submerged into both the French language and culture. Sebastien is just way too cool!

We’re still learning piano. We’re working on memorizing our notes. So far she can play Mary Had a Little Lamb and Ode To Joy. Nyomi also enjoys picking out notes on the keyboard to a song she’s heard…hence, the beginning of playing by ear. I encourage her to keep doing it…

We have other subjects too: Math (we use Math-U-See), Language Arts (we do spelling, narration work, handwriting, assigned reading, and grammar int he mornings), Biblical Studies (going through the bible beginning to end with The Daily Audio Bible and using supplemental workbooks for elementary age kids)

I’ll be updating soon on our studies together…

Right now I need to start our school for the morning…then later it’s office time (I’m pulling together some business info for my next couple of newsletter sendouts to my list).

On to start my day…

• Post A Comment! • Send to a Friend!

Posted by byourlove1

it was so fun reading your post. I feel the same way, I LOVE homeschooling. We get so excited here too when our books are delivered. Its like Christmas for me. Thanks for visiting my blog, it was nice meeting you.

Angela

• Permanent Link