Spirited Sons - The Road to Classical Home Schooling (Part...umm...3!)

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Schooling two active boys has never been more... interesting. That's the word I'm looking for! I love my boys! God has given them the blessing of strong, active bodies and minds. We continually pray the first will remain intact, and the second will remain engaged with Him first, and then the school work. You'll meet my sweet sons, both entirely different, but both loving God to the best of their ability in the way He made them. I lovingly refer to them as my Bell Pepper Boy and my Habanero or Hambone. That should say it all! This blog is an eclectic mix. The events, conversations, and the thoughts behind it all will be in here. Every once in a while I'll try to capture something I don't want to forget. I hope you find things you enjoy. Please let me know if you do! Blessings!

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Mystery of History vol. 1
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Horizons Grade 2
A Beka Language
Spelling Power
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Adam and His Kin by Beechick
It by Groeschel

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Friday, May 30, 2008

The Road to Classical Home Schooling (Part...umm...3!)

Posted in Curriculum Things

Here I sit, after one of the busiest weeks of my life in a long time, and finally a few things are coming into focus for me. I am now deeply convinced that, no matter where I am, God still is my gracious, loving, caring, protecting God. I know, through the Word, that "he gently leads those who have young" and (out of proper context) I am not all that keen on "do and do, do and do" (Isaiah).

Today's entry will be short, I believe. I just don't have the time or energy to sink into a longer one, so I hope you'll be content with that. It's Friday, and I'm feeling rather in need of something light. :')

So, what's to say about what I've learned about the classical approach today?

I feel that once I was more firmly grounded in the age and stage portion of the approach, that led me to continue on to the nuts and bolts of it all. Having pinpointed the general developmental stage of my students, I needed to find the basic curriculum I would be choosing. That kind of selection always seems to boil down to a few elements.

I choose curriculum based on several factors. I need to know what my state's requirements are, of course. Thankfully, Illinois is very free at this time. (Yay!) The next thing I was considering (before) was the basic subject areas. When using a model prompted by my own training or our area schools', I found it was a bit of a struggle. The missing piece had a great deal to do with feeling there was no consistent, over-arching, guiding something to hem me in and keep all of this together and moving along. It felt much like I was feeling my way down a dark hallway. I was, and still will be, using great curriculum. There just wasn't a cohesive plan in place.

Don't get me wrong. We all try various things as we're moving through home schooling; some work; some go in the "circular file." I'm not saying that was necessarily the problem. I knew not everything I selected was going to work in practice. Some things look fabulous on screen, in a catalog, or on a book sale table. It's when you get into it that it might not fly.

This problem I faced was more along the lines of scope and sequence. I needed to see the bigger picture of it all. I needed to know I wasn't missing large chunks of foundational "stuff" because it fell into my out of sight and out of mind blind spot. So, where would I find some basic guidelines?

Get ready for the mass pandemonium I call our school! *lol* Here's where I get a little structure, while allowing for my necessary freedom! :') I'm wading through this currently, so it may be a bit too flexible yet to put into words. Please bear with me.

Supposing one used, say, The Well-Trained Mind for an overall guideline, it would be fairly easy to pull the scope and sequence from that resource, pair it with both suggested and differing curriculum, add a few favorite additional resources, and - VOILA! One might have a little more structure with the desired freedom.

I'm not saying I'll follow everything in The Well-Trained Mind, but I am saying it's going to make a wonderful resource. For me, it's somewhat of a framework which is easily customized and fleshed out. It provides a wonderful array of resources, though we all know home schoolers are the best at locating those.

This entry isn't quite what I wanted, but it's what I probably needed to put into words. I haven't even touched on Charlotte Mason, and that whole topic in itself is pretty large and wonderful, too!

I shall percolate on this a bit more, and then maybe I'll add to this series when I have time.

May you have a blessed day and a fabulous weekend, friends!

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Comments

Friday, May 30, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by kellieann

Best wishes on your decision making! After Annaleigh completed the first grade I realized we weren't on the right path. After a lot of prayer and research, we found what we're doing now, which is...well...sort of eclectic, but it's what works for us.

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Friday, May 30, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by barrellfullofmonkeys

I love The Well Trained Mind! :) Your description is exactly how I use it, as a framework to work from. No one could do everything listed in there as it is presented, and she even says to use the ideas in there fit your family. It's helped me make sure I stay on the right course, while I can still tweak and do some things a little different. :)

***It's almost June . . . do you know where your binders are? *snicker*

Kathy D.

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Friday, May 30, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by kimalita

Oh my, now I have to go look that book up -- The Well Trained Mind. Again, I've seen it, but never looked through it or found what it was about.

Prayers as you seek HIm on what His best is for you and your children.

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