Spirited Sons

Welcome to My Blog!

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!

Our Curriculum

Mystery of History vol. 1
Saxon 5/4
Horizons Grade 2
A Beka Language
Spelling Power
Apologia Zoology 1

Books I'm Reading

The Bible (Isaiah)
Invitation to the Jesus Life
Discover Your Child's Learning Style
The Way They Learn
Archimedes and the Door of Science
(all things Trojan at the moment)

Favorite Links

Saturday, May 31, 2008

The Road to Classical Home Schooling--with a twist (The End?)

Posted in Curriculum Things

Hello, friends! I hope you're having a fabulous weekend so far. My weekend got off to a shaky start when we lost our electricity yesterday for nearly twelve hours. Friends, you've never seen computer and television withdrawal as I did yesterday, I assure you!

Habanero: Mom, can I go watch educational television?
Me: Can you?
Habanero: D'oh! Nope, I can't.

Bell Pepper: Mom, I need the computer for geography and history. Can I use it?
Me: Uh . . . no?
Bell Pepper: Man, we use electricity for everything!

These kinds of dialog happened more than once. *sigh* We went for two long walks in one day once the winds and rain died down. (My body feels it today.) Those who have rid their homes of the "electronic babysitter" may be giggling. Friends, I am not giggling. I have come to love some brief Mommy moments while the boys enjoy a show or two.

Okay, now where was I? Ah, I was exploring more of the classical style, but I wanted to highlight my "twist" in this particular entry. Do you mind? Thanks for bearing with me in this "series" this week. :'D

As I contemplate our approach to home school, I begin at the 20,000-foot view from above. The classical approach has been selected, but this leaves the door fairly wide open as we begin moving in for a closer look. When we get to the specifics of the "how" of our home school, we're starting to talk about methods of implementation. Here is where I don't really differ from The Well-Trained Mind, but rather, I highlight a resource from a particular method style that I love. Truthfully, if the classical style is my "science" of home schooling, then Charlotte Mason's style is the "art" of it for me. These two styles don't clash per se; in fact, I would say The Well-Trained Mind is in cahoots for most of the way. I just like the descriptions, explanations, and suggestions found in the Charlotte Mason sites. In some ways, it's a bit more friendly to my mind to glean what I need from these sites and not get too bogged down in the classical book.

Here is a list of resources to clarify a bit better what I'm attempting to communicate in something less than a whole book form!

Charlotte Mason on Wikipedia (Someone should get Wikipedia authors to paragraph!)
Simply Charlotte Mason
Charlotte Mason and Classical Education by Susan Wise Bauer
A to Z Home's Cool

The Susan Wise Bauer article lines out the areas of compatibility and challenge of the two styles used together, and I think I knew all along where they were. Perhaps some will cry out that it was a clever marketing ploy to win over a few new "Well-Trained Minders" to their camp. I tend to think it shows the two as more compatible for our family needs than not. I like the reminder of the gentleness of Charlotte Mason and the thorough structure of classical.

So, as I move along my home schooling journey, I will continue to keep the Charlotte Mason approach in mind. I will use some of her methods to frame a bit of my mindset for curriculum choices, activity selections, and so on. Remember, I was looking for something to give me the structure I needed (tell me what to teach, basically), and I needed something to soften my style (remind me of a gentle, Christian way to teach). Combining The Well-Trained Mind and Charlotte Mason, I find I have the scope and sequence I need with the gentle style by which I hope to present the material. (Ah, the left brain and the right brain are in harmonious balance!) ;') While I definitely lean strongly classical, a little relaxation may be good. Right?

Feel free to comment. Share what you've learned and what you are choosing!

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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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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Road to Classical Home Schooling (Part Deux)

Posted in Curriculum Things

Well, now that I'm on this road, I thought I would explore a bit in terms of defining this style (for myself and those who care). I'm still rather fresh with the information, so much of what I would want to include here would be links to really good websites and resources.

It's not surprising the term "classical" would refer to something of a time gone by. The word itself it nearly self explanatory on that level. What I wanted to use as a reference was the classical-homeschooling.org website. Much of the presentation here is fairly clear. The style focuses mainly on the "trivium," which is defined here. In short, the style is in tune with the development of the child. It's primary focus becomes teaching the student according to the development stage in which they live, while preparing them for the next one coming along. A Christian perspective woven together with this classical approach addresses so much of what we as a family hope to see in our kids.

All of that said, don't forget every quality curriculum is attempting the same basic principle. The curriculum teaches to the student's expected level, while preparing them for the next. It's what prevents us from presenting algebraic equations to our little preschool students. The classical approach tends to focus on the cognitive development in a rather simple three-step format. Assuming you have a child that fits within normal bounds, the three levels of development should roughly apply. Yet, the beauty in home schooling is being able to take into account the gifts, talents, learning styles, and preferences of our students. It becomes a win-win situation for our family. It simply begins at the general developmental guidelines as an approach. (Is that clear as mud?) ;')

Assuming my children are generally fitting within the parameters, I have a student who fits within the Grammar Stage and a student who is likely moving toward the Dialectic. Great! (Uhhhh . . . now what does that mean?) The Grammar Stage is explained a little bit here. The Dialectic Stage is here. Essentially, I have one student who is likely more concrete in nature (possibly due to age and stage, but it may more solidly play into his learning style later). I have another student who is likely moving toward more abstract concepts (again, this could be age and stage, though I tend to think this is more solidly tied to his learning style by now). So, even if I cannot determine for certain where my child fits within the learning style "maze," I can begin to frame something based on the cognitive development as my springboard. For now, I'll just worry about these two stages, since the third one overwhelms me just thinking about it. ;') Feel free to investigate the Rhetoric Stage. Knowing my little mini legal eagles here and now, I'm going to pretend we're not going to that stage right now. *la la la la la* (Yes, I'll just cover my eyes and pretend that link isn't there.) *lol*

Anyway, this was intended to introduce the basic, general concepts involved in classical home schooling. There is so much more to it! To learn more, I can recommend some wonderful resources. Maybe you've read the Trivium Pursuit site provided by the Bluedorns? Are you familiar with The Well-Trained Mind website provided by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer? I'm not saying I follow these particular examples to a T. In fact, the blessing in home schooling is taking what I need and tailoring it to my unique schooling situation. (Hooray for flexibility!)

"Alright, class, what have we learned today?"

I think we've defined the "trivium" as it pertains to the classical approach to education with a little help from our website friends. (This approach in itself is not a method; it is a philosophy of education.)

We've learned the classical approach focuses on the age and stage of development of the student. While these aren't hard and fast, the three stages make a nice general guideline to keep in mind as we select curriculum for our home schooled kids.

We've learned that I now officially know more about the classical approach than I did before, right? *lol*

I hope you're enjoying this little "ride" down the road with me. If not, I apologize. We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming after this little series is done. :') I'm sure Habanero or Bell Pepper will oblige with interesting blog fodder.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The Road to Classical Home Schooling

Posted in Curriculum Things

I don't know how many of you know where I am on the home schooling continuum. I like to think I'm much like a fine black and white photograph, slowly and perfectly developing and coming into focus. (Of course, I don't really care to discuss the implication of being "all wet" in the process.) *giggle*

Probably the first thing you need to know about me is I am a college graduate with coursework in Elementary Education, Secondary Education, and English Literature. There are pros and cons to all of that. The largest con, I believe, is leaving the training I've received to travel in a home schooling direction. You see, the two are not necessarily compatible at all times. Sure, I know more about the various philosophies the public schools tend to use, but that's not particularly helpful in my given situation. I know how to evaluate a curriculum from that particular perspective, but I find I also need to evaluate on a whole other level. As a home school teacher, I have the blessing of tooling it all to my teaching strengths, weaknesses, and style. Plus, I can choose based on my students' exact needs (which equates to their strengths, weaknesses, and style.) How wonderful is that!

I have a friend who mentored me a bit from the beginning. Our family felt led to home school, but I was left trying to sort out what that meant, how we would go about it, and where we would find our tools to accomplish this huge goal. God managed to put her in my life, I think, because he knew we'd be close in the way we would tend to move along in schooling. Thankfully, she started me in the way of a very basic Classical approach. (Thanks, Angie!)

We're now heading into what I consider to be more serious areas. I've been flying by the seat of my pants for a few years, and God has been gracious. However, I noticed I felt a bit like I was burning the candle at both ends. I felt as if there was the missing piece. I hoped there was something that could sort of neatly tie all of this together a bit better than my current way of doing things.

Enter my good friend, Kathy! She's been home schooling for many years, and she's done well. The hard and fast evidence is three of her five matriculated to fine schools. (And there was much rejoicing!) In all honesty, I'm beginning to think it is a great thing to know someone who has accomplished the goal when it comes to a mentor relationship in home schooling. I'm a big advocate of home schoolers helping one another, and now I'm a bigger proponent of it with this little piece of wisdom in mind. :')

I'm going to break this entry into more than one part. (Yes, I just heard the collective sigh.) I just think it will be wiser to do that, and it will help solidify a bit of the process for myself as I'm sharing.

"So, class, what have we learned today?"

Whether formal or informal, find someone you will learn from and dialogue with about schooling. (This sounds rather ridiculous to say here, knowing that HSB is all about connecting in this way, but be intentional about it.)

Find something that works for you as a teacher and your kids' as students. Know the ins and outs of what you've chosen; know where you've been and where you're going (to the best of your ability).

Don't be afraid to admit you need a little help or guidance from a friend! (My pride kept me from asking too many questions, and that did me more harm than good. Thankfully, my kids will probably be fine.)

Be willing to do whatever it takes in the area of "Professional Development" when it comes to your school. (I feel it's more important than ever now.)

The question rambles in my brain: can I ever become a "Relaxed Home Schooler?"

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