The Classical High Schooler

Aussie Kim recently wrote about the classical approach to education as a homeschooling option. I thought you might like to know a little bit about how this works in our homeschool.

I roughly follow the curriculum outlined in The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, Revised and Updated Editionby Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. (By the way, if you haven't read it yet, please do. Please. For me.) When I first started homeschooling, I wondered around aimlessly without a thought at all about where we were going. I had no homeschooling direction. So, I started reading homeschooling books. I read lots of homeschooling books. This is the book in which I found my direction.

The Classical Education described in The Well-Trained Mind divides the twelve grades into three stages. It just so happens that this year, for one year only, I have a child in each stage. How about that? Since the this whole high school thing is starting to wear me down (just kidding, I love this stuff!), I thought I would start with my oldest and show you what a typical day looks like for us. Being a something of a geek, I have color coded it for you. If you can't read it - click on it and get the full picture.

I know this looks very regimented, and for some of you it may be a little to structured. Believe me, there are days when we chuck it all and go to the zoo. However, for the record, my children have requested the structure. They like the structure. I've tried to be less structured with them, and all I've gotten are complaints. (Their Father's DNA was highly dominant.) I am not by nature a structured creature, but I am a reed - I can bend.

Now, about the schedule...Sal is in what's termed the Rhetoric Stage of his education. During this year, according to the authors, "the student learns to express herself with fluency, grace, elegance, and persuasiveness." (Like, uh, right. Um, what they said.) The focus is on developing the student's ability to express his or herself both verbally or through written work. This is new territory for us. I'll let you know how it goes.

As in earlier stages, reading and history are combined through the study of Great Books (classical literature) in sequential order. In other words, you don't chop history and literature up into segments (such as British Lit., American Lit., American  History),  but rather you study them in order that they occurred or were written. Got it? Therefore, World War II would never be studied before the Crusades, nor would  Thomas Paine's Common Sense be read before The Odyssey. History happened in order, and should be studied likewise.

The study of Koine Greek (biblical Greek) is not necessarily recommended, but hey, free lessons! Enough said.

Korean Cultural Studies won't be found in the book, either. However, Sal will be traveling with my parents to South Korea in the fall, and I didn't think we should waste this opportunity to learn everything we can about the country beforehand. He is also studying Hangul (the Korean alphabet). When he returns from his trip, it's back to studying Japanese.

The rest of the schedule is pretty typical of an American high school education, although the science courses are not taught with typical textbooks, but rather through memorization of important facts and through scientific exploration (i.e. blowing up the kitchen - still kidding!).

What else can I tell you? It's all in the book. Don't be intimidated by the copious amount of information in it. Take in bite size pieces, beginning with your child's level.

Next time, I'll show you my middle schoolers schedule. She's in the Logic Stage.

An eleven-year-old female in the Logic Stage. A mother can hope.

Comments

[Summer]

I just a copy of The Well Trained Mind last week and have been looking forward to getting to read it. Everyone keeps saying so many good things about.

[Sue]

I love it. I let Kim borrow it, but there are very few people I would trust it with. :)