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 Edition
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.
We love reading…………….
All you homeschoolers know there is a plethora (I love that word) of curriculum and non curriculum choices out there. The best you can do is keep looking until you find something that fits your goals and your children's learning styles. Louisiana Sue and I both have a love of reading, this appears to be the case for our children now, and this is one of the reasons both of us have ended up with curriculums that are a Charlotte Mason - Classical education style for our geography/history/English.
So what is this style? In a nutshell, it rolls reading (great literature), history and geography into one experience. You read stories to your kids, and they read stories themselves, about a specific time in history. From this reading, you ask them reflective questions. This improves their listening skills, their comprehension, their vocabulary, their geography and their understanding of history. Indirectly it also gives a good grounding in grammar and composition.
They mark these specific historical times on a time line. This puts the historical period in perspective and gives them an idea of the flow of events through time which saves them having to memorize dates. You mark the location of specific events on a world map to give them a geographical knowledge that underpins the history. The older you get the more original literature from those time periods that you study. What better way to convey the urgent need for relief troops during the Civil War, than reading a letter from a General to his Commander in Chief?
The curriculum guide I used for teaching kindergarten and grade 1 (learning to read and beginning math) was mainly the Montessori Method. Along with this from grades 1 to 5, I used The Sonlight Curriculum. I have thoroughly enjoyed using it. I am now switching to The Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer, which is what Susan has used up to grade 9 so far.
The difference? Not much! Except that with Sonlight you get a box that contains ALL the books you and your kids will read, and you get a day by day guide for a 4 day week or 5 day week school schedule for the whole year.
With the Well Trained Mind method, you need to be at one with your public library or with ebay to source the books needed. Also, with the Well Trained Mind method, you specifically study logic and Latin - and if you can, (lucky us!) Greek. And there is a slightly different reading list. Sonlight Curriculum actually uses The Story of the World (by the Well Trained Mind authors) for its history text for grades 6 and 7.
The Charlotte Mason method has been interpreted by many. She promoted a literature rich tapestry with reflective questioning as the best way of learning.
Want more information on some of these curriculums? Here are some useful website links on these methods, and a couple of other related sites:
The Well Trained Mind - they sell "The Story of the World" (child friendly recap of history) in 4 time periods (Ancients, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern), with matching student pages (maps, questions on readings). Their website has a summary of the curriculum for each grade level grouping, and the reading lists.
The Sonlight Curriculum - they have a great catalog, with a brief synopsis of each book they use for each year. They are the ideal option if you do NOT want to plan anything. The literature includes original writings and all the related Newberry and Caldecott etc winners related to each time period. It is a well rounded curriculum, which is particularly good for anyone just starting homeschooling. They have a great option of a 4 day a week school year, a little less reading, but they go over the same material.
The Robinson Curriculum - this curriculum recommends 5 hours a day, 6 days a week all year (about 10 months/year). Every day is the same: 30 minutes of math problems, 1 1/2 hours of (Saxon) math, the child then writes a one page essay, and the remainder of time (about 2 hours) is spent reading Science and History texts. The emphasis here is on independent learning. Dr Robinson runs a household with no television (or handheld electronics) and no sugar. The schooling is done first thing in the morning (after chores). He sells a computer CD which contains a great majority of the literature and some reference books and his curriculum for $195. You can see his book list here. He's just a little bit too rigid for me, but you can't beat the simplicity of the system!
The Charlotte Mason Method has been interpreted by many, a book by Karen Andreola is a quite good explanation of this method. She promotes extensive reading and reflective questioning as the road to a good education. The Bluedorns have created The Trivium also based on the Charlotte Mason approach. They have some interesting articles on their site. Here are some more book links for this method: Charlotte Mason
If you know of any other curriculums along this line feel free to add them in the comments section with your views on if it works for you or not.
There's something very enticing about writing on white boards with dry erase pens. If you write out a math problem on a piece of paper, the kids will NEVER try to take the pencil out of your hand to show you they know the answer. HOWEVER, if you have written the problem on a white board, and showed the enjoyment of wiping out an error with your finger (in tantalizing slow motion), they will literally BEG to have a go.
The downside is, they are not going to have 100% of their mind on the equations, but I suspect this is true much of the time, without the distraction of dry erase marker magic. You can make math with a white board even more fun (oh, boy!) by having two dry erase pens and racing them with on the math problems (remember mum or dad - you have already graduated, give the kid a break of 30-60 seconds headstart!)
We used white boards to learn cursive writing (see teaching handwriting the Montessori way) and it captured their imagination then too. If you go to Home Depot or Lowes or equivalent hardware stores you can buy white board in 8 foot by 6 foot size and get them to cut it up. You can take this home and attach it to your walls - buy sufficient dry erase pens, and watch and laugh as your young children boast to their friends "We can draw on our walls...". Note: Occasional dagger looks from other parents as they visualize their little babies taking home the writing on wall concept to their own unprotected walls.............
Aussie Kim
Want to teach your kids about another country? After going through a few years of history-geography curriculums with Sonlight, and having looked through a number of plan B curriculums, I am beginning to get the hang of this. It's not anywhere near as complex as you would initially think.
After you pick the country and time period, then you need to do a bit of background research. I would suggest skimming through an encyclopaedia (see earlier post on using encyclopaedia's on CD); and an expedition to the library and choosing some really cool picture books.....Hang on, no need for you to expend one bead of sweat on this project. Pass it directly on to the kids (ok, perhaps you may need to guide them through this part, a function of their age and reading ability!) Here goes: "What are the most interesting things you can tell me about country Auszebritica*? (*fictional name!) Send them off into the wilderness of the library.
So, now you have relinquished yourself of the job of researcher, perhaps all that is left are the deep and meaningful questions you could pose to your children to inspire them to do this research. Once again, this is something you could delegate to them as well....(eg: What type of questions could I ask which would reveal the most about this country/culture/time period?)
Social Studies questions: "How long has this country been an organized community? Has it had different types of governments? Does the population follow a particular religion or a moral code? Do they have a particular type of art or music style? Has there been any big population changes (diseases, wars, immigrations)? Who are these people's heroes? What is their food like?" (NOTE: cook some of it - this is a major attraction within our geography lessons!)
Geography, by far the most fun we have had is with Google Earth. Get them to fly to the country in question. "Let's have a look here....where are most of the towns? Does it look like a good infrastructure (roads, rail, airports...)? Is most of the country jungle, farming or cities? How long do the rivers look? Is the land flat or mountainous? How far (and in what direction) is this country from the equator?" This last questions indicates it's climate and what season it is now.
The Sonlight curriculum for Core 5, which is about countries in the "East" (a relative term if I've ever seen one!), guides you where to look in the encyclopaedia for answers to workbook like questions. This is to help reinforce what they have read. But the best part about their curriculums is that they supply a number of novels (mainly written from the perspective of children, typically Award winning books) which relate to the country-time period being studied. It is obvious to me that my kids learn WAY more from this than from listening to any dry facts. If you can do this for a history-geography program you will help it come alive!
One thing we do on a regular basis is look through a book called Material World: A Global Family Portrait
Aussie Kim
Part of the Sonlight Curriculum for Eastern History (Core 5) uses the World Book Encyclopaedia on CD for the backbone information on the country being studied. I thought I would review how we found this to go. Sonlight also provides questions about the country that you can go through with the text, and as usual, a wonderful assortment of age appropriate reading books placed in the country and historical era under scrutiny.
In fact I found using the Encyclopaedia CD alot easier than I had expected. Part of the reason for this, is that Sonlight suggests which parts for you or your children to read. You could really work this out yourself, with a quick perusal of the information about that country and knowledge of what your kids will enjoy or not. Although the contents of any encyclopaedia can be quite dry, it is surprising how using a digial encyclopaedia has changed things up.
If you are studying a country, it is neat to listen to their national anthem, or traditional folk songs. Try doing that with the paper version!. Want to see what their national flags, state flags, national flora and fauna, people, artwork, countryside etc etc look like? Zoom in on the pictures. If you want more detail on a topic, much of the text has key words highlighted, so you can follow your interests very easily.
Other upsides: We are not causing deforrestation of acres of land to produce a set of books which will only be up to date for a few years. Sometimes, using an encyclopaedia at the library is not practical on a daily basis.
So what's the downside? You're not turning a page, you are clicking a mouse. (Can be viewed as an upside). You need a computer. You need to watch the kids if there is information in the encyclopaedia you don't want them to learn about.
Do you realise how much your view of the world is coloured by the culture you are living in? We used World Book for our readings, but after a short time, I (being an "alien") became unsettled at the view of the world from the USA. The location of continents or countries was discussed in relation to the United States. The history of other countries was discussed in relation to the US. Yes, I know there is connections there, but how about just sticking to the facts about the country's interaction with the rest of the world, and not just the US? Of course, this is a US encyclopaedia. However, I decided to read from the Encyclopaedia Brittianica CD first, but if you are trying to follow a particular curriculum (eg Sonlight) things get quite complicated using a different encyclopaedia from what they want you to.... I do feel however, that the Encyclopaedia Brittanica gives a more focused perspective of the history and geography of countries. (Warning: Conflict of interest in this comment....I may be biased towards the British viewpoints due to my Colonial upbringing.)
Overall, using the two encyclopaedias on CD has added a much greater depth to our geography and history studies. We always checkout the country we are learning about on google earth, and this, in combination with listening to the national anthems, looking at pictures of the countryside, clothing, food and animals make for an interesting read. 
This is the Australian flag, and coat of arms (from Wikipedia). I understand we are one of the few nations that eat both the animals on our coat of arms. For one of the basic foodstuffs, click on the link for Vegemite (under homesickness fixes in the left hand column).
Aussie Kim
There is a HUGE resource out there for teaching your kids science which is FREE. It is NASA. YES! You can go have a look and choose from their vast array of videos, lesson plans, projects and competitions. This year we participated in the competition called Moon Math, which very broadly involved doing some measurement of the moon, it was aimed at grade 5-7, they WANT a parent involved, they are happy to work with homeschoolers. They have materials aimed at ALL grades. I mean what more could you want?
For our moon math we decided to see if the moon was always the same distance from the earth, by taking photos of the moon and comparing the diameter over time. But, you say, this is a very basic topic! However, the goal is NOT the answer, the goal is for the kids to be exposed to the scientific process: 1. consider a question, 2. propose a hypothesis - do some background research and develop a research plan (hand this in), 3. begin your experiment, 4.write your research up in the manner of a scientific paper, (summary, introduction, materials and methods, results, conclusions) - and hand this in. And then your child has successfully followed the same process that all great scientists have.
If you are an unschooler this will suit you down to a T. Here is the blurb the NASA people sent out about their resources. I highly recommend the experience of working with them. It has been very productive from a "did the kids learn anything?" perspective, and it has been fun!
The Educational Materials section of NASA's Web site offers classroom activities, educator guides, posters and other types of resources that are available for use in the classroom. Materials are listed by type, grade level and subject. The following items are now available for downloading.
Lunar Nautics: Designing a Mission to Live and Work on the Moon Educator Guide -- Grades 6-8
This unit features 40 activities that challenge students to assume the roles of workers at Lunar Nautics Space Systems, Inc., a fictional aerospace company specializing in mission management, lunar habitat and exploration design, and scientific research.
The guide includes information to teach the basics on Newton’s Laws of Motion, rocket design, microgravity, and the moon. Students design, test and analyze a model lunar lander, a robot, and a soda bottle rocket. They also build edible models, a solar oven to cook hot dogs, and a microgravity sled while underwater.
Educators can use this guide in a variety of formats such as week- long day camps, after-school programs, a classroom unit or as supporting curriculum.
Extra-Credit Problems in Space Science -- Grades 7-9
These activities comprise a series of 20 practical math applications in space science. Students looking for additional challenges in math and physical science are encouraged to use these as potential extra credit problems. The problems are authentic glimpses of modern engineering issues that arise in designing satellites to work in space. Each word problem has background information providing insight into the basic phenomena of the sun-Earth system, specifically space weather. The one-page assignments are accompanied by one-page teachers guides with answer keys.
Additional Video Learning Clips Added
More than 50 educational video clips have been added to the Videos section of the NASA Educational Materials site.
Educational video clips are short segments about aeronautics, Earth science, space science, space exploration and other NASA-related topics. Designed for students in grades K-12, these short videos are ideal for supplementing teaching ideas in the classroom.
Use the Find Teaching Materials tool at the link below to select Video Learning Clips and the appropriate grade level.
Kids measuring the diameter of the moon.
Aussie Kim
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