I am so jealous of my kids! I watch the way they are learning and I wish I could back in time and learn this way. Classical education just makes sense--it really works WITH the child's brain and development instead of working against it. And they get to learn so many cool things! And they don't spend hours a day sitting at a desk!
But, until my Classically educated kids build a time machine, I'll have to settle for being educated with them. I have been learning so much as I walk with them through our curriculum. It's sometimes more exciting for me than it is for them. I think that's because I have spotty knowledge of history so as we memorize our timeline or history facts, it makes more sense of the random facts that managed to stick in my brain. I have a lot of "Aha!" moments as we go about our schooling.
I am not as good at the memorization part as the kids are. Memorization comes easy when they are young. That's why we spend elementary school memorizing everything we possibly can, right? But while I can't always memorize the facts as easily as they do, I give it my best shot. And when I can't memorize it, at least I can understand the importance of each fact or timeline event.
In an effort to gain more history knowledge, I recently downloaded a free app from the National Archives called Today's Doc. Every day it shows a historical document from American history and has an explanation of what it is and why it is important. I'm trying to get into the habit of reading it every day. It's been interesting so far. I hope I can keep up the habit!
I'm looking for more ideas to challenge myself along the way. I watch how hard the kids work and how much they are learning and it makes me want to grow and stretch as well. I'm thinking I need more apps that I could add to my morning routine so that the thirty minutes between when I wake up and when I force myself out of bed can be spent on things other than Candy Crush!
Overall, while I am jealous of the education my kids are getting, in a way, I have it even better. I get to go through all the stages of Classical learning three times, once with each child! How exciting is that?!?!?
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Welcome to Classical At Home!
Welcome!
I've decided to start blogging about our classical education at home. Please excuse the choppiness, because I am starting mid-year, so it's probably not going be as smooth as it would be at the beginning of the year. But I promise that post about how I organize and plan for the school year will come soon enough. We have only ten weeks left of our 2015-2016 school year!
I have been a home school mom since my first child started kindergarten. We have always leaned toward classical in our school work but I have mixed in some worksheets, some Charlotte Mason, and some other random curriculum along the way. For a long time, I was trying to follow The Well Trained Mind all on my own. But due to a new baby and some major health complications, I was really struggling to put together a classical education on my own. The result was boring, dry schoolwork, bored kids, and a frustrated momma.
Then we joined Classical Conversations and the life came back into our home school. It has been so amazing for us. I will say up front, a lot of my posts are going to be about how we follow Classical Conversations in our home because that is the curriculum we use now. I try not to be a walking advertisement for the program because I know it's not the right fit for everyone, but more often than not, my excitement for what the program has done for us spills out and I can't stop talking about it!
I am not sure what direction this blog will take as time goes on. Right now I plan to share what we've been up to and anything that I come across as we go along.
I've decided to start blogging about our classical education at home. Please excuse the choppiness, because I am starting mid-year, so it's probably not going be as smooth as it would be at the beginning of the year. But I promise that post about how I organize and plan for the school year will come soon enough. We have only ten weeks left of our 2015-2016 school year!
I have been a home school mom since my first child started kindergarten. We have always leaned toward classical in our school work but I have mixed in some worksheets, some Charlotte Mason, and some other random curriculum along the way. For a long time, I was trying to follow The Well Trained Mind all on my own. But due to a new baby and some major health complications, I was really struggling to put together a classical education on my own. The result was boring, dry schoolwork, bored kids, and a frustrated momma.
Then we joined Classical Conversations and the life came back into our home school. It has been so amazing for us. I will say up front, a lot of my posts are going to be about how we follow Classical Conversations in our home because that is the curriculum we use now. I try not to be a walking advertisement for the program because I know it's not the right fit for everyone, but more often than not, my excitement for what the program has done for us spills out and I can't stop talking about it!
I am not sure what direction this blog will take as time goes on. Right now I plan to share what we've been up to and anything that I come across as we go along.
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