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 Every day it shows a historical document from American history and has an explanation of what it is and why it is important.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?!?!?
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