Homeschooling Advice

[Semper Fidelis]

This didn't seem to fit anywhere else but this forum.

Our son, James, just turned four. Sonya already works regularly with the kids on their letters and phonics and numbers but not according to any prepared curricula. We really need to plan out this coming year and beyond.

I'd really appreciate some advice. My goal is to raise a child well educated in the three R's. I think I'd like to classicly educate him as well but admit I am no expert. I've been trained in Adult learning and know how to prepare curricula for a specific field of study but the idea of training a man (and later a woman) from the time he is a young child to full maturity is quite daunting.

I really don't want to be to eclectic but would love it if anybody has found a solid "plan" that provides objectives at the end of each year that a child should meet and a solid curricula that focuses on educational excellence in grammar, literature, math, etc but integrates historical and scientific learning with the Christian Faith. My goal is not to take pride in a National Merit Scholar or a child accepted to Harvard but a child that is well equipped for further study and knows God's world and his place in it.

If you have it all laid out so you can see the goal of the grown man/woman with milestones along with curricula that gets you there that would be superb.

Thanks in advance and have a wonderful Lord's Day.

 

[LawrenceU]

C.L.A.S.S. is a pretty good curriculum. It is simple, thorough, and easily supplemented. www.homeshcool.org. We have used it for ten years as a skeleton curriculum. We also know many families who have used it for their children all the way through secondary.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Hmmm...http://www.homeschool.org is not working for me. Is it just temporary or has the site gone away?

 

[Scott Bushey]

Although I ahven't used any of the curriculum yet, I am told it is worthy.

http://www.visionforum.com/

 

[Larry Hughes]

Rich,

Classical education is the way to go without exception (trivium). You need to get "The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home", Revised and Updated Edition by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise.

This is a great book from start to cover. It starts out with Ms. Wises early experience (chp. 1) starting from scratch when she withdrew her students from public schools (she was a board cert. teacher). Then it moves on to what classical education is (very helpful understanding the three phases and the child's mind at each). Then on to details of each. This is very user friendly and dispells the "fears" we ALL have in attempting this (my wife and I are both college grads in the science and medical fields and still intimidated). Most of it is false fear and the false idea of needing institutionalized learning (she's addresses this in chapter 1).

In brief the classical follows grammar, logic and rhetoric along with the child's natural brain development. Those names can be misleading due to their typical narrow use. Briefly Grammar = information phase, feed them, not make the dig for information. This is the basis you will build upon in ALL subjects in the logic or "assemling it phase", then in the later years (roughly high school) is the rhetoric or being able to re-express it phase.

The key is to "get out of" the curriculum mindset that most of us learned under and is for the most part bankrupt (how many text books did you finish in school?). Even in upper level grad college classes we never finished anything, and this was in the hard sciences. The classical method teaches a person "HOW" to think so that later they can tackle pretty much anything. The "curriculum mindset" just tries to acheive end point goals rather than "thinking".

But get that book, I'm not recommending it as just another task on a to do list that will be unhelpful, you will find it very helpful! Our former church had numerous homeschoolers and they are the ones that turned us on to this and this book. When I saw their children's education levels and success (from 3 years to freshman), the results were painfully obvious.

The key is you ant to teach them TO think, then avoid pure curriculim per se. Our oldest is 2 years & has known the entire alphabet since 15 months, randomly, not by the song or order & has been reading, reading big words like "elephant" and such since then. The key, again, is not curriculim per se, but teaching them to think. This requires giving the information to them early on then moving toward logical understanding, then expression at the right ages.

In any case you'll find much help, encouragement and elation of some fears I think.

Yours,

Larry

[Edited on 7-9-2006 by Larry Hughes]

 

[LadyFlynt]

Scott, VisionForum doesn't have curriculum...stories, character building, sermons on home and church...but not curriculum...sorry.

Rich, just my two cents here...we use abeka for phonics, handwriting, arithmetic, and grammar. The reasons are...1) I prefer their traditional method of phonics, it turned me into a speed reader in 3rd grade...2) handwriting CAN (your choice) start right off with cursive, this is also a prefered method...3) my son is testing at 5th and 6th grade arithmetic and he just finished 3rd grade abeka. They use a spiral up of skills. This means they learn a new fact along with some repetition of the old.

On Bible and History, we go classical. This year we are starting Veritas.

 

[Larry Hughes]

LadyFlynt,

A former church used Abeka too, very similar to what you just stated - in line with classical. I just assumed it was part of the classical. Do you have any references, specifically on the phonics?

Thanks,

Larry

 

[LadyFlynt]

The phonics use beginning blends insteads of ending sounds (which is what BJU uses and some public schools that actually do phonics). The reason I prefer this is that we read a word from the beginning not the end. Speed readers also are able to "jump ahead" with their eyes, getting a glimpse or mental picture of the following word or words. If we relied on studying a word backwards then it takes longer to breakdown and mentally manipulate. Beginning blends, In my humble opinion, also make it easier to learn to verbally pronounce words correctly.