Designing a home-centered life: learning, exploring, and creating with our five littles
"Art is one of the basics for little children. They love talking, listening to stories, and drawing or painting." Isn't what Susan Schaeffer Macaulay shares in For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School true? Put two of those together and I think you have some of the best building blocks for teaching art. I've made … [Read more...]
Charlotte Mason promoted handicrafts as an opportunity for children to spend careful attention + neat effort making useful products while encouraging them to build skills that would help them to be industrious adults. Doesn't that sound noble? While she was suggesting this in the early 1900s, I think they're still an important part of a … [Read more...]
I love the conversations classically homeschooling our family has afforded. Because our core subjects are on the same topics, we are able to have conversations where everyone can join in. Today I was reading out loud to them, An Island Story, a child's history of England originally published before 1923. It's one of my littles' favorite … [Read more...]
Book lists, lesson plans, and projects are all great to have on file ready for when you or your littles want to dive into a specific topic you've been learning about through the memory work. But, one of the great things about classical education, is that you don't have to spend time intentionally creating or drafting plans around a subject. … [Read more...]
This seems to be the time of year when the questions begin. Are we homeschooling again next year? Should we switch some things we're doing? Or all the things we're doing? Am I doing enough as their teacher? How much did they really learn this year? Let me ask you a question that should quiet the rest. Why are you homeschooling? Don't know why? … [Read more...]
Classical Conversations is a classical, Christian education. Some might see those words placed together and not see the connection. In fact, some might go as far as to say they don't connect. It probably won't surprise you to hear me say, well, they do go together! Actually, I'm a firm believer that classical + Christian are … [Read more...]
Y'all, please welcome back my friend, Becki Hogan. Becki and her husband blog at Running with Team Hogan. Through learning about a new subject, Becki was able to learn more about classical education. I can relate! When you understand classical education, you see learning -on any subject- through a new lens. Read to … [Read more...]
Before homeschooling my children, my educational experience was limited to how I was taught, which I would generally characterize as traditional. I grew up attending a private, Christian school and later graduated from a Bible university with degrees in Social Work and Bible. I had no experience and very little information regarding … [Read more...]
"Classical educators want children to memorize a lengthy world history time line over an extended period of time that stays with them forever." (p.165) Are you seeing a pattern here among classical learning? It's so important to lay a strong foundation for our little scholars to build upon. With a basic timeline memorized, our children can … [Read more...]
Were you classically educated? Me neither! I have so much to learn! and I've been doing it through my readings about classical education. I finished reading Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin by Tracy Lee Simmons today. Yay! This book was handed out at my local Classical Conversations practicum. Was it at yours … [Read more...]