Moon phases and Oreos, a summer science activity. Today we explored the subject of moon phases and learned fun facts about the moon throughout history. We started with a read aloud and shared the reading by taking turns. This hands on activity really helped us understand more thoroughly about the moon’s quarters and 8 shapes. The Oreos were a hit!
Science is actually fun! The two subjects in school that I thought I didn't like, World History and Science have actually become my favorites! I believe that children actually are little scientists. They are always asking questions and if you leave them alone they find things to experiment on, lol! With my oldest daughter I placed a heavy emphasis on literature and reading books with extensive vocabulary exposure, and that was great. But I'm learning that reading is more than just about big words, but it's about big ideas too.
Since saying yes to homeschool I've researched learning styles and curriculums, and followed other homeschoolers online through blogs and YouTube channels. I even started one on my own about 10 years ago. Recently I got in the mood to watch some of my old footage and traced my interest to classical education to my very first vlog. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my interests circled back to what I've always found interesting and relatable in my education alignment. In the fall of 2021 I settled on classical education with an eclectic approach. I like classical education because it provides a framework for learning that educators can follow easily. The learning is referred to as the trivium, its three stages are grammar, logic, and rhetoric. I've found that by having this guideline I've been able to make sense of the final destination for our homeschool goals.
The three stages of classical education are divided into four year increments. The first stage of learning is grammar, it organizes grades 1-4 and mainly focuses on the memory of facts. The second stage is logic and covers grades 5-8 where students begin to make sense of many of the facts they've learned and create opinions about those facts. The final stage of the trivium is rhetoric, for grades 9-12, it is here that students take use of all the facts of various subjects, along with their understanding of those things and begin to form opinions they can share through spoken and written language.
As a structured personality type I love the practical nature of the classical philosophy. Our family isn't formally involved in a classical group, I take what I research and make it fit the scope of the trivium. Since 2021 I can say that our learning has become enjoyable and challenging. I've always had the outlook of the three R's of learning at the core of our learning, Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. But the incorporation of classical education has allowed us to venture into a solid inclusion of history, languages, and science.
There's an air to the classical world that may appear to elevate the western world and its ideals, namely the European story. This alone can be a turn off to those who feel they want to show a different world to their children. I completely understand those sentiments. For us however, I've found that by pressing into those things which at first made us very uncomfortable we've found a sweet spot, learning for information while growing in our own identity and cultural leanings.
We center our classical education on World History. This alone has been a game changer. There are co-ops that guide children in "what" to learn in classical education, but what we follow is history itself. I also use my experience as a guide by first identifying the things I wished I learned in school. So, for the grammar stage I simplify our direction by just thinking about things I want the kids to know like the states of our country, the countries of the world, the US presidents, and so forth. For logic I think of asking my middle grader lots of questions and encourage her to have opinions. We haven't entered the rhetoric stage at this point in our journey but at that time I will incorporate a formal logic curriculum along with the art of debate.
For all of my kids we use a mixture of "tried and true" resources along with new school options. I've found resources from educators that are classically focused and incorporate resources other classical homeschoolers use as well. Reading good books is a must in our homeschool setting. I love the challenge of classical books, these are books that have stood the test of time. Many of them are regarded as classics from suggested reading annotations to education forums and blogs. I've also had to reach deep to incorporate African Diaspora classic stories as well. These are well written stories from all over the world about black people or written by black authors. It is important to us that our family understand the excellence that black people have contributed to the world of academics without it always having to be a slave narrative or suggestions of oppression or inferiority.
It is also important to train the mind for advanced ideas. When I got to college I found that the area of philosophy and religion was out of my ability of reason. The content was so foreign and challenging that I found myself dismissing the importance of tough ideas. I don't want that for my children. The more we read challenging materials the easier it becomes. We look up challenging words all the time and create a growing list of words to learn.
Here is a list of helpful resources that we use in our homeschool setting:
At the beginning of my research into homeschool education I came across various forms of education styles. I came across Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Classical, and Eclectic classifications. In addition to a variety of styles I've tried several homeschool curriculums that align with varying learning methods. Of all the methods I settled on Classical learning years ago dating back to 2013. But, along the way I strayed from any one set of guidelines and chose curriculum that fit our way of life at the time.
With my first child I tried to create a baby genius with the How to Teach Your Baby to Read method by Glenn Doman. His method was based on the success he found with children with learning disabilities learning an exorbitant amount of information through flash cards. It was based on large letters and a flash approach of 10 cards daily at multiple times a day. Truthfully it was very labor intensive. I created word flash cards and picture cards on various science and history subjects. But what I found over the years was that although I put in so much work, my daughter was still grade level in many of her subjects.
I read immensely to her in the early years at the rate of 10 books daily. It served as a way to expose her to various ideas and advanced vocabulary, but also became precious moments for making memories. At the age of three she was ready to formally learn reading. She soared within a year and of all my children she picked up reading the most naturally. I attribute her progress to all of the reading we accomplished in the toddler years. But it was a lot... a little much.
At the age of three I created Montessori home stations with tactical hands on activities on various subjects. They became a play outlet for her and a chance to progress in learning new things. My favorite were marshmallow shape structures and dinosaur stations. Around that time I created a YouTube channel of our early years and although they are now set to private, we still get a laugh of many of the precious memories from those years.
Curriculums that I've tried: Math Mammoth, Singapore Math 1a and 1b, Christian Light Education, Math U See, Life of Fred, Houghton Mifflin, McGuffey Readers, Ray's Arithmetic, Harvey's Grammar, Apologia Science, Shurley English
For the majority of my homeschooling with her and the rest of my boys I've been eclectic, pulling from various curriculums and making it work. I scaled back with the boys. I've learned that learning is life. They learn from one another, they learn through developmental readiness, and they also learn through games and play.
I've made a full circle back to the Lady of the House Diaries world. Now five kids later I'm excited to have a space in which I can share my experiences and journal my thoughts. Every now and then I refer to this space to remind myself of little details along the way in my homeschooling journey.
At the start of this blog I was bedridden with my first child, a baby girl. After her I welcomed three handsome men into the world, and about 9 months ago I found myself bedridden again with another baby girl. You can only imagine the joy I had welcoming another little girl into the world. It was a faith journey from beginning to "new beginnings."
So many things have changed since my last post in my homeschool approach and I'm getting excited seeing it all unfold.
