Tag: classical education

A Classical Education Sounds Great – But is it For Me? – Do you like structure in your homeschool? – Do you prefer your children read historical biographies rather than textbooks? – Do you prefer an English programme that uses rules, systematic learning and memorisation? – Would you like to make use of memorisation and the learning of rules in the early years? – Would you like to see your teenagers reading classic books? – Do you prefer to be in charge of the curriculum, rather than allowing children to chose their own resources? – Would you like to encourage your child to think for themselves, and to disucuss ideas? – Would you consider including Latin and / or Greek in your homeschool, as a means for ‘training the mind’? – Would you like your teen to be able to present and back up their opinions in a clear and logical manner? – Would you like to cover the same subjects (eg. Science, history, etc.) with as many children as possible at the same time? – Would you like to concentrate on the child’s natural abilities and stages of growth, rather than set ‘grade levels’? If you answered ‘yes’ to to any of the above questions, you may be interested in implementing a Classical Education in your homeschool. The following resources may be of help: – The Lost Tools...

The core of Classical Education is the trivium, which simply put is a teaching model that seeks to tailor the curriculum subject matter to a child’s cognitive development. The trivium emphasizes concrete thinking and memorization of the facts of the subjects in grade school; analytical thinking and understanding of the subjects in middle school; and abstract thinking and articulation of the subjects in high school. Subjects unique to Classical Education which help accomplish the goals of the trivium are Grammar, the science of language usage; Logic, the science of right thinking; and Rhetoric, the science of verbal and written expression. Classical Christian Education is further characterized by a rich exposure to the history, art, and culture of Western Civilization, including its languages (Latin and Greek), its philosophy and literature (the Great Books of Western Civilization and the Christian tradition), and the development of a Biblical worldview with Theology in its proper place as the Queen of the Sciences. ~from Christine Miller's site http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/ CLASSICAL WEBSITES: Classical Homeschooling http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/ Trivium Pursuit http://www.triviumpursuit.com/index.htm Well Trained Mind http://www.welltrainedmind.com/ Laura Berquist http://www.motherofdivinegrace.org/ Logos School http://www.logosschool.com/ Linda (from Adnil Press) wrote a good article on this...

Exactly what ‘is’ a Classical Education? Well, as always, there is some healthy debate about what it all means. Here is an article that touches on the basics of what makes up a ‘Classical Education’. So, what is this thing we call Classical Education? I read somewhere recently that the “whole point of Classical Education was to cover each topic three times, once in each stage of development of the child”. Well, that’s partly true – the main thing we consider when homeschooling our children via the ‘Classical Method’ is that there are three distinct phases in a child’s development. Now of course, these have been given some marvellous, technical names – those being the ‘Grammar Stage’, the ‘Logic Stage’ and the ‘Rhetoric Stage’. Let me explain a little bit. The ‘Grammar Stage’ is when the child is just starting out on their schooling journey. This is the age, (around grades k-4), where memorisation, and the recitation of facts, jingles, nursery rhymes and stories all come very easy to them – they just LOVE to hear the same story told over and over again. Memorisation is the key – someone once described little children in this stage as ‘sponges’ – they soak everything up, and enjoy it! The ‘Logic Stage’ comes next – usually beginning around 5th-7th grade – and this is when their young minds begin asking those...