Our Home School
Philosophy
Our approach is the
Classical Christian Education,
which emphasizes teaching the
Trivium. The Trivium is split into three stages:
the grammar , the
dialectic and the rhetorical stage.
Currently, we are in the grammar stage
with our 8 and 5 year olds.
We work on lots of memorization of facts,
hands on projects and age appropriate classical literature. (Look for book list later this year). --- Our
choice to employ a classical education stems from
a strong conviction that history is of paramount
importance. The United Stated is just one amongst
many great civilizations which have sprung up in the course of history. We study the ancients, to learn
from their successes and mistakes. We humble ourselves by realizing that our country's existence is but a speck on the timeline. We inherited the structure of much our social and political structure from the great Western civilizations of the
past.
PRESCHOOL:
Since three of our children are 5 and under, we devote a lot of time to preschool matters. We read and reread Mother Goose, Aesop's Fables, sing and act out lots of songs and just play with blocks trains, dolls and make messy crafts. I try to make this
very informal, partially because of the little
"emergencies" which naturally occur,
but mostly because of the limited attention spans
and fleeting interests. Our preschoolers have access
to puzzles, playdough and a large adjacent
playroom while I school our 8 year old. Ben (2), who
is developmentally around 1 year of age,
is blocked out from some of their activities by
baby gates. He hangs around my feet while
I instruct Nikolas. I expect interruptions every
15 minutes from the 3 year old and interruptions
every 45 minutes or so from my 5 year old
( divide those two numbers if they are engaged
in the same activity). We try to reserve "concentration" activities like SAXON math for nap/quiet time, so it's just Nick and I.
For toddlers I focus on
teaching them about Jesus and the Bible.
Click to
see Our
Small Catechism for Preschoolers
The 3 R's:
Nikolas (8) has been
taught all his mathematics from Bob Jones University
Press books. We recently switched him to Saxon 65.
The copy work involved was too much. Currently
we are designing our own math curriculum as we go
along, using the Saxon syllabus, all the while
pulling worksheets from Bob Jones, ABEKA as well
as making our own. In short, our math has the
incremental review of Saxon,
while preserving the unit study approach
of BoB Jones, the speed drill of ABEKA
and just enough touch of "mom" to make it just
right for Nikolas.
In addition, Nikolas keeps a copybook,
in which he copies Bible verses, poetry or
passages
from the McGuffey Readers.
For spelling, we use Noah Webster's
Spelling Handbook (1829). Here also,
the lessons are brief, systematic and
with lots of review. For reading and oratory,
we use the McGuffy Readers. Nikolas is in the
third year, half way through the second
reader.
For Latin we use the Latin Primer by Martha Wilson,
which is put out by Canon Press.
It is so very different from every other
subject we do in school.
Nikolas has enjoyed the drill and joy of a foreign l
anguage. In the early years, he is doing mostly
vocabulary and chats of noun and verb endings,
the derivatives of English words with roots
in Latin, and memorizing scriptures in Latin
and famous Latin quotes.
SCIENCE AND NATURE
We have recently tried to adapt more of a
Charlotte Mason Approach, which includes Nature
Books. We draw pictures of birds, trees,
leaves and other treasures which we find on our
nature walks, or things we see in our neighborhood. The "harder"
physical sciences are more appropriate during the
dialectic stage.
SOCIAL STUDIES
In all things, we teach and honor the Bible as the Word of God. Understanding the cultures and histories of 
the nations surrounding the Bible
characters, greatly enhances our understanding of the Bible. This is the basis for our study of history.
Currently, we are studying ancient Greece, starting with the Minoan Civilization on Crete from about 3000 BC. Featured in the picture is our scale-model of the Mediterranean Sea, with emphasis on the topography of Greece. We use the public library for
books on different topics, but have found Greenleaf
Press to be an invaluable resource in the area of
history.
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since 7-28-98.
Last Update: 07/27/98