Search Results for: blog what is classical education

The Crayon and the Classical Guitar

Ever since I finished the testing for my doctorate (starting with the summer of woes and progressing through late last semester) I realized that I had completely stopped playing music. One of the things I probably haven’t shared on here is that I play a musical instrument. My parents were not fond of a grade school music instructor so I never did music in grade school. It wasn’t until I turned sixteen that I remarked “I want to play guitar.” It turned out to be a great thing. I took six months of classical guitar lessons from a really nice … Continue reading →

A Thomas Jefferson Education

Recently, a method of education was brought to my attention which grabbed my interest. The method is a purposeful approach to education with the goal of creating independent and creative minds. That method is the Thomas Jefferson Education. When I embarked on homeschooling, my goal was to educate my children in an environment that fostered creativity, independence and critical thought. Through the years, I have adopted many different methods to fit different learning styles or phases of my children’s lives. While there is merit in that approach, I have recently discovered a path that transcends the ages and stages of … Continue reading →

What is Classical Conversations

The classical homeschool movement has rallied in the last couple of years, and a new homeschool group concept has been born. Classical Conversations is a community based homeschool program in the form of support groups that get together weekly to follow the prescribed curriculum. Group leaders help to equip parents to homeschool through a series of academic services, tutors, and meetings. Basically homeschoolers gather once a week to meet and talk about not only curriculum, but also about God and to minister to each other. If you are a follower of Classical homeschooling, you may appreciate what Classical Conversations has … Continue reading →

Homeschooling: Back to Education

The first American Schools emphasized basic reading skills, memorization, especially of math facts, and Latin and Greek for older students. The goal of such education was to teach children how to learn. Instead of grading children, early American Schools taught each child at his or her own pace. Students of all ages and grades were together with older and more advanced students helping the younger and less experienced. Sounds a lot like homeschooling, does it not? Even before that, In Ancient Athens, education consisted of literature, and memorization of math and history. Classical Education, which many homeschoolers use today, comes … Continue reading →

Introduction from a new homeschool blogger

I’d like to introduce myself to the Families.com family. I’m a mom, a freelance writer, and a new homeschooling blogger here. I’m delighted to have this opportunity to write about a lifestyle and method of education that I love. We’re a family of five from the Midwest. When people ask how long we’ve been homeschooling, I often say that we’ve done it since birth, since parents are the first and most important educators of their children. But, for an actual chronology of my kids’ education, I can also say that we started formally homeschooling our oldest when she entered first … Continue reading →

2006 in Review: Homeschooling Blog at a Glance

As a new homeschooling blogger at Families.com, I wanted to know everything that has been discussed to date. In response to my own curiosity, and in an effort to make perusing our articles easier for you, our readers, I have compiled all of the blogs for the year 2006. Deciding to Homeschool Why homeschool Am I qualified for this? Reasons that Homeschooling Works! My Most Important Advice for Homeschoolers. The Cost of Homeschooling Instead of standing up for their own kids, why not stand up for all kids? Disclaimer: I am hardly an expert in education. Did You Know? ‘Empirical … Continue reading →

Why Some Parents are Unschooling Their Kids

Unschooling is a form of homeschooling that involves less structure and more child-centered learning. Parents who are unhappy with the way that learning is presented at schools have been turning to the unschooling movement as their solution for what their child’s education should be like. Unschooling has some similarities with homeschooling. In both cases, a child stays home and receives his or her education there (instead of in a classroom at a school). Each educational style allows parents to be very involved in what their child is taught. Parents can set the speed that information is presented in order to … Continue reading →

Visual Latin: Makes Latin Easy!

The thought of teaching Latin made me want to hide under a table. I did not think there would be any way for me to teach Latin. I never took Latin in school. I have no experience in this subject and quite frankly it is an intimidating subject if you are unfamiliar. Knowing that I decided to homeschool to provide a better education I knew I would have to find away to teach my children Latin. Latin will help build a strong foundation for English. A person who knows Latin will have a firmer grasp on vocabulary and spelling. I … Continue reading →

The Internet and Homeschooling, part 2

Homeschool parents are finding ways to use the internet to enhance the schooling aspect of homeschooling. The mystery of lesson planning is solved by a quick search. Frugal homeschoolers can save their budget with free printables and unit studies ready to download. Students who bore easily with textbooks can take a break playing online educational games. YouTube helps many frustrated students who need tutoring in just about any subject. Adventurous homeschoolers can be whisked away on virtual field trips. Many art museums, zoos, and historical locations offer an online peek children will enjoy. Consider looking up a country you are … Continue reading →

What is a Learning Objective?

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If you’re new to homelearning, you may wonder how homeschoolers gauge their children’s progress as they move through different grade levels. While some families unschool and do not follow external learning objectives, other families prefer to follow a curriculum. This is where learning objectives come in. A learning objective is one small part of a much broader curriculum. Centralized educational programs have a curriculum that is broken down grade by grade. Within each grade, there are topics that connect with each other. These are subjects. Subjects like science, literature, social studies, and mathematics are taught as distinct subjects and are … Continue reading →