I’ve definitely maxed out on the homeschool conferences for now. Attending them was extremely helpful for me – so helpful that I don’t need any more help for a while. I’m really starting to feel like I can do this.
As I mentioned, Susan Wise Bauer and her mother Jessie Wise spoke at the most recent conference. They are the co-authors of The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. (I waited to buy it at the conference, thinking I’d get a discount. I did, but they still couldn’t beat Amazon’s price. Damn.) Susan Wise Bauer’s keynote address was an inspiring and enjoyable talk about how parents can and should remain intellectuals. I attended 3 of Jessie Wise’s presentations. She wasn’t the greatest speaker, but I did enjoy her talk, ”The Good Reader: Teaching Reading from Birth On.” It was especially relevant because…
Samantha is ready to start learning to read!
We’ve started playing Starfall, a free online phonics game. (Thanks, Rational Jenn!) Sam can’t work the mouse yet, so I do it for her. (Any recommendations for games to help her learn the mouse?) She started picking up the letter sounds quickly, and I can see the light bulb going on when the game puts letters together and sounds out the words. She loves it, and she’s spending even more time “reading” her books lately. I’m sure we’ll continue to use Starfall, but I want to be methodical about phonics so I’m quickly trying to find a more formal program to use with her. The first step is continuing to teach her all the letter sounds, but even there, if I hadn’t had Starfall’s help, I would have been telling her that “t” says “tuh” instead of just the first part of that sound, just the “t” part. I want to make sure I do this right.
Jessie Wise has a program called The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. Based on her lecture and flipping through the book at the conference, it seems to be very well thought-out, but not very flexible. It gives a full script for the parent/teacher to follow. I suppose I could adjust it. It’s also a very inexpensive option, so it’s at the top of my list right now.
I also bought a used copy of The Writing Road to Reading, based on a recommendation for this “Spalding Method” of learning to read. It is a phonics-based program, but you do writing and spelling right along with the learning of the phonemes. I skimmed the book and the approach didn’t appeal to me. I know Sam is not able to write letters yet; she just drew her first triangle a few days ago! However, I might use the instruction for writing the letters when the time comes later. It is very precise and the method is highly structured which I think is important.
I did a bit of research on the Internet but didn’t see anything that struck me as better than the Ordinary Parents guide. Since we have Starfall for free, I’m not looking for a game-based program or any bells and whistles. I also don’t clearly understand what Sam will be doing at Montessori in the fall. I know about the sandpaper letters, but I think she’ll move quickly beyond that. If you have a suggestion for a good phonics program, please let me know.
Of course, the first thing I did after the conference was to start reading “The Well Trained Mind.” I’ve only read the first few chapters but I know that I am going to use this book as my homeschooling bible. This is the structure that I’ve been looking for! Although I don’t agree with all aspects of Classical Education, it does have the 2 most important elements at its core: hierarchy and a focus on teaching content (facts), especially in the early years.
It respects the hierarchy of knowledge by using history as a guide to the order of learning, which is what Lisa VanDamme does at her school (though probably not in the exact way outlined in WTM). Subjects are studied in historical order, but you spiral through history a few times during the 12 years, getting to deeper levels with each pass. So, for example, you would teach biology in grades 1, 5, and 9, each time presenting more advanced material. (If you’re interested in this approach, I repeat my enthusiastic recommendation of Ms. VanDamme’s lecture course, The Role of Hierarchy in Education.)
The focus on content comes from something called the Trivium, the ancient Greek method consisting of 3 stages of learning: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric, which are geared to the abilities of the mind at that stage. The grammar stage emphasizes the memorization of facts, the dialectic stage teaches logic, and the rhetoric stage moves into argument, debate, and written expression.
I don’t buy the sharp distinctions of the Trivium, but I do agree that students must first learn facts before they have any ability to analyze, let alone to express formal opinions. The most damning thing about standard schools is not their propaganda or lack of academic rigor, but the demented methodology that asks a 3nd grader to write an essay on his opinion of the United Nations. This emphasis on “self expression” is not just pointless; it teaches children that ideas have no connection to facts. Is it any surprise that college students seem to be a bunch of know-it-all know-nothings? That’s exactly what we’ve asked them to be from grade 1.
So I do think the general course of Classical Education makes sense, but I would put it differently: First you must have data, then you must move to more abstract knowledge using reason, then you must learn how to work with those abstract ideas to come up with your own insights and learn how to apply all of this knowledge to further your own life. I probably won’t keep the stages as distinct as would be done in true Classical Education, and I don’t see “logic” and “rhetoric” as the ultimate focus of the later stages – just as added elements. I’m sure I’ll incorporate all kinds of other ideas into my homeschooling as time goes on.
This last conference also cemented my intention to teach Samantha Latin starting in 4th grade or so. I don’t plan to teach her any other foreign languages as part of her core education, though she could do that as extracurricular study. Adam and I are excited to learn Latin right along with Sam. We’ll probably do that work in the evenings as a family. How great is that!
So, I feel like my new career as homeschooler has officially begun, and I’m much more excited about it than I ever thought I would be. Somehow, all my bouncing around in life has brought me to this fantastic place. I’m really not sure how that happened.
