I utilize a classical, secular educational approach to my home school. My curriculum choices are (mostly) secular and eclectic.
Classical Home School Education is*:
1. Language, rather than image, focused.
2. A three-phased education ('trivium") that first emphasizes the memorization of facts, dates, etc. in the grammar stage, organizes those facts into a connected synthesis in the logic phase, and finally equips the student to persuasively and elegantly express conclusions in the rhetoric stage.
3. A form of education in which all knowledge is interrelated and one that employs chronological history as the organizational paradigm/spine to understanding all the branches of knowledge.
4. Systematic and rigorous.
*from The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jesse Wise
My biggest goal in educating my triplets is to instill a love for learning. If I accomplish nothing more, I'll be happy.
Homeschooling allows me to tailor my children's education to their abilities and interests. I have no idea how long we'll be on this journey but we are all enjoying the ride!
This decision of the heart comes with a steep learning curve for the teacher. It is my hope that this site might offer newbies and veterans food for thought on their journey.
RocketMan, BirdMan and GooseyGirl as Summerians in Kindergarten History Class
Explore all the homeschooling links and most importantly, make yourself at home. Feel free to download any of my original home school forms. I use a secular ecclectic approach in my homeschool. Enjoy the curriculum reviews, links, encouragement and homeschool advice. Perhaps you are a homeschool veteran or you may be a newbie- either way, you'll find lots of excellent info about home education. I've also included some parenting tips that I've picked up on my parenting journey.
I buried "artifacts" in the sandbox for a history activity and my little archeologists carefully uncovered evidence of a former city. They used the clues from the objects to make guesses about the type of city it was.
Celebrating the seasons and creating memories at the pumpkin farm during Kindergarten.
What's New?
I've been a bit distracted with life lately. I'm going to work on fixing the blog insert on the site and updating some of our photos! Enjoy!
You Might Be a Homeschooler if:
You have at least one in your drawer:
A) A snake skin
B) A turtle shell
C) Miscellaneous Bird Feathers
Great HS Advice:
Strive for Diligence without paranoia in regards to your confidence in the quality of their education.
Our Flat Stanelys have been all over the world. There is no easier way to teach geography for early elementary. For templates and forms go to Second Grade.
Give your homeschool a mascot and a name!
This is our Fisherville Phoenix that we created while reading
Second Grade history took us to the Middle Ages. We had a Flat Stanley visit us from New Zealand who enjoyed Louisville's Fraiser History Museum.
The warrior did make him a bit nervous, however. But we assured him that Mr. Warrior was well fed.
I wanted to drop you a note and let you know how much I've enjoyed reading your website.
I'm going to bookmark your site because I know it will be good resource for me as I get ready to homeschool. I have two children (10 & 5) who are currently in school but I'm going to begin homeschooling them soon.
-Debbie in Kansas
I belted out laughing when you wrote that I should not look at homeschooling catalogs on a "brain fart" day. Only a homeschool mom can understand that this IS very important advice. I have now banned myself from looking at those catalogs on my "brain fart"days. I will do my best not to let myself get overwhelmed.
-D
I have been poring over your site now for two days! Thank you for your time and willingness to share all of your wonderful aids.
-Karen
Things in our world have changed and I'm in the process of updating this site to reflect my recent divorce.
It has changed my approach to homeschoolong and parenting. More details will be coming so check
