What are your HONEST thoughts?
.One of the most important things about the Classical Method is that it teaches analytical thinking. Socrates and Plato were excellent teachers of analytical thinking which is very much lacking in public schools, textbooks and multiple choice testing. They, in fact, end up discouraging analytical thinking which is particularly disastrous for many children like the analytical personality.
Plato was having a discussion with his colleagues. Plato said knowledge comes from within, and as educators, it is our job to bring it forth. His colleagues disagreed saying, no knowledge must be stuffed in, because they are not borne knowing. Plato then had a 5 year old boy brought to him. Plato asked the boy noting but a series of questions (no information given). The boy ended up working a very complicated algebra problem.
The following article explains this method, and it has similarities to the Classical Method....just not the whole package. Socratic Method Of Teaching
P.S. This is the method my father used with me and my brothers. I use it a lot in my eclectic method.
I think learning Latin roots and so forth can be very helpful in progressing in many languages and being able to decode.
However, I am in no way a proponent of the Classical education methodology. You can learn and appreciate the basics of Latin without engaging in a full on Classical education. Just my opinion- and it is a strong opinion. I do not like the idea of forcing children to memorize and recite things without teaching them to comprehend them. I am raising little people- not parrots. Children are blessed with an innate curiosity and I feel that Classical education strives to stifle that curiosity as opposed to honoring and rewarding it.
"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." (Lin Yutang)
Freedom Project provides an online Classical Education. I do not know much about them, but they do allow you to pick and choose what you want to use without forcing the whole package on you. I noticed they have some very interesting books by Tom Woods.
I did talk to someone about Classical Conversations a couple of weeks ago. Her 5 y/o son has ADHD and he loves it. He remembers alot from the songs they learn. Unfortunately we don't have any extra money and there's no possible way I could come up with the $800 for my 2 kids by July, and my hubby isn't convinced on homeschooling or on CC so I wouldn't be able to convince him to spend the money either. I wish they could make CC more affordable. It's something I'd love to be in the next couple of years if homeschooling works for us. I also get very depressed being at home too much, I'd love to do it to get out of the house and kids around others.
Quoting Precious333:
I started mine a age four. We jus do bits and peices....spend a 4 hr period once a week and the res of the week is 30-1hr. The love it! We do classical.conversations, which we do memorization through songs, hand motions, voices, pictures, map tracing and thats it. We also have story of the world and mostly focus that with my 6 yr old, only one lesson a week.
Quoting CJsMommy040506:
I'm so glad you posted this since I'm wondering the same thing. I'm not yet homeschooling, will be next year with my K and second grader. I find the classical approach to history very intriguing, in fact I can't wait to learn it with them. However, I'm thinking they may be too young, especially my daughter. I want to combine history and science for them and I really feel like she (the one in K) needs to learn continents, basic facts about the US and for my second grader, he needs a little more on the US. I know he'd be interested in things like mummies, gladiators in ancient rome, etc. I like the classical approach after a brief overview of American history. For this coming year my plan as of right now is Elemental History which is US history, covering states, wars, and important people. We'll do some geography with a book I found on Amazon (A Childs Geography Explore His Earth) and the Evan Moor pocket books. If for some reason we finish history early (they love it) then we may start with History Odyssey late in the year. I put Story Of The World on hold at the library. I thought that I'd start reading to them and see if they find it interesting.
Quoting CJsMommy040506:I did talk to someone about Classical Conversations a couple of weeks ago. Her 5 y/o son has ADHD and he loves it. He remembers alot from the songs they learn. Unfortunately we don't have any extra money and there's no possible way I could come up with the $800 for my 2 kids by July, and my hubby isn't convinced on homeschooling or on CC so I wouldn't be able to convince him to spend the money either. I wish they could make CC more affordable. It's something I'd love to be in the next couple of years if homeschooling works for us. I also get very depressed being at home too much, I'd love to do it to get out of the house and kids around others.
Quoting Precious333:
I started mine a age four. We jus do bits and peices....spend a 4 hr period once a week and the res of the week is 30-1hr. The love it! We do classical.conversations, which we do memorization through songs, hand motions, voices, pictures, map tracing and thats it. We also have story of the world and mostly focus that with my 6 yr old, only one lesson a week.
Quoting CJsMommy040506:
I'm so glad you posted this since I'm wondering the same thing. I'm not yet homeschooling, will be next year with my K and second grader. I find the classical approach to history very intriguing, in fact I can't wait to learn it with them. However, I'm thinking they may be too young, especially my daughter. I want to combine history and science for them and I really feel like she (the one in K) needs to learn continents, basic facts about the US and for my second grader, he needs a little more on the US. I know he'd be interested in things like mummies, gladiators in ancient rome, etc. I like the classical approach after a brief overview of American history. For this coming year my plan as of right now is Elemental History which is US history, covering states, wars, and important people. We'll do some geography with a book I found on Amazon (A Childs Geography Explore His Earth) and the Evan Moor pocket books. If for some reason we finish history early (they love it) then we may start with History Odyssey late in the year. I put Story Of The World on hold at the library. I thought that I'd start reading to them and see if they find it interesting.
I teach my daughter classically and she is in no way a parrot. In my opinion, one was not doing it right if that is what they got out of it. Multiplication is a breeze thanks to CC. Every subject is fun. She loves going to co-op and all the field trips, science and art projects and friendship. I think it is the best of both worlds. You get the accountability and support but are still in charge of your child's education.
How does your child(ren) learn best? I would start from there and base a curriculum on that.
Best of luck.
The closest we get to classical is with our curriculum that we use, Heart of Dakota. IMO, the author took the best elements from Charlotte Mason, classical, and textbook and combined them in a way that makes sense, while still being Christ-centered, which is important to our family.
K12 curriculum is classical. We love the way they teach history starting in 1st grade with Ancient Egypt, etc. And usually history is the favorite of the kids because it is taught with engaging stories, pictures and maps.
My honest thoughts are I LOVED learning Latin because it really opened up English for me. I'm a huge reader and words always fascinated me and many current English words have Latin roots and digging into current words and finding out their roots was fun for me. We also learned about Roman culture, political history and lifestyle and translated ancient documents so that made it real for me. We even learned the Pledge of Allegiance in Latin which was fun. Yes there is an element of memorization (for the word endings) but once you memorize them you have them. The best way to learn Latin is through a little bit of memorization and a lot of immersion, IMO. Latin itself may be dead in that nobody speaks it directly anymore but it is everywhere. It doesn't have to be boring. :)
he made me proud, but broke my heart...
- BramblePatch
on Feb. 26, 2013 at 1:03 PM