Today’s Intentional Community is a home schooling community based on the classical approach to education. This particular classical program is called CLASSICAL CONVERSATIONS. Now I have long been an admirer of the classical style of education and have used materials from home school sources that are classical in design, but this is something a bit different. This is a structured approach that supports the parent in the educational goals set within their family. Classical Conversations is a once a week day school where parents and students gather and tutors introduce the new materials to everyone. This gives parents the ability … Continue reading
Tag Archives: home school
Each spring home school parents all over evaluate the past year. Last year we did a curriculum change in the middle of the year because the one we were using simply did not suit the child using it. I loved the curriculum and had used it successfully with other children, but the current student not so much. End of year found us unhappy with the skills development in other subjects as well. New Year, New Curriculum and a few outside programs are the result. We even thought about the public school and a Montessori school. As there are a couple … Continue reading
Education of our children is a major concern of parents. We are our children’s first and primary teachers and have the responsibility before God to give our children the education they need to grow into good Catholics and good citizens. This weighs heavily on me every fall as I look at the new curriculum I have chosen and ask myself if I chose rightly. Home School is ever-evolving and I with it. I have a teaching degree and classroom experience, but I have home schooled far more years than I ever spent teaching anywhere. I love it, the challenge and … Continue reading
What to do when your first grader is NOT an early reader? What to do when readiness is slow to arrive? What do you do when well-meaning friends and family fuss because it looks like this child is going to be behind? You take a deep breath and evaluate. Learning style of teacher and pupil. It is a constant question–what curriculum do I use? I used Seton for a very long time. It was not the first curriculum I tried back in the day more than twenty years ago when I first embarked on home schooling. I tried Kolbe (classical) … Continue reading
CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN! ALLELUIA!!!! I spent Lent this year discerning the directions I have been going, the use of my skills and talents and experience, and I’m read to implement some changes around here. First, I’m going to blog more Catholic Home Schooling. The reason for that emphasis is the diocese once more sent out wonderful Easter greetings in the form of an advertisement for the Parish schools in our diocese. But as always, ignoring the VALID CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WHICH ARE HOME SCHOOLS. CATHOLIC Home Schools get pretty much lip service or a slap in the … Continue reading
I just watched a wonderful TED talk on the significance of the Walls of Constantinople to the West. I enjoyed that this video is both concise and clear. The only criticism I have is that those fleeing Constantinople did not only go to Rome, but to many other major cities. It was not so much the crusaders who brought the culture and knowledge from Constantinople to the west as it was the Eastern Romans themselves. Most of our books call them Byzantines, but they knew themselves as Roman. Go watch the video. Use it as part of your Church History … Continue reading
Did you know that Louis L’Amour would scour libraries, court houses, and museums for original source materials such as diaries, old letters, records of all sorts, in addition to newspapers before writing his stories? Supplement a unit study with his books or build an entire unit study around them, Mr L’Amour’s intense research makes his stories a good source for educational enrichment. His westerns are Historical Fiction and better researched than nearly anything else in that genre. Westerns are a form of Historical Fiction that often gets overlooked. As parent educators we have the opportunity to bring history to life for … Continue reading
Starting to do daily home schooling. I am taking advantage of the ipad and some apps that build skills that will translate to handwriting. I can see that the younger set want a turn with the fun educational programs. That is good, will give them a turn later. The main goal at the moment is to gently build a habit of schoolwork in the mornings. I will be pulling out the curriculum bit by bit and we will be using the workbooks in the various subjects. Right now, the preliminaries are being honed so that the math and language arts … Continue reading
DAILY LIFE IN THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE by Marcus Rautman is a good starting place for anyone interested in the Byzantine Empire. Sections on every imaginable aspect of daily living can be found in this book and the author gives references for further reading by way of chapter endnotes and a Bibliography. The book includes nice clear maps, a glossary of terms, index, list of rulers and their years in power, timeline, and illustrations. Chapter titles and headings are bold and informational to make finding a specific bit of information easier for the reader. As an over-view of life in Byzantium … Continue reading
Several friends were discussing the the changes in our education system which even the parochial schools are embracing. We discussed a book assigned to middle school children written in first person from the perspective of a pedophile and everyone felt that it was not appropriate reading material for a child who is barely entering puberty. They were wondering what the agenda was that caused the writers of this program to select a book about sexual deviancy for children who do not yet have their own healthy sexuality set solidly. We agreed that the pornographic sex education was just wrong and … Continue reading