This book by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise-Bauer changed my life, although I didn't set out for that to happen at all. Here's the whole story:
I bought this when we were looking at putting One into pre-school, and I was busy planning ahead. I never thought to buy a home schooling book (I guess I missed the subtitle: A Guide to Classical Education at Home). I meant to buy something like Bill Bennett's The Educated Child: A Parents Guide From Preschool Through Eighth Grade, to tell me what my child should learn at each age. Then again, I bought that book and it was a disaster. It was lists. And I don't react well to laundry lists of things my child should be learning. Half the time I don't understand the edu-speak in there, and then I get confused. When I'm confused I ask my husband - for instance "what does it mean when it says he should have an understanding of integers? What are integers?" And then Husband laughs at me. A nice laugh, but he laughs. So I have to retaliate. And so on. And so forth. And the book is left downstairs and we go elsewhere. Together (but without the children).
Now, what was I saying?
Oh, yes: So I read The Well-Trained Mind, and it changed the way I thought about how my children learned. In short, the book divides up learning into 3 phases: grammar, logic and rhetoric. Which meant, for me, that stuffing my small boys' heads full of facts was a good idea. Their school didn't seem to agree with me, and we wound up home schooling One for first grade, using this book as a guide. Using this book as a resource not only led us to a great year home schooling, it has continued to influence how we educate our children now that they are back at school. Because no matter how good their school is, it doesn't do it all - learning still takes place at home, and I'm better off if I have an idea as to how that should happen. This book provides that - it has lists of resources you can use, timelines to follow, and how to make the best use of all those things, whether your child is in school or at home for school.
For example - for a child in school - if your child is struggling with his handwriting, you can look up what the book suggests for writing in a home school curriculum, and use all or part of that suggestion to supplement what your child is doing at school. Or if you have a history fanatic like I do, you can use the exhaustive lists of reading materials in the book to keep your future historian entertained - and use some of the complementary activities (drawing pictures or writing about what was read, for instance) to reinforce the reading material.
The Well-Trained Mind is the best resource I've found on how I can help my boys obtain the rigorous and comprehensive education we want them to have. It has empowered me by showing me how much a part of that process I can be - how much I have to contribute to their education. It's priceless, as the commercials say.
And don't come 'round here asking to borrow my copy, sister! You have to buy your own!
Now, what was I saying?
Oh, yes: So I read The Well-Trained Mind, and it changed the way I thought about how my children learned. In short, the book divides up learning into 3 phases: grammar, logic and rhetoric. Which meant, for me, that stuffing my small boys' heads full of facts was a good idea. Their school didn't seem to agree with me, and we wound up home schooling One for first grade, using this book as a guide. Using this book as a resource not only led us to a great year home schooling, it has continued to influence how we educate our children now that they are back at school. Because no matter how good their school is, it doesn't do it all - learning still takes place at home, and I'm better off if I have an idea as to how that should happen. This book provides that - it has lists of resources you can use, timelines to follow, and how to make the best use of all those things, whether your child is in school or at home for school.
For example - for a child in school - if your child is struggling with his handwriting, you can look up what the book suggests for writing in a home school curriculum, and use all or part of that suggestion to supplement what your child is doing at school. Or if you have a history fanatic like I do, you can use the exhaustive lists of reading materials in the book to keep your future historian entertained - and use some of the complementary activities (drawing pictures or writing about what was read, for instance) to reinforce the reading material.
The Well-Trained Mind is the best resource I've found on how I can help my boys obtain the rigorous and comprehensive education we want them to have. It has empowered me by showing me how much a part of that process I can be - how much I have to contribute to their education. It's priceless, as the commercials say.
And don't come 'round here asking to borrow my copy, sister! You have to buy your own!
1 comment:
Added it to my amazon wish list!
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