Classical Homeschooling {our way}
We are in our 5th year of classically homeschooling our girls using the Classical model. It’s been quite the wild ride! This post is a summary of our philosophy and a link to all our posts on homeschooling.
Let’s start with our school room! That seems to be everyone’s burning question. Where do you ‘do’ school? We are so fortunate to have been able to design our new rebuild with a room dedicated to learning and working.
Our schoolroom is a collaboration of long hours of work between myself and Darlene from Fieldstone Hill Design. It has been featured on several blogs and online magazines, which makes us both so giddy! I often say that it has been my dream to have a room like this. A room that’s like me—–that reads and does laundry and blogs and dabbles in paints and maps and printing and child-rearing and bird watching. We’ve only lived here two weeks but I can’t even count the hours we’ve already spent in here. My girls’ new favorite pastime is to watch nail art videos and make their art come true whilst listening to me read The Odyssey.
It’s the first room we use in the morning and the last room we leave in the evening. It never looks this clean. There’s usually books and nail polish and writing projects strewn about. We clean the green table off 27 times a day, only to make room for more art. Today, they made mixed media snowmen and pipe cleaner rings. To tour this multifunctional room, click here.
Before we moved to the lake, had a house fire, and rebuilt our home, we homeschooled in the garage. It was such a perfect solution at the time. I wrote all about it here.
Our homeschool has changed in many ways over the past five years but the vibe and focus has been the same. We are on a desperate search for truth, beauty and goodness.
Our goal is to cultivate virtue and create a life long love for learning. We believe that the classical model is the best way to do that and so we seek the ancient paths. In the words of David Hicks from Norms and Nobility,
“Classical education refreshes itself at cisterns of learning dug long ago, drawing from springs too deep for taint the strength to turn our cultural retreat into advance.”
Our philosophy of education has been informed and inspired most by Andrew Kern and the Circe Institute but we find ourselves most deeply indebted to authors of classic literature, who by virtue of their education and calling, have made it possible for us to commune with the greatest minds of the world.
Our teachers are the likes of Lewis and Tolkein, Augustine and Homer, Dante and Shakespeare.
We come to the this task with humility and wonder and we pray for mercy.
To train a child to love what he should love is a monumental task and we know we are all too often ill-equipped.
So, we drink deep at the cisterns and we teach our children to learn by example. We bring them to the water—-water too deep for taint—–and there we are renewed, to love and serve and teach and learn.
Some posts about how and why we do this crazy thing called Classical homeschooling!
What I love about homeschooling
How to Enjoy Your Kids in the Summer
4th Grade Daily Schedule, Getting it All Done
Why I Almost Gave Up Homeschooling
and I like cowboy boots, C.S. Lewis, good food, strong coffee, banjo music and books. I am a deeply flawed momma of 4 and grateful receiver of more good gifts than one heart can hold. I fight for joy and find it in the most unexpected places. I make quirky look normal, relish in my small town Southern way of living, and am learning that it's all grace--every last bit of it. 
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Just wanted to let you know that all the links on this page go to your old “blogspot” address (and then it automatically sends me back to this address). Just wanted to see all your homeschool stuff. Love your blog by the way
And I LUV your old kitchen. Have a wonderful day!
Your impressive and unique content amazed me. You have written perfect piece.
Hi Edie,
I was wondering about your take on the vampire books. i remember not wanting my daughter, now 12, to read the Harry Potter and finally caving in 4th grade. Since then, I have found several other great christian families who have read them as well. My daughter would like to read those Twilight books, but it gives me the “heebie-jeebies”. Since I saw HP on your list, I thought I would ask!
Thanks for your inspirational sharing! I find us to be kindred spirits in “list-making and dream-seeking and soul-searching”.
Hi Kari!
My daughters have been wanting to watch the movie and I will let them someday soon. If you search my blog for Harry Potter, you’ll find a post (or two?) that I wrote about the books and links to a great discussion between two pastors on the books. The same pastor (Richard Stuckwich) has reviewed Twilight on his blog and it’s very helpful and insightful. Hope the link helps your searching!
http://sword-in-hat.blogspot.com/2008/12/twilight.html
Much love,
edie
I can’t tell if I responded to this or not Kari. Forgive me if not. I haven’t yet let my girls watch them but I will. Here’s a link to some podcasts on the topic by a Lutheran pastor—I think you’ll enjoy them. Also, a post of mine on Harry Potter that has some links you might like! Thanks so much for reading:) xo,
edie
http://www.lifeingraceblog.com/2009/11/the-theology-of-harry-potter.html
review of twilight
http://issuesetc.org/podcast/367112409H2S3.mp3
review of harry potter:deathly hallows http://issuesetc.org/guest/richard-stuckwisch/
enjoy!
Homeschooling is a legal option for parents in most countries to provide their children with a learning environment as an alternative to public or private schools outside the home.
{ 3 trackbacks }