Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau

Educator, Coach, Life Strategist

Classical Education

Classical Education, or the “Classical Method” of homeschooling, is a way of allowing students to use their minds in ways that come most naturally to them.  The method, often called the Trivium because of its 3 phases of learning, is thought to mirror the cognitive development of a child’s mind, thus allowing them to learn commensurate with their abilities at every stage.

The Trivium

In the early years, when children are able and eager to soak up facts and information, parents introduce all kinds of facts and information to their students.  Because children at this age (roughly the equivalent of grades 1-4) enjoy memorization and learning many new things, classical educators introduce many of the facts (for instance, math facts) upon which later learning will be based.  This stage is called the Grammar Phase.

By the time a child matures toward the middle school years (approximately grades 5-8), he is able to ask questions and to see the relationship between ideas.  Asking, “why?” and looking at the correlation between events and their resulting effects is characteristic of students at this stage anyhow.   Therefore, the classical method takes advantage of this developmental stage by introducing academic subjects requiring this kind of abstract thinking.  This is called the Logic Phase.

The last stage of the Trivium, the Rhetoric Phase, is taught during the high school years, when students are finally able to pull together all of the facts and questions they have gathered thus far.  Students are encouraged and able to express their own original thoughts by this time and are eager to debate any topic.  Classical thinkers capitalize upon this stage of development by encouraging high schoolers to formulate their own ideas and opinions, both orally and in writing.  This is possible, trainers believe, in large part because students have been given the right foundation in the earlier years. 

Much has been written about the classical method so homeschoolers have a great variety of tools available to help them get started.  Start with these, and find others on your own:

The Lost Tools of Learning – seminal writing by Dorothy Sayers

The Well-Trained Mind – books and writings from author and historian Susan Wise Bauer

Classical Conversations – Christian community and training materials

Memoria Press – Christian classical materials and online academy

Classical Homeschooling (old website) with links to new site

Interview with Christine Miller – from TOS Magazine

Measure reading comprehension using book studies

Some parents assign reading time as part of the homeschooling day.  Other times, children read on their own, either during the day or at bedtime.

It is natural for moms and dads to wonder if their children remember and understand what they read – this is called Reading Comprehension.  While it is perfectly alright (in fact, recommended) to allow children to read for fun and pleasure with no strings attached, it is also important to know that they comprehend what they read, too.

Assigning a book study is one way to do this.  You select a book, or allow your child to select a book that meets your approval.  Then, over the next several days or weeks, you discuss the story or assign activities to help measure whether she understood the book.     

How is reading comprehension measured? 

One way is to ask the child questions about the story, a little bit every day or once a week.  For example, after every chapter, you talk about what happened in the book.  You make sure she understood the main points and caught the larger details in that chapter, and talk about anything else that she found particularly fascinating or intriguing.  Of course, this method implies that mom or dad has already read the book (or at least a good online summary) and is able to gauge whether or not her answers are correct.  However, there are many discussion questions and answers available for free or for purchase on the Internet to make the process easier for those who prefer to use a prepared lesson plan.

Another way to check comprehension is to assign a project based on the story.  Asking the student to write a little bit about each chapter, keep a journal about the book, or write a book report are just some ideas.  Other projects, for those who prefer alternatives to writing assignments, include acting out parts of the story, creating an artistic representation of something in the story, or creating an audio or video presentation about it.  Just try to choose a project you think your child will love, rather than taking away the fun of reading the book altogether.

Whatever method you choose, aim to find out whether or not your child understood the story.  If there were difficult words or confusing parts, make sure to clear them up as you go – so they do not block comprehension of the rest of the book.  And talk about any parts that you feel, knowing that particular child, need further discussion.

There is nothing that will sap the fun out of a book more than assigning homework about it.  This is why pleasure reading is highly recommended. On the other hand, as a homeschooling parent, you’ll need to know that your child is capable of reading and understanding the books that you assign.  Book study projects can help with this important assessment.

[Photo: Free Digital]

Cute and clever storage: the curriculum bin

Not every student has a dedicated work space with a desktop or bookshelves to store homeschooling materials.  That means that books and other materials need to find a home somewhere else.  This portable solution means they can be used anywhere in the house. 

I can’t take credit for this idea as I borrowed it from some mommy blogs that featured storage ideas some time ago (and can’t find the link any more – if it’s you, please let me know so I can give you credit).  But I think it’s sweet enough to share and practical enough that anyone can at least come away with the idea of organizing of a child’s homeschooling materials in one place.

Organizing things in this way is not only pretty, but serves a practical purpose.  When everything that is needed for homeschool is all in one place, there is no wasting time searching for missing books, pencils or calculators.  Plus, with a designated place for books and materials, children always know where to put items away once schoolwork is done.

Starting with an ordinary milk crate, like the sturdy ones found at office supply stores, choose some fabric ribbon you think your child will like (let the child choose).  A 3-yard spool from your favorite craft store will be more than enough to decorate a single crate. 

Weave the ribbon around the crate in any pattern you like, then fasten it in the front in a knot or a bow. You can even hide the ends if you prefer. 

Then, attach some letter stickers or use permanent marker to spell the child’s name on the front of the bin.  You can also print (and later laminate) names printed using your favorite computer program, or attach a cardstock tag as shown here:

Loading the bin is something that you and your child should do together.  Round everything up that your student uses on a typical school day, and allow her to place everything inside her new bin.  Don’t forget simple things like pencils and rulers, either, and come up with a decorated holder, zippered pouch or other way to store these essentials inside the bin as well:

Get as creative with this idea as you like.  The point is to keep everything in order and handy when your child needs it for school on Monday morning. 

If you like, you can send in a photo of your curriculum bin – I’ll put it in a future post!

History the right way

Homeschoolers take many different approaches to teaching history. Some use traditional texts and some homeschool curriculum books. Others choose a unit study approach, honing in on a particular person, a series of events or a specific part of the world. 

There is the matter of world-view to consider when buying history resources, too, since authors each impart their own understanding and bias into their writing.  It isn’t always easy to select  materials, leaving homeschooling moms and dads to preview and select those that offer history in the way they think it should be taught.

Often, the way we teach history is the way we learned it ourselves.

Looking back, I now think that perhaps most important thing when teaching history is being sure that our students understand that history does not happen in a bubble.  In fact, historical events do not take place all by themselves.  They happen simultaneously all around the world.  Plus, events influence one another, too.  

The number one goal of any history course must be to make sure that students understand that history did not only happen in one place while the rest of the world stood still.

Though young children aren’t ready yet, students from approximately 5th/6th grade on are able to understand that historical events are sometimes linked together.  Kids at that age can find cause and effect relationships.  Questioning what they read, this is the age when children can begin developing the logic and thinking skills needed to see history as something that evolves over time – rather than random, independent events that have nothing to do with one another.

A problem with traditional history texts is that they tend to provide both an explanation of events as well as their outcomes.  This leaves little to a child’s imagination, and nothing for them to think about afterwards, as the effects (again, seen from the author’s perspective) already appear in the text.  That is, the critical thinking is already done for the student, so that the child has nothing left to question or deduce on his own.

Further compounding the problem, traditional texts tend to be written for “American” history courses, “World” history courses, or some other subset of history deemed convenient for traditional classrooms full of many students to study at once.  These boundaries draw imaginary lines for students which seem to convey that the events in the text stand alone, while nothing else in history takes place anywhere else in time. 

Classical educators have compensated for this problem by studying time periods in history, in all parts of the world, instead of specific historical figures and events.  For this reason, these folks tend to avoid traditional history texts altogether.  Instead, these clever teachers opt for creating timelines, using good history encyclopedias, and assigning an ever-changing supply of library books and online resources for each new time period and topic being studied. 

Knowing that historical events may be depicted slightly differently in each resource, children who learn this way are taught to study multiple sources of information and pull all of the pieces together on their own.  This is really the only way that a student can understand all of the variables that may have contributed to events in history and to be able to intelligently discuss the relationships between them all, sometime later on in high school and college.  Plus, instead of focusing only on topics within the imaginary boundary, students will learn to see the inter-relationships between them and understand that events in time took place simultaneously in different parts of the world.

It took me a while to understand the importance of learning history in this way.  So obvious to me now, I never thought about it much until I began teaching my own children in homeschool.  Having studied history in public schools using traditional texts, I grew up looking at history as many of you probably did – as a series of unrelated bits of information that have nothing to do with each another.   I learned dates and facts, but never saw the relationship between any of them.  I have never fully recovered from the effects of this approach and wanted to make sure that my children were better able to understand history than I was.

To read more about the classical approach to education and teaching history, you should read The Well-Trained Mind, Classical Conversations, this article by Dorothy Sayers, and read any other books and web sites you find on your own.  Then, think about your own approach to teaching history at home and whether you feel that your students will graduate with an understanding of the correlation between world events or the limited, cookie-cutter level of mastery as I did.

As with everything homeschooling, do what is right for your and your family. I just wanted you to know my thoughts on this subject.

[Photo: Free Digital]