Classical Education

 As you may know, we are a homeschooling family. We teach our children classically and hope to model the art of learning. We hope to equip our children with the proper tools needed to truly grasp what is presented, how to apply what they have learned or even how they learned it. The goal is for each child to walk away retaining what they have learned and with knowledge of how to approach the next subject.  The children are being taught to think outside of the box, are introduced to multiple subjects and are encouraged to relate that information to the next subject. The classical learning model equips our children with the tools and passion for life long learning.

   The Trivium of classical education is comprised of three stages, the grammar stage, the dialectic stage and the rhetoric stage. During the grammar stage, information is gathered and committed to memory for application in the latter stages. The dialectic stage introduces logical thinking and encourages questioning and discussion. The rhetoric stage allows the student the opportunity to apply knowledge acquired by expressing themselves persuasively through writing and speech. The Trivium provides the student with a style of learning designed specifically for their age providing ample opportunity for the child to flourish during each stage of learning.

   The integration of subjects gives the student a big picture outlook on what is being studied by showing how different subjects are related. Integrating subjects encourages students to transfer knowledge from one subject to another. It develops  a deep understanding of the material and allows the student to  master what they are learning. The integration of subjects mimics real life by enabling the student to develop a skill in one subject and sharpen that skill in another. It broadens the student's perspective and shows how God truly weaves all things together!

 He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17

More on how we do what we do coming soon. In the meantime I am trying to get everyone settled in our new home while not falling behind in our schooling. If you have questions or need encouragement, please reach out to me on Instagram. Thank you for reading. 

Grace & peace,

Adoring Family

Anybody Out There in The Mood For Some π

This is one of our favorite songs so in honor of Pi Day we thought we would share it with you. We have about half of it memorized but hope to get all of it by summer!
 Hope it helps you celebrate 3-14-15!

Grace and peace,
Adoring Family

The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge,
And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

Proverbs 18:15

I am grateful for the privilege of educating our children at home We take the classical approach and attempt to make the acquisition of knowledge a pleasant experience. We hope to develop a lifetime love of learning through study and life experiences.

I have mentioned that we use the Classical Conversations curriculum as an elemental portion of our homeschooling. I cannot tell you enough how much I appreciate everything about this curriculum. The best part is our community. The children attend "school" one day a week and do awesome science experiments, unique art projects, study  math, geography, Latin, English grammar, history, fine arts, and give presentations to practice their public speaking skills. Classical Conversations is broken up into three yearly cycles. We are in Cycle 3 this year which focuses on American History. For geography we learn our states, capitals, landmarks and rivers and lakes.

For a fun geography activity we have a large puzzle map of the United States that the children enjoy putting together. We have also purchased the flashcards which have information about each state. Last year we chose a state per week to learn about using the flashcards and learned each state's flower, state bird and capital. Our favorite way to practice our states and capitals is the song below. Because of this fun song I am excited to say I have finally memorized my states and capitals as well! We love the catchy tune and it is so cute to see the kiddos dancing and singing along. I hope you enjoy it! Let me know if you have any other fun ideas for memorizing states and capitals :)

Grace and Peace,

Adoring Family

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Morning Routine With a Newborn

Our family thrives on a routine. Before our 4th baby arrived I knew I would have to develop a routine we could easily adhere to in order to ensure our children's schooling did not fall behind. We are not rigid with our routines but we find they are the backbone of our day. The children enjoy the rythm and seem more balanced in their behavior when we adhere to our routines. It doesn't always work out perfectly but below is our ideal morning routine...

Morning Routine:

Our rooster starts crowing around 4am and that is usually the time I wake to feed my baby. I will lay in bed and cuddle her till about 4:30 or 4:45 (ETA who wrote that? this no longer happens. I guess technically it does but then daylight savings happened so it is now 5:30 or 5:45) and then I get up. It's early, I know but I am refreshed at this time and I have found if I go back to sleep I feel more tired when it is time for me to get up at 6:00.

1. Feed baby girl 

 2.Quiet Time: This is the time I read my Bible, write in my prayer journal, give thanks, dedicate my day to the Lord and ask Him to give me a soft heart, gentle temperament and kind yet firm disposition. I pray for a passion, love and delight in God's Word. "For then you will delight in the Almighty And lift up your face to God." Job 22:6

3. Workout routine

4. Pack husband's lunch and green smoothies for us to enjoy for breakfast (he eats breakfast tacos at work and I will have eggs later with the children).

5. Blog. I aim for 3-5 entries per week (haha, I'm lucky to get 3).

6. Breakfast with children (eggs, fresh from our chickens). I then go over my daily planner/to do list and meal plan. Proverbs 16:3 says "Commit your works to the LORD And your plans will be established." I commit my day to Him and pray we honor Him in all we do.

7. Between 8:30 and 9:00am I get the children on track with their daily chores. I find the children do best when I go into their room with them and start helping them rather than just giving them a list of chores to do on their own. Once they have a good momentum I'll throw on a load of laundry, make my bed and get dressed.

8. Bible study with kiddos. We pray, sing some fun praise songs, go over our weekly memory verse and the children enjoy morning snack while I read. It is usually time for the baby's morning snack as well :)

9. Begin math, reading and writing. In order to effectively homeschool with a newborn, I sought programs that would intorduce the material to the children while I could nurse or help the other two school. For math we use Teaching Textbooks (I will give a full review in a later post). Reading, spelling and vocabulary are Reading Bear and now adding Progressive Phonics (thanks, Jen). Writing is Explode the Code(workbooks purchased from Amazon) and we write out a new memory verse each week.  We use Classical Conversations for History, Science, Latin, English and Geography. These are not affiliate links.

12:00 lunch

12:30 clean up lunch and sing Classical Conversations memory work.

I recently thought it would be wise to do some early spring decluttering so we discussed taking a week off from our routines. By Thursday we were all going stir crazy. Things didnt get accomplished as I had hoped and the children were bored. Friday we implemented our routine and the children had a much better day and I got a lot more accomplished. Seems somewhat contradictory  but hey, it works for us! I enjoy hearing other mom's routines as we are always tweaking ours to fit the changing seasons of life. Please share what your morning looks like in the comments below. I would love to get ideas from you for our next season of life!

Grace and peace,

Adoring Family

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