Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Classical Homeschooling: Anyone doing it?

We are homeschooling this year and things are going great. However, I have become intrigued by the classical homeschooling ideology and am considering switching over to it after the Christmas holiday.

Are there any classical home educators who can tell me why they selected the method and how it is working with their gifted child?

I like the theory because it is very heavy on language as the main learning hub and that is one of my child's strongest strengths.

We use pieces of Classical ideology and like the booklists and suggestions. I think it's hard to perfectly tailor to a HG+ child, but I refer to the book on a pretty regular basis.

In terms of literature, my child reads 1-2 hours daily without prompting and nothing he chooses is less than 2 to 3 years beyond his real grade level. Occasionally, I'll prod him to read something in particular, but I mostly let him pick. As long as he's getting regular exposure to challenging vocab and well written books, I'm not so hung up on what exactly he reads. He just did well on the SCAT, so I'm ok with we're at for now.

We LOVE the Michael Clay Thomspon curriculum. It is really designed with gifted learners in mind and it is fast to get through. And fun. Even my 5 year old runs around quoting the stories (it's in storybook format). And I am generally a curriculum skeptic. It's far and away the most expensive homeschooling curriculum we've bought.

I have never heard of Michael Clay Thompson, but I am going to look into it. Thanks for the lead!

I do feel as though I am already following much of the classical ideology (lots of reading), daily math, lots of history, etc. However, I am not currently doing the memorization piece, and we are following a different kind of writing program. Right now, my son writes using webs similar to those in public school. As you probably know, the classical method using narration and dictation to teach writing. I think this may work better for my son, but I am worried that it won't give him the skills he needs if/when he returns to public school.

MCT comes highly recommended. I spent too much time and money on my English degrees to use him (LOL!), but if I chose a prepared language arts curriculum, his would be my pick.

The memorization piece is my problem with classical homeschooling. This would NOT appeal to my kids...or to me!

Are you planning to have your DS return to school? I don't think narration and dictation would be a big problem. But I'm not an expert on that.

I have to admit I'm a little confused by what to do with the MCT books. I ordered the grammar books from the website, and my son read them... and we were both a little bit confused about what else to do with them.

It doesn't seem to represent a whole curriculum. Am I missing something?

I like the IDEA of the classical model but I don't think I could follow the whole curriculum either. I like the booklists and the idea of approaching everything (science, math, language) from a historical perspective.

I think there are parent/teacher books, aren't there?

I could be wrong, I've only glanced at the curriculum, and most of my time was spent with the kids' books.

One of the reasons we're eclectic homeschoolers is because I want to be free to use everything that sounds good and reject anything that doesn't work for us. Historical approach. Yes! Memorization? Nope! That works for us.

The grammar books themselves are only pieces of the MCT curriculum.

Here's a question, what are you considering classical model? I ask because it seems to mean something different to different people. We do a lot of literature based history. My DD will be starting MCT online in February. We also use some WTM materials. I wouldn't considered myself a classical homeschooler or a WTM homeschooler because we use so many different things. My siggy from another board is a representation of our curriculum.

Current plan: SL Cores K, 1 & 6 (secularly), FLL, WWE, ETC, MCP, WW, VE, SOTW, Journey Across Time, Exploring Our World, EPGY, Key to Algebra, Lial's BCM, SM, MM, Kumon, Glencoe and Pearson Sciences, PLATO Science, RS4K, tons of living science books, dissections and labs, HOP, UniqueReader, HWT, tons of other misc., and everything I find interesting at our library.

Feel free to ask questions. We are also adding AAS after Christmas.

Did you get the teacher's guides? We bought the whole package with Practice Island. The back of the Teacher's guides have suggestions. My son journals or writes daily and we are talking about grammar/sentance stuff constanly. My 5 year old enjoys the stories and even conceptually understands the pieces, but she is definitely not ready for the writing or implementation. My son would be a 3rd grader. And I'm glad we waited until this age. He's the right age for really getting the humor in the stories and the writing exercises. I had a jr. high English teacher look at the curriculum and she was extremely impressed. She said it really was what they cover in 7th/8th grade packaged nicely for younger kids.

Hello, I am new here. My ds, soon to be 8, is doing a classical like cyber school education with me. I tweak the curriculum with the Well Trained Mind recommendations. I think that narration and dictation are fantastic. At first, I thought it was not a very useful technique, but now I think it works great.

There is a Writing with Ease textbook and workbooks put out by the same author. How old is your child? I think that even an older child can benefit from this technique which leads to full blown composition. I think it is definitely worth exploring. You could also combine the techniques used in the Writing with Ease with other techniques as well.

OH no, you guys have me researching MCT. It's been hot at the WTM curriculum board. Must. resist. REsistance is futile.

Dazey