Homeschooling - Year 1

 Well, as you may have noticed, I have had time to get back to posting on my blog and the reason is that our school year is done! Yeah! We survived our first year homeschooling! And let me say that God was so good to us this year in so many ways!

 First of all, He was good to us in moving us towards homeschooling last year. Our past school underwent some changes and caused us to look for other options which led us to discovering Classical Conversations which is a homeschooling co-op that meets once a week and uses classical education methods (more on that later). We have had a great year at our co-op. The families involved are all amazing and kind. The kids made many new friends. And the weekly classroom experience and accountability is what we needed especially during this transitional year for us.

Also, God was good in having us home school this year because next year Tony is going to seminary! We will be going through many changes this upcoming year - including leaving our current church :( - and it is nice to have a year of home school behind us and new friends made so something will be consistent for the kids this next year.

Another kindness God has given us this past year is to teach us about classical education. I had never heard of classical education before and I am still learning, but what I have experienced and seen in the kids this past year is truly amazing! The short version on classical education is that it is broken down into three stages of learning:

   1. grammar -  memorizing facts of each subject. The subjects we studied this year were U.S History, anatomy and chemistry for science, U.S. geography, English, Latin, math, Bible, art, and music.

   2. dialect - discovering how the facts relate. In this stage Evan studied english grammar, sentence diagramming, and writing. 

  3. rhetoric - applying the facts. here the students learn how to express their findings in clear, persuasive, eloquent ways to others.

For those interested in a more thorough explanation of classical education, I would recommend this article.

Finally, I am so thankful for all of the knowledge we have learned this year. And by we, I mean me as well! The kids truly are sponges at this age and not only learned, but retained so much information through classical education.  And I am enjoying re-learning along with them. Who knew sentence diagramming and Latin could be so fun?!

Thanks to all who prayed for us this year. Please continue to pray as we head into a new chapter of life next fall with all of us in school.