Our first week of school in photographs

We had an amazing first week of 4th grade and preschool. Here's a little bit of what we did!

Preparing for another school year

We're all geared up to begin our 7th year of homeschool next week! I know it's early by most public school standards, but we like to start early in order to have more flexibility to take time off throughout the school year without falling behind in our schedule. It's important to me that we completely finish our grade level by the time we take a summer break.

So I've finished my planning and organizing in preparation for school on Monday. We will again employ a 6 week on/ 1 week off schedule this year after having great success with it last year. So, the first thing I did before I even started my subject planning was print out a 2015-2016 school calendar and figure out, roughly, when we would take our breaks over the course of the next 10 months.

The good, the bad, and the blessings that follow

We're in our seventh week of school. We've already taken a two-week break for our Disney trip, and we'll be taking another week-long break when friends from Bermuda come to visit us in November, and then another holiday week over Thanksgiving. Yet we're still plugging along and exactly where I had wanted us to be by this time.

But it wasn't without a few difficult days.

First week in review

Our first week of school is over!

All in all, things went really well. There were no tears (mine or Asher's), and I enjoyed each day. Let's hope this feeling stays with us through spring. :)

Getting ready for 3rd grade

It is truly hard to believe my "baby" will be starting third grade this fall.

And it's also kinda hard to believe I've been homeschooling formally for three years, not including preschool. I am in no way an expert, but I have to admit that the planning part of things gets a little easier each year.

As I've mentioned before, we're following a classical style of education. In a nutshell, that just means we're studying history chronologically in four-year cycles, and our subjects align with the history we're learning that year. I use an incredible book called The Well-Trained Mind as my guide, and then I choose my own curricula based on how my child learns.

After this year's homeschool convention, I read the following statement in a pamphlet:

Man, was I convicted.

First week of 2nd grade is in the books

We started school a little bit early this year. Last year we made an international move in early September, so we didn't begin 1st grade until well after Labor Day. Throughout the year we squeezed in a couple trips to Bermuda and Disney World, so by the end I was a little stressed about finishing on time.

Not this year. This year we started an entire month early to enable us to take more holidays throughout the school year for vacations, sick days, and those days we just need a break. Basically, I wanted enough cushion for flexibility.

We were both ready to get back into the swing of things the first week of August. I missed the routine of the school day, and even though he would probably say otherwise, I think Asher did, too.

So on Monday, August 5, we started 2nd grade.

First Grade

Now that we're more than halfway finished with kindergarten, I've ordered all of Asher's books for first grade (in Bermuda it's called P2). We're switching curricula from Sonlight to classical education based on the Well-Trained Mind.

I am excited. And a little intimidated.

We'll be past the cutesy stuff of Kindergarten. We'll be digging deeper into subjects. The work will be more consistent with "real" schoolwork, not just coloring pictures. And it's going to take us much of the day instead of simply a few hours every morning.

But it's going to be fantastic!

Here's what we'll be doing (I'll make a more firm schedule as we near our start date):

Spelling: 10-15 minutes daily
Language lessons: 15-20 minutes daily
Reading: 30 minutes daily
Reading "fun" books: 30 minutes daily
Writing: 5-20 minutes 2-3 times per week
Math: 30-40 minutes daily
History: 3 hours per week
Science: 60 minutes twice per week
Bible: 30 minutes daily
Art: 1-2 times per week
Music: 1 hour per week
German: 2-3 times per week

We will also have a regular Library Day so Asher can choose his own "fun books" to read, as well as homeschooling events such as classes at the Bermuda Aquarium, Kindermusik, and sports.

The Classical Education

We've decided to teach Asher using the methods of Classical Education, starting when he's in first grade (age 6). So what exactly does that mean? To explain, here are some excerpts from The Well-Trained Mind, the book that ultimately convinced me to homeschool:

What is classical education?
It is language-intensive -- not image-focused. It demands that students use and understand words, not video images.
It is history-intensive, providing students with a comprehensive view of human endeavor from the beginning until now.
It trains the mind to analyze and draw conclusions.
It demands self-discipline.
It produces literate, curious, intelligent students who have a wide range of interests and the ability to follow up on them.

The classical pattern of the trivium is the three-part process of training the mind.
The first years of schooling are called the grammar stage -- not because you spend four years doing English, but because these are the years in which the building blocks for all other learning are laid, just as grammar is the foundation for language. 
The second phase of the classical education, the logic stage, is a time when the child begins to pay attention to cause and effect, to the relationships among different fields of knowledge, to the way facts fit together into a logical framework.
The final phase of a classical education, the rhetoric stage, builds on the first two. At this point, the high-school student learns to write and speak with force and originality.

A classical education is more than just a pattern of learning, though. First, it is language-focused: learning is accomplished through words, written and spoken, rather than through images (pictures, videos, and television). Why? Language requires the mind to work harder; in reading, brain is forced to translate a symbol (words on the page) into a concept. Images, such as those on videos and television, allow the mind to be passive.
Second, a classical education follows a specific three-part pattern: the mind must be first supplied with facts and images, then given the logical tools for organization of those facts and images, and finally equipped to express conclusions.
Third, to the classical mind, all knowledge is interrelated. Astronomy, for example, isn't studied in isolation; it's learned along with the history of scientific discovery, which leads into the church's relationship to science and from there to the intricacies of medieval church history. The reading of the Odyssey allows the student to consider Greek history, the nature of heroism, the development of the epic, and humankind's understanding of the divine.

A classical education takes history as its organizing outline, beginning with the ancients and progressing forward to the moderns in history, science, literature, art, and music.

The 12 years of education consists of three repetitions of the same four-year pattern: 

1. The ancients (5000 BC - AD 400)
2. The medieval period through the early Renaissance (400-1600)
3. The late Renaissance through the early modern times (1600-1850)
4. Modern times (1850-present)

The child studies these four time periods at various levels -- simple for grades 1 through 4, more difficult in grades 5 through 8 (when the student begins to read original sources), and taking an even more complex approach in grades 9 through 12, when the student works through these time periods using original sources (from Homer to Hitler) and also has the opportunity to pursue a particular interest (music, dance, technology, medicine, biology, creative writing) in depth.


Classical education is, above all, systematic -- in direct contrast to the scattered, unorganized nature of so much secondary education. Rigorous, systematic study has two purposes. Rigorous study develops virtue in the student: the ability to act in accordance to what one knows to be right. Virtuous men or women can force themselves to do what they know is right, even when it runs against their inclinations. Classical education continually asks a student to work against her baser tendencies (laziness or the desire to watch another half hour of TV) in order to reach a goal - mastery of a subject.