The Latin-Centered Curriculum

Last fall, I picked up the book Climbing Parnassus by Tracy Lee Simmons. I could not get enough of this book. I must have underlined something on every page. Last spring I came across Andrew Campbell's The Latin-Centered Curriculum. While I found Climbing Parnassus to be inspirational, I found The Latin-Centered Curriculum to be practical... doable. It is as though Campbell is saying, "This is how you climb Parnassus."

My family's homeschool has gradually changed in the last nine months. While the changes were gradual, the results have been dramatic. During the first four years of our homeschool, we followed The Well-Trained Mind. Having found the TWTM and Susan Wise Bauer as we were about to begin homeschooling was a blessing beyond what I can accurately describe. It has been a guide or map that has never left me feeling like so many homeschoolers I have come to know - "How do I know what I'm supposed to do next?" However, I had always had a nagging feeling about our homeschool schedule, and it would rear its ugly head from time-to-time. The feeling reminded me of what I considered to be my greatest failure as a homeschooler. It seemed that no matter how many different schedules I had come up with in our four years of homeschooling, the result was always the same: Our home felt too much like school.

Then came Climbing Parnassus. As I began the initial steps on the Climbing Parnassus journey, I was able to shed some of our subjects. The first was English grammar. I decided that we could cover grammar in Latin and writing. I also decided to pare down our list of literature. Instead of reading many, many fantastic books, we would read three-four of the most "top-notch" books during the academic year. These changes brought some much-needed breathing space into our daily lives. The most dramatic shift came less than a week after the Classical Christian Home Educators seminar last April. One of the messages that Andrew Kern from The Circe Institute kept relaying was "relax." He reminded me that, more than anything, my children were going to remember the attitudes we express in our homeschool. Though I was greatly inspired, I was also frustrated when I left the seminar. I knew I needed to relax. But how? I could never figure out how. No one had ever been able to tell me how. So, I prayed--yet again--that God would show me what I needed to do to make the changes I needed to make in our home. Little did I know He was about to answer my prayer.

The Friday after the seminar, I was scheduled to meet with the mothers of our co-op. Because we were going to meet in the early afternoon, our school day would be short. I was exhausted from our busy week. I was utterly despondent over a stack of books I had intended to read aloud to my boys during the week but never got to because of our busyness. So much for relaxing. After my morning cup of coffee, still not having the energy or even the desire to begin our school day, I told my two boys, "Pile onto Mommy and Daddy's bed. Today we are going to read." And so I read. I read for hours. I read several chapters out of a few books. I read living history books. I read our current literature pick. I read an assortment of library books. Next thing I knew, it was time to head over to my co-op meeting. I felt elated. I had no idea that I was actually on to something that would change our lives.

The weekend flew by quickly. As Sunday evening rolled around, Monday morning was staring me straight in the face. I felt uneasy. I was not ready to go back to the daily grind. The Friday before had been wonderfully relaxing. I did not want to let go of it yet. I decided we would spend another day simply reading. And so began our new schedule. Mondays and Fridays are for "reading aloud" our history, literature, Bible and assorted library books--with time set aside for math and Latin. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are for "desk work." This includes writing, math, Latin, Bible study and memory work. The greatest thing is, our homeschool no longer "feels" like school the way I knew school. Our schedule is our own—very personal. Because we do our "necessary" reading on Mondays and Fridays, I no longer have to try to get to the readings during our "desk work" days. I no longer have to try to read at 3:00 in the afternoon when I would rather be napping. I no longer have to say, "Let's read it tomorrow," and then watch the stack of unread books tease me about how far behind I have fallen.

Now we have time to do additional "for- fun" reading. My boys have more time to play outdoors, practice pitching, learn to play new songs on the piano, build tables from scrap wood, work on their dives or play a board game. And I have time to relax. I have time to be the homeschool mom I had always pictured. I have time to be there for my fellow homeschooling friends. As a family, we now have time for "the good life" my husband and I so greatly want for our boys. Most of all, we simply have time to hear the faint whispers of God truly guiding us in our everyday learning experiences. This is how I had always imagined our homeschool would be. Moreover, I have found much-needed support for our new lifestyle by way of Andrew Campbell's Latin-Centered Curriculum.

Just as The Well-Trained Mind served as a roadmap during our first four-plus years of homeschooling, The Latin-Centered Curriculum now serves as our new roadmap as we continue our homeschool journey onto Climbing Parnassus. Again, I am blessed to have something that will keep me from having to ask myself, "How do I know what I'm supposed to do next?"

Debra Duran Loucks wrote this article for her local classical Christian homeschool newsletter. Many thanks to Debra for allowing it to appear here!