The Latin-Centered Curriculum

I am so glad that Jennifer left this entry. I am kind of new to homeschooling as my oldest daughter is 7 1/2 and would be in second grade by state standards. My name is Sandra, I am married, and I have two children, a seven-year-old daughter and a son who just turned four. I have been in a state charter school for the last two-and-one-half years. It was a horrible match for us. I just left this last December (2006).

I have known that I would homeschool since before my first child was even born. The two educational philosophies that I was drawn to over and over were classical and Charlotte Mason. At first I thought "unschooling" was Charlotte Mason. But unschooling is too chaotic for me and quite terrifying. I agree with Drew Campbell's assessment of it that we cannot allow an uneducated person to know what it is that he needs to learn. At the same time, I felt that there were a lot of truth to the unschooling method: letting the child delve deeply into what really interested him; the fact that some of the best learning takes place when the person is motivated and is teaching himself; that pressure and too much test-taking are counter productive; that children who are allowed to explore and learn on their own will be more likely to become, and remain, lifelong learners, etc. I found the balance, I believe, in Charlotte Mason. It is again echoed in the same article or blog, I can't remember which, in which Drew Cambell wrote that there are subjects that are geared toward classical methods, Latin, math, etc., and subjects where we can let the child explore on their own, such as science, art, nature study, etc. So, I loved reading Jennifer's entry!

I guess that is my goal also, LCC and Charlotte Mason, but I don't know exactly how to do it. I think this is where I am heading:

-LCC outline of subjects and schedule (generally speaking. I am a firm believer in individualizing a program).
-Charlotte Mason type principles of how to do certain subjects.

My priorities for the days are:

-morning chores and tidying up the house
-Bible reading and worship time (we are protestant Christians)
-math
-Latin (when we begin it, sometime in the summer or next fall. I feel that my daughter is not quite ready, but I am so excited to
start!)
-copybook (memory work and handwriting)
-reading books aloud (LCC plan, but not to the letter)
-playing outside

My problem is that I want to do so many other things!!!! I want to do a lot of art and projects and field trips and hands-on stuff. I want to let my daughter delve into subjects she is interested in, aside from the other things covered in the day. I am scared to death about not doing English grammar, although I firmly believe in the arguments for just doing the Latin grammar. I am afraid of anything I leave out. I want a personalized, classical eduation for my children, that rounds them out into wonderful people who love literature, art, music, good conversation, physical activity and being outdoors. I want them to be lifelong readers and people who are able to teach themselves anything they want to learn, not afraid to roll up their sleeves and tackle something new. I want them to have all the character traits that Charlotte Mason believed so strongly in and that we in western civilization have always admired. I look at the above list of priorities and some days it feels so right and able to produce such people. Other days I look at it and think, "Are you kidding? Go by K12, or ABeka, or ____________", (fill in the blank). It is as if I want this radical, simple but deep education for my kids, but am afraid when I try to live it out.

I just am still wrestling with how to mesh all that I think is right for my family. The public charter school was not good for us at all, as I mentioned before. The program was constantly pushing us toward state standards, they were test-obsessed, and we basically felt as if we were trying to be conformed to a public school education track, which is correct since charter schools are public schools. I was trying to loosely implement WTM in the charter school and it was going against the grain on almost every front. I finally saw the 'error of my ways' and dropped, both the charter school and the craziness of trying to do everything in the WTM. We are still kind of deschooling, if you know what I mean. We are reorienting ourselves to be in charge and not let the state be. And at the same time, we are trying to find out what we really believe about what we should be learning. We haven't done too much school since we dropped, due to a huge home remodel which is coming to an end, and due to the fact that I felt we needed a bit of a break since being in the state charter school was so stressful and really burned us out.

I am sorry for ranting and rambling so long. I am an external processor, and writing things out to someone really helps me work through my thoughts. I was just so excited to see your entry because it mirrored my own experiment. And I loved that you seemed to be productive, having fun, and having lots of free time. I hope that is my testimony also!

I would love to hear more update of how everything is going and if anyone else is doing the same thing. I will try to post some experiences when we finally start up again after our hiatus and actually have some experiences to post.

Sandi