Moonshadows

Eclectic Homeschooling

When my oldest daughter was younger, I assumed we’d be unschoolers.  Somehow, that was just too difficult in practice.  I need more structure and more tangible goals.  I also worry that if something were to happen to me and we could no longer homeschool, that unschooling would leave her way ahead in some areas and way behind in other areas.  Thus, we have a minimum of structure in that she has to keep up with math, spelling, and grammar. 

 I’m really interested in Classical Homeschooling.  I want my daughter to have wonderful logic and rhetoric skills.  I find that many folks today lack an ability to reason and fall for strong opinions.  I want her to have a strong background in the classics (and not American Idol).

 However, I find that _The Well Trained Mind_ seems to be very dismissive of creativity.  Build the skills first, then allow for creativity.  I really do not like that approach.  I will not follow their guidlines very closely, though we have used many of their texts and recommendations.

I’m still searching for a good fit, and I suppose I will always be searching for the right fit at any given moment.

2 comments May 26th, 2006

Not a Daily Dump

At first I thought that I would use this blog as a daily dump of the highlights of each day’s homeschooling accomplishments.  While some may balk at the idea, I do keep a record of all the “official homeschooling” that my eldest daughter soes each day.  I’m not sure why.  Perhaps to show myself how far we’ve come?  Perhaps to help us keep to some type of routine that won’t allow us to slip too far?  I try not to complete lessons just to get them done, but sometimes that is what happens.  I do often review what is working or what is not.  In any case, the listing of what we’ve done is quite dry and uninteresting, best kept for the back of the dusty records drawer.  I think instead I will chronicle some of my feelings about homeschooling here.

Add comment May 26th, 2006