Mama and Teacher

We've bounced around educationally these past few years, trying to find the right fit for our family.  It's always right about now (late winter to early spring) when I start praying, researching, seeking another educational alternative for our family.  This year, however, I am happy to say we are staying put in our HOME SCHOOL!  While I am sure we will tweak curriculum and class-day co-ops here and there, I am thrilled to have such surety about the foreseeable future.  I honestly didn't expect to love learning with my boys this much.  

One of the big things we were part of this first year was a group called Classical Conversations. For 24 weeks children (and parents) study History, Grammar, Science, Math, and Latin together through a Classical format.  At this stage with young ones that means tons of memorization work.  Caleb, now 9, understands much more about what he is memorizing than his pre-school aged brother, but we are all going through the information together.

I confess that doing this class-day each week on top of our full at-home curriculum was a lot for me this first year in the trenches.  Truthfully, I wasn't sure I'd take it all on again next year.  The worst part for me this year was the guilt I felt that I wasn't doing as a good of a job as the other Classical Conversation moms around me.  They were reading more books to reinforce the history learning and practicing their memory more diligently.  For goodness' sake, I simply wanted my children to come joyfully to the school table when they were called! 

That said, I wasn't sure I was going to be doing Classical Conversations again next year.  And then suddenly something wonderful happened.  A couple of somethings, actually!  First of all, I was dumbfounded to find that my 3rd grader actually had memorized nearly all of his history and science sentences!  And the facts we had tucked away began popping up in our conversations together. Then my middle-est, who doesn't like class-days ANYWHERE and fights me tooth and nail to be part of any community, started enjoying our CC days.  But the final straw was Dr. Suess!  Seriously!  I was reading to my pre-schooler one night recently, "HOP ON POP" by Dr. Suess and the last page ended with "CONSTANTINOPLE and TIMBUKTU."

I gasped and said, "Asher, you know about Constantinople!  Who was the Emperor who founded Constantinople?"  

"Emperor Constantine," he answered rather matter of fact. 

"What was it that Emperor Constantine did?" I asked.

"He legalized Christianity."  Asher smiled, quite proud of himself, I think,

"And Timbuktu... Asher, do you remember studying Timbuktu on the map?  It's in West Africa."

"Yep," he responded, "The Songhei ruled Timbuktu."

I know my pre-K'er isn't heading off to Stanford or Yale tomorrow because he can put together bits of information, but I saw fruit hanging from this grid of knowledge we have begun forming this first year.  And Classical Conversations has been a huge part of that!

And so I've signed our family up again, ordered the Cycle Two curriculum, and feel peace.  The best part of all.  Peace.  

If the examples above pushed me over the edge to commit to another year of Classical Conversations, then the dialogue I enjoyed with my 3rd grader last week was icing on the cake and sweet confirmation.  We had just began reading through the second volume of The Story of the World over lunch, diving straight into the Middle Ages.  I pulled out a coloring book of beautiful, intricately drawn Castles that I had purchased months ago and hid away until this time in our History lessons.  Beneath each picture was the name of the specific castle, along with the location and some brief history.  As we turned each page I asked Caleb if the location had been part of the Roman Empire (which we had just wrapped up learning about).  

"This castle is in France," I said.  

"It was called Gaul when the Romans were there," Caleb replied. 

"What about this one?" I asked.  

"Yep... but it was known as Germania not Germany?

"And these two?"

"Yes, and yes... they're in Britain.  Don't you remember, Mom?  The British didn't like the Romans and they'd paint themselves blue and come out to fight the Romans all naked! 

Once again, he's not writing a thesis paper for his Master's Degree, but we are learning!  Learning! It's such a miracle to get to do it together.  And a greater miracle still that we know we'll be doing it again next year!  (sigh)