Classical Education...your success stories

[Elena]

Disclosure: This is also posted in the PK-8 Curriculum board, but Collen suggested that I post it here as well. Thanks.....

 

I am super new to homeschooling. In fact, I haven't even started yet. We will probably start in one month. I own TWTM and do like very much what I read in it, so I think this is the route we will take. However, I would like to hear from WTM veterans. Now that TWTM has been in circulation for 10 years, I would love to hear your success stories. Who has used it since it first came out? Who has graduated their children using it for a good number of their homeschooling years? Any other success stories? Please share.

[Colleen in NS]

bumping this up for you. ;)

[Michelle in MO]

Well, we didn't graduate ours from homeschooling, but did use methods from TWTM for 6 of the 7 years we homeschooled. I guess I would say that the extensive and difficult reading we did really helped prepare my older two girls very well for the private high school that they're in. Even though it's a good high school, they did far more reading and writing at home, in some ways, than they are at this high school. All three girls have made a good adjustment to school (exception: no one likes homework!).

[Jane in NC]

Hi Elena,

 

Welcome to the WTM boards and home education.

 

Answers to your question will depend upon the poster's own definition of "success". My son at 16 is a well educated young man in part because of WTM recommendations. Whether colleges agree with my assessment in terms of admission and merit aid is yet to be determined. ;)

 

Not everyone on these boards employs TWTM faithfully. Those who use the reading lists and discussion technique recommendations are often amazed by their students--or the places that conversations go in the months or years that follow the initial reading of certain Great Books.

 

We all know that students around the country do not have equal educational opportunities. When my son was in elementary school, there were no magnet schools with alternate educational philosophies or emphasis in our area--still aren't. Our public schools then taught reading and arithmetic in elementary grades with minimal science and almost no history. Thus I placed my son in a private Montessori school where he could find some academic balance. I purchased the first edition of TWTM at some point in those elementary years knowing that my son would probably be home schooled. We started in 7th, around the time the second edition of TWTM was published. I really feel like my son has grown up with these books as guiding lights!

 

I think the key is to determine what the priorities are for your family. TWTM has laid out a good approach for our son to be part of the "great conversation".

 

Success? I think so.

 

Best regards,

Jane

[Nan in Mass]

But the story isn't done yet. Ask me in ten years, when I know how my children are faring in life GRIN.

 

I'm using TWTM with my younger two. We've been doing it for 7 1/2 years. One is 18 now and has been taking classes at the community college for 11th and 12th grade, as well as doing some things at home with me and teaching himself some things. He began TWTM when we pulled him out of ps in 5th grade. He has been accepted to the college of his choice. The other is 14. He went to ps kindergarten then switched to TWTM at home. I modify TWTM to fit us, but even where I've modified it, I use the general idea. I consider TWTM to be very successful for us. It is flexible enough that we can take full advantage of the freedom of homeschooling, incorporating travel and other non-academic ways of learning. It specifically teaches skills, doesn't just assume that my children will naturally learn to do things like write, so I don't have to worry about "holes" in their education. It teaches procedures to follow for learning a subject, so once you understand the procedure, it is easy to tailor things to your child's level and interests. You can apply the procedure to whatever you want. The procedures require a minimum of preparation on my part, which is important for us. And as my children get older, I can see them applying the procedure ON THEIR OWN to whatever they want to find out about or learn or discuss or think about. Mostly, I hear them discussing things, even between themselves, in a thinking way, using the method taught in TWTM. They don't just believe people, even adults, when they tell them something that doesn't fit with what they've learned about the world. They will even go see the latest James Bond movie with the scouts and come home and tell me about it in WTM terms, discussing the historical background, how true-to-life it is, why a scene was included, whether the movie "worked", which actors did a good job, whether I would like it, the popularity of violence and its impact on society. They don't just tell me, "It was a good movie." My older one is managing his community college classes ok, getting good grades, and has been accepted to the college of his choice. My children like the education they've received, and are still curious and "alive". I think TWTM provides a very, very rich, individualized education. I've written more in past posts. If you do a search for TWTM and Nan in Mass, you should find some, hopefully.

Good luck on your journey! Have fun! Enjoy your children!

-Nan

[LoriM]

My older dd spent 7th-14th grades at home (grin), using WTM as our primary resource in our homeschooling plan. She didn't come home until 7th grade, so we did four years in two (LOL) to "catch up" on her logic stage studies. She did the entire four-year cycle of history and science in four semesters. WHEW.

 

Anyway, she's a super kid, who is a senior at the university, studying both art and mathematics (majoring in math, minoring in art). She's engaged to be married next January. She's held a job. She's kept her 4.0 GPA. She is happy, creative, charming. I'd say she's a WTM success.

 

My younger dd is still baking :) but is a freshman at the CC, having completed 90% of our "at home" requirements for high school. She doesn't study in quite the same academic depth as her sister, but is certainly well-trained. She has entirely different interests than her older sister...and has been home since 3rd grade (she also had to do four years in two, and completed the grammar stage in two years, because her mother is a nut!). She is happy, has dozens of friends, is creative, hilarious, and her sister's soon-to-be maid of honor. Also...a success!

 

Me? I'm still baking too! I never feel like I've learned enough. I was just reading the thread on Thucydides (my 7th and 8th graders are reading that now) and thinking I need to pull my copy of Landmark Thucydides out to reread the passages Janie recommended this weekend. I never bought Herodotus, so maybe that would be a good thing to add to my summer reading! And I teach math and science, so my list of science reading is never-ending. I believe that my students learn from my over-flow, so I have to fill up quite regularly. I'm still training my mind. As old as it's getting, it needs training wheels or a cane most days!

 

But I'm happy. I have great kids. I was lucky to spend 8 years with them at home. I am lucky they still come to me with their challenges, and we still challenge each other to learn more, think more, and read more. Piling up with a good book is the norm at our house, even now, when they are 16 and 19. Last night, I cooked dinner while my older daughter read aloud to her fiance, her sister and me. Lovely.

 

That is a success.

[Janie]

I'm pasting a post I made in the fall about this topic, but I've added about the other three kiddos too.

 

After all those years of teaching my children and wondering if it was worth it---it was. Our four children were all home educated all the way through high school graduation. The oldest is twenty-seven and the youngest is twenty-one. My kids are very far from perfect or even where I would like them to be. But, when I came across a recent line that our oldest had written as part of a required description of herself, I think she confirmed that we did something right after all.

 

"My parents raised me to always seek knowledge, to be a life-long learner, and to reach for the stars & beyond."

Currently, she is an RN in the post-cardiac surgery unit and a paramedic state instructor. She is working on her RN to MSN degree with plans to teach college-level nursing. After that degree is complete, she plans to pursue her doctorate in nursing practice. Life-long, yes.

 

Our second dd is a SSG Army Reserve (active). In the last seven years she has had three deployments to Africa, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She is taking classes through to Army and has served our country well. I'm sure part of the reason she has been so successful in what she has done is because of the rich home education she had.

 

One son is almost finished with his degree in Chemistry and the other son is a dialysis technician and living on his own. Both are quite independent.

 

As for me, after homeschooling for twenty years, I have been teaching middle school history and English in a private school. I teach classically and am doing all I can to transition our school to classical. I can't imagine not teaching. Homeschooling a la WTM certainly revealed my own educational deficits, but it also enriched my desire and ability to learn. I've learned what it is to live the good life!

[Oakblossoms]

Janie...thank you for your post. I'm going to follow your blog now. It's so amazing that you are apart of this new school.