Here are a couple of discussions about this with some various viewpoints and curriculum: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98411 http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/search.php?searchid=11442693 I like the idea but used it to add to my kid's understanding of the practical, theoretical, thinking skills part of math. I made sure they could picture volumes and distances and had a concrete understanding of how numbers apply to the world. Just kept doing regular math but made sure they understood it from this perspective as well.

I have a very treasured Thumbelina version of that style that my grandma gave me for my birthday when I was about 7. There is a small scratched out area behind the cover picture where I tried to figure out how the picture worked. Tragic to think my childhood is now collectible.

Did you hear that she passed away a couple weeks ago? I would imagine the books will go up in cost now.

I do. We just finished reading it and really like it. Obviously some of the info is outdated but I was surprised how little. It is also pretty dense.

I am not good at putting things into my own words so here are a couple of links to information that helped me clarify what I want: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/authors/matthew-crawford http://www.accsedu.org/files/2009%20CLASSIS/2009%20Spring%20Classis%20Online.pdf The first is a link to some articles by the author of Shop Class as Soul Craft. I particularly liked the last one about science and liberal education. The second is an old newsletter from the Logos school. I don't necessarily agree with everything they say and it is quite religious (just a warning if it matters to you - it wasn't that hard to sort the method from the messenger) from a religious viewpoint that I don't share but there is a lot about teaching science classically that helped me think about what I was doing and how. This quote made me want to step up my teaching, lol, and use the grammar, logic, rhetoric methods and Sayer's stages in how and when I taught what. A physics student in a classical and Christian school sits down to take a mechanics test. After completing the typical grammar questions of recalling certain terms and equations, and the typical logic questions of applying those equations in solving word problems, he then encounters the following rhetoric test question: “You are seated in a gathering of somewhat sophisticated adults watching a World Series baseball game on TV. In response to a batter hitting the ball over the outfield fence for a home run, one of the people in the group wonders out loud how fast the ball must have been going right after the bat hit it in order to barely make it over the fence such a far distance away. Another person in the group, knowing that you are trained well in mechanics, turns to you and asks you to explain the physics involved in the baseball’s travel. Write a detailed response, clarifying all the factors involved.†Not only must the student express exceptional understanding of the phenomenon in question, he must also now clearly, concisely, and persuasively communicate this understanding in terminology his audience can grasp. Learning i s p u s h e d t o w a r d s f r u i t i o n . Science utilizes observation and measurement to uncover the regularities inherent in our physical environment. With a Christian and classical approach to education, we naturally provide our students with both the ideological and historical foundations to science

I don't know what age the author intended them for but I use them with a 12 year old and it works out just fine. Maybe 5th grade at the very youngest. There are supplemental books with worksheets and experiments and writing assignments that are maybe a little bit more mature. The supplemental books aren't necessary but I like them and use them (and they are written to public schoolers). They are published by the Johns Hopkins Talent Development Program/Smithsonian.

For some reason I have two copies of Sea Stories if you want one. It is 1901/1902 copyright, green with a ship on the front.

I have love reading this thread. It has been a very nice kick in the pants. Thank you to everyone who has shared their ideas. I was reading the Circe email newsletter today and towards the bottom is a link to this little blurb about the tension between college entrance and classical education. Really, it is all that keeps me swinging back and forth and I really need to just let go and trust that the education I am providing really will create the wisdom and understanding and thinking skills and knowledge that I know in my heart it can. Not to mention the fully rounded, educated person that I am often on my soap box about. :) Anyway, here It really is quite short, for those of you overwhelmed by all the talks and reading lately.

It isn't so much a reading book as an encyclopedia of rhetorical devices with dozens of example from all different time periods.

My xstepdad was a Mason when I was in highschool so the rest of us were involved in all of the auxillaries. It is a service and leadership group for teenage girls but there is a huge amount of the whole masonic ritual and secret involved in it. Nothing bad but I quit as soon as I could and wouldn't have my kids involved in it.