Your Own Classical Education

[CamperMom]

What have you used as a "roadmap" or plan for your own classical education?

 

Did you simply learn along with the children or did you go a bit further?

 

Thanks.

[Kim in SouthGa]

well, I'm learning along with them, so hopefully by the time my oldest graduates, I'll somewhat know what I am doing for the other three!;) If I had it to do over, I would have spent more time reading history and literature and studying latin while they were younger so I would be more prepared.

[Rosie_0801]

I'm lucky because I hit on this homeschooling idea when I was pregnant with my eldest, so I have some prep time unlike those who are pulling their kids out of school and hitting the ground running.

 

This year I have started working on Analytical Grammar, and I've even wheedled dh into being my study buddy! In return for that, I've promised to study Latin with him when we finish the grammar. He would rather skip English grammar and jump right into Latin, but I can't so he's obligingly keeping me company through AG. :001_wub: I've also started working on the Well Educated Mind. I'm not getting much done, but every bit counts :)

 

Next year, as I said, I hope we'll be done with AG and ready to start Latin. Dh wants to use Lingua Latina and I want to use Wheelocks. We have different goals there, he wants to speak it, not read, and I want to read, not speak. I guess we'll both do some of each. I also hope to start relearning maths. I want to try out Life of Fred.

 

The plans go on, but I'm too embarrassed to tell them.

 

Rosie

Edited May 5, 2010 by Rosie_0801

[LauraQ]

I wanted to start reading through the WEM reading lists at one point, and did make a start on novels by reading Don Quixote for the first time ever a few years ago, but then I went back to school to study nursing, and now I work full time. While in school, I did use my few elective hours to study literature rather than the typical easy elective credits *everyone else* uses (thrilling classes like Listening to Music and Cinema Appreciation).

 

Right now I'm trying to read at least SOME of the books my dd is studying in VP's Omnibus I, but I'm struggling to keep up. A recent transfer to a new dept at work has meant that I needed to earn a few more certifications and that I have lots more stuff to learn/relearn, and all this has had me swamped with work stuff so I have less time to read. I also have an addiction to sci-fi and fantasy novels that eat up lots of time, and I also tend to get easily side-tracked with other non-fic books I find (including one on how human minds acquire language & grammar, one on non-genetic influences on intelligence that we can affect, and one on the Khmer Rouge occupation of Cambodia in the 70's, just in the last 4-5 months). If it weren't for all that, plus my new-found obsession with reading around the world in Nat Geo mags, I might have time to further my classical education!! LOL!

 

I want to get some things planned out this summer for the kids' school, and get more studying done for work over the next 3 months, and then I think I'll get back to my personal studies some time in the fall.

 

My plans include to read through at least one of the WEM reading lists (preferably on history since that's more interesting to me). I've toyed with the idea recently of finishing a bachelor degree, possibly in PoliSci or History, but we'll see. I also want dh to tutor me through Calculus and Chemistry either as self-study or through classes at a local univ/college (there's a couple to choose from).

[Kareni]

And speaking of being sidetracked ...

 

... I also tend to get easily side-tracked with other non-fic books I find (including one on how human minds acquire language & grammar, ...). I

 

This one sounds intriguing. Title and author, please?

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Peela]

I read a lot of non fiction. Some fiction. I dont generalyl read fluff. But I find it hard to put aside what I am drawn to read in favour of a "classical education" for myself, so I guess I have let go of that ideal.

So for me it has mainly been learning alongside my kids, which has been huge anyway.

Although, sometimes i think about going to university and I do consider doing the Classics. I am drawn to it.

[Karenciavo]

I got a bit of a jump start in that I attended a very good Catholic school for grammar school and my *public* high school followed a bit of a neo-classical method. I didn't know the term "classical education" before I started to research homeschooling, but I recognized it when I saw it.

 

I read a lot of theory when my older two were younger, Quintilian, Cicero, Plato's Socratic dialogs, TWTM, LCC, The Seven Laws of Teaching, Kreeft's Socratic Logic, Corbett's Classical Rhetoric, Adler's How to Read a Book (re-reading now), web sites like Silva Rhetoricae, etc. Sometimes I would learn subjects along with them (Greek) sometimes I worked ahead (Latin.) With TOG I did some rhetoric level work when my oldest was dialectic, and some I did along with him (and some I never did at all ;-)

 

Now most of my self-education is for enjoyment - when I can get to it. I'm hoping to finish working through First Greek Book and begin translating the first 4 books of Xenophon's Anabasis this summer. This has been a very long-term project :tongue_smilie:

[elegantlion]

What have you used as a "roadmap" or plan for your own classical education?

 

Did you simply learn along with the children or did you go a bit further?

 

Thanks.

 

I'm using The Latin-Centered Curriculum as a framework for my ds and my own self-education. Some subjects I am learning ahead of ds, some I'm learning with him.