The Well-Educated Mind and self-educating

[KrissiK]

I have The Well-Educated Mind and have tired rather unsuccessfully to follow the recommendations because I feel like I have had a horrible education (both my own fault and the fault of the educational institutions I attended) and would like to make up for it. However, I just can't do it. I get overwhelmed and intimidated, especially since I feel like I'm going at it alone. I'm looking at Omnibus by VP, it looks a little more directed, but I don't know. Has anyone ever tried self-educating before? What have you found to be successful?

[garddwr]

First of all, you've probably already been self-educating as you homeschool your kids. You're teaching English, Math, History, Latin, Geography, Science, and phonics--and I'll bet you've learned things about every one of those topics you didn't know before! Beyond that, I would say if you have an idea of what you want your children to study in high school, start there. If that is the VP Omnibus, then go ahead and study it. Don't worry about getting through an entire program in a year--you're a busy mom. But choose a time every day--an hour, a half hour, fifteen minutes if that's all you have--and set it aside. Let your kids see you studying, it will be one of the best lessons you will ever teach them.

 

--Sarah

[KristenR]

Let your kids see you studying, it will be one of the best lessons you will ever teach them.

 

--Sarah

 

:iagree:

 

 

Looking back, I too feel that my education was sorely lacking. I picked up The Well Trained Mind awhile back and had these visions of rereading and "absorbing" classics like never before. But duty calls. I have three children under the age of five that I plan on homeschooling. There are times when I feel like my wants are always being put on the back burner- but truthfully I am already learning so much just by homeschooling at a K level. For example I learned things in AAS that I NEVER learned in school.

And now with Miquon math I keep having these A-HAH! moments. I can only hope that my dds pick up on my enthusiasm for learning and implement in their lives at an early age than I did.

 

If I can have them see me pursuing learning (and willingly so) while having fun

then maybe school won't ever get to a "chore" point.

 

For now I am not able to balance doing the things laid out in the Well Trained Mind; but I hope to be able to incorporate the basic teaching into my homeschooling environment so I can grow from where I am now.

[Critterfixer]

I also have the book and frankly don't have the time to fully implement it. However, I love to read. My tastes don't run to the social norms for the most part, so I like having recommendations that stretch me. Even if I can't go through all the steps (grammar, logic and rhetoric) for the books I read, I'm happy to at least go through the grammar process of reading them. One step at a time...

[Kristiana]

I try to coordinate my reading with my boys' history cycle. I started out intending to read the WTM rhetoric level lit list when my oldest was in 1st, but that fizzled out. I just couldn't get my brain in gear. So the next year I tackled the 6th grade medieval books, most of which I'd never read before, while my son was studying the middle ages in the grammar stage. I haven't been as good the past two years (new baby), but this fall I intend to read everything with my oldest now that he'll be in logic stage. I figure maybe by the time he hits 9th grade and the Ancients again, I'll be ready to tackle the harder classics with him.

 

Meanwhile I am learning so much from the children's non-fiction books we check out and read together, and when something really piques my interest, I look for more adult level reading material to learn more. So this year I've read some great Civil War and WWII books. We always have a children's classic on cd going in the car as well so I'm hearing many books I never read in my own youth.

 

I also check out Teaching Company lectures from our library to listen to on my own time. Currently I'm listening to The History of England while I dejunk the entire house.

Edited June 17, 2011 by Kristiana

[JennW in SoCal]

One step at a time...

 

Absolutely!! Read what you enjoy, and read when you can. As your kids get older you'll have more time for your own reading. I used to have a rule that if I had food and a book in front of me I was NOT to be disturbed!! (Lunch was a sacred time for me by the late elementary years!) And enjoy your read alouds to your littles. I never knew my Greek mythology until I was reading it aloud when my kids were little. I never knew so much about ancient Egypt or about dinosaurs and airplanes and trains! I often got books on these topics from the "grown up" section of the library and would paraphrase for the kids while they looked at the pictures.

 

And I enjoyed reading aloud so many classics, or listening with the kids to audio recordings of classics. The titles got more and more advanced over the years, and now my 16yo and I still listen together to audio books and trade books. We tackled Moby Dick together last year and thanks to him I've learned quite a bit of physics because he keeps handing me books.

 

Open the WEM from time to time to refresh your memory on what you can and should be doing to process literature, and over the next several years it will sink in. By the time your kids are middle school or high school it will be second nature to tackle great literature together and discuss it.

[LauraQ]

BTW I love VP's Omnibus and we've used I & II in our home so far, and dd will start III next (late fall, maybe early winter--we school year-round). I think it's a GREAT tool to help you improve your own education. However, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that you do that in addition to schooling your younger children unless you just have lots of time to kill on your hands--and you might! (I'm too easily distracted by projects, too disorganized, and always caught up with messy house issues and working many hours also--but I realize most people probably aren't as messy and disorganized and distractible as I am) Instead, plan to do it along side your kids when they are old enough (and I think that it is legit to use starting anywhere from 7th to 10th grade with Omni I and think having 2 kids or more doing the same level at the same time could make the program work even better in some cases) and just read a little ahead of them. Having your kids nipping at your heals may help motivate you to keep up better!!

 

That said, it was my plan to do this with dd but I have been too busy with work and home and ds requires a LOT of my time & attention for homeschooling because he's severely adhd and not medicated so can't stay on task without constant supervision for certain kinds of tasks. So for now, if I can't keep up with ds, I'll just do it when either one or both is graduated.

[Rosie_0801]

I daresay these ladies would be happy to have you join them. :)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WEMreaders/

 

Rosie

[Hunter]

I had a chance to buy the book when it was 70% off and didn't because I knew it would distract me from other forms of self-education that I have been engaging in. Fiction is not on my priority list.

 

I forget the exact name of the book, but the author of the well organized homeschooler says we stick to goals that we think are important and desirable. I don't think a fiction list is either of those. Do you?

 

I wrote out a general and educational mission statement for myself and then picked out my resources. The type of fiction that makes up the majority of a neoclassical reading list...well...it just doesn't fit in with mission statement.

 

If the type of books on a neo classical reading list truly do fit into your personal mission statement, you might want to slow down and really dwell on just one book for an extended period of time using a stand alone study guide. Buy the book in both an ebook form to have on you at all times, and a hardbound copy that you will treasure for all time as a certificate of completion.

 

I have enjoyed Write Like Hemingway and a collection of his short stories. WLH is a pocket sized hardcover that just feels really good in my hands and isn't heavy to carry around. The short stories I bought in paperback and ripped apart and I just carried a few pages around at a time.

 

I downloaded the short story lectures from Teaching Company and kept those on my Ipod and printed out, and ripped out the short stories from a used anthology, and carried those around for those "hurry up and wait" periods of my life that are so frequent.

 

But mostly I like to use the Bible as my main literature book. And after that my second passion lately is geography. I also have started a study of punctuation with Cozy Grammar and have been diligently working on my handwriting this year. And I want to master the Hebrew alphabet again (I still remember Greek) so I can copy Bible words.

 

There is far more to self-education that a neoclassical reading list :-)

[twoforjoy]

If following a reading list doesn't work for you--and it generally doesn't work for me, either--I'd say exploring areas of particular interest to you might be the way to go. Pick something you're really interested in, and read books about it, download lectures about it, learn all you can about it. I've found that, when I do that, it automatically leads me into looking into other subjects and other areas so that I can more fully understand the thing I'm primarily interested in, and now I have a real reason for and interest in doing so.

[profmom]

Here are a few things that have been great for me:

 

~ Joined a classic book club, started by a friend after reading WEM! We read one classic a month from a list of titles we compile every May. (We each contribute a title and lead that discussion, beginning with info on the author.) I'm not normally a fiction reader (because fiction seems like a leisure activity, not an academic one), however, reading classics (with their strong vocabulary, sentence structure, and themes) and learning about the authors has been valuable.

 

~ http://www.librivox.org -- Listen to classics while I cook or clean! I don't always have time to sit and read, but I have plenty of work time that can be made more fun by listening to a classic on my iPod or iPhone! P.S. These are free downloads!

 

~ I learned lots of geography this year with my kids. One of the most helpful things for me was playing the free download Seterra game, identifying countries by continent or parts of continents. You could spend just a few minutes daily and know all the countries in no time!

 

~ Take an online class for a classical language! While this is an expensive option, I knew I wouldn't be able to stick to learning Greek on my own, with so many other responsibilities right now. The Potter's School allows adults in some of their classes -- see this list.

 

~ When you are going over memory work, etc. with your kids, put in a little extra effort and memorize it yourself too! So often, I have just helped them to memorize without holding myself to the same standard!

Edited June 17, 2011 by profmom

[KrissiK]

Wow, these are all great ideas. Thanks, ladies! DH brought home a catalogue called "The Great Courses" that has lecture series on DVDs for people who just want to become more educated, so I"m going to order one of those, too.

[MeaganS]

For me, money is a big issue so I stick to mostly free stuff, but what I'm doing is going through and doing KISS grammar and Khan Academy. I feel pretty comfortable with math, but I'm enjoying the review. Grammar is a whole different story. I am not very good at Grammar, and as such I feel very strongly about how important it is. I'm going through KISS and am looking for a good diagramming text to work through as well.

 

I was working on Latin, but my grammar caught up to me, so I'm taking a break on that while I focus on grammar itself.

 

Oh, and I'm also working through History of the Ancient World. My plan is to try to read a few of the books recommended in the WTM for the Ancients as I come upon them in history. It's going to take me forever, but I'm in no hurry and I'm really enjoying HOAW.

 

I do all this for maybe 3 or 4 hours a week total. So nothing major, but I'm really enjoying it, and I can tell a difference in myself because I feel better than I did before I started. I have some interesting things to think about and I feel good because I'm bettering myself.

 

ETA: Those lectures you mention look amazing. My Aunt swears by them and I've looked at them myself. There are several I'd do if I had the chance.

[KrissiK]

Yeah, I wish I could order them all. I would be so well-educated.:D I ordered one of the sale priced ones today. I can't afford the $450 regular priced ones, but I ordered "History of European Art" for $70.

[MeaganS]

From what I understand, almost all of them go on sale at some point in the year, so if there is one in particular you have your eyes on, you can just keep checking back. Also, I understand that lots of libraries have them, so you could check there too. Ours has a few.