How closely do you stick to WTM?

[tntgoodwin]

I was curious how close everyone here sticks to the plan and/or curriculum laid out in The Well-Trained Mind? I asked this in a different forum, and most people seem to use WTM for inspiration, and ideas, but not actually follow it that closely.

Edited July 3, 2011 by tntgoodwin

[Aurelia]

At this point, very loosely. A lot of the suggestions for the grammar stage were too much for our family, but I think we will follow it much more closely once Ariel gets to the logic stage.

[redsquirrel]

Are you asking about method and philosophy or materials suggested in the books?

 

For me TWTM is more about methodology. It shapes my teaching philosophy and how how I approach the materials.

 

I find that the closer I follow the methodology as put forward in TWTM the better my kids do. I don't claim it is The One way to teach. Not at all. I simply find it works for us. If something else worked better I would use that.

 

As far as materials endorsed by SWB in the book, I use that as a starting place when I am planning my year. I don't think twice about it it if I find something else that works better for my kids or for me.

[missmoe]

Are you asking about method and philosophy or materials suggested in the books?

 

For me TWTM is more about methodology. It shapes my teaching philosophy and how how I approach the materials.

 

I find that the closer I follow the methodology as put forward in TWTM the better my kids do. I don't claim it is The One way to teach. Not at all. I simply find it works for us. If something else worked better I would use that.

 

As far as materials endorsed by SWB in the book, I use that as a starting place when I am planning my year. I don't think twice about it it if I find something else that works better for my kids or for me.

 

This! I use the methodology, but not always the curriculum suggested.

[Kirch]

Are you asking about method and philosophy or materials suggested in the books?

 

For me TWTM is more about methodology. It shapes my teaching philosophy and how how I approach the materials.

 

I find that the closer I follow the methodology as put forward in TWTM the better my kids do. I don't claim it is The One way to teach. Not at all. I simply find it works for us. If something else worked better I would use that.

 

As far as materials endorsed by SWB in the book, I use that as a starting place when I am planning my year. I don't think twice about it it if I find something else that works better for my kids or for me.

 

This is me as well, although I do use a lot of PHP stuff simply because it's thorough and it fleshes out the methodology very well with minimal legwork on my part. I depart from the suggested materials in math, spelling, handwriting, and will probably do so for our next go-around in science, but I still stick pretty closely to the ideas in TWTM (i.e., lots of memorization, preparing a strong foundation in the basics for future learning, etc.).

[Diana B]

Very loosely at this point. I started off thinking it was the direction I wanted, but in the last 6 months I realized that the methodology in it that I like most is the stuff it has in common with CM.

 

I do (loosely) follow the WTM Science. And I use SOTW for history, but everything else I either chose something different or dropped what was recommended because it didn't fit.

[boscopup]

I follow much of the philosophy. I think they intended their curriculum list to be examples, so if I pick a different math program, I don't feel like I'm doing anything "non-WTM".

 

The things I'm not really following are:

- my lit selections are not tied to history (there are plenty of books related to our history in the book basket though)

- I'm using a textbook science this year that covers multiple disciplines (though I'm leaning toward just chemistry next year)

 

Otherwise, my homeschool looks very WTM-ish. I'm definitely following her writing philosophy, as it fits my son perfectly. I also like the 4 year history cycle (which SOTW makes easy to implement in the grammar stage).

 

I don't know if I'll follow the high school recs at this point, but I will certainly consider them. That's 7 years away, so I'm not making a decision anytime soon. ;)

[tntgoodwin]

WTM methodology or the curricula recommendations, either. :) Thanks everyone!

[Tam101]

Pretty close, the PHP products have been a good fit for my son. He really likes SOTW and FLL, tolerates WWE, but I did begin to see him pulling out of his reluctance to write toward the end of the year, so I am really expecting to see him turn the corner this fall (4th grade). We are year "behind" in the history cycle, but I have lined up our history and science per WTM recommendations. Started Latin in 3rd grade. The only thing that didn't workout for us was Spelling Workout, had to dump that.

[regentrude]

Relativel cosely for history/Great books.

Not at all for math and science- WTM clearly is very humanities focused.

[Just Robyn]

I think they intended their curriculum list to be examples, so if I pick a different math program, I don't feel like I'm doing anything "non-WTM".

 

:iagree: It's not like there's one history encyclopedia, science encyclopedia, science kit, math curriculum, etc. that is somehow the correct one to use while doing things the WTM way.

 

I take WTM the way I take anything else. It is a set of ideas. I can use them if they are liked by me and seem to be what my children need. I would say my oldest is the best match for WTM out of the three.

[Jenny in Florida]

For me TWTM is more about methodology. It shapes my teaching philosophy and how how I approach the materials.

 

This has been pretty much us, too.

 

We have always chosen our own materials, which rarely end up being the ones recommended in TWTM. But we've "used" them more or less the WTM way (with modificaitons to work for my kids).

 

For next year, I'm planning to take my son off the map for most subjects. So, if you'd asked this question three months from now, my answer would be different.

[Guest momk2000]

We did not follow it at all for grammar stage with oldest dd. Now that she is in 5th, we plan to, and it actually looks like we will be following WTM much more closely than anticipated.

We will follow some WTM suggestions for youngest (1st grade).

[RahRah]

When I started I tried to follow closely, but wound up switching curriculum choices along the way to fit better with DS's learning style, and taking a different tack with science - instead of one discipline each year, we do a variety of science from each discipline and will continue with that since it works well for us.

 

What WTM for us is the philosophy and approach, that gives us grounding to build our years around - we do SOTW and do center much of our other curriculum around the period we're learning, our books are chosen each week/month based on where we are in SOTW (along with just for fun books in the book basket) and science/math - basically I try to thread our reading selections through where we are with various subjects.

 

We also don't base everything on books, but include a lot of technology based options into the mix - videos, online resources, iPad app's, games, etc. that I feel build upon what we're doing along the way. Same with our field trips and activities - I try to tie them into what we're doing so they're not just fun, but also relevant.

[NicAnn]

I anticipate following the methodology very closely. Our K year this year is based around it. I myself am following many of the recommendations in the High School section, just for my own education!

[Crimson Wife]

I use it as an overall framework but don't necessarily follow the specific curricular recommendations. I also have chosen to do 2 years of American history in lieu of world history for the last 2 years of the grammar stage cycle.

 

I think SWB went a bit too far in trying to correct the U.S.-centric approach of most PS history teaching. I only had 2 years growing up where we covered anything outside the U.S. (6th and 10th) but to have *NO* specific study of American history? That seems an over-correction IMHO.

[janainaz]

I follow it as closely as I can. I do my own thing for science, but as for the rest, I follow pretty close.

[TheAutumnOak]

My plan is to follow it as closely as I can for every subject...I am using MCT grammar that is not recommended in WTM, but other than that my plan is to follow pretty closely...

The product recommendations are ways they have found to acomplish what they feel needs to be acomplished...It is possible to still follow their plan and use something else in a certain subject area as long as you are following the ideas and plans...Some things obviously clash, but some things don't...

I LOVE the way history and science follow the 4 year patterns...It makes so much sense to me how it is divided and following another sequence is actually a deal breaker for me right now...

[FO4UR]

I follow the methodology, being flexible in the details, but I sway towards CM in many ways.

 

I find that I buy TWTM materials for ds8, and then have to re-think how to achieve the same goals in another way...and then dd6 comes along and uses TWTM materials quite successfully.

[happyhomemaker]

I love TWTM methodology! I have been hsing my dd since K, but just read TWTM a few months ago. I am incorporating many of SWB's ideas for next year, especially for history and writing, but we are sticking with some of the curriculum we were using too. Dd is going into 4th and I thought that switching all of her curriculum over to SWB's recommendations might be too much change for one year. We already have math, grammar, and phonics/spelling programs that are working well so we will keep those. I think when dd hits the logic stage, I will switch over to more of the recommendations in the text. The narrations and notebooks will be the biggest change for us next year. I hope to take those ideas and use them with stuff that's already working for us to make it even better.

[robsiew]

I follow the methodology very closely and some of the curriculum recommendations. For instance, I don't love FLL so we don't use that (we use GWG and R&S instead), but we do use WWE. The curriculum that I've chosen not specifically mentioned in WTM follows the methodology though. I find when I veer away from WTM things get complicated really fast. If I stick with WTM things stay simple and get done! ;)

[2_girls_mommy]

I think that I follow it VERY closely, although we don't use FLL or OPGTTR or WWE or any of the math suggestions :)

 

We were already using Rod and STaff math and were in love with it for K when I discovered WTM and realized it was a perfect fit for our future. But we stuck w/R&S math for the next year, just moving up a grade. I actually believe it is very classical with all of its memorization in the early grades. It is even used in Memoria Press's curriculum packages, so it is a good fit w/the rest of the WTM curric. Since we already ordered from them, and R&S is suggested for 3rd grade and up we just stuck w/it for our L.A. and math each year. But science, history, writing, latin, etc. I just pick up each year according to WTM. And the more we go along, as I plan the next year I pick up WTM to see what I need to order for the next year.

[Bluegoat]

Not especially. My approach is based more on my own experience of classics in university and CM ideas. I have taken some ideas from WTM and some of the recommendations for products in the early (first) edition, but I haven't used any SWB products so far - that may change. I don't really agree with some of her approaches - I also think it is important to learn some local history, I think children should not usually enter formal studies too early, and I'm pretty committed to the use of living books as much as possible.

[*Lulu*]

I follow it with relatively few modifications. Of course I didn't read TWTM until after our 3rd year of homeschooling and was already doing a great number of the things that define a classical education; that was one of the reasons I fell in love with TWTM, it was speaking my language and fleshing out the next educational step that I was agonizing over.

 

The place we differ is the 4 year cycle. I use a 5 year cycle as it allows more time for American History to be integrated into SOTW; each child gets 2 full cycles and can use 11th and 12th years for independent study/research projects for History.

[Farrar]

Not really. I draw inspiration from many of the things in WTM and classical education generally. My high school education was classically influenced and that has formed a lot of my ideas as well.