TeaCookiesBears Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Hello, I hoping to get help and insight from the board on where to start when self educating. Here is what I want to be better educated in Latin, Grammar, Writing and Reading more classics. I am looking to enhance my own dismal education I received during my schooling years so that I can 1. be better educated and 2. so that I can better help in the education of my girls. The problem is I do not know where to begin. To help aid myself in the process I wrote a list of things I need to learn but even with that I am still stuck. Part of reason I get stuck is because I want to be a better teacher and feel like I need to start in all the subjects mentioned above but I feel like I will spread myself to thin to be effective. So, I am asking where would you start and why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocolateMomster Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I'm using Ambleside Online for my self-education. I'm partial to it because I use it with my children as well ;) but I think it has a great book list. I started looking at the list of books prior to year 7, which I felt were well-known classics I have never read or books that would prepare me for the upper years (Age of Fable and the like). I did that lst year and now I'm working through some of the Year 7 books. I'm not going to read every book on the list, but pick and choose my way to Year 12. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Start with reading more classics. Many are available on Librivox, so you can listen in the car. Get yourself familiar with them, then you'll know what you can tolerate re-reading later when you want to work on more analysis. :p Grammar is also an easy one to begin with. Analytical Grammar is rather dry, but it does the job. Even if you can only get one or three sentences done each day, slow and steady will prevent it all falling out of your head due to a long break. I think knowing what these things are called in English can only help with Latin later. But I'm generally a parts to whole learner. Those strange whole to parts-ers work the other way around. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaCookiesBears Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 TheseIridhHill that is a good idea to read some classics posted at AO. I have start to read Aesop fables to build myself for the larger classics. I will give it a look Rosie listening to Librivox is also a good ideas I have a couple of the fairy books downloaded for the girls so I get into listening to audio books too as it builds listening skills which is lacking. Starting with grammar will be a good place to start since it is the foundation but I am wondering should I just put writing on the back burner for a while? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Do what you can do. Better to widen your knowledge of literature by listening to the "good" (kids classics) and "great" (adults classics) books and work slowly and systematically at grammar than try to do more things when you know you can't, and and up doing nothing! You might like some of the ideas in 'The Writer's Jungle' by Julie Bogart. There are writing exercises there you can do alongside your kids. Things are easier to schedule when you're all meant to be doing it at the same time. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendall Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 What grammar and Latin is your 14 year old doing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaCookiesBears Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 What grammar and Latin is your 14 year old doing? She is doing Analytical Grammar season 2 and Wheelocks Latin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaCookiesBears Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 Rosie, you make a good point about starting out small by doing some grammar daily along with listening and reading great literature rather than spreading myself to thin. I should have remembered the teaching "Slow and Steady wins the race" but my mind was swirling and go not make heads or tales on what to do. I have listened to some of Julie Bogart's audio on how to teach writing last year I will look up the writing exercises you mentioned too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendall Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I did Latin and Grammar along with(or slightly ahead) of my kids, that is all I could manage. I read a lot while I was nursing babies for quite a few years. I didn't get to practice writing (which would have been ideal) but I read a lot of books about writing and I read a lot of classics. I would encourage you not to bog down in a tough classic early on, there are plenty that are more enjoyable/easier reading (which will vary somewhat by person). Get quite a few under your belt before you tackle harder books. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaCookiesBears Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 Kendall, Overall, I am getting that Reading literature is the best place to start much like what we do with our children. Reading books about writing which is a fuzzy subject will be a good way to go. I have some writing curricula on the shelf and some recommended books on writing by Susan Wise Bauer that I can read over the summer. This is just a rough idea but here is what I plan to do so far: *Listen to some audiobooks via podcast or Librivox along with some other things I find enjoyable like Circe podcast. *Read fiction- I have always read informational books on history, education and so on. So, I went to library yesterday and checked out Aesop Fables, Grimm Tales and Andersen Fairy Tales as a place to start. There no way I can handle the literature discussed in the The Well educated Mind at this time so I am taking you and Rosie's advice on starting small and working my way up. * study grammar in small bits daily and probably do some of the basic grammar stage writing exercises my youngest dd is doing but on an adult level. Eventually, after I feel more comfortable with grammar I may move on to more advance writing. *Latin I guest I can learn with youngest did since she has just stared on her journey and move a little quickly just to keep up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 How to Read Literature like a Professor is a common book in intro college classes. He writes about things like allusions and symbolism. I enjoyed Tales Before Lewis which is an anthology of stories C S Lewis either mentioned being influenced by or would have read. As much as I love the idea of starting at the beginning and working forward, there is something to be said for building up ones reading ability. I'm much more able to read an older work after years of reading books written in the 1920-30s than when I first read a Jane Austen and had no idea what she was writing about. From this point of view something by Agatha Christie, Chesterton or Sayers might be a good start. I remember being assigned Faulkner's Sound and Fury which has the same story told by four different characters, starting with the mentally incompetent and non verbal brother. I had no idea what was going on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Go for the grammar! I wish I'd done it earlier. I'm still struggling. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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