MrsPages presented a seminar at the MACHS conference today on how we approach the early years of education. It was based on the Bluedorn’s approach to Classical education, as presented in their book “Teaching The Trivium”. I was so proud! She was awesome!
MrsPages presented our take on the Bluedorn’s model. We’ve rearranged the 10 things to reflect our priorities, and basically made them our own.
In a nutshell, get your children’s hearts close to you, let them explore their world, and expose them to great literature as much as you can. If you do that before they are 10, then you really don’t have to do much else. Once they turn 10 (or 11 or 12) then moving into formal schooling should be a breeze.
Here are the notes from the seminar, as we promised the people who came after we ran out of printed copies.
Thanks to the 50+ people who attended (you can’t see the other half of the room in the picture) and stayed afterwards for questions and discussion!
10 Things To Do Before Age 10 Handout in PDF format
10 Things To Do Before Age 10 Handout in OpenOffice format
10 Things To Do Before Age 10 Handout in Microsoft Word format
Our Family Schedule in PDF Format
Our Family Schedule in OpenOffice Format
Our Family Schedule in Microsoft Word Format
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MrPages was mild in his praise of MrsPages. I was there and it was easily the best seminar I attended today.
MrsP was clear and engaging, the subject matter clearly comes out of the wellspring of her heart for her children.
I had to grin when you said it was normal for you to have 150 library books at a time, – I though we were the only ones to feel restrained by the library’s 50-book-limit. :)
Well done! If you do this again next year, it will be on my recommended list.
Esther,
Thank-you so much for your encouraging words! I just pray that the workshop would encourage people to be unique in their homeschool journey!
Hi.
This is our first year of homeschooling & we’ve been rethinking things as we plan for next year’s curriculum. We had already come to the decision to pare down to only Hearing & Listening, Reading & Phonics… and we had also included Math. It looks like your family doesn’t do any math until after age 10? How do you find that works out?
Hi Elisa,
We haven’t done formal mathematics before age 10 and I haven’t found any problems with it. As a high school math teacher, I researched this idea thoroughly and then created a workshop. I think I need to pull it together and do a formal post. I have a collection of research I did, informal resources I used, and my own experiences. It will take me a few days to put it in blog format though.
If you would like, I can let you know when I post it.
MrsPages
That would be great… looking forward to reading it.
yes yes I too would love to read your thoughts on math. I have two who are into Abeka math right now, (both under 10) and while they both can do it very well, one really hates it. The next two (6 and 5)with whom I had intended on starting Abeka math this year, started and flopped. They were able to grasp most of the concepts mentally but to get pen to paper to do it was an exercise in futility. I had once read “Better Late than Early” which I know is a bit controversial in some circles, and I did really agree with the notion of ‘start them when they are ready and they’ll take off and catch up’. Is this what you’ve found with math?
Waiting with baited breath…. :-)(or any chance you’d come East to do a workshop out here?…only half kidding)