CLUSA-AOU 2009 Conference Report

On the first evening of this year's ChildLightUSA Charlotte Mason conference, a half-dozen nervous teens found their way into a rather intimidating board room at Gardner-Webb University. Their numbers did not even begin to fill the space. They gathered around one end of the table, settled into the large mahogany-and-leather chairs, and cautiously made small-talk. This was the inauspicious beginning of the first annual ChildLightUSA-AmblesideOnline Unlimited Conference.

The plans for this year's teen conference began almost as soon as last year's conference ended. At last year's conference three of us teens met, and we hit it off so well that we decided we needed to get other Ambleside high-schoolers and college students involved and have our own mini-conference. When we went home that summer we started an internet forum for Ambleside students and grads called AO Unlimited, and the conference plans grew as we talked with the other AO students there. We tossed around ideas for sessions and decided what we wanted to do the most. By the time summer came we had a schedule of events, and ChildLight graciously worked with us to reserve rooms and time slots. That was how a group of Ambleside students found themselves in a specially reserved room at this year's conference, meeting—many of us—for the first time.

Later that first night, after the opening plenary session was over, five of the teens sat down together in the fireside lounge and chatted for a couple of hours. It didn't take long to find out that we had a lot in common. Conversation came easily: we talked about Pride and Prejudice, Star Trek, homeschooling, Narnia, eschatology, and everything in between. (And every combination thereof. Just what were Mr. Darcy's views on the End Times, for instance?) After that we weren't so shy, so we went back to our shared apartment and played Beatles Monopoly until the wee hours of the morning.

It was so uplifting and downright fun to find so many like-minded people my own age there. I laughed harder and longer than I had for a long time. It's something special when you meet people that you click with in an hour. Sometimes when we're by ourselves surrounded by teens who go to a public high school it can be hard to find good friends who are so much like you. This conference has been the highlight of my year, and some other teens said the same. I have so many plans for next year, and can hardly wait to see my friends again!

- Hannah, 18

On Thursday, after the morning lecture, two of the teens joined some CM teachers on the panel for the workshop "Exploring CM for the High School Student." A lot of the discussion focused on how to continue learning by CM principles in college. We talked about nurturing relationships with our studies; finding life in dry textbooks; taking the initiative to go on field trips to nearby museums and fairs and rallies; finding other active minds to discuss with after class; and even finding alternatives to traditional college. It seemed helpful for the moms and teachers there to hear about the experiences of CM graduates. I know we enjoyed sharing with them and discussing how to carry CM's methods into the upper years and beyond.

Thursday afternoon, the teens had a Jane Austen discussion over tea and cakes, hosted by the Broad River Coffee Company across the street from the campus. We spent a good two hours talking about Austen's characters and couples. Why do her pairings work? Which seems like the most unlikely couple? What is the difference between a Brandon and a Willougby—and how can you tell them apart? We also talked about what it's like for a guy reading Austen: guys identify more with the heroes, even though Austen gives so little of their perspective in the books. (Guys can still identify with the heroines, but we identify with their personalities rather than their roles.)

Later on Thursday we attended the Eve Andersen Tea lecture, "On Time," about living life deeply instead of just by a schedule. That evening, we stood on the balcony of our apartment and watched a thunderstorm. As the rain flooded the parking lot and dripped off the balcony, we sang songs about the weather and talked of this and that. That night we went to the book discussion about Tolkien's short story Leaf by Niggle, led by Gardner-Webb's own professor Christopher Keene.

I don't think I can remember ever meeting so many people with whom we had so much in common. It was good for all of us to meet and hang out with like-minded peers. ...The CLUSA conference is a great opportunity for us teens, most of whom have been raised on CM, to learn about her ideas from experienced teachers and thinkers and writers. It is a chance for us to learn more about Charlotte Mason's philosophy, so that we can understand why we were raised as we have been, and why CM education is still important for us even as we're graduating and going out into the world.

- Tim, 18

On Friday two of the teens led matins at 8:00 a.m.. I mention the time because it seems extremely early when you've only had 4 hours of sleep. (But we have things to do at 3:00 in the morning--like watching The Hunt for Gollum and eating popcorn!) Yes... *cough* well... after matins we went back to our rooms and acted out some scenes from Shakespeare, and then took a traveling production of Pyramus and Thisbe to one of our moms who was alone in her room. I do not profess to be any judge, myself, but she thought it quite entertaining. This may have had something to do with our switching characters: the girl played Pyramus, the guy played Thisbe, and hilarity ensued.

Friday afternoon we had a Lord of the Rings discussion, led by Professor Keene. I heard some say that that discussion was the highlight of the conference. Professor Keene had prepared a list of questions to ask everyone—favorite character, favorite moment in the story, things like that—and went around the circle giving everyone a chance to answer. The questions provoked a lot of good discussion: some of the things we talked about were the differences between the races; the burden of immortality; the differences between characters, especially from books to movies; the appeal of Rivendell; and the importance of certain elements in the story, such as the Scouring of the Shire. It was the sort of discussion you seldom get to have at home except maybe with a friend or two who shares your obsession, whereas here we had a full turnout of nearly a dozen teens. After we finished our LotR discussion, Professor Keene gave us a tour of the theater department and showed us some prosthetics he was making, including some rather graphic but very cool wound applications.

I had a great time at the teen conference. I felt the events were organized and there was a good amount of them to participate in.

- David, 16

After that we rushed to find music and a CD player for our Regency dance lesson. The lesson went well: we had half a dozen couples and learned two dances, including Mr. Beveridge's Maggot which they danced in the A&E Pride and Prejudice. However, the lesson took longer than we thought it would, so we had less than an hour afterwards to eat dinner and change into costume before we returned for a Regency Ball. Dancing Elizabeth and Darcy's dance at the ball was another highlight of the conference. Hannah, 18, wrote this about the ball:

It reminded me of the experience of 'Prom' that public schooled high schoolers have their senior year. I had seen my sister dress up like a glamor girl for her prom, and seen her take pictures with her boyfriend, and imagined (like Cinderella in her kitchen) what it must have been like. It was Brittani's senior year too, and she had never had a prom either. I imagine a lot of Charlotte Mason teens don't. That's probably a good thing, but the importance the culture attaches to it was felt even in our separation from the culture. That is why the ball was so important to me. For that one night, I got to dance real dances with real gentlemen, and feel like the princess all girls read about when they're growing up. We had so much fun at that ball that it has been absolutely decided to make it an annual event.

After the ball we changed out of costume—or not—and went to the Broad River Greenway for a walk in the woods. (The conference does this every year; usually there are trail guides, live music, and an astronomer with a telescope.) Our walk in the woods that night proved to be the scene of some lively plotting which spawned yet another project: a film adaptation / parody of Northanger Abbey which is now halfway through production. (Which just goes to show that you can't be too careful at these conferences. You never know what brilliant or crazy ideas you might be inspired to turn into reality.)

The Charlotte Mason Conference was, for me, a wonderful chance to connect with other similar-thinking teens. For the first time in my life I was perfectly able to chat about Jane Austen, Tolkien, current politics and events, all with people my own age! And when I wasn't being stimulated by the company of my peers, I was able to be instructed on a variety of subjects by fascinating speakers. Everywhere there was a great medley of people to discuss ideas and theories with. It has inspired me to once again look on school as a wonderful opportunity and chance for knowledge, rather than as something that must be done. Overall it was a very worthwhile and very enjoyable experience—I will certainly be returning next year.

- Kaley, 16

That night, after we got back from the Greenway, we met in one of the apartments and read Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allen Poe. Despite the fact that we read The Adventure of the Speckled Band and The Black Cat, two of the scariest stories ever written, this was actually a lovely evening. We snacked and rambled and read in character voices till deep into the night. No nightmares were reported.

That was our last official meeting. Saturday morning, before the last plenary session, two of the teens performed a piece of music from Swan Lake. Saturday afternoon, before everyone headed their separate ways, our apartment crew—the six of us and our families—met for a last farewell at the local ice cream parlour (hence the picture at the beginning). Indubitably, this conference was a wonderful experience for us all. We made new friends, got to know old friends better, and got to enjoy our favorite things with people who shared our interests. And I, for one, can't wait till next year!

Note: The ChildLightUSA Conference took place in June 2009. The first draft of this report was written right after the conference, but it has been stuck in draft for several months waiting to be published. My apologies to the contributors.

The New Homeschooling

I saw this posted at HomeschoolBuzz.

Homeschooling 2.0 from FrontPageMag.com

This refers to an article about the current state of homeschooling since its beginning by extremists who were willing to risk legal opposition for the right to educate their own children. I'm just going to summarize parts of it, in hopes that others might be enticed to read the whole article. It can be found here.

These days, homeschooling is growing among African Americans, Hawaiians, Native Americans, Jews, Muslims, Aryans and wiccans who don't want their children assimilated with everyone else. The homeschool population is more diverse and no longer the exclusive domain of protestant evangelicals.

People homeschool for a greater of reasons than they used to - no longer for religious reasons, but because of academics, learning disabilities that schools aren't handling well, as a way to allow students time to compete in professional sports or acting, to accomodate families' travel-lifestyles. One mom said, "My homeschooling group . . . [is] FAR more diverse than the neighborhood school I pulled my oldest child out of years ago."

"The number of homeschooled young children is beginning to plateau, but homeschooling for older children is still a high-growth market. The result has been an explosion in innovative programs for older children."

The ways people homeschool is also changing. More are unschooling, using co-ops, and creating other alternatives. As more people start homeschooling for non-religious reasons, homeschool groups are more diverse - and that can lead to problems: "Disagreements over 'what kinds of uniforms are appropriate for home-school cheerleaders and whether rock music may be played at home-school events' are not uncommon as life-long homeschoolers rub shoulders with each other and with new recruits fresh from the public schools. Not a few Christian homeschoolers have pulled their children out of co-ops, clubs, and sports teams over such concerns. None of these small-scale culture skirmishes begin to match, however, the controversy generated by the growing popularity of government-sponsored programs for homeschoolers. Many public school districts, having lost the fight to criminalize homeschooling, now openly court homeschoolers. School districts with high rates of homeschooling have seen significant drops in funding, tied as it is to per-pupil enrollment." Public schools might offer off-campus classes, use of on-campus computers or library, dual enrollment--but that can be a way for government schools to get their foot in the door, so to speak, and can lead to more government regulation and limits on homeschooling as more homeschoolers come under the umbrella (and potential control) of government-sponsored programs.

Online charter school programs (virtual schools) have popped up recently "both to service homebound or other special needs students and as an effort to lure homeschoolers (and the tax dollars they represent) back into the public education system." Some private corporations started their own cyber-schools, with government funding, but after a bad beginning, and complaints from school districts whose money was being paid to these private corporations, many closed and "those that survived tightened their lines considerably, to the great frustration of the many formerly-independent homeschoolers lured by free computers and textbooks into these schools but resentful of the regulations and regimentation that seemed to increase every year."

"Cybercharters have many enemies. Many politicians and public school people agree with Texas Democratic Rep. Patrick Rose that 'we ought not be in the business of supporting for-profit education. Any program that takes money out of our public schools would be against our better judgment.' ... They also note that textbook suppliers have been making tremendous profits from public schools for decades. Some cybercharters have been criticized by public school advocates for supporting religious instruction with public monies. In the early years of the movement cybercharters in some states allowed parents to purchase their own curricula, and many chose religious homeschooling materials... Over time, however, state governments have clamped down on such activities. ... Charter schools are now, with rare exception, wholly secular."

Virtual charters, who expected opposition from government schools, are surprised that homeschoolers themselves have opposed them. "HSLDA Senior Counsel Chris Klicka has called the virtual charter movement a 'Trojan horse,' warning that 'if anything can destroy the Christian homeschool movement, this will.'"

The entire article can be found here.

Graduation

This post has been long delayed. First, following right on the heels of my graduation, was the Charlotte Mason conference (whence we came home full of bloggables), and then we were waiting for my official diploma, which took a lot longer to process than it should have because of paperwork problems. (For my graduation ceremony we used a fake--ahem--symbolic document.) But now my diploma has finally come in and it's time to blog about my graduation.



Every year our local homeschool group does a graduation ceremony at a nearby church, with caps and gowns and a commencement speech and all of that, just like a real school. It's nice, but after seeing their ceremony, I decided I wanted to do something smaller and more intimate. And once that was decided we thought that this would be a good opportunity to have the formal dinner party that I'd been wanting to have since before the prom. (Bother--I didn't blog about that either, did I? That was remiss of me.)



So we started planning. Date: June 10, 2008. Location: our house. Guests: a handful of close friends. Programme: a round of drinks from the bar during introductions, then dinner and table games, then the ceremony, followed by music to be provided by self and guests. Menu: (on an Italian theme) salad and pasta and cheesecake. Theme: words--books, authors, word games, etc. Colors: light blue and peach. Decorations: chinese lanterns, candles, table runners, special place settings.

A dish for each place: two clear plates stacked together, with a piece of paper between them. The papers are title pages photocopied from my favorite books and dyed in tea.

The bit that was the most fun to plan was the bar. We decided to give it a poets' theme, so the bar itself (arranged on one end of the kitchen counter) was called the Poets' Corner, and each of the drinks (all virgin, of course) was named after a poet. We spent many fun hours in the kitchen beforehand with bottles of juice and grenadine and club soda, experimenting with drink mixes and trying to decide what drink went best with which poet. Edgar Allen Poe, for instance? Dark red, I think; deep and heady; with a mysterious flavor. (Result: a concoction of pomegranate and cranberry and some other juices that looked and tasted a bit like wine.)



The dinner was also fun to plan. A salad of romaine and arugula, followed by chicken fettucine alfredo with peppers and onions, and then cheesecake with a berry topping for dessert. I originally wanted to make the whole dinner ourselves, but when it came time we decided to buy the cheesecake already made (there is nothing to compare with a slice of Johnny Carino's vanilla bean cheesecake). The other parts of the meal my mom and dad ended up making the morning before the party while the rest of us cleaned house and decorated.



My first thought was to have the party outside, but the nearer the day of the party came the hotter that idea sounded (some of us had to wear tuxes, after all), and on the day of the party I changed my mind. (Or had my mind changed for me. You'd have to ask the others on that point.) And it proved well that we moved the party inside, because we had a lovely rain just as we were sitting down to dinner. However, because of that last minute decision carefully orchestrated adjustment to the plans, the boys and Giselle and I were still setting places and putting up decorations when the rest of the guests arrived. It's the first rule of planning, but may I restate it one more time? Always assume that you'll need more time than you think you will. Even when you think that you're assuming that you'll need more time.

We put the grown-ups at one table and the rest of us at the other. Our house wasn't really made for this many people...but we managed to fit.

The dinner went splendidly. Afterwards we played Bananagrams (which is like Scrabble solitaire among eight people) and talked and worked on the cheesecake. After that was the actual graduation ceremony: my dad made a short speech about my education up till this point, then I made a short speech about things changing, and then he gave me my diploma (the symbolic one). Cheers and toasts and perhaps some tears.



By that time it was dark outside and the weather had cleared up, so we moved to the deck and had an impromptu concert / worship session.

The boys enjoy a serious moment, expressing themselves...artistically.

After that people began to leave and the party slowly ended. I was left with graduation cards and a diploma, a mess of tables and decorations and a suitcase to be packed for the conference next day--but above all those the feeling of blessedness which David put into words so beautifully:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul...

Life's a bit daunting at times, but I'd have to agree with Clarence: no man is a failure who has friends.

The deck, when all the guests had gone away.

Homeschool methods - What's Your Flavor?

Linda Fay wrote this post about choosing homeschool curriculum.

NMSC

This came in the mail today:



Tim is a National Merit Scholar! He took the PSAT last year and scored high enough to be a semi-finalist. For the next level, he needed, among other things, a letter from his school (our umbrella school principal) and he had to write an essay. And he advanced to the final level!

(His full name is on the certificate - but, for privacy, I blurred all but the Tim part.)

Sometimes parents wonder if Ambleside Online or a Charlotte Mason education will provide what it takes to prepare a student to get into college. Tim is a good student, self-sufficient, organized, disciplined and able to manage his time, motivated. But his only schooling since fourth grade has been Ambleside Online (we did Sonlight for his first three years). He's had no formal creative writing, language arts, no math tutoring, no supplemental courses or projects to boost his knowledge of history or anything. So I think that a CM/AO education is enough for any student. Not that a CM education can guarantee the same results, but no education, not even a public school education (since that's the standard that homeschooling is held up to!), can make that kind of guarantee.

Homeschooling Headed for Criminalization?

I saw this at Homeschoolbuzz.com.

So why should we in the U.S. be concerned with the plight of German homeschoolers?

I was quite surprised (yet obviously pleased) that homeschooling developed in the United States with minimal resistance from government agencies. I am even more pleased with the statistics that have emerged on the subject of home-schooled children excelling in extraordinary measure compared to their public school-attending counterparts. In truth, I rather expected a few average American families to have to endure Waco-style sieges, imprisonment and decades-long legal battles over the issue.
So, why all the hubbub over the plight of some German home schoolers?
Well, here’s why. The socialistic European model of government is where the Left in America has us gravitating toward. Read more...

Spanish Living/Classic Books?

I'm going to start trying to collecting some classic and living Spanish booklists for a friend. who has a really cute picture of Miss M playing with her little girl on her blog.

This is only the start (I hope - not only are these not so easy to find, but I'm less familiar with Spanish books to know whether a booklist is worthy or not!)

UPDATE: Javamom has posted some Spanish language helps, including Spanish songs, poems and etexts, on her blog here and here. You can view all of her posts on Spanish Lessons here.

http://educandoenfamilia.com/ General homeschool site
They also have a message board (although it's not very active)
and an active blog Educando en Familia

When I do a search for great Spanish writers, these are some names that come up. I have no idea whether their works are worthy of a CM education.
Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Quevedo, Pio Baroja.

Wikipedia has an entry on Spanish literature. "In the Romanticism (principle of the 19th century) important topics are: the poetry of José de Espronceda and other poets; the prose, that can have several forms (the historical novel, the scientific prose, the description of regional customs, the journalism —where Mariano José de Larra can be mentioned—); the theater, with Ángel de Saavedra (Duke of Rivas), José Zorrilla, and other authors. In the latter romanticism (post-romanticism) some appear: Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer and Rosalía de Castro. " Some names offered:
18th century:
Benito Jeronimo Feijoo, Jose Cadalso, Juan Meléndez Valdés, Félix María de Samaniego, Leandro Fernández de Moratín.
19th century:
Duque de Rivas, Mariano José de Larra, Ramón de Mesonero Romanos, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (Rhymes, Legends), José de Espronceda (El estudiante de Salamanca, La canción del pirata), José Zorrilla (Don Juan Tenorio)

They have a more extensive list of writers from the realist and modern periods, but I don't know how those would be at instilling the kind of character Charlotte Mason had in mind - so much of modern literature has a different goal, and hispanic literature might even have its own focus altogether.

Wikipedia has a list of Spanish authors divided by country. But, again, I don't know what the quality of their works is, and how usable they'd be in a Christian-based education. I'm suspecting that a person looking for a classic books education would have to rely heavily on world classics translated into Spanish. I know they're widely available. For starters, I'm sure Aesop's fables, Fairy Tales are available in Spanish translations - even the English versions are translated from a language other than English. The standard literary classics that seem to make it on everybody's booklists (Swiss Family Robinson, Jungle Book, Little Women) must surely be available in Spanish.

I guess one solution for coming up with a Spanish version of a great books list would be for someone who knows both English and Spanish to convert a list of standard great books (perhaps starting with Ambleside Online's list) into Spanish by finding the titles in Spanish.

-----------------

I found this at the Online Books Page - book sites in foreign languages. These are Spanish etext sites:

• Biblioteca Electronica Cristiana (Christian electronic texts in Spanish)
• Biblioteca Virtual de CLACSO (social science books in Spanish)
• Biblioteca Virtual Miguel De Cervantes (Spanish texts; JavaScript-dependent)
• Comedia Library (Hispanic classical theater texts)
• Elaleph (Spanish-language PDF texts)
• Memoria Chilena (Chilean historical books and other materials in Spanish)
• Textos Lemir (medieval Spanish texts)

--------------------

Here's a beginning list, thanks to Mama Squirrel's comments.

Imitacion de Cristo por Tomás Hermerken de Kempis

Poesia por Fray Luis de Léon (not sure of the quality, but the text is listed on a Christian site)

Mujercitas por LouisaMay Alcott

Desiring God by John Piper pdf file

El Progreso del Peregrino por Juan Bunyan pdf

Vintage Books online in various translations at The Rosetta Project, including Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Bears, (click on the "Spanish" button for the translated text)
.

Homeschoolers Qualifying for the National Merit Scholarship program

Found on HomeschoolBuzz.com. This is from an article in the Washington Times:

"...Home-schooling has developed an impressive track record. In particular, home-schoolers are consistently achieving in the arena skeptics believe should be out of the range of average parents, which is preparing students for college.

If parents can successfully prepare children for college, then the rationale for heavily subsidizing public schools weakens significantly. Recent results from ACT show home-schoolers have scored above the national average for the past 10 years, which helps show that home-schoolers are well-prepared for college.

But there's another program in which home-schoolers are making their presence known — the National Merit Scholarship Program.

The NMS program has seen a dramatic increase in the number of home-schoolers who place as finalists. Of the 248 home-schoolers among the 2003 semifinalists, 129 of these students advanced to finalist standing, receiving the National Merit Scholarship.

As noted by Kate Grossman, a reporter with the Chicago Sun-Times, the number of home-schoolers receiving National Merit Scholarships has increased more than 500 percent: from 21 in 1995 to 129 in 2003. Recently NMS announced that for 2008 there are 237 home-school semifinalists..."

Read more here.

Home schooling improves academic performance and reduces impact of socio-economic factors

From Mama Squirrel's blog. This is quoted from an article at The Fraser Institute, which writes about "competitive market solutions for public policy problems."

------------------------

<>Home schooling appears to improve the academic performance of children from families with low levels of education, according to a report on home schooling released today by independent research organization The Fraser Institute...

“Poorly educated parents who choose to teach their children at home produce better academic results for their children than public schools do. One study we reviewed found that students taught at home by mothers who never finished high school scored a full 55 percentage points higher than public school students from families with comparable education levels.”...

The study also reports that students educated at home outperform their peers on most academic tests and are involved in a broad mix of social activities outside the home.

Research shows that almost 25 per cent of home schooled students in the United States perform one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools. Grades 1 to 4 home school students perform one grade level higher than their public- and private-school peers. By Grade 8, the average home schooled student performs four grade levels above the national average.

...a growing body of new research also calls into question the belief that home schooled children are not adequately socialized...

Self Made Scholar

This was posted on a message board and I'm saving it for a closer look later.

Self Made Scholar

J's Ninth Grade Plan

J is going to be doing a slightly adapted version of AO's lightened Year 8. I switched the geography book and devotional, and he'll be reading all of Saints and Heroes instead of just the second volume.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
Saints and Heroes by George Hodges Volumes 1 and 2
The New World by Winston Churchill (volume 2 of his History of the English Speaking Peoples)
Martin Luther's defense before the Diet of Worms
Queen Elizabeth's speech to the Spanish Armada, July 29, 1588
A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt (watch movie)
A Coffin for King Charles by C. V. Wedgwood
Johannes Kepler chapter from The Great Astronomers by R.S. Ball
In Search of England by H.V. Morton (geography)
Whatever Happened to Justice by Richard Maybury
I, Pencil a short essay by Leonard Read
Ourselves by Charlotte Mason
Utopia by Sir Thomas More
Francis Bacon selected essays
The History of English Literature for Girls and Boys by H.E. Marshall ch 32-59
Everyman, a Morality Play
Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley
Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves (Spenser's Fairie Queene Book I)
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Poetry of John Donne and George Herbert
Grammar: Our Mother Tongue
VideoText Algebra
Chemistry
Nature Reading: Rural Hours by Susan Fenimore Cooper
William Harvey and the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood by Thomas Henry Huxley
How To Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren (part of the book)
The Story of Painting by H. W. Janson - chapters 4, 5

Senior Year Plan

For Tim's last year, I'm letting him mostly plan his own school. We're following Ambleside Online's history line-up; ancient history is planned, but Year 12 isn't done. So we looked at what people are recommending, especially on the AO lists, and here's what we're looking at:

Term 1
The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton
The Echo of Greece by Edith Hamilton
Histories by Herodotus (Books 6, 7, 8 that tell of the Battles of Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis)
Code of Hammurabi
Chemistry
Latin
The Christian Imagination by Leland Ryken (collection of essays)
Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis
The Gift of Fire Richard Mitchell
Short Stories (4 per term)
Oedipus Rex, Antigone by Sophocles
Medea, Hippolyta by Euripides
2 or 3 Greek Lives by Plutarch
Italian Journey by Goethe (for geography)

Term 2
The Roman Way Edith Hamilton
History of Rome by Livy (Books i, II and III)
Chemistry
Latin
From Socrates to Sartre by T.Z. Lavine (part 1)
Orthodoxy by Chesterton
The Aeneid by Virgil (Books I-VI)
Short Stories
2 or 3 Roman Lives by Plutarch

Term 3
De Conquestu Britanniae (Gildas's Conquest of Britain) I and II (will also count as Latin practice)
How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
Chemistry
Latin
From Socrates to Sartre by T.Z. Lavine (part 2)
Pensees (Thoughts) by Blaise Pascal
The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton?
Literature: Beowulf, Gawain, Mabinogion, Sir Orfeo, Pearl, Y Gododdin, Asser's Life of Alfred
Short Stories

I've posted a webpage with his booklist here.

I'll be reading along with him as best I can - which means I'll be using easier versions. And for that, I have my own booklist and schedule.

More on Baby Einstein

"Early screen-viewing has a negative effect on [the brain's] soft-wiring even when the content is baby-safe . . . The question to ask isn’t, ‘What is she watching,’ but, ‘What else isn’t she doing?’"

‘We have succeeded in convincing people that the first years are critical to brain development,’’ said Meltzoff, who is co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington. ‘‘The unfortunate consequence is that it has spun off to build a brainier baby enterprise, where people think they have to use technology to take advantage of this critical window.’’

Read more here.

Baby Einstein Doesn't Work

"The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front of a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting smarter than the neighbor's kid. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the 'Baby Einstein' and 'Brainy Baby' series, researchers find that these products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers.
Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age at which language skills are starting to form. 'The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew,' says Christakis."

". . . the only thing that baby videos are doing is producing a generation of overstimulated kids."

Read the full article here.

I'm not the least bit surprised. Endangered Minds by Jane Healy (read my review of the book) says that children have a window of opportunity for learning language, and they can't learn language passively. They learn language from back-and-forth dialog - the kind that mothers do naturally with their kids. God knew what He was doing when he placed children in homes. Science is just catching up and discovering that that's where they learn best, at least at very young ages.

Last Day of School

We're finished for the year! This is the first year we've done this - usually we work through most of the summer and take 2 or 3 weeks off in August before starting the new year (I've always been afraid that once I stopped for longer than that, I'd never start again . . .)

This year the boys wanted a "real" summer vacation. So we haven't taken off a week here and there so much during the year, and today was our last day of school - tomorrow begins eight glorious weeks of free time!

Well, not totally free - we'll still have an hour and a half in the morning for chores, devotions and a readaloud (we're going to try Waverley by Sir Walter Scott - how's that for ambitious?) and the boys will have a few other things to do. Tim will be working on math and Latin, J will be working on spelling, grammar and Algebra, and L will be practicing basic math skills, a little bit of writing, and I'll be reading him Hillyer's Child's Geography of the World. He's starting Year 5 next year and we have the option of doing either the Hillyer book or Halliburton's Book of Marvels. We have both and I don't want him to miss either one, so I'm reading him one over the summer.

It sounds like a lot, but we'll be getting done before noon every day and the stuff we're doing is either fun stuff or things they've needed focused time with (like L and his basic math facts).

Aside from that, they're going to be reading books of their choice. We looked at the Barnes and Noble summer reading program - if your child reads a certain number of books, Barnes and Noble will award him with a free book. But we didn't like their selection of book awards, and it's only for little kids. So I'm going to buy them a book of their choice for every six books they read.

L will probably get his book, he plans to read Paddington Bear and Boxcar Children books, and those are pretty easy for him. J will likely start out overly-ambitious and pick books like The Silmarillion, Ben Hur, and The Bride of Lammermoor - and never finish even one because he spent the summer adding a new deck onto the house instead of reading. T will probably end up with a complete new library before the summer's over.

What will I do with eight whole weeks? I'm hoping to clear out piles of stuff that's built up in my bedroom for the last four years, since I was pregnant. We have plans for re-arranging the room with different storage, and that should help, but that project won't happen overnight.

Homeschool Moms are Cool

"Home school mothers are the heart of a traditionalist revolution that is driving life back into the homes." Read more in the article Homeschool Mothers: The Beatrice Brigade, thanks to Dominion Family.

The Myth of the Socialization Myth

Looking for evidence that homeschooling hinders socialization . . . I can't find anything out there!

I found one real study that was done in 1994, but that study failed to find all the socialization problems that were expected with homeschoolers. The article ends with, "At this point, more research on home schooling is necessary--what we have is inconclusive . . ." They didn't find what they were looking for, so they'll keep trying until they find it, I guess.

I see all kinds of articles from homeschoolers debunking the socialization myth, and posts and message board entries saying that socialization isn't the big problem they say it is . . . so, who are these homeschoolers talking to? What articles are they debunking? Who is the "they" who claim that socialization is an issue with homeschooling?

Do you ever get discouraged and wonder if your homeschooling is working?

Katie of CM, Children and Lots of Grace wrote this beautiful post.

What Non-Homeschoolers May Not Know About Homeschoolers

This post from another blog was posted to one of the Ambleside Online email lists. It's nice to remember these things when I feel bad about not meeting all my own expectations about doing it all.

Article on Liberal Education

The Common Room posted an article about standards in liberal education. The author laments the lack of any common core of knowledge to teach in colleges. Instead, students can take a couple of courses of their choice in science, math, humanities, and get a degree - but two students with identical degrees from the same college might not have ever read the same book! (Tim says this won't be a problem for long, once the UN's world curriculum is adopted by more schools . . .)

Charlotte Mason had a lot to say about what should be learned in schools, and she was very much against vocational education that's narrowly focused on training students in job skills in lieu of a standard liberal education that passed on a body of knowledge and developed character. A quote two-thirds down in the article did a great job explaining that concept very concisely. Peter Berkowitz commenting on John Stuart Mills:

"Men are men before they are lawyers, or physicians, or merchants, or manufacturers; and if you make them capable and sensible men, they will make themselves capable and sensible lawyers or physicians." In other words, the cultivation that they bring to professional schools from their liberal education goes a long way to determining whether professionals practice their trade sensibly and decently.