How to Easily Start Classical Education at Home

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Thinking about how to start a classical education at home is intimidating.

Where do you begin? Do you need to add Latin right away? Don’t worry. Here are the step-by-step instructions you need on how to seamlessly transition into classical education!

To start, add the subjects to your homeschool in order. You’ll soon be well on your way to classically educating your children.

Just remember classical education is a journey, not a race. Take your time and enjoy the process.

The Homeschool Week

The first step is to decide if you going to homeschool 4, 5, or 6 days a week?

Many homeschoolers are able to school 4 days a week leaving the 5th day for field trips, visits to the library, and play dates with friends.

Other families prefer to spread a week’s worth of work over 5 days. This allows for a shorter homeschool day than the 4-day week while making excellent progress in school.

A few homeschoolers enjoy a regular routine of 6 days of school a week.

Just remember, there’s no right or wrong way. It’s simply a matter of choosing what works best for your current family situation.

Reading or Phonics

Reading is the basis for education. Children need to be able to read books, read their math assignments, read for entertainment, read on the computer, read maps, etc. So start your journey into classical education with reading.

If you have young children in the house, begin daily phonics practice (daily meaning formal homeschool times). It doesn’t need to be hours of intensive labor, but rather 10-15 minutes of lap-time practicing sounds, blending, and reading.

Older children need time to read every day. Start with easier classic children’s literature you remember fondly from your childhood. It doesn’t matter if the books are picture books or full-length novels.

Keep your focus on creating a love of reading and books.

Also, read aloud to your children every day. Plan a family read-aloud after dinner, or enjoy a novel together at bedtime. I enjoy read-aloud to the kids while they eat lunch. Their hands and mouths are busy and quiet!

Start a commonplace book in which the children keep track of the books they’ve read. Younger children can draw a picture and narrate a sentence or two.

Older children can write a paragraph or two about the book and possibly include a picture as well.

Mathematics

Once you have a good reading routine going in your household, it’s time to introduce mathematics.

Keep in mind that math programs vary in their approach to math.

The spiral approach introduces concepts in small bites while reviewing constantly. The mastery approach teaches one concept and has the children master it before moving to the next concept.

Another two types of approaches are the traditional method and the conceptual method. One teaches concepts through traditional algorithms, while the latter teaches the concepts first then the algorithms.

The goal of all four approaches is the same. To create children who are comfortable mathematicians. Find a program that works for you and your family. And stick with it.

Here’s a marvelous list of math programs that Karyn Tripp at Teach Beside me compiled. Use it as a starting point for finding a math program for your family.

Once you have chosen your math curriculum and placed your children into the correct level, add math to your homeschool day.

At this point, the children should be reading, writing in a reading notebook, and doing math daily

Memorization

Once reading and math are established in your homeschool, add memorization. Start with poetry, psalms, or Bible verses you’d like the children to know.

Eventually move on into introducing grammar rules such as the parts of speech, spelling rules, presidents of the United States, Kings and Queens of English, or Pharaohs of Egypt.

There are several good books such as The Harp and Laurel Wreath: Poetry and Dictation for the Classical Curriculum to help give you a good start.

When should you work on memory work? Some families find doing memory work at breakfast works best. Others do a morning circle time while others prefer lunchtime. You can even do memory work in the car!

 Language Arts

Once you have daily reading, math, and memory work settled into your routine, it’s time to begin filling out your language arts program.

Some language art curricula are all-in-one programs. This means they provide literature, spelling, grammar, and writing lessons for you. Others prefer to find separate components of language arts. They look for spelling books, grammar texts, and writing curricula.

Finding a good writing curriculum is difficult for many families. Look at Writing Strands, IEW, Classical Writing, etc. You can also begin with narration and copy work in the grammar years.

As your child reaches 5th and 6th grade, teach outlining skills, and require your child to outline science or history readings. Once outlining is second nature, you can teach your child to write a report from the outline.

Add opinions, introductions, conclusions, and voila… an essay!

History, Science, Fine Arts

By this point, you have the basic skill subjects and memorization settled. It’s time to add some fun to the school day!

Story of the World and Tapestry of Grace are two popular history programs with homeschoolers, although there are many other excellent curricula as well.

Many history programs include geography. Since you’re already studying, say Italy, it’s a relatively easy matter to add in rivers, mountains, and major cities to your lessons.

My children have absorbed most of their geography lessons by copying landforms, cities, and country boundaries onto their maps.

Science should also be added to the school day. Have fun and look for a science program you and your children will enjoy. The goal is to learn, have fun, and lay a foundation for high school, but not to cram all of the world’s scientific knowledge into your children at this time.

Also, add fine arts to your week. You can turn on the stereo and listen to great musicians while drawing, painting, or sculpting.

The usual suggestion is to do history on Mondays and Wednesdays, science on Tuesdays and Thursdays, saving music and art for Fridays.

Sometimes it’s best to complete daily homeschool work Monday-Thursday and spend all of Friday enjoying the content subjects such as science and history. There are many schedule variations. Experiment and find what works for your family.

Latin

It’s finally time to add Latin into the mix. Take your time, decide on your goals and research programs. Keep in mind that baby steps are best and you don’t need to learn all of Latin in a year.

Instead, concentrate on where you want to be when your child starts high school and graduates high school. I’ve found we’ve made better progress in Latin when I keep it slow and concentrate on consistency.

The trick to starting a classical education at home is remembering to take it slow. Add subjects one at a time. Be patient with yourself and your children.

Eventually, you’ll discover you’re giving your children an excellent classical education at home!

And if you’d like additional guidance, my workbook Building Your Perfect Homeschool in just 13 Weeks is designed to hold your hands as you start homeschooling your kids.

Within 13 weeks, you’ll fulfill your dreams of giving your kids an enriching education at home!


8 Comments

  1. Great post. So many people are intimidated by classical education but it’s not harder, just different. I think it’s a great idea to do it in steps, adding things as you go.

  2. What a wonderful introduction to Classical Education. I can see the logical progression of things as you introduce each discipline.
    I’m featuring your post today on the Hearts for Home Blog Hop!

  3. Neat way of looking at introducing a classical education to someone just starting out. You are right, if you just add one subject at a time, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming!

    1. What is it that people say, “Yard by yard is hard, but inch by inch is a cinch”? Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

  4. You have a lot of good information in this article. We also home schooled using the classical style.

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