I am homeschooling 4 of my 7 children. The oldest that I am schooling just turned 11 and the youngest just turned 6. I am facing a fence that seems too high to climb and there is no gate. I am longing to free myself from workbooks/textbooks, but don’t know how to start. Reading your book and reading about unit studies has created a longing in me to revamp my whole home environment. I am afraid that too much has been lost with the older children (8, 9 and 11.) If I started to teach my 11 year old son Latin, we would surely die!!! UGH!!! I am being facetious! It would be a struggle. I wouldn’t know how to start and I am very insecure as I am only educated through the 12th grade. I can sing “O Come All Ye Faithful” in Latin but to teach it???

In short…
IS THERE HOPE? Can I start all over?? Can this “homeschool” be fixed?
Sincerely ~
Carol in Warsaw, VA

Yes, there is plenty of hope. Your children are still quite young, and you have plenty of time. We didn’t start with Latin till our oldest was thirteen. I learned it right along with him. If you do decide to do Latin, I suggest getting a self-teaching course like Artes Latinae. But perhaps you would rather do Greek instead. Probably one language would be enough right now.

Most of your children are in the under 10 group, so I suggest just following the 10 things to do before age 10 chapter in our book Teaching the Trivium. The 11 yo will need more of your help, unless he is an independent learner.

It won’t be a matter of starting over, but just making some adjustments. Do you like to read aloud? That will be an important part of your schedule. Laurie