Greetings from Australia.
I would like to send a few words of thanks for including on your website the chapter from your book Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style.
We have 4 beautiful children aged 6, 4, 2, and 4 months. I struggled through the end of my pregnancy, and have found the months since challenging, thanks to tiredness and constant back pain. Part of the challenge has been due to trying to figure out what I’m doing with homeschooling, and I get a little wound up worrying that I’m not “doing enough” with my darlings. I grew up surrounded by homeschooling, was raised on Accelerated Christian Education, and thought that when I had children it would all be a breeze, doing what I knew how to do. Then I started looking outside of what I knew, and decided not to use ACE. I have since found myself quite confused by the overwhelming amount of options, with no two acquaintances doing the same thing!
Last week I was battling through some grey days, and on hearing from a friend another comment about your book, I looked it up on the web to discover the cost, and that led to your website, and finding the chapter mentioned above. I gobbled it up so to speak, and found it very encouraging, yet simple and attainable. I have printed out the 10 steps and stuck it on my kitchen cupboard so I can think about it through the day. I thank you for including it on the site so I can get a taste of the book, and am looking forward to ordering my own copy next week when my book allowance catches up.
Thank you all for your service to those of us stumbling along the way. May God bless you for it!
Anne
Ah, your children are just babies — you have plenty of time for the academics. I suggest spending the next several months just reading aloud to your kids while you rest up from your pregnancy. Read to them books you enjoy. Concentrate just on the reading aloud and obedience. Take up the academics next fall perhaps. That will be soon enough.
No, ACE would not be a good choice.
Laurie
Anne,
Let me not only agree with Laurie’s answer, but let me tell you that Teaching the Trivium is the best investment you will EVER make in the homeschooling of your children. It was written after their children were grown and they had the advantage of hindsight. I had wanted to read it for several years and put it off due to the price and bought it when mine were about 6 months younger than yours and while reading it I felt that it was exactly how I felt all along, but could not convey into words.
Life gets crazy for all of us and we all feel like we are not doing enough. You will NEVER regret the reading you do with your children. My eldest is now 11 and we waited till 10 for formal math and I think that one decision alone saved me hundreds of gray hairs. It is absolutely amazing what even a year will do for a child’s maturity level.
Just for the record, I did ACE from K-12 except for high school chemistry which our school offered in a traditional setting.
God bless as you recover from your pregnancy. I am in the last month of my sixth and I know it can take alot out of you. God bless.