Intro

This is nothing like my other blogs or writings, so I first have to apologize if this is dry, boring, unappealing, scattered, stuttered, unorganized or otherwise not good...

Here's a little bit about me and the offspring (plural):

Thing 1 is 14 and still going to public school by his own choice

Thing 2 is 8 and I pulled him out of public school after Christmas break of his 2nd grade year

Thing 3 is 18 months old and well, a terror (he is also still breastfed, which throws a monkey wrench into things)

I am a recently unemployed 30 year old who pretty much despises public schools and the powers that be telling me how and why and where my child is to be educated. I don't want them to grow up to be part of the herd. I don't want them to be trained to be just another cog in someone else's machine. I want them to be able to think for themselves and find REAL answers, not just what is fed to them by media. I am also not Christian (or anything else (including Atheist - yes, it IS a religion), something that will also come into play I am sure, given that most of the homeschool groups in my area are Christian based).

A while back, my husband bought a book called The Well Trained Mind. He really got into the Trivium thing and wanted to teach our youngest that way. I'd never read anything about it and it all sounded quite difficult to me. My decision to begin homeschooling was made after reading Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto. It really hit home to me and I began reading some other material by John Holt, a proponent of "Unschooling". While his material made sense to me in a way, I struggled with grasping how a child became educated with such a "program" (or lack of). Sure, they'd learn basic life skills from me and they'd probably learn about what interested them, but that seemed to be missing something...

I remember reading some blogs and posting from homeschoolers following the "unschool" method and was particularly disturbed by a mother stating that she basically let her child play video games all the time. Now, in fairness, she though he was learning math and reasoning skills and he had also expressed an interest in "video game design". However, she never mentioned anything about teaching him or giving him materials to learn how to write code or do graphic design or any particular aptitude the child had for either.  How many kids do you think dream about making video games for a living?? If I had a nickel... And that doesn't even begin to cover my feelings about TV and video games in general. We call it The Idiot Box in our house and our children have very strict limits on its use. That thing was invented for one reason - PROGRAMMING. All it spews is propaganda and the only purpose it serves is to either be the circus to go with your bread or to program you to be a good serf.

Life isn't about what YOU want. Particularly what you wanted as a small child or even as a teenager. Life is full of things you don't want to do. I hate doing dishes, DESPISE it, but I have to do dishes if we want clean dishes to eat off of at each meal. Maybe this method works for a parent who is super in-tune or creative and probably doesn't have an 18 month old hurricane crashing through their house every day... But it just wasn't for me. I felt powerless after taking Thing 2 out of school. I felt like I should be doing something but I didn't know what. Maybe all those years of public education left me needing someone to always tell me what to do.

For some reason, about 2 months into Thing 2 being home, I picked up The Well Trained Mind and I was sold. Particularly after reading this quote from the book:

"Rigorous study develops virtue in the student: the ability to act in accordance to what one knows to be right. Virtuous men (or women) can force themselves to do what they know is right, even when it runs against their inclinations."

My children would gladly sit around and play video games all day. I don't want my kids to be taught from video games or television. I want to EDUCATE them. Sure, they can grow up knowing what they need to get by, or they can grow up with the tools, knowledge and confidence to think on their own, for themselves.

So probably about $1000 later, here we are teaching the Trivium. I decided to start with mostly 1st grade material and play catch up (except math and spelling). I pretty much followed all of the suggestions in the book and purchased most of the Well Trained Mind curriculum books (the History series is AWESOME!). In addition, we are using the following:

1. Spelling: Spelling Workout from Modern Curriculum Press. I stupidly bought book A thinking we'd kind of start fresh, it was WAY too easy for him. We did a few things for refresher and moved on to book B which is still very easy for him (we actually have a decent public school district). I figure we will just move through it quickly.
2.  Math: Singapore math. I got this partially because I thought it was a good option and partially because it was one of the less expensive options. It hasn't arrived yet, so we'll see how it goes.
3. Handwriting: Zaner-Bloser. I got 2M (manuscript aka printing) and 2C (cursive). 2M was too simple so we've moved onto 2C. I also bought a ream of 2nd grade paper.

For everything else, we are using the Peacehill Press  (Well Trained Mind) stuff:

1. History: The Story of The World Volume 1: Ancient Times (Book, activity book and tests and answers, I also got a PDF download of the activity pages (like $8) because I was sick of scanning them and printing and I want to be able to reuse the book for Thing 3.
2. Writing: Writing with Ease Book and Workbook Level 1(for this I also bought the PDF of workbook pages). I've found that the book and the workbook have the exact same text, just the workbook has student pages in the back and only covers 1 year. The workbook also has more passages from books so you don't have to read your own. If you're lazy, like me, and want the workbook pages already made up and everything right there for you to pick up and go, then get the workbooks each year. If you're cool with making your own pages (there's nothing special about the ones in the workbook, it's either short copywork lines and some writing lines, or a question about the passage and writing lines, you can use writing lines paper if you feel like your child needs the lines and they can copy from the book) and using passages from your own books (or library books) buy the complete book once and be done with it.
3. Grammar: First Language Lessons for The Well Trained Mind.

So this is where we are at with the basics. Tomorrow, I will try to cover some of the extras (and science material) then maybe give some in depth reviews. I'll also try to cover our "set up". Hopefully this info will help someone out there!

I also want to add that I probably went overboard buying stuff (income tax return) because I always feel like the more I buy, the better prepared I am, which of course is not true at all, but alas... I will try to give some cost saving tips (things that might be easier of you don't have really little ones or if, damn you, your kids are better behaved than mine and you can get to the library more).