What Is The Classical Homeschooling Method?

There are those that believe education should be more formal and structured in its framework. Though you have decided to homeschool your children for whatever reason, your goal might also be to preserve the structure of the learning environment. If that is so, the classical homeschooling method might work best for your child.

How was school conducted hundreds of years ago? Those who could afford it hired the best tutors who believed that education was synonymous with culture and class. Children were kept on strict schedules, learning reading, writing, arithmetic and also social graces.

Traditional school definitely has a structure. At different grade levels students learn rudimentary skills that they can then use as stepping stones to harder subjects. The day is divided into sections so that everything is covered that needs to be taught along with free time for play and nourishment. You can develop your child's education in this way at home with the "classical" homeschooling method.

What is the Classical Homeschooling Method?

This method is divided into 3 distinct parts known collectively as the "trivium." It is designed to train the mind by first presenting the facts, analyzing the facts and finally growing beyond the facts. Let's look a bit closer.

Classical method is language based. That means that the main avenue of learning is the written word whether listened to or read. The first stage is called the "grammar stage." In the elementary grade levels, kids are presented with a lot of information. Memorization is the key here in learning everything from math tables to grammar rules in English. Because kids are such sponges at a younger age, absorbing information like this is fun to them.

The second stage is the "logic stage." As kids grow and understand more of life, they begin to ask "Why?" and expect an answer. Answers are internalized, pulled apart and pieced back together in their minds until it makes sense. In their education, this is the time when relationships between different subjects are explored. Remember, when you were that age, all those times you said that you wouldn't use math in real life anyway? Now correlations between history, math, science, writing and more can be made.

The third stage is the "rhetoric stage." At the high school level, kids have matured enough to be able to draw their own conclusions from the facts that they learned in the first stage and the logic they have developed in the third stage. This can be developed through debate, writing expository papers or participating in outside activities.

The purpose of classical approaches to learning is to keep the brain active and working. It takes more brain activity to read and imagine as opposed to learning through watching, where the creativity has been handled by someone else.

Classical homeschooling method feeds your child's need for information, connects the dots and then let's them draw their own conclusions.