As we continue our way through summertime, I am seeking to spend any marginal moments on education. I continue pursuing my own education through reading about Classical Christian education, Charlotte Mason education, and things to expand my knowledge & imagination.
Some things I have been reading lately:
Morning Time: a Liturgy of Love by Cindy Rollins
Ideas Freely Sown by Anne E. White
The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield
The Case for Classical Christian Education by Douglas Wilson
The Paideia of God by Douglas Wilson
The Flow of the Psalms by O. Palmer Robertson
Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie
Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education by Robert Woods
Classical Education and the Homeschool by Wilson, Callihan, and Jones
I have also been working on class schedules for our new Classical Christian co op, Paideia Studies. I have created the scope and sequence for Middle Ages History, General Science, and Collective for the upcoming school year. It feels so good to have those things ironed out and ready for the mamas.
I don’t personally have an official high school student this year, but this is what the high school bracket at Paideia Studies will be jumping into for our inaugural year:
Science: Chemistry (Jay L. Wile)
Worldview/Lit/History/Writing: Omnibus II (Veritas Press) and Medieval History Based Writing (IEW), plus a long literature list
Language: conversational Spanish using Complete Spanish, 501 Spanish Verbs, and some dictionaries
Logic: Bestiary of Adorable Fallacies (Canon Press) and Critical Thinking (Anita Harnadek)
I do have kids in all the other class though! I have kids entering 1st, 4th, 6th, and 8th grades – plus a toddler for the youngest class. We are really looking forward to all the subjects and books and projects we will be pursuing with so many new friends this year. Here is a peek at the book stacks I have put together for the Grammar and Middle brackets at Paideia Studies this year:
Science: General Science (Jay L. Wile) with supplemental books from Reader’s Digest, Usborne, and other project compilations
History: Middle Ages – Story of the World volume 2 (Peace Hill Press), Mystery of History volumes 2 and 3 (Linda Hobar), A Child’s History of the World (V.M. Hillyer), plus a large collection of picture books and chapter books and anthologies for living books/literature
Language: Latin – SongSchool, Primer A, Primer B, Primer C (Classical Academic Press), bilingual dictionary, and a handful of resources containing fairytales and poetry in Latin
Art: Studies of Imitation through Sketching – Anyone Can Teach Art (Julie Abels), Discovering Great Artists (Bright Ring), Short Lessons in Art History (Walch Publishing), History of Art (Bustard, Veritas Press); plus a bunch of other resources to sprinkle throughout the year – Art Treasury (Rosie Dickins), The Children’s Book of Art (Rosie Dickins), The Arts (DK Publishing), The Usborne Book of Famous Paintings (Usborne), The Illustrated History of Art (David Piper)
Phys Ed: social dancing – Chimes of Dunkirk (NEDM), Listen to the Mockingbird (NEDM), Teaching Folk Dance (Phyllis Weikart), Dance a While (Waveland Press) and Swedish Drill (Dawn Duran)
I never expected to spend this summer doing this kind of planning and organizing, but the Lord has blessed me so much and given me a lot of joy in it. How kind of Him! And as we have had opportunities through family interviews, co op cookout, and play dates… we are finding a beautiful sense of community already building. Although these ten families have not known each other much previously, there is at least one previously-known family per family. So everyone knows someone, but nobody knows everyone. It can honestly feel a little daunting to jump into a new group of people and an entirely new endeavor together – both for mamas and for kids. But it is beautiful to know that we have unity, regardless of any diversity. (Our pastor recently mentioned in a sermon how uniformity and unity are not the same thing! We don’t strive for uniformity, but unity in Christ.) We are coming together to form a group working toward unified goals: pursuit of God, love of Him, knowledge of Him, wonder of Him for His creation.
We want to train our kids (and ourselves) to love things the Lord loves. Things which are good, true, and beautiful. Things which honor Him and equip us to further His kingdom on earth. That is what will bond us together. That is how we will create friendships and have fellowship in Paideia Studies.
Ordo amoris: ordering our loves. We need to teach our children what is lovely, and then teach them how to love it. This includes various subjects, topics, and books – but it also includes people and families and home cultures. I feel absolutely honored to walk with my children through a new season of education, a new season of community, a new season of friendship. I feel the Lord at work: HE is ordering our loves. May we follow Him with gladness!