I don't have kids, but at some point I will and I consider homeschooling an attractive option. Since you are homeschooling, what ideas do you have about a classical liberal/pro-liberty homeschooling program?

Stephanie is the real source to go to on our homeschooling, since she's the primary determinant of what we do, since she's the one always with them.

We started out with what amounts to a mission statement: Our goal is that when the children leave our house, they will be educated sufficiently to be productive citizens of a free republic.

We broke down areas of study as good written and verbal communication; logic and reasoning; world history with an emphasis on Europe; American history and modern civics; numeracy through algebra and geometry; the reading of great books; basic economics; basic accounting; grammar; foreign languages; music and art; social skills and etiquette; basic domestic arts and life skills; ethics and religion; physical sciences; life sciences; health; computers; geography and maps; sexual education; and personal safety.

We're doing these at different rates and times and amounts, but I think that these will still all be in the mix.

We are using a variety of sources, including History of the World for the basic history survey, any number of books from the library on any number of topics, educational television (watched a History Channel show on Trafalgar yesterday, and Connor later that night was modeling the battle with game pieces), Singapore Math and Right Start math, Latin for Children and Prima Latina, and a host of other sources on various topics. We use a lot of science kits (we're working on atoms and molecules right now) and art kits.

I guess the basic philosophy of classical education that we use starts with The Well-Trained Mind, but we've really changed things around from that in so many ways that it can only be looked at as contributory, rather than being central to what we do.

At this point, I'll leave it to Steph to take over.

Thank you for ruining my day and making me want to scream. So, I guess this explains this story which was prominent in the news recently.

Excuse me while I go weep for the future...

Thanks Jeff.

Phil,

Read up on classical education. We believe that a child who studies classical history and literature will learn enough of history's lessons to know what works, and what doesn't. We figure that if we want them to think like the founders of this country (to some degree, anyway), we should have them read what they read.