our dozen beautiful feet

Things are starting to change around here at Spero Academy.  This year, everyone is in middle school or high school for the first time, which feels really unreal for me. I can't believe I'm done with elementary school!  It's a little bitter sweet, because elementary school is so laid back and fun, but middle school is fun in a whole different way.   But with everyone growing up and becoming more independent, and with me doing a lot of repeats with Levi and Meryn, my plate is finding itself with a little more space on it.  This is a refreshing change for me, and I've got some plans for how to fill it back up this year!  :)  Homeschooling is still my priority though, and I'm excited (as always) for what we've got planned for this year!    Junior Year for Luke and Kiryn :  We still are working towards a solid liberal arts education, so I try to organize their studies around the seven liberal arts. This year, they're done with the grammar and log...

I'm a planner. I like to have a plan. I'm slightly obsessed with curriculum research. Lucky for me I'm really also obsessed with a classical education for my kids (and me), which narrows down my potential curricula to research.  The past five years, I've looked at almost everything out there to find just what will provide us with the most richly restful, and diligently delightful education.  My oldest child is officially starting high school in just four weeks. I have worked the past two years to come up with a solid plan that leaves as little room for discontent, guessing, and changes as possible.  Dr. Perrin outlines some problems with the frenetic pace of high school for a lot of students in this article and urges us to a measured approach instead.  In conference talks over the past two years, I've heard him prescribe his solution (though he's never written another article outlining it), and here it is.   He suggests that to give our high school students a f...

It's a good problem to have. All the options. The last ten years have seen an explosion in curricular options for homeschooling. The homeschool conferences are like going to the cereal aisle at the grocery store: SO MANY CHOICES. It's so tempting to think that there must be something better out there than what you currently have, that your kids are missing out on some magical experience in spelling, that *that* program would be so much easier for you to use, more colorful, more fun, more....  I want you to hear: most of the time, switching programs will not fix a problem if you haven't been consistently and diligently working the program you have. When you're beginning to homeschool for the first time, especially if you're jumping in with multiple kids in different grades, I've got three pieces of advice to get started. 1.  Do some basic reading on the different philosophies of education.   There are four or five major prevailing theories or philosophies...

A little over a year ago, I posted an essay I had written for The Atrium class I was taking through the Circe Institute on the seven liberal arts.  Our fall semester was spent taking a close look at the history of education and the first three arts, known as the Trivium.  That essay is here . I've been meaning to follow that up with some thoughts on the Quadrivium.  It's been more of a challenge than I anticipated. After reading Beauty for Truth's Sake (twice), The Liberal Arts Tradition (three times) and listening to Andrew Kern wax eloquent on the quadrivium for about 16 weeks, I feel like I know just enough to know that I know nothing. Over the past 40 years, the renewal of classical education has done a lot of really great work and made some wonderful discoveries about true education.  There's been a lot of great discovery and reconstruction of ideas in a modern context specifically related to the Trivium arts.  A quick search of "classical curri...

I'm sure we've all found ourselves in situations beyond our control that are surprising, frustrating, discouraging and more.  I've been processing this for myself as I walk through an unexpected situation, and I'm trying to figure out how to navigate it. (I know you're all thinking right now this is going to be about coronavirus. It's not at all...) After spending seven significantly lonely years in India, finding tight, close-knit community was really important to us when we returned. I worked hard the first couple of years here in the US to identify other people, specifically homeschoolers, looking for that. And then I worked really hard to build a homeschool community.  We started with about six families, and a core group of six fourth graders starting out with ancient history projects, Latin for Children A and Writing & Rhetoric together.   That was five years ago.  We've been meeting for five years!  Those little fourth graders are fini...

Every spring since 2017, I've made the trek to Fort Worth to attend the Great Homeschool Convention, pretty much solely to sit in on the classical education track and investigate curricula at the vendor booths.  It has grown me so much and being able to speak personally to people like Dr. Christopher Perrin, Carol Reynolds, Andrea Lipinski, Adam Andrews and Andrew Kern has been challenging, formative, and inspiring in many ways. These conferences keep me going! For various reasons, I had decided not to go this spring.  But, thanks to coronavirus, the entire conference moved online! The past three days, I've sat in the comfort of my own bed and had the privilege of listening to these wise people, and being challenge and inspired for the coming school year. I have a composition book that has become my "GHC Notebook." I've used it exclusively for taking notes at GHC conferences the past four years. Yesterday after the conference, I flipped back through it to see...

Yes, you read that right. We are no longer Preedy Academy! When we moved to our new house, I had to update our address for our school registration, and thought I might take advantage of the opportunity to give us a more creative name that reflects our style more. Spero is a Latin word that can mean "I hope, I dream, I wonder, I Imagine." That about sums it up. Latin, Wonder, Imagination. So. These curriculum pick posts may be becoming a bit redundant, as about three years ago I really found our sweet spot and the people and companies we trust. There's not much deviation now. But I suppose each year we're doing a new grade level for the first time, and are figuring that out as we go. :) So here it is:  Time Period as a Family: Antiquity Meryn: 3rd grade Language :  -All About Spelling Level 3 -McGuffey Reader Book 1 & 2 -Writing Through Ancient History by Brookdale House -Song School Latin 2 Math:  -Math-U-see Gamma Levi: 4th ...