our dozen beautiful feet

A couple of years ago, I started digging into how to teach my kids to really understand literature.  Luke was finishing sixth grade and had read a lot of great books on his own.  But we hadn't done much with literary analysis, or real literature.  He'd mostly read classics for kids or historical fiction to bring his history studies to life.  As we moved into middle school, I was trying to figure out the best way to tackle the Great Books.  I started out looking for the perfect curriculum to guide us through the Great Books, to provide us with a reading list and the right questions to think about. I downloaded samples and made book lists, compared book lists, re-arranged book lists. I thoroughly examined Veritas Press Omnibus, Tapestry of Grace, Ambleside Online, Classical Conversations, Old Western Culture, Beautiful Feet, Sonlight, Memoria Press, Excellence in Literature, Schole Academy, www.classical-homeschooling.org.   With a few exceptions, I felt l...

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 ...

It's two weeks away from the start of the school year. It's been hitting me this summer. Luke is doing Geometry. Geometry is a high school credit. I need to have a plan to keep track of actual grades and credits and such, at least for this one class.... Years ago, I purchased OLLY  for both my desktop and the iPad. I quickly realized it was more than I needed, and I couldn't figure out how to make it work for me at the time. So I abandoned it. But thankfully, I didn't delete it! I resurrected that dinosaur of an app this month and began tinkering around with it. It's going to work GREAT for me to keep up with grading assignments that really need to be graded, assigning credits and keeping track of what we need to get to graduation. I've set it up to give me accountability with grading. I don't have all the kids assignments in there. I just have plotted out the assignments and exams that will receive a grade. This year will be a trial run to see if I...

For the greater part of my adult life, I always knew when my next flight was.  The summer before my senior year of college I took my first trip overseas to Izmir, Turkey.  From the anticipation of that trip in 2000 until the summer of 2014, I was in a state of perpetual anticipating of the next flight. Those years of jet-setting every few months saw my life morph from a single college girl to a married working woman to a seasoned missionary and homeschooling mother of four. As a mother, I always thought the announcement at the beginning of every airplane ride was pretty unrealistic. What mother really puts the oxygen mask on herself first while her kid is sitting there struggling for breath? I always tried to picture myself doing that, and it always seemed wrong. I really do understand how badly things could go if mom passes out, but I never could wrap my head around that mental picture of just taking care of myself first. But. When it comes to educating our kids, I thi...