We filmed this video last year, but I was just looking through my “Post to Blog” folder and realized that I never ended up sharing it with you all. The video is in response to a question about homeschooling. While it’s a year old, we would say the same things today, except for the comment about having no idea how to parent. Little Buddy was an infant last summer, and we had not yet entered the parenting stage, but we are in it now and are pleased to report that it’s going well.
homeschooling
Drawing the World…Freehand
My in-laws have seven kids, of which Mr. Handsome is the oldest, and all have been homeschooled for the majority of their childhoods. The first five, who are now in their 20s, were homeschooled until high school, and the youngest two–Mae and Lena, ages 13 and 14–will most likely be homeschooled all the way through.
Last weekend, my mother-in-law joked that she wishes she could go back and homeschool her five oldest again. “I’ve learned so much through the Classical Conversations curriculum that I’m doing with the little girls,” she said. Truthfully, all of her older kids are very successful, so she was clearly a good teacher.
Are any of you familiar with Classical Conversations? It’s a rigorous co-op program that divides the learning process into three stages: grammar, dialect, and rhetoric. Let’s just say that the oldest five are glad they didn’t have to go through it. As someone who grew up in the public school system, I can tell you that Classical Conversations kids learn more useful information than public school students.
The most amazing part of the curriculum is how much the kids memorize. In middle school, they learn how to draw the world freehand and label ever country and its capital. Mae has already mastered that, but she enjoys practicing her skill.
Here is a time-lapse video of her freehand drawing the United States. Naturally she claims it “isn’t very good”…