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Which is your favorite book on classical education?

When God led me to homeschool, the first thing I did was go to the public library and check out every book I could on homeschooling. The first book I read was "The Case for Christian Classical Education" by Douglas Wilson. I immediately knew I wanted a Christian Classical education for my children but was very intimidated by it (especailly by Latin). I put "classical education" on the shelf and continued with the ABEKA program we had. Then I discovered Classical Conversations through the hoomeschool channel. There was a discussion forum on Classical Conversations. I immediately googled CC and the rest is history for me. Since then I have read "The Core" by Leigh Bortins, founder of CC. This book has been my favorite book so far becasue it is very practical and it truly makes "classical education" approachable to all of us. Currently, I am reading the Bluedorn's book, "Teaching the Trivium." So far I am very much enjoying it. Please feel free to share your journey on classical education and your favorite books on classical education.

Tags: classical, education

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Permalink Reply by erin on May 8, 2012 at 3:56pm

My journey into Classical Homeschooling started about 3yrs ago when I first read The Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. I immediately began to impliement aspects of Classical Education into our homeschool program. We started with the Science rotations and memory work. We did life science last year with a COOP Class. THis year we are doing Apologia Astronomy and Earth Science. We are doing a history timeline as well. We are still eclectic when it comes to certain aspects. Like with history and incoporating some Montessori and Charlotte Mason things in the early years. But for the most part we are moving through the Trivium. This year we started Latin with Prima Latina through Memoria Press with my 7yr old. She loves it and so do I. We were already heavily literature based in our approach before we got started in classical. That first year with classical we even did Artist Study and Composer Study. We kind of slacked off on that for the last two years though.

I eventually got around to reading Doug Wilson's book this year but I think out of all the books out there The Core by Leigh Bortins has been my favorite. I really love how she laid it out for all types of educators. I am able to suggest this book to my friends who may not be about to homeschool but are homeschool minded or want to suppliment there child education at home. Or I can suggest for a great overview of what Classical can look like. Although I strongly belive that Classical is an educational philiosophy and outline rather than a particular curriculum. I feel you can do classical with or without a curriculum cause I have done it both ways.

Another helpful article is The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers its free in public domain.

Permalink Reply by Adriana Cunningham on May 8, 2012 at 5:02pm

Thanks for sharing, Erin! I too enjoy reading "The Lost Tools of Learning." I will have to add a "Well Trained Mind" to my list of books I want to read. Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Lorene M. Peetz on May 15, 2012 at 2:03pm

My favorite book on Classical Education is "Teaching the Trivium". It seems a bit more approachable than the others, although I have not looked at all the others. I have to be careful about books: I love reading! I get myself started with so many books and then cannot finish them! But mainly I am trying to focus on teaching and learning the tools for learning. One big idea that I try to emphasize with our children is having a teachable heart and learning to seek the Lord. Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is the right use or exercise of knowledge, so if we want to make good use (by God's standards) of knowledge, then we must seek Him. I like the concept that Leigh talks about from the verse from Proverbs 25:2 "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter." She calls it a hide and seek with God. We seek to know the Lord in part, through the study of the things He has made, always beginning and returning to Scripture as the standard. I want to cultivate their appetites for the excellent things: those that the Lord tells us are important to Him. Classical Conversations has been a tool that the Lord has used in our home school. As for any family, it is a specifically, and uniquely tailored by the Lord as we seek Him with our whole hearts, crying out for His will in our lives and the lives of our children. These are somewhat scattered thoughts, but I am glad to have an opportunity to revive some of this thinking in my own mind as it reminds me of the reasons we home school. Thanks for letting me share!

Permalink Reply by Adriana Cunningham on May 15, 2012 at 4:03pm

Lorene, Yes, CC is a great tool. I love how it has made clasical education possible for our family. Otherwise, I would probably still have "classical education" on the shelf. Thanks for sharing, Lorene!