Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Updated Curriculum Post

I just updated my last weekly report post, which lists (in part) what curriculum we use. I had forgotten to add what we use for poetry and pre-logic.

I say "pre" because none of our children are in the logic stage of education yet but we have begun to lay the foundation for that stage. Nothing too formal for the younger ones (they just have fun with puzzles right now) but Patricia has begun some critical thinking skills this year because she is close to entering the logic stage. I think the modern education system starts critical thinking too early- a child needs a foundation of knowledge before they can begin to think about it critically. (The modern view also tells you that you need a curriculum to teach critical thinking, which I totally disagree with even though we are using a few workbooks right now. Pull CT into what you are teaching!!!) Of course, each child matures at different rates and vary when they will be ready to begin critical thinking. Another blessing of home education- the ability to discern when a child is ready to learn something.

Eric plans on teaching logic. Yahoo! (I do hope to learn along the way too :) Logic is a great opportunity to discuss worldviews, so Eric wants to teach the children. Sounds great to me!

- Heather

Oh, and let me just add that children are often ready for a new stage of education in one area of study before they may be ready for that stage in all areas. For example, a child may enter the logic stage for history before they are ready to think logically about math. And, again, the age or maturity level varies from child to child. Confused by what I mean by "logic stage?" I'm drawing from a classical education view, which I first mentioned about here.

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