Blog

How to Stay the Course with a Classical Homeschool Education

This post is about staying the course with a Classical Education.

The author, my long-time friend Betsy, has educated her children all the way through in Classical Conversations. I love, however, the way she writes about CC and how it has been a guide and a springboard for educating her children to the best of each of their abilities.

Classical Conversations isn’t your master - it is your guide.

Because I have blogged so much about our experiences in Classical Conversations, I wanted to bring you this perspective and voice from a homeschooling mother who has so much to offer about homeschooling in the Classical tradition.

(Take it away, Betsy!)

I never intended to homeschool.

We stumbled into it because competitive gymnastics threatened to take all of my son’s free time. (Then we dropped gymnastics and kept homeschooling.)

How to Stay the Course with a Classical #Homeschool Education

Thirteen years later, we’re still at it. This year I’m graduating my second child from Classical Conversations—my son started in Essentials, and my daughter at the beginning in Foundations. My youngest started at 4 and she’s currently in Challenge 2. I am so thankful God led us to homeschool with Classical Conversations. It hasn’t been easy, and there have been many times that I wanted to quit.

I’ve learned along the way that I just have to keep learning not only what a classical education looks like but also how God has perfectly designed my children. The fruit of those two pursuits has been worth the effort.


Educate Yourself

The beautiful thing about homeschooling is that you don’t have to know everything to homeschool your children.

But, you can’t stay there! The good news is that working through the material with your student will also provide an excellent education for you.

Curriculum is a Tool, Not the Boss

One of the easiest ways to get derailed in homeschooling is by being ruled by a ruthless curriculum. Well, that may be a little harsh, but in mid-January, some of the materials you gushed over in August might feel like they’re turning on you.

Your student is unique! It’s helpful to remember that a curriculum is made for a generic course of study. Use the curriculum as a tool to accomplish what you want to teach your student. This gives so much freedom to follow interests and curiosities as you go.

It’s really helpful to have the framework of a curriculum so that you know what to study, but not feel tied to complete 100% of the text. Public schools don’t use textbooks that way, so feel free to teach your children even if it deviates from the prescribed plan along the way.

How to Stay the Course with a Classical #Homeschool Education

A Classical Conversations Guide is Not Perfection

I have loved that Classical Conversations has opened so many doors in educational pursuits that I would have never chosen on my own. But, I will say that I did not cry when Covid shut down Mock Trial for my youngest.

The beauty of homeschooling and pursuing a classical education is that you can scale the work to educate a human and not produce another perfect classical student—that kind of goes against the premise of a classical education!

It felt so much easier in the Foundations years to do my own thing at home because it was just memory work. Once we entered the Challenge years, I struggled at first with having a vision of my own without just adopting the guide’s vision. It took me a couple of years to start asking myself important questions like:

  • What is the heart of this assignment?

  • What tools do I want to equip my child with so they can be a lifelong
    learner?

  • What is the first layer of learning in this skill?

We review ideas so many times in Foundations, but it’s harder to see the layered learning in the Challenge years.

While it is important to work with excellence, every skill introduced in CC comes back around again. The industrial model of education says that you have to “get it” on your first try because that’s the only time you’ll ever have the opportunity to learn it.

Classical education works in layers. Just keep adding another layer of learning until mastery. Andrew Pudewa often quotes the Japenese proverb, “Ten thousand times and then begins understanding.” We need more than just one pass at an idea to master it. So, let the first time be the first pass and let go of the expectations of perfection.

Seek Out Multiple Sources

The freedom for me to deviate from the curriculum or a Classical Conversations guide came from hearing from multiple voices on the subject.

  • I loved Leigh Bortins’ books like The Core but it was just the beginning of my own education on the subject.

  • The Great Homeschool Convention’s Classical Homeschooling Track opened my eyes to a world of other amazing resources for learning about classical education.

  • I could sit and listen to Andrew Kern’s contemplation of nature and be inspired to cultivate wisdom and virtue in my children.

  • Martin Cothran would give me a list of good books to read and inspire me to read outside of the CC Challenge booklist.

  • Andrew Pudewa encouraged me to let my youngest read with her ears

  • Christopher Perrin and Sarah Mackenzie opened my eyes to new aspects of classical education as they taught on the topic of scholé in learning and Teaching from Rest

While Leigh Bortins gave me a strong foundation in classical education, the bigger picture of the classical tradition empowered me to become an artist as an educator.

Learn Your Student

While it’s great to have a good curriculum, we train humans, not robots. Every student will respond a little differently to the material.

There are so many variables that impact the overall education that no two students will have the same experience. And there is something very beautiful about that. So, it’s important to learn your student.

Look for What Gets Them Excited

Teenagers can be both easy and difficult to read. They can look disinterested in everything, or interested in a new idea every minute. I have found it helpful to watch what they do more than what they say.

In my son’s sophomore year, he was passionate about becoming an eye surgeon like his grandpa. He loved how his grandpa was helping restore sight in medical missions. As I watched my son work through his schoolwork that year, I noticed that he put the least amount of effort into Biology.

Interesting.

A loss in the family that year distracted me from being as engaged in his learning as I had been in the past. So if I just begged, “Will you please just work on something?!” I noticed that he always picked up his Latin
books.

Strange.

So we had a talk. I told him about what I had noticed in his preference for language over science. Through conversation, we discovered that he loved the idea of restoring sight, but maybe that could be done with language in a spiritual sense and not just with science in a physical sense.

This discovery gave him permission to fully pursue his passion which led to us starting Latin with Andy, an online learning library of resources to help others learn Latin.

Push Them Where You Can

In creating this Latin resource, I made Andy go back through two Latin textbooks he’d already finished. Am I a mean mom or what?

While the Classical Conversations guide can sometimes assign too much work, there are other times when the workload is not enough. If Andy really wanted to pursue language, he needed those ten thousand repetitions that Andrew Pudewa talked about. I required more of my son and he flourished.

You can’t push them in every subject equally though. At least I didn’t feel like I could and still maintain a relationship with my children in the end.

Scaling the work in some areas to give time for excelling in others is a great way to cater the curriculum to your child.

Feel Free to Deviate

My girls didn’t have the same affection for Latin that my son displayed—and it’s okay! They learned a lot from him, which made their Latin studies easier. My girls lean more toward artistic pursuits than academic ones.


How to Stay the Course with a Classical #Homeschool Education

We use Classical Conversations to keep us anchored and accountable for reading, writing, and arithmetic, and then we’ve felt the freedom to pursue painting or songwriting—and my artistic soon-to-be-graduate also got the presidential scholarship and an additional art scholarship to study graphic design at her college of choice.

It doesn’t have to be an either/or situation.

The heart of a classical education is to produce liberated thinkers: ones free to flourish in life because they are free to think and discuss with wisdom and virtue.

Betsy Strauss is an unexpected homeschooler and blogger mother of three, who is in a relationship with a sweet man for life. She loves reading books, drinking coffee, and learning anything with her kids.

You might also like:

Foundations Memory Work: It Really IS Enough

Creating a Geography Table in Your Homeschool

How to Include Beauty in the Upper Grades of Homeschool

The buzz words (especially in the world of Classical Education) are truth, beauty, and goodness.

It all sounds lovely - idyllic, really.

When my children were younger it was easy to identify and include beautiful things and moments into our days. Nature walks were a delight, a piece of classical music was “amazing”, and a beautiful read aloud with a picnic was perfect.

Young children have such a sense of wonder and they inspire the same in their parents.

Wonder and awe with teenagers? Mmmm. Not so much.

The tendency is to just GIVE UP. They’re teens now - our job is done. We have to get that Latin assignment finished, that Chemistry lab report turned in. There are sports practices, lessons of all sorts, and a million things that tug at the lives of our teenagers.

First things first, right?

Beauty is a thing of the past. Big kids have a job to do, so let’s get it done!

Don’t fall into the trap! Now, more than ever, incorporating beauty in our homeschool is important.

How to Include Beauty in the Upper Grades of #Homeschool

We have to dig a bit deeper, invest more in relationships, and actively strive to include things of beauty in their everyday lives. We have to keep talking about the beauty in our own lives, even if they think it’s “dumb”. We have to model the quest for truth, beauty, and goodness in our own lives.

Don’t stop fighting for beauty, because it is important!

In my own life the appreciation of beauty brings me closest to God. It brings me the greatest joy and contentment.


Simple Ways to Incorporate Beauty with “Big” Kids

The same principles hold true for our big kids as they do with our little kids: read, play, explore. We just have to be creative with these principles.

Carving out time to incorporate beauty is important, too. I would argue that it is MORE important than accomplishing every academic task.

Stratford Caldecott pointed out in his marvelous book Beauty in the Word, that we are too busy educating our children for DOING rather than BEING. We are so focused on career and college preparation that we forget we are nurturing souls who can be content in God’s world.

We cannot overload our children with academics and activities to the point of neglecting time for the appreciation of beauty.

The Atmosphere of the Home

So much beauty can be simply incorporated into our homes… where our homeschoolers spend a large part of their time!

Keep fresh flowers on the kitchen table.

Play beautiful music.

Light a pretty candle.

Use your nicest china to eat dinner together - on a regular basis. Life is a beautiful thing that deserves to celebrated often!

Books & Music

I am convinced older children still enjoy read alouds.

Our read aloud time has changed over the years. I still have a time first thing in the morning where we have devotion and a read aloud. That is a non negotiable and it is just part of our day.

I also use the time we have in the car for audiobooks, music, and other things my teens might find interesting. I love to point out beautiful language, story lines, melodies, and anything that strike me as beautiful.

I’m amazed at how (even when they complain about being forced to listen) snippets from books and conversations come back around later in the day or even weeks later! When we share books and music it creates an inside language between us - a connection that no one else has. Our teens CRAVE this connection, whether they will admit it or not.

Some books we’ve been reading and listening to recently:


We also listen to an abundance of Classical Music.

Because of my curriculum development with SQUILT, this is just the default setting in our house - lots of music!

Year of Wonder is a book that allows you to learn about one piece of music each day. You can also access playlists for each month of the year that go along with the book. I am enjoying the pieces and sharing them with my children as we go - it’s a simple way to share beautiful music.

Go Outside

I recently spoke to a mom who said she felt like they didn’t appreciate God’s creation as much as they used to because they were stuck inside getting their work done with the older children.

Make the time to get outside.

Upper grades kids aren’t too old to go on a nature walk.

Find a local nature area, pack some school books, take a nature walk and then study for a bit. I usually manage to sneak in a gourmet coffee with them afterwards.

Spring is a particularly beautiful time to see God’s beauty in full display!

How to Include Beauty in Your Upper Grades #Homeschool

If you have children with younger friends, try to do this type of outing with them. It is good for our big kids to see the world through younger eyes!

We often take our dog to the park to get some exercise. It is good for everyone!

On days when the weather is nice my son loves hanging out in his Eno at home in our woods and reading. You can’t help but be awed by God’s world as you lay in your hammock in the woods.

Give your big kids the task of planting and tending a garden.

Eat lunch outside when the weather permits.


Support Beauty with Your Time & Money

When children are young we want to expose them to so many things. We take them to the museum, the symphony, the ballet, and a host of other events and places that will instill culture in their young minds.

We cannot neglect this as our children get older.

Take your teens to plays, symphonies, and concerts. Take advantage of interesting opportunities.

Is there a birding group in your area?

Are there guided nature walks at a state park?

Is a famous choir coming to sing at a local church? Is there an art festival you can attend?

It is rare that we will go to see a movie in the theaters, but I WILL spend money to take my kids to the symphony or museum.


Serve Others

We can see God at work when we help others.

So often our teens only focus on THEMSELVES; the biggest gift we can give them is the opportunity to serve.

Volunteer at a food bank.

Visit an elderly neighbor or church member. (You have a unique opportunity as a homeschooler to structure your time so that this can be a priority. I cannot tell you the joy my children brought to an elderly church member when we showed up to visit her in a rehab facility after she had been in a very serious car accident! I know it deeply impacted my kids, too!)

Local nursing homes always welcome young people to share musical talents or read to residents - or simply spend time just BEING with them.

My children have been deeply invested in the special needs ministry at our church. The beauty they have witnessed through their interactions with their special needs friends has been such a gift.

In Elisabeth Elliot’s book, Keep a Quiet Heart, she writes,

People with disabilities are God’s best visual aids to demonstrate who He really is. His power shows up best in weakness. And who by the worlds’ standards is weaker than the mentally or physically disabled? As the world watches, these people persevere. They live, love, trust and obey Him. Eventually the world is forced to say, “How great their God must be to inspire this kind of loyalty.?”


God didn’t intend for us to live alone, and he gives us such a beautiful chance to serve others through our homeschooling days!

Choose Curriculum Wisely

Aren’t we lucky to have an abundance of curriculum and schooling options?

Don’t neglect to look for beauty as you plan your child’s education.

We have loved the Challenge program because it emphasizes beauty in all things. There are many curricula that incorporate beauty. Do your research and make beauty a priority!

My son has been using Shormann Math

Shormann Math is built on a biblical and historical foundation that teaches math as the language of science; a tool used to better understand God and His creation.

Encourage your children to see beauty of God in each and every area of their lives - even Algebra!

Don’t neglect the arts when your children are in the upper grades, either. Give them time to take an art class, music, or dance lessons. Our children need the opportunity to create things of beauty.

How to Include Beauty in the Upper Grades of Homeschool

Model the Quest For and Appreciation of Beauty

We must model the importance of beauty in our OWN lives.

Do you take time to read good books? Listen to beautiful music? Get outside?

All the things I talked about above are for US, too!

What do you do with your free time? Do you recognize and call out beauty when you see it?

It is a beautiful thing to have one of my children sit down next to me in the evening with a book. I could be watching something like The Bachelor (I say this because I’ve done that, too - but not so much the older I’ve gotten) but there is so much more beauty in a lovely book.

Modeling this enjoyment is rubbing off on my children!

The quest for beauty doesn’t have to be such an elusive, ethereal concept. It is real and practical - and once you begin seeking and finding beauty you will find it is a bit of a compulsion!

Do you incorporate beauty into your homeschool days?

Let me know how in the comments below.