Created by Jennifer Dow and Expanding Wisdom
Learn more at www.expandingwisdom.com
My kids just completed Kindergarten, Third, and Sixth grades. So everything below is how I am implementing a liberal arts education for elementary aged students. This is an idea of what it could look like and of course the forms and content change based on where my kids are developmentally. For example: next year my rising 7th grader will begin a more formal logic study & The Lost Tools of Writing and this year in grammar my Kindergartner only did copy work, pre-reading, and listened to lots of stories. For those of you who do not have students these ages and would like an example, Classical Conversations is a great place to look and I am working on a complete curriculum idea resource list that will be posted over the next couple months.
Liberal Art (The Trivium)
What we teach now….
Grammar
Logic
Rhetoric
Liberal Art (The Quadrivium)
Created by Jennifer Dow and Expanding Wisdom
spelling copywork/dictation English grammar Latin/Greek - We use free-almost free resources online. Check out Evan Milner’s Latin. The website is kind of confusing, but I plan on doing a post to make it a bit clearer, because it is an INCREDIBLE complete Latin curriculum. narration/ memorization Reading (out loud to me, me to them, and independently) Stories, Literature, and Poetry Discuss back stories and facts to know before reading Pink and Blue from Andrew Kern’s Highlighting system (just my 6th grader) Integrate as much as possible- promote discovery related quotes, poems, books, discussions, and geography (I let this happen naturally, for each child individually, I really try not to force it) 5 topics of invention and “the should question”, we use the Lost Tools of Writing as a reference for me to become familiar with these things, and then I ask common topics style questions when we read, discuss, and live life. It has informed the way we live, not just our school time.
What we teach now
Learn more at www.expandingwisdom.com
Created by Jennifer Dow and Expanding Wisdom
Learn more at www.expandingwisdom.com
Arithmetic & Algebra
We choose a Math Program and work through it- for now- I am still growing a LOT in this area. My goal and ideal would be to move completely to Ray’s Arithmetic and teach every lesson mimetically.
Geometry
We choose a Math Program and work through it- for now- I am still growing a LOT in this area. My goal and ideal would be to move completely to Ray’s Arithmetic and teach every lesson mimetically.
Harmonics
Tin whistle & guitar, we use free resources on line. We really like the Online Academy of Irish music at oaim.ie/us I have also found some great guitar websites that attend to their instrument playing a bit more classically. justinguitar.com and learntoplayclassicalguitar.com
Astronomy
Nature Study outside at night looking up at the sky, we are ordering Signs & Seasons and Memoria Press’s Astronomy book to being using the in the fall. No telescope. Just eyes and sometimes paper to draw and write about what we observe.
Created by Jennifer Dow and Expanding Wisdom
Learn more at www.expandingwisdom.com
