Betsy Bailey

We’re grooving along day to day, so not much new to report on that front.

We did recently join a local homeschooling group. It’s just gearing up this month for the “school” year. I’ve volunteered to help coordinate a monthly art activity for the group.

In other news, I’ve been reading The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. Fabulous resource – I love the focus on critical thinking, logic and rhetoric. While I don’t think Bailey would respond to a strict classical curriculum, there are several things I intend to incorporate from their recommendations, including the beginning logic/deduction books they suggest.

I’m also incorporating a unit on outlining as a study habit into Bailey’s curriculum later this year. Depending on how she responds to that, we will try the classical approach to history as the year progresses.

And for grammar, I want to try the diagramming resource they suggest. A lot of people hate diagramming sentences, but a lot of people aren’t my visual-spatial girl, Bailey.

I got exciting reading this book realizing how HM would completely thrive on the challenge and rigorousness of this curriculum. Especially the rhetoric stage:

Rhetoric is the art of expression. During the rhetoric stage, the student learns to express herself with fluency, grace, elegance and persuasiveness.

But that’s high school level. The middle years are very focused on learning critical thinking skills and formal logic (something I didn’t study until college). This is a curriculum that really plays to HM’s strengths and suspect I would use it undiluted for her education.