| Ages |
Trivium
Stage |
Kids'
natural behavior |
How
to take advantage of this age |
| 1st - 4th roughly |
Grammar Stage |
Incessantly singing, and they spend so
much time making up rules to games, sometimes, they hardly get to
play them. |
Teach them the rules &
basics. Basic grammar, math functions, foreign languages,
memorization - they love chanting and singing their facts. |
| 5th - 8th roughly |
Logic Stage |
Talking back and questioning everything
you and others do. |
Teach them how to question (logic,
higher math) and give them questions to ask (about science, history,
religion) - things that really matter. Begin to introduce them
to great books and enter into "The Great Conversation." |
| 9th - 12th roughly |
Rhetoric Stage |
Wanting to stand out and be seen as an
individual. Wanting to strike out and make their mark on the
world and have their life make a difference. |
Utilizing what they've learned about
writing and speaking properly; utilizing what they've learned about
questioning and logical arguments, allowing them to study great
topics of thought and gaining the confidence to "make their
mark on the world" with something worth listening to. |
The centering factor of our curriculum became history
in 2003 (year 2 of homeschooling) after reading Susan Wise Bauer's suggestions in The Well Trained Mind.
So, we study science topics, by what we're studying in
history. Much of our religion centers around what we're doing in
history. And much of the kids' writing & art projects center
around our history / science. Occasionally our foreign language ties in (when
we're learning about Rome), but that only happens every 4 years.
We study all of history every 4 years. I don't worry
too much about gaps, because it will come around again. Also, the
material (the basic story lines) is familiar (if only vaguely) to the
children, so they're more likely to roll up their sleeves and get to work,
rather than feel something is too hard for them. How can this be
hard when they learned it in 2nd grade?
Each 4 years we go a little more in-depth into the subject
matter as the child is older. We also utilize the child's natural
inclinations to help him learn. I hesitate to call what I do
"classical", because I fly by the seat of my pants so
often. TWTM is the basic "grain", though, that our
curriculum flowers out of (but doesn't always resemble the original
'grain'.)
As my understanding of history grew (after teaching
through a 4 year cycle of it) I incorporated more Catholic
teachings. In year 2 of our 4 year cycle, I add in a year of Christ
and the early church as offered through RC History. In order to fit
all that in, we end up doing history over a summer or two (depending on
how consistent we are), but the kids really love history and don't seem to
mind.
