SCHOLA: Snip snip here, snip snip there...

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Snip snip here, snip snip there...

We're only supposed to be going for six months, so I don't want to overburden ourselves toting a load of stuff around -- we like to travel light -- yet I want to cover so much.

Sarabelle wants to start school in New Zealand so she can quickly make some friends. That's what school represents to her, socialization and fun; forget the learning part, that's irrelevent. However, the school year in Australia doesn't begin until January and I suspect the same is true of New Zealand, so she will be homeschooling for at least six months.

Jorge and I have already discussed the big "What If" question, as in, what if we like it so much we never come back? Would we keep homeschooling or send the girls to school to assimilate more quickly? It's a big mystery at this point, but I want to be prepared in case we both stay and continue homeschooling. Wouldn't it be fantastic to meet up with some other homeschoolers? Maybe even some classical ones? Would classical, secular be pushing it? I'd settle for classical, non-proselytizing. And traditional?

The last few nights I have been power planning the next round of studies. The list is continuously being pared down. And then expanded. Gilgamesh had been eliminated and reinstated in a fit of doubt. Character education is going to be a focus moreso than simply cramming their heads with facts, since everyone has seemed to have forgotten the Golden Rule around here. As a means to that end, I've decided to include the Biblical studies portion of the Memoria Press Intro to Classical. There are way more Teaching Company lectures than necessary, at least for the kids, the majority being for me because I need to learn this stuff too. That's also why there's two guides to the classical materials, two writing texts, and two Latin texts. Who knows which version will ultimately work better for our family and besides, who can I turn to for answers on the road? What if I should need to take a look at a problem or subject from another angle? Semper Paratus, baby. I'm covering my bases. All 132* of them.

*The number of spreadsheet items in the plan's present incarnation.

If a school year (in Florida anyway) is 180 days, I've got too much. The editing continues.

Meanwhile, here is a list of the selected books:

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SCHOLA 101

schol' a: 1) An intermission of work, leisure for learning, learned conversation, debate, disputation, lecture, dissertation. 2) A meeting place for teachers and pupils, place for instruction, place of learning, school. 3) The disciples of a teacher, body of followers, school, sect. 4) An acronym for my tortuous blog title "Secular Classical Homeschoolers' Odyssean Learning Adventure." 5) How my Boston cousins pronounce "scholar." 6) Someone who studies at 10 o'clock for a dilla or a dolla.

These are the blatherings of an introverted, autodidactic, champion of The Enlightenment raising three daughters. At one time or another we have homeschooled, public-schooled, Catholic-schooled, cyber-schooled, unschooled, and even threatened boarding school. We have been inspired variously by The Well-Trained Mind, A Thomas Jefferson Education, and Climbing Parnassus, tempered by the writings and wisdom of Charlotte Mason, John Holt, Benjamin Franklin and Michel de Montaigne.

I try not to get wrapped up in labels, but we are secular and we are classical-ish.

We travel. A lot. Sometimes to the other side of the state and sometimes to the other side of the planet. Join us on our journey as we search for our home, navigate the waters of self-education, lounge with the lotus-eaters, and bash a Cyclops or two.