Homeschooling With The Trivium

Christian Classical Homeschooling with a Practical Focus  Resources for Homeschoolers who use the Classical Approach

Homeschool Resources

How to Use the Internet to do Research

Homeschooling families use the library often. We go to the library whenever we want to look something up or we want to find a book to read. But did you know that the Internet can be just as useful (or even more useful) in doing research? We will discuss two parts of...

Homeschool Speech and Debate

Most homeschoolers have not been introduced to speech and debate. We wish to communicate to others what we are learning about these subjects. Start here -- The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning Speech A short introduction....

Good Books to Read

Eh, Lassie, are ye leukin fer a gude beuk to read aloud to yer wee bairns? These are a few books we have especially enjoyed reading to our children: Bob, Son of Battle by Alfred Ollivant Books by John Buchan Rose of Paradise, and others by Howard Pyle John Holdsworth:...

Articles for Beginners

Suggested Course of Study

This is only a brief overview of our Suggested Course of Study. A more thorough discussion can be found in our Teaching the Trivium book, in our seminar tapes, and on our Homeschooling with the Trivium Email List. Early Knowledge Level Before age ten, the child is...

The Rhetoric Level

The trivium model for child development may be explained in computer terms. Children are: • “Booting up” at the Pre-Grammar level (birth through ~9). • “Keying in” the information at the Grammar level (~10 through 12). • “Processing” at the Logic level (~13 through...

The Trivium In A Capsule

The Trivium consists of the first three formal subjects of the seven liberal arts: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. This is the formal Trivium in the classical sense. This formal Trivium is an academic reflection of the more basic Biblical Trivium, the mental capacities...

Trivium & Classical Education

Why Study Classical Languages?

Why Study Classical Languages? Test scores indicate that students who learn a foreign language have a much stronger grasp of English language skills. Tests also indicate that studying a foreign language sharpens the mind. Classical languages may prove the most...

What Is the Trivium?

The trivium organizes children's education into three Biblical categories. Knowledge is the facts - the dates in history, the data in science and the notes in music. Understanding organizes the facts into logical order - the reasons behind history, the theory of...

Why Classical School at Home?

The Question If parents wanted their children to have a good classical education, wouldn't their best option be a good Classical Christian school? Why would a parent choose homeschooling over a private Classical school? This question is especially timely. Classical...

Classical Q & A — Part Three

Our relatives are not supportive of our homeschooling and are always criticizing us. How much contact should we have with them? Mary Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were surrounded by our own parents, and grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters? And what...

Classical Q & A — Part Two

Question: What is the goal of the Trivium? Answer: The goal of the Trivium is to give the student the necessary tools or skills which make him free from his teacher so that he can learn by himself. Thats why the Trivium tools are called the Liberal or liberating Arts....

Classical Q & A

Question: Our oldest son (in fifth grade) has been anxious about public school from the time he started kindergarten, so now we are thinking about homeschooling him. Our youngest son (in third grade) loves school and is at the top of his class, so we're leaving him...

Practical Articles

Interview with Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

TOS: For those of our readers who don't know you very well, you have been homeschooling for several years. In fact, you had some unique experiences during your early years of homeschooling. What was life like for homeschoolers in Iowa in the 1970s? In a word: Jail!...

Interview with Johannah Bluedorn

Welcome to TOS magazine! I am sure you have heard this before, but your illustrations remind me of Tasha Tudor's. Were you in any way influenced by her artwork? I remember reading A is for Annabelle, which is one of Tasha Tudor's most popular books, when I was 7 years...

What Makes a Book Good

We do not want only to develop a love for reading in our children. We want to develop a love for reading good literature. We won’t develop an appetite for good food by feasting on junk food – and we carry that analogy over to literature. So how do we know what books...

Contests in Your Curriculum

Contests are an educational experience especially suited for homeschooled students. What can contests do for your child academically? Consider: Contests are great motivators. Envision a typical Homeschool assignment. Mom asks Henry to write a composition on What...

The Trivium and Charlotte Mason

Are the Classical Approach and the Charlotte Mason Approach two homeschool approaches so opposite from each other that they cannot be reconciled? Or is it possible to use a combination of these two approaches? Lets look at each of these approaches separately and see...

Research on the Teaching of Math

Formal Arithmetic at Age Ten, Hurried or Delayed? Provincialism is the word which we use to describe an opinion which is narrow and self-centered in perspective. Because the common practice in our culture in our day is to begin formal instruction in arithmetic as...

On Early Academics

I. Our Opinion of Unschooling How Misunderstandings Arise Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following . . . . Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" Jesus saith unto him, "If I will that he tarry till I come,...

Greek

Comparison of Greek Pronunciation Systems

Greek Pronunciation Systems Over the years, several persons have written to us regarding how the many different systems of pronunciation which can be found in various Greek grammars may or may not differ from the pronunciation system used in our A Greek Alphabetarion:...

Three Levels to Mastering Greek

Three Levels to Mastering Greek Learn to read and pronounce the Greek Alphabet, then to pronounce Greek words. When a child can do this in English, he can begin to do this in Greek. After this is developed, a Greek-English Interlinear Bible may be useful in developing...

Why Study Greek?

We think Greek is a foreign language written in a foreign alphabet. Yet we speak and write Greek every day without realizing it. Our Alphabet comes from Greek. Our Vocabulary is filled with Greek. Much can be said of the broad understanding of language and culture...

Exegetical Translation of the Bible (XT)

Logic

The Reasoning Railroad — Mystery Train

Adult Introduction We all know intrinsically how to reason – it is part of our created being. Nevertheless, the powers of reason, like other innate abilities, can be strengthened and refined through exercise and instruction. Our purpose here is to teach formal...

Inductive and Deductive Bible Studies

The labels inductive and deductive may be applied to several things, including methods of reasoning and methods of studying. A deductive approach moves from the rule to the example, and an inductive approach moves from the example to the rule. I will first...

Two Methods of Reasoning

An Introduction to Inductive and Deductive Logic Fixing Flawed Thinking We often suppose that the other guy's thinking is flawed, without even considering whether the real problem is actually with our own thinking. We tend to elevate our limited observations and our...

Formal and Informal Fallacies

Logical Fallacies A fallacy is a defect in an argument which misleads the mind. The defect may be intentional or unintentional. If the defect is intentional, we sometimes call it a sophism. One's understanding of fallacies may be used for good, in order to avoid or...

Logic — A Suggested Course of Study

I am preparing to teach an introduction to logic course to my seventh graders this fall, and all four of them are excited about it. I have never taught logic, and all that I have learned came from Martin Cothran’s Traditional Logic. I’m trying to go through...

Why Study Logic?

Why Study Logic? Perhaps the most important thing to give your child to prepare him to confront this world is a firm grasp of logical thinking skills. Without this refined skill — the ability to reason correctly — his thinking is not firmly anchored, but is "tossed to...

More Articles

Matthew 5:19

I have a question about some scripture. It is Matthew 5:19. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom...

A Few Words About the Sin of Hasty Conclusions

The Wrong Idea Imagine yourself in one of these scenarios: 1) Somebody criticizes what you have done, but you know he has no understanding of the situation, and if he did, you are certain he would have a different opinion. 2) A report comes back to you that represents...

The Trivium Pursuit Story

Thank you, Old Schoolhouse Magazine, for allowing us to tell your readers about how our family launched a book writing and publishing business. It was shortly after our first child was born in 1975 that we latched onto the idea of homeschooling. After some...

The Homeschool Movement in Germany

In September, 2004 we interviewed Sebastian and Kathleen Engelhardt, a young couple homeschooling their son in Germany. Q: What is homeschooling like in Germany? A: The Americans who live in Germany on the military bases have no problems in homeschooling. It's the...

Nehemiah 1-2

PASSAGE TO READ: Nehemiah 1:1-11 & 2:1-8 A Selected portion: 1:3  And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are...

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在家教育,七大真理

20年前我们开始教大儿子读书,从那以后,我们所有的孩子都是在家教育的。那时,美国只有几千个孩子在家上学,但是今天已经猛增到200万了,而且人数每三到四年就会翻一倍。我们不指望这种增长幅度会持续下去,但是如果真的持续下去,我们在家教育就会在一代人之间完全掌握这个国家。 有了这种认识,我们就发展出七个不可否认的真理,使作父母的基督徒可以开始,继续在家教育,并且为之辩护。 1.Homeschooling is not Alternative Education 在家教育不是后备方案...

在家教育要增长,学校课堂要减少

我们相信所有的基督徒家长都当遵守主的命令来控制和指导自己孩子的教育。(申6:4-9,弗6:4)但是最好的方式是什么?因为公立学校不管教,不敬虔,我们不考虑。私人老师又昂贵又难得。我们的选择就只有在私人学校与在家教育之间。在家教育使父母直接参与到教育过程。在私人学校里,虽然家长可以选择进哪所学校,然而选择之后,他就从驾驶员的位置下来了,成为学校的支持者和学校活动的参与者。 学校课堂的七个问题 课堂教学会产生一些关系链,它们很容易地就越过了并且对抗着正当的感情与权威的形成的关系链。 老师和学生的关系会削弱亲子关系。...