Why Latin?

Really, why Latin? It is a dead language no longer spoken isn't it? This seems to sum it up.
Dorothy Sayers says it best:

I will say at once, quite firmly, that the best grounding for education is the Latin grammar. I say this not because Latin is traditional and medieval, but simply because even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin cuts down the labor and pains of learning almost any other subject by at least 50 percent.
-- From the National Review .

My girls currently do Song School Latin and Prima Latina. They are 2 different approaches that start with intro to vocabulary through songs, chants, and a bit of grammar mixed.


It is an admittedly light intro to Latin but that is where we are starting and it can't hurt, right? If only the schools would stop concentrating on comprehension, history, and science in the early years are REALLY build strong foundations the results would be remarkable. Beginning language in middle school is far after the prime age for learning that type of thing. Please PUBLIC ED, stop testing and start researching!

Why??????

How can a former public school educator turn homeschooler? Have I lost my mind you ask?After reading a fabulous homeschool blog, and her reasons why she homeschools, I was prompted to explain our reasons.** It is really this simple. Public education has degraded terribly. Morals are gone and teachers are forced to concentrate on the almighty test. There is no differentiation except to pull up the students that will keep a school from meeting certain criteria!
**The Accidental Homeschooler

If you were to see your child struggling to get their shoes on what would you do? You would stop and help them, right? If your child were in danger of being hurt wouldn't you without hesitation throw yourself in the path of that danger? Of course you would. Why do we just, unthinking, accept that pushing our kids out the door onto a bus every morning to spend the next six hours with total strangers will benefit them? Why should I let my kids spend more waking time with strangers? Is the few precious hours we get in the evening really enough time to learn who they are?

In a room with as many as 24 children they are exposed to a variety of "colorful" personalities and lifestyles. I don't know about you but I carefully consider who my kids spend time with socially so why should I let one of my kids be paired up with an unruly and terribly behaved child during class activities? So that they can develop tolerance, thick skin, maybe learn something? Seriously? Is this what school is for? Please excuse me for thinking that it is for education and not for social lessons. Do you ever remember sitting in class, and wanting desperately to speak to your friend? It's kind of hard to concentrate on the lessons when you're bouncing around trying not to talk. Have you ever had a teacher who rearranged the seats to prevent talking and splitting up friends purposely? Were you ever caught passing notes?

Correct me if I am wrong but aren't children repeatedly told that they are NOT in school to socialize? Is the small 20 minute recess, assuming they haven't had it taken away to walk laps, really adequate social time? I can tell you what it gives time for. Unseen fights and scuffles that lead to whole class admonishment. Time for a girl to single out another girl for being fat, ugly, dressing poorly...whatever. Please stop me when I come to something that my kids need for healthy social development.

Now are there wonderful and loving teachers out there? Certainly! But why should I stress over whether or not my child's teacher is nurturing? How odd it seems that WE turn to the teachers to ask if THEY notice any changes in our child's behavior when things go wrong. We seriously consult with strangers? This implies that they know more about your child than you do! Does that sound right? I choose to not be selfish and give my kids my time. Soon enough they will be gone and I will have all the time in the world to myself. I choose to share my knowledge and learn along side them instead of pulling out bits and pieces in the afternoons IF they even bother to say anything about school. YES I choose to shelter my girls from the blatant lack of morality in school, especially middle school. I don't like what goes on there and it is NOT real life. Back stabbing, lying, boy chasing.....yuck. Middles school girls are NOT there to learn. Coming out of middle school unscathed by peer pressure and catty witches is not my goal for my girls. Who wants there child to go through that on purpose?

Here is an excerpt from an article called We Don't Believe in Socialization" that addresses some of the myths that children need to go to public school to learn to live "in the real world".

"Now- flash forward to "real life." Imagine the following scenes:

Your Employer is auditing the Inter-Office Email system and comes across a personal note between you and a coworker. You are required to stand at the podium in the next sales meeting to read it aloud to your coworkers. The Police knock on your door, and announce that because you and your neighbor have gotten so close, they're separating you. You must move your home and your belongings to the other side of town, and you may only meet at public places on weekends.

You're taking your parents out for an anniversary dinner. After you find a table, a waiter tells you that seniors have a separate dining room, lest they "corrupt" the younger members of society.

You go to the grocery store only to find that since you are 32 years old you must shop at the store for 32 year olds. It's 8 miles away and they don't sell meat because the manager is a vegetarian, but your birthday is coming up and soon you'll be able to shop at the store for 33 yr. olds.

You'd like to learn about Aviation History. You go to the library and check out a book on the subject only to be given a list of "other subjects" that you must read about before you are permitted to check out the aviation book.

Your Cable Company announces that anyone wishing to watch the Superbowl this year must log on a certain number of hours watching the Discovery Channel before they can be permitted to watch the game.

You apply for a job only to be told that this job is for 29 year olds. Since you're 32, you'll have to stay with your level.

In a group project, your boss decides to pair you up with the person you don't "click" with. His hope is that you'll get learn to get along with each other, regardless of how the project turns out.

Many people had a friend who they stayed friends with all through grammar school- WHY? Because their names were alphabetically similar, and they always ended up in line with each other. As an adult, have you ever made friends with someone simply because your names were similar? How long would such a friendship last and how meaningful would it be, providing you had nothing else in common?"

Yes my oldest boys go to public school but could come home at anytime if they wished. As for the little boys....they will join their sisters in the ranks of the "weird homeschooled children". But be rest assured that when asked "Quid Agis?" My kids will answer "Sum bene." (for all you nonhomeschooled kids that is "How are you" in latin, answered with "I am fine" because yes my kids are just fine!)

Medieval Fieldtrip

So after a few weeks of doing all we can on knights, castles, and everything Medieval we went to the Medieval Times dinner show in Maryland last night. It was a bit...corny but they did get to see jousting and eat without utensils! The gift shop had some good things to look at as well. My little lady, Chickie, ended up being thrown a flower by our dashing knight! Fortunately Big Mac was given a flower a bit later so she felt great about that!


Mr Wildman continues to struggle with the alphabet and we have stocked up on shaving cream to help him along. It seems to be more mess than anything but he enjoys various siblings helping him with letters and snags any able body to play Bingo with him! Just don't beat him and all is well.

Medieval Unit!!!

This unit study has gotten off to be a blast but has shown me that there is no way I could homeschool this way because they would never complete school by 18! It is so easy to just.......get too deep! The internet has been an incredible resource for homeschooling. I will do my best to get a summary of materials together over Thanksgiving break but I make no promises!
We continue to use Story of the World mixed with History Odyssey for our guide. So far we have discussed the Feudal System, Castles, and Knights. We made a castle model with a preprinted template. NOTE it is NOT EASY TO MAKE unless you really like cutting! But it was still a good model.

Okay so maybe they didn't have zebra print in the Middles Ages......but it works for Little Chickie!














Big Mac's came out great as well!











There are few resources that have been great additions to our study:
This has been great for all areas of Medieval study and the pics are awesome!
Some of our readings have been:
Minstrel in the Tower, Robin Hood, King Arthur, A Door in the Wall on CD, the Middle Ages series on DVD from the Schlessinger Media group, Midnight Magic, and other various books about castles, knight, and the times.

Updates to goals and plans

Well life rolls on and the plans I laid out were close but not achievable thanks to public school being out for Election Day-ugh. We got most of the work done anyway.
As for last week we began our jump into MEDIEVAL TIMES!!!! I will explain all that we are doing in the next post!

in the meantime Mr. Wildman himself is now home with us for preschool so we are needing to SHIFT gears and get him on the right track. He is not a fan of writing and sitting at a table to do anything. Letters still escape him and I am trying to learn to deal with him being an auditory learner!
Here is my ham taking the time to play for a few minutes with blocks





Also we celebrated the Little Monster's second birthday as well.