The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (Third Edition)

Excellent overall resource for embarking on homeschooling, but science suggestions not great
My kids are in public schools, and I’m using WTM to do a home enrichment program. Kids are 6 and 9.I give this 4.5 stars. As this is well-reviewed, and I agree with most of the positive reviews, I’ll start with my one big CON.The recommendations for early science curriculum are straight-up garbage. My husband is a science professor at an Ivy, and I have a strong STEM background. While I appreciate the idea behind connecting the science and history curriculum, it doesn’t really work from a education standpoint. Kids are terrific observers at this early age, but less good at abstract thought. IMO, the Montessori curriculum is far stronger at utilizing a child’s basic kinesthetic and observational strengths. The author here recommends starting with bio, then earth science, then chemistry, then physics. IMO, it should work in the opposite direction. Of these topics, physics and chemistry are the ones that lend themselves most to observation and concrete work. Chemistry, inasmuch as external observation reflects things like “atoms” and other abstract ideas, is less appropriate than physics. Compare these to the body (for example), where there are few experiments you can reasonably execute. A chlid must take on faith that what she is learning is real.If one were learning merely about science history (which is also appropriate), then the author’s choices would make more sense. But it’s perhaps one of the most foundational aspects of education to learn how to ask, observe, and understand. Something like simple machines, basic forces and motion, etc., lend themselves far better to experimentation and learning by observing. I do like the recommendations for memory-work.(I will say, this is hardly unique to WTM. The only early-education science curriculum that really addresses this issue is Montessori. So, I only take off half a star for it.)Outside of that critique, I found the book very adaptable and useful. Some things that others haven’t talked about as much:- The book is optimistic about learning. The author presumes children learn, and the book imbued me with confidence in my ability to teach my children, and for them to learn some pretty complicated things. I’d probably be considered a relatively educated person, but I recognize some holes in my education, and in some cases, I’ve been learning along with my kids. She suggests lots of curriculum that can be bought, but also gives great recommendations for using free and cheap resources. Overall, there’s a sense of “I can do this” about the book. She is honest, however, that this is an assertive program, pretty much the opposite of unschooling, and it’s information-led rather than child-led.- The book does a good job of sorting out religious v. secular resources. I’m a Christian myself, as is the author, but I’m not evangelical, and I prefer my church-learning to be separate. THere are so many homeschool resources now, that it’s not always easy to find. She seems often to prefer Christian resources, but she always makes note of it, and gives secular alternatives.- The author IMO correctly understands that the act of reading, the act of writing, composition, and other language arts, do not always develop on the same time-line. I like that she talks about separating these, so that a child struggling with the act of writing will not necessarily be held back in narration and composition, etc. I have a son with high-functioning ADHD, and her suggestions helped unpack his dislike of composition as an issue of handwriting rather than composition.- While this book has a reputation as being somewhat strict and inflexible, I didn’t find it that way, perhaps because I went into it intending to adapt the materials to my own use. My impression of her philosophy is that it’s important for children to develop confidence with language and math, and, espeically as to language, that leaning on audio-visual material is a mistake. I suspect her feeling is that it’s easy to get lazy about this, or to forget that at the end of the day, children must have confidence with the written word. Personally, I occasionally use online interactive materials and very occasionally use documentaries for the history curriculum, but only AFTER beginning with reading and talking. Once I feel like my kids have a strong connection to the material, I don’t mind letting them increase their knowledge by watching a documentary. I don’t think the author’s point is that videos are terrible, only that children need to work toward confidence with language as a primary source of information. In my family, serious restriction of media means that my kids view media as a treat rather than a meal.Finally, I found this book useful for my needs as a part-timer. I don’t use that many of the resources she suggests, but I’ve used the overall structure and organization of material. I was a bit overwhelmed before I read this, in terms of not feeling like I could be thorough, particularly with history and language arts. As to history, I did end up using the author’s history series (which is excellent, with some qualifications), and used her suggested literature list (tied to the history series), which has been excellent. For math, I used the information she gave on math programs to choose a program that she did not suggest.. but her suggestions made it easier to figure out what I cared about for math systems.Overall, outside the science chapter, I think this is a useful book. It gives a sense of scope, and has a lot of information on what sorts of choices you might make.

Wonderful!
I’ve been homeschooling DS since day 1. As is typical of homeschool newbies, I bounced around various programs trying to find the right “fit” for us. I stumbled across this book through various websites. I found it at my local library, and checked it out immediately. I loved it from the start. It opens with a compelling story of how homeschooling became a part of the author’s life – a most infuriating account of an inept public school system without neither the capabilities nor the interest in assimilating exceptional students into their ranks. The book goes on to give, in great detail, how their exceptional students were created. It is an amazingly simple process. Read, write, learn. Wow! However, it seems as though our society has reduced it’s standards at every turn. Read Beowolf with (or to) your child or turn on a fast paced mind numbing tv show? Most tend to opt for the latter. This program is age appropriate for every level. The books recommended are often readily available at libraries (as most homeschoolers tend to be great economists). I have been following this program,using First Language Lessons and Writing with Ease, and reading Greek mythology to DS. He really enjoys this new way of doing things. Gone are the days of long, boring lessons. He is learning, and loving, the classics, such as Aesop’s fables and tales from Homer’s Odyssey, to mention a few. Do not be scared off by such reading. The way we learned about such great literature in the public school system is no comparison to the model set forth by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. I am learning so much with teaching DS. I actually get up in the mornings excited to do school together. The really telling sign? So does DS! Give it a quick read. My guess is you’ll be hooked too!!

For the parent thinking of educating your child at home I strongly recommend this book. Even if you are not going to embark on a classical education this book is a wealth of information on different curriculums and methods in educating. For each year (pre K to Gr 12) the book outlines desired outcomes, discusses how to implement the curicculum and provides a thorough book list with a brief review of the major text recommendations. Before deciding how to educate my child, I researched a variety of homeschooling models: Montessori, Waldorf, un-schooling, unit studies and a few others, and felt that the classical education model would give our child the most options in her life and fit best with our lifestyle.The book lays out the trivium. Basically three phases of learning used for the last couple of centuries with great success. It’s flexible enough to adapt to different strengths in children but doesn’t let skills atrophy in areas where the child isn’t particularly strong.The book evaluates different curriculum available on the market that fits into the classical method. It also talks about some of the products that the authors sell but not to the detriment of other curriculum. I have looked at the original and the revised and have failed to find any dropped products. Everyone I’ve spoken to thought this was an extremely valuable resource in evaluating homeschool products.The authors are obviously from a Christian background, but don’t push one brand of Christianity over another. I don’t think the book evangelizes.The authors recommend a great deal of Christian homeschool material particularly in the early grade language arts but only because there’s just not a lot of solid secular stuff out there.Read more: […]

This book was really helpful in seeing the big picture for my 5 year old (she’s around first grade level) and two younger children. I had never really looked into the ‘why?’ behind a classical education but read this book because of the popularity and reviews.It has given me an excellent idea of what to expect at each stage, how to manage studies of many different periods, literature and science topics in a way that is manageable and helps develop their language and writing skills at the same time.Although I only have one at homeschool age right now, I want to start as I mean to go on to ensure I don’t burn out with all three of them at school age. The plan laid out in this book will allow me to do one on one tutoring for the necessary subjects and then bring the children together for the others in a way that allows us to explore together without rushing, while also knowing what to ask of each child through the three stages of the trivium outlined in the book.One note, however, is that even the authors themselves (on the website) state that the recommended times per subject are really high and only put in there because the publishers wanted it. I think this may come from the U.S perspective of having to meet certain hours for homeschooling. The same goes for the amount of notebook pages suggested. Fortunately in Scotland we don’t have such a requirement, although I will be implementing the notebook pages with narration/dictation. I will definitely not be covering three hours of science per week at first grade level!The ideas for using certain books as a ‘spine’ for our learning was really useful and I feel it has given me a way to do some interest-led learning while actually having a systematic plan (which the kids don’t even need to realise!).Overall I have really enjoyed this book and have been convinced of the benefits of covering some more classical subjects which I hadn’t seen the importance or benefit in before.The wonderful thing about homeschooling is that you don’t have to subscribe to any ONE method alone and so although I won’t be doing a strict classical education I have gained so much from reading this book and will be using it as a guide every year I’m sure!