Switching from relaxed schooling to Classical Education?

[bass chick]

Is it possible to switch from relaxed, ecclectic homeschooling to Classical after a few years?
The reason why I ask is because there is NO WAY that I would be able to provide a classical education to my 2 boys right now. They are 6.5 and 4 and I run a dayhome and have up to 8 kids at any given time during my 10 hour operating times and then I have 1-2 hours of work to do after I close at 5:30. By the time we finish supper there is no time left for schooling, so ds1 and I just do bits here and there during the day when we can.
In 3-4 years I am planning on either closing my dayhome or just doing before and after school care at which time I think we would be able to pursue a classical education.
At that point, will it be too late? My boys would be 8 and 10.

[simple living mama]

I didn't even start working with my kids until they were seven. I wanted them to have plenty of play time. But saying this, I spent much of that time playing with them and introducing them to cool things such as puzzles, films, nature, animals, mazes etc.... So I think if you are at least doing things with your kids that are engaging and have structure that they are used to, no I don't think you will have a hard time.

[lmonter]

I don't see why not.

Heck, my 7yo and I do school after his brothers and sister are tucked into bed and they're not distractions to him and he's mellowed out after being busy all day. He can better focus, and he's a bit more of a night owl like his mommy - only my 4yo is a morning person.

We do have a daily rhythm, and I bet yours is more rigid than ours since you've got the other kids in and out through the day. As long as they've got creative things to do and you've got fun/educational things on hand, I'd just roll with it and call it good. If your children want more direction/assignments/activities as they get older, it may not be a bad thing if they want to go to their room and work on schoolwork themselves, you know? It'll work out.

[phathui5]

We did do classical education with our children even when I did daycare for three years. At any time, I had from 6-12 children in the house.

What about is it about classical education that you think you can't do right now?

What does your daily schedule look like?

[Jennifer3141]

I think you could do classical at any time but it might be easier for all of you if you started it earlier so that your children are used to a rigorous education. It depends upon how "relaxed" you really are right now.

[elizawill]

why not just be very relaxed classical in the beginning, ykwim? it's not like FLL & WWE take a long time at all. you could listen to SOTW on cd, and just watch beakmans world for science (if you get netflix). there are so many "classical" type curricula that are super easy to implement and not teacher intensive (or time intensive for that matter). just a thought.

[mom2ponygirl]

We are older, relaxed, eclectic classical homeschoolers. You can do classical stuff without giving up all your free time. My daughter has been reading Homer and Plutarch, etc. with my dad while studying ancient history twice a week, she takes a great online high school Latin class, uses Michael Clay Thompson books for Language Arts, listening to The Count of Monte Cristo with me in the car, along with an eclectic collection of other subjects that may or may not fit the classical mold. LOL I'm picturing the Manga Guide to Electricity being considered in a classical education.

Try implementing new things a little at a time, and modify to suit your family. You have plenty of time to play and explore with how classical approaches will work for you.

[AngelBee]

Originally Posted by bass chick

Is it possible to switch from relaxed, ecclectic homeschooling to Classical after a few years?
The reason why I ask is because there is NO WAY that I would be able to provide a classical education to my 2 boys right now. They are 6.5 and 4 and I run a dayhome and have up to 8 kids at any given time during my 10 hour operating times and then I have 1-2 hours of work to do after I close at 5:30. By the time we finish supper there is no time left for schooling, so ds1 and I just do bits here and there during the day when we can.
In 3-4 years I am planning on either closing my dayhome or just doing before and after school care at which time I think we would be able to pursue a classical education.
At that point, will it be too late? My boys would be 8 and 10.

Will it be too late? No. You can make it work at any point.

I understand FULLY where you are coming from! We are a CM/Classical family with Waldorfy leanings. I own a dance academy that runs Mon-Thurs evenings and I coach a high school dance team. I have little support from my husband regarding daily function of home/bills and NO help with schooling. (Not complaining....just setting the stage)

Will be back in a bit...

[bass chick]

"Relaxed Classical Education" sounds like a bit of an oxymoron to me. haha.
Perhaps my understanding of Classical Education is incorrect. I wouldn't be surprised as I have no idea what Waldorf or Montessori or any other of those schooly terms mean.

My schedule is hectic and most days I end in tears just because I'm overwhelmed and the tears are a bit of a release. I'm up at 7am and getting ready for my clients who come at 7:30am. I have three 2 year olds, one 3 year old and one 4 year old as well as my 2 kids and then 2 kids before and after school. Some days I spend over an hour just changing diapers and helping kids in the bathroom!! I am always breaking up fights, comforting kids who get hurt (5-10 times an hour) and dealing with my own high needs 4 year old who wants to nurse almost constantly. Then I'm cooking, serving and cleaning up after eating 4 times a day with these kids. There goes another 3-4 hours.
The kids all leave at 5:30pm, and I have tons of clean up (bathrooms, floors, playroom) and 2 days a week I have to go get groceries. By the time we are done supper and everything is cleaned up it is usually 8-9pm and then my kids want quality time with me, reading, snuggling and playing games...or sometimes just talking. They are usually asleep by 10:30-11pm. And more than half the time I fall asleep before them (We cosleep).

When I "do" school with DS1 (he is only 6 and wants me there with him all the time) I have constant interruptions. We never get 5 minutes without interruptions. Part of the reason why I feel unequipped to do classical education as well as manage everything else in my life is because I know nothing about the Classics (who the heck is Homer?) and I'm just learning about the trivium and the grammar stage and all that. And I'm not the brightest either.

I remember memorizing was so easy for me as a young child. And I loved it. DS1 is memorizing scripture verses every night and also is loving it. And the things I memorized before I was 8 are the things that I remember.

Anyways, right now we are doing Math U See and All About Spelling and just reading random library books. My kids hate chapter books. We read Charlottes Web and The Courage of Sarah Noble with much complaining and sighs. Not enough pictures.
We don't do science (no time, and I have no energy) and we have SOTW but I haven't cracked it open yet. We don't do grammar or writing and it just feels as though a lot is missing and it's overwhelming. I don't know what FLL and WWE stand for (elizawill mentioned those), but I am open to suggestions and ideas to help us get started.

I have no homeschool community (can't get out in the week with other homeschool families and none of them meet on the weekends) and my hs facilitator is a bit of a joke and not very helpful. So, really, my only support is mdc.
Sometimes I get so overwhelmed that I start to go crazy...I think it's happening again so I should stop talking (posting...whatev.) haha!

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by bass chick

"Relaxed Classical Education" sounds like a bit of an oxymoron to me. haha.

i think it's totally doable. people do it all of the time, just borrowing ideas that influence your direction. i just read a thread not too long ago at TWTM forums, where many classical(ish) homeschoolers dropped history and science for K-3 and just focused on learning to read, dictation, and narration (these are foundational for the years to come). everything else was "gravy" so to speak.

we aren't classical homeschoolers, but everything i use looks like a classical homeschooler (not sure how that happened). my son is only 6 & he uses first language lessons, writing with ease, all about spelling, CLE learning to read, and saxon math. for science, history, and art we just follow his interests. school takes less than an hour every day. ykwim? with my daughter, it is much more time consuming of course, but she's 9... and you said in a few years you thought you might have the time to follow the classical model closer.

anyway. i think it's doable.

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by bass chick

I don't know what FLL and WWE stand for (elizawill mentioned those), but I am open to suggestions and ideas to help us get started.

oh. i just read the rest of your post. i'm sorry. i listed those (without abbreviations) in my previous post. they're first language lessons and writing with ease. they are written by susan weiss bauer (well trained mind). i chose them because they are short, simple, gentle, and age appropriate.

as for the rest of your post. hugs. it sounds like you have a lot going on!! it stinks when you don't have a community. i live in the middle of nowhere, so i totally understand. i have to drive an hour to charlotte to make connections, but we never have normal playdates, friendships, etc. i hate it.

honestly, if you end up in tears most days, i would not stress about classical anything!! don't even think about that stuff right now. you can definitely switch to it later on!! what you're doing with your son currently sounds great! just focus on simplifying your life...not adding more to it.

as for groceries, is it possible to only go once a week??? i go twice a month, lol, so twice a week would be overwhelming to me too!!!

hang in there, mama. i'm so sorry you are feeling overwhelmed.

[bass chick]

Thanks! What an encouragement!!!

I guess I just have to find our groove and what works for us without stressing about what other people do. I think part of my issue is that I want my kids to be smart, learn to work hard, and be well educated. I feel short changed because I didn't even go to school or do any school work for grades 8-11 (I was very ill and in hospital that entire time, laying in bed and watching TV so my teachers let me write the finals and based on my grade on the finals they passed me on to the next grade, where I would just write the final, and so on. I took my grade 12 year 2 years later than scheduled and just squeaked by).
Anyways, my own deficiencies sometimes drive me to worry about my kids.

On the up side...I'm looking forward to actually learning something as my kids get older and we study history and science and all that fun stuff!!!

Thanks so much for the encouragement.
As for the groceries, I have to go at least 2x a week because I can't fit any more in my fridge and in just a few days all the kids eat all the food. Our fruit goes bad so fast and must be stored in the fridge and eaten quickly.

[MissRubyandKen]

I agree with elizawill, totally doable. IMO classical can be relaxed, especially when the children are younger. To me it isn't about adhering to someone else's format, but more being inspired by my own ideas of what classical education looks like for my family and tweaking it until it works best for us.

Your children are very young. Lots of people choose to delay formal education in some or even all areas. These are also wonderful ages for child led or interest driven learning. I would focus on the three R's, reading, writing, and math. Everything else is gravy and likely their interests and every day life will introduce plenty of Science and History.

Is your 6.5 year old reading or writing? Is he able to do basic Math, addition and subtraction of single digit numbers? I would start with these skills and then build from there. No hurry. Build a strong foundation and everything that comes later will be better for it.

Lots of people use either The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading or Teach Your child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Other people just read, read, read to their children and answer questions related to reading whenever they come up. I honestly didn't teach either of my children to read. I did try 100 EZ with my eldest and K12 Phonics, but for her both hindered the process rather than helping. Both dd, 10, and ds, 9, read wonderfully. For writing lots of people use Handwriting Without Tears. Early on I just had the children copy single letters, then short words, and eventually sentences. For Math I'd suggest either Miquon or Singapore and simple Math games. Grammar and other things can come later. Really all of this can definitely be included in the day in under an hour.

I personally wouldn't try to do schooling with the other children there, aside from reading aloud. Maybe you can introduce storytime if you haven't already. I really do understand how crazy everything must seem with so many young children in the house. If you're lucky something like a quiet storytime might be a wonderful addition to your day.

As for the other subjects, a short evening session here and there, or even on non-daycare days, or possibly right before bed. It doesn't have to be done on a daily basis to make progress.