opinions on Well Trained Mind

[kathymuggle]

I am reading it now.

I will give more of my own opinion later (I have time constraints at the moment), but in a nutshell the philosophy of the trivium really resonates with me, but I find some of the details or a bit too much (labour intensive and of questionalbe relevance).

What do you think?

[Diane~KJ]

I'm doing sort of a relaxed version of WTM, a lot of people do this. Like you mention, a lot of it resonated with me, but it's super labor intensive, perhaps too much so.

I use it as a guideline right now. It feels good to have a bit of direction, and utilize some of their suggestions, but it's not gospel to me. They also have a website, which has been helpful to me and I'm sure you'll get more questions answered there as well.
-Di

[Einen]

I read it years ago and loved it at the time. However I had several more years before dd would be ready to school so I continued to explore other homeschooling philosophies. I've researched and considered everything from Calvert to unschooling.

In the end, right before dd turned 5, I re-read it and decided to go with it for now. We're about half way through the K stuff, I've found my groove and I'm highly satisfied.

[pamama]

We're doing a very relaxed WTM/CM approach. I'd be even more relaxed, but ds begged for the structure. I've read the book several times. The first time I read it I think ds was about 3 and it really made sense to me. The second time I read it I was totally overwhelmed with all the stuff they say to teach and all the schedules. I have since read it through a couple more times and read several articles written by Susan Wise Bauer. Basically, I feel much better about the approach after reading over and over that the authors never intended anyone to follow it as written. I'm not sure now if it was in the book or in the articles I read, but she pretty much wrote that you'd have to be crazy to even try to do everything in the book. And the rigid schedules were included at the insistence of the publisher. We've had a great year combining WTM with CM (I like the Ambleside book lists). To give you an idea, we rarely spend more than an hour per day on school all year for first grade. And it's usually much less than that. Not including reading alouds, of course. I don't like spending longer than 10-15 minutes on a lesson, including math. If it takes longer we'll continue it the next day. And I like my kids to have as much free play time outside as possible.

[Kleine Hexe]

I also pick and choose from WTM. I like some of the curriculum suggestions, but I also use others.

I tried Ambleside and it bored my ds to tears. I'm also not Christian so some of the books are definately not for my family.

I use First Langauge Lessons, but for history I use History Odyssy which uses Story of the World as a main book but it's not the only book. So I added to the suggested history curriculum. I do not use Saxon math either.

So I follow WTM a bit...picking and choosing what I like.

[warriorprincess]

I love it too, and like most people I pick and choose. I use different Latin becasue I wanted something secular. I use Delta Science because I think science sould be hands on.

[phathui5]

I use it as a guide. One thing I like about it is having the kids do history, science, art, etc together.

[Ruthla]

I read that book and, for the first time ever, I said "ok, here's instructions on how I'm NOT going to be teaching! I got completely put off by the "memorize dates of battles" for part of it. I remember being made to memorize such random trivia in history classes in school and found it SOOOO boring! It made me feel like the entire approach was boring and mindless and "not creative or fun."

But then I had an IRL discussion with fellow homeschoolers about the book, and those who were using it were doing so in a much more flexible way. Nobody was doing EVERYTHING in the book, rather they used the book for suggestions and did some of the things mentioned in the book and skipping others. If their child was bored by memorizing dates of famous battles, they'd cover that time period in another way.

I no longer think that the "classical approach" is bad- it won't damage a child's innate love of learning and it's not an inherintly boring way to approach education. It's still not for me though- I'm more of an unschooler at heart and I'm not structured enough to "teach" the way this book suggests. However, I might make use of some "classical education" materials and present them as items for my kids to explore on their own.

[3girlmom]

We are also doing TWTM-lite. I feel like the science is weak, though, for the younger years...it's more the "fill the bucket" rather than "light the fire" approach. I also do different math and latin programs, and we don't keep notebooks. But when I was feeling like, "what am I going to do with my kids?" TWTM saved the day.

I think the test of TWTM devotion is, have you mummified a chicken? We have.

[cosmos]

We read The history- The Story of the World She wrote and ordered hundreds of historical fiction books they recommended from the library interloan and my girls love love love it. They go to PS now and we still do TSOTW this way.

I got totally overwhelmed using TWTM and when I tried to condense I ended up with just a bunch of workbooks (zzzzzz...... boooooring). I think the problem was that everything looked so great I felt my dd's would miss out on something cool, and I ended up doing too much at first.
But maybe that says more about MY organizational problems.

[NoHiddenFees]

We do modified, relaxed WTM, including Latin and chronological History. However, we don't use their Science recommendations and have started a modern foreign language "early."

[mackysmama]

we use the WTM in a very relaxed way. When I read the book, I was totally overwhelmed and thought there was no way I would follow that. But, then I found myself drawn to some of the materials, especially SOTW, and have tweaked it so that it works for us and our relaxed pace.

[1stTimeMummytoLore]

i have yet to meet or hear/read of a WTM homeschooler who is pure, "by the book" WTM. everyone takes what IMHO is essentially a collection of some great ideas and resources and makes it their own.

we're using most of the language arts program- but not spelling, found something else i like better. because of WTM, i found singapore math which DD1 loves. we are using April's free history curriculum (minus the lit component) that uses SOTW and the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History as it's primary spines (she has a new website- www.bringinguplearners.com i think) and the SOTW activity guide and book lists for history. we've already started spanish and logic even though we are still "grammar stage." and we'll probably start latin this year too based on DD's interest level.

ITA it's terribly weak on science and as a secular homeschooler, i finally gave up on finding something i was totally happy with and just wrote my own life science program that is much more suited to my very science-y DD.

there are countless ways to be a WTM-er.

(ps- we are planning to take on the chicken mummy this very fall! )

[3girlmom]

What is the spelling program that you like more?

[1stTimeMummytoLore]

I found a book called Natural Speller. It's one book and it covers 1st through 8th grade. It has word lists per grade and the way they are grouped make such sense to me. It also has suggestions for learning activities and info on Greek and Latin roots all in the same book. I just like the affordability ('cause i constantly argue w/ my loving but terribly cheap DH about every HSing line item) and the fact that to use it for 8 years for three kids means i will totally get my money's worth. I also don't see the need to do whole workbooks worth of spelling, so this is a much simpler program IMHO than a lot of the ones WTM recommends.

[NoHiddenFees]

Originally Posted by 1stTimeMummytoLore

i have yet to meet or hear/read of a WTM homeschooler who is pure, "by the book" WTM.

:
The WTM forums are a far better resource for choosing curricula than the book itself, as users are collectively discussing children representing a far larger sample size than Jessie Wise's 3 kids. [Isn't there a sister that's only mentioned in passing? Maybe not, it might be 2 kids.] The couple curriculum suggestions I've tried from the book have been dismal failures for us.

[lisarussell]

we have a relaxed WTM approach.

We do the history, Every year, I fill our living room shelf full of this year's books. The kids have their notebooks. They explore at their own pace. They always finish the book by the beginning of next year. we read SOTW at bedtime. In the day they get to choose what they'll do to reinforce that chapter (write about it, project...)I got history odyssey too this year, the activities were way better.

math- we use saxon for the big kids, singapore for the little ones

questionable relevance- um yeah, like memorizing the queens of england? we don't do that.

copywork, the kids always want to write notes and they dictate to me & then copy in their own writing. it also teaches them spelling & reading

language arts- we read a lot. we write a lot. no curriculum

science- we do 4h

I'm looking into getting a thomas jefferson education this summer, so we can spend more time reading classics next year.

i'm looking into getting IEW for my 9th grader (and me) next year.


probably typos here- i'm going to be now, words are blurring together, goodnight

[MyCalling]

I pick and choose for each child what parts of TWTM they'll follow. I love the chronological History approach and how Science is broken down into topics, but we don't follow a curriculum for those. We do History and Science by interest, but when I lead, it is by the TWTM's order.

I've also done various things for 1st/2nd grade writing and failed miserably and found their only copy work in 1st and copy work and dictation in 2nd to be very smart and works. Creative writing makes things frustrating for them at these ages and they don't need to make writing a creative outlet that young (unless they want to).

We're starting the Spell to Write and Read book next year. The oldest will be doing the whole program, but the younger two will get whatever they will from it.