Combining classical education with discovery learning

I believe in discovery learning (Enki is a good example) and I also believe in classical education (Classical Conversations is a good example) and strive to combine them whenever possible. Here are a few recent examples.

This is a page from MEP 2nd yr and it asks the student to write a multiplication and division about the pictures.

When J attempted to do this by herself w/o the linking cubes, she didn't get it correct. So I asked her to go build the actual model and from there she was able to figure out the solution by herself. (She was always counting an extra one and thought the face in the front corner should be included in the # of times)

At this stage of the game in classical education for my children who are 7 and 6 y.o, the emphasis on memorization. This week in Classical Conversations, for math, the children are expected to memorize the distributive law of a*(b+c)= a*b+a*c. So what I did prior to class is give them each 2 blue and 3 orange m&m's and ask them to figure out how to figure out the total # of m&m's they have altogether. Both kids easily figured it out and proved the law for themselves. But substituting the a, b, c give both children a little trouble. But hopefully, they'll always remember the m&m's when it comes to the distributive law.

The founder of Classical Conversation, Leigh Bortins, wrote a book called "Echo in Celebration- A call to home-centered education" which I highly recommended. That was my first book on classical education and love it.

Again, in Classical Conversation, each week, the child is expected to memorize some geographical information. For last week, it was Canadian waters and they include "Great Bears Lake, Great Slave Lake, Hudson Bay, Labordor Sea and Baffin Bay." So I asked the children to find it for themselves on this inflatable globe. This is great exercise for W, esp. not too long ago, he gets little confused between what state we live and what country we live in. But doing this has greatly helped his geography knowledge.

We do the same for this week's geography- South America (west). I'm learning just as much as the kids do. :)
Of course, all work and no play would leave anyone pretty dull, so here is J playing with the linking cubes. She made a giraffe and is working on a baby giraffe right now.