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.

scenes from CC ( classical education in action)

W doing his presentation on his zoober zots creations at CC. Every week, the children come up in front of their peers and give a little presentation. Sometimes, it is free choice and other times it is on a topic they have learned at CC. Parents always have the final say when it comes to presentation topic. W says he was nervous but watching him, I couldn't tell. :)

While in science all the children (divided into different classes based on age/ability, teaching method is also adapted for the different age groups) examined rocks/minerals. Previously, the children had memorized the 3 types of rocks - igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary for their science fact.

Last week they made the different layers of earth out of play dough. I showed that to my Sunday class students and the children were amazed, esp. the boys who made their own variation and just had a ball.

The black/white test slates was to see the hardness of the rocks and what color of a line the rock will make on the test slates. A really good analogy for rock/minerals that was given in class was rocks are like salad while minerals are like lettuce and tomato because rocks can be made from minerals but not vice versa.

In music/art, it was listening to Chopin and painting how it made them feel. Lots of learning all around. For those who may not know, we incorporate Classical education with Waldorf /Enki education along with whatever ideas that work for us. I would say though Waldorf education is so different from anything I have seen and certainly from my own education experience that I have really had to study it and am just fascinated by it.

Some thoughts on Waldorf and The Well-Trained Mind

Carrie from Parenting Passageway had a nice post on the difference between Waldorf and the Well-Trained Mind in the early grades that I just saw today. She did a nice job so I'm not going to re-post the info here. If you like to see her post, you can click on the link above.

But I'll share my comments in response to her post below.

I am fairly new to homeschooling and fairly new to TWTM and Waldorf. But I combine the classical method and the Waldorf method and it works well for my children.

Regarding teaching history in the early grades, I don’t see that much difference as in listening to fairy tale stories / saints stories. It takes the child to another land. Like someone said, a good story is a good story. So if a younger sibling hears a saints story, it is alright (though it will not meet them "developmentally and they will not be "nourished" as much as a 2nd grader per say).

We do memorize a lot of facts but like another commenter says, it does not require the child to understand it and is akin to listening to songs/learning a foreign language. This is to take advantage that the child absorbs and retains the info much easier at this age. When they come to the material again in the higher grades, they will not spend a lot of time on the “vocabulary/grammar” of the material and is ready to delve into the material deeper.

I like that Waldorf is sensitive to “mirroring” the child though stories but honestly had a tough time with it when my daughter was 6 and listening to fairy tales. Now she is 7 1/2, the fairy tales are working out better for her but I have not clearly experienced the stories as "mirroring" of her development. (We've tried saints stories and she didn't really care for them so it'll be interesting to see if they will when she turns 8).

I don’t feel it is necessary to wait until a child is 7 years old to start academics. (I think) it should depends on the particular child though in China, formal academics also starts when the child is 7. (Though I will say, once they start, it is intense which is why Waldorf is attractive to me because it is more balanced). I think this is especially true in homeschool where the education can be more tailored to your own children.

I also like that Waldorf is “holistic” and is concerned with the whole child and not just academics. I think the math stories (in Waldorf methods) are fantastic and makes math much more fun and alive for everyone. (Though from what I know about Waldorf math, I don't feel it is necessarily wide enough and don't look at it necessarily from many angles. ) The emphasis on hand work in Waldorf is another reason I appreciate this method of education. (I firmly believe there is a brain/hand/physical connection).