Just as we begin to think about next year’s options, National School Choice Week gives schools an opportunity to showcase who they are and what they offer. Upper Valley Classical Community will have an Open House celebrating classical education and home school on Thursday night, January 28, 7-8pm.
You are invited to an open house about home school classical education on Thursday January 28, 7-8 pm, Valley Bible Church, White River Junction.
We are a group of families who for various reasons chose to home school our children. Most of us do not have something against the public system but instead want to offer our students an education they cannot receive in a public school. One of those is a classical curriculum, a true liberal arts education that teaches students how to learn for the rest of their lives. My children and I have been working with the Classical Conversations program for six years and I have had stunning results. It has even given me a second (and better) education.
About twenty families meet once a week in the classrooms of Valley Bible Church. Three levels meet there, one for each of the Trivium: Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric, which are the first three of the Seven Liberal Arts. So this is what it looks like: kids K-6 study the “grammar” of the major disciples, gathering facts. They learn, for example, math facts, major rivers and mountains, the parts of speech, 100 common prepositions, science terms, and a timeline of nearly 200 events. They learn them by song and chant, and enjoy it. They also make presentations, do science labs, explore art, and sing. That is from 9 am to noon once a week. This is the GRAMMAR stage. At home they review these and do reading, math, history.
Grades 4-6 add to that a deep study of English grammar and classical writing from 1-3 pm on the day we meet. These students are entering the DIALECTIC stage, where they learn how the facts are connected. If the facts are pegs nailed into a wall, the dialectic stage is the time when connections are linked from peg to peg in understanding. Grades 7 and 8, therefore, study logic, history of science, the classical essay, beginner’s debate, geography, science fair and much more. This is the time when our children naturally ask, “Why should I do this?” “How does this work?” and notice when our argument is weak. We teach them logic so they can make better arguments and recognize why an argument is poor.
Junior high and senior high students meet in six one-hour seminar to discuss their papers and the books they were assigned to read this week, make presentations, learn new Latin or Math concepts, do science labs, etc. Junior High students in the DIALECTIC stage begin to dialogue. High schools students are ready for the art of RHETORIC, in which they are trained how to find something to say and to communicate wisely and winsomely.
All of this is to say, we have something pretty special to offer families looking for ways to educate their children. We would love for you to see what we are doing. The event will only take an hour, during which the students will participate in short mock classes. I’ll also invite parents to give a short “elevator speech” to explain why they home school.
See you there!
Letters from Heart's Content 