"I cannot recommend this book highly enough! I have thoroughly enjoyed it and been very motivated and challenged by its contents. Every homeschooling family needs a copy of this book! Every homeschooling parent should read this book. It may very well revolutionize your thinking about education. It did mine! -Crystal"
How can you give your children the tools they need to teach themselves? Long ago students were first taught how to learn. Today, students are taught an encyclopedia of subjects – trivia – but they are not taught the basic skills of learning: to discover, to reason, and to apply. They are not taught the Trivium. Can you homeschool in a classical style without compromising your Christian principles? Because we are Christians, we do not want to pursue non-Christian goals. Classical Education must be sifted through the critical screen of the Scriptures to be transformed into a Biblical model.
6x9 quality paperback, 640 pages
Check Out the Table of Contents Here
Review of Teaching the Trivium by Kathy Davis at homeschoolbuzz.com
How do you evaluate the success of your home school? Is it by awards, SAT scores, college acceptance, scholarships, or winning the local spelling bee or art contest? Sure, those are measurements of success, but beyond those tangible rewards, it's seeing first hand the fruits of your labor; watching your children take what you've taught them and run with it. It's seeing them use the tools they need to teach themselves. They discover. They reason. They apply. That's the trivium. Teaching the Trivium is an outstanding resource that explains what Christian homeschooling in a classical approach is, and models how it's done. Using her 20 years of experience, Laurie Bluedorn's own successful, talented (now adult) children are testimony to the success of her use of this approach to homeschool education, and serve as encouraging role models for those of us with growing children. Part one of the book explains what classical education is; giving a good argument for why home is better than a classical classroom setting, and provides the what is/how to of teaching grammar, logic and rhetoric. Part two explores the practical trivium, breaking the application into the developmental stages of your child up to college age. You'll find everything you need to teach the trivium, such as suggested schedules, course of studies, and a great chapter on principles for the study of literature. The appendix has very helpful articles including a comparison of ancient alphabets, and the history and research on the teaching of math. Whether you're new to the classical style of teaching, or have doing it from the start, there is something for every homeschooling family in Teaching the Trivium. This phenomenal resource is one of those books you will be reading and re-reading over and over again. Don't wait for it to show up at a used curriculum sale. I can't imagine anyone parting with it.
Classical education, with its emphasis on teaching languages, logic, rhetoric, literature, and history, is gaining notoriety among Christians these days. Private schools dedicated to this method of learning are popping up all over the country, and homeschoolers have long embraced the concepts. But there is classical education and then there is Christian classical education. The Bluedorns are all about the latter -- reclaiming for Christianity the ideas often credited to classical Greek scholars. They explain the Trivium -- the idea that there are three distinct learning stages in a child's life -- and tell you how to teach to maximum effect in each of those stages.
The Bluedorns are true pioneers in classical Christian education. For years, they've been sharing what they've learned through their research as well as through their experience teaching their own children, and through interaction with thousands of other parents across the country. They share a growing enthusiasm for classical education, but they temper their enthusiasm with cautions about pagan content. Rather than buying into the "Great Books" model of classical education, the Bluedorns apply the methodology while carefully selecting resources that support a biblical Christian worldview. Some of those resources are among the Great Books while others are not. The Bluedorn's philosophy of education is presented at length in the first part of their new book, Teaching the Trivium. However, they also address broader issues such as government control of education and its conflict with biblical principles, problems with classroom-style schooling, arguments for teaching Latin, Greek, and Hebrew (as well as some "how-to" information), charts showing "classical" sources for teaching ancient history for each time period, and discussion of various homeschooling methods and how they can be adapted (or not) to classical education. This is one of the rare places where the contrasting ideas of Dorothy Sayers and Charlotte Mason for elementary education are addressed. All through this section, I especially appreciate the Bluedorn's flexibility; they suggest numerous ideas for content, presentation, and timing but leave it to parents to decide what makes sense for their own children.Chapters eleven through fifteen get into very specific suggestions for teaching the various subjects at different age levels. Also, flip back to the last forty pages of the appendix for extensive resource lists that identify curriculum and resources that fit the Bluedorn's methodology. In addition to resources lists, the Appendix features sixteen articles that address more specialized topics such as Dorothy Sayers’ "The Lost Tools of Learning," "Ancient Education: Hebrew, Greek, and Roman," and "The Trivium in Scripture."
Teaching the Trivium is a valuable contribution to the discussion regarding classical Christian education. The Bluedorns have been writing, speaking, and sharing online for years, but it is wonderful to have so much accumulated wisdom finally collected in one volume. This is an opinionated book, reflecting the strong convictions the Bluedorns have developed over the years. They approach their subject from a serious Reformed perspective, relying on Scripture as the ultimate authority. Even those Christians who might not share the Bluedorn's theological perspective should find this book helpful if their goal is to use the classical model of education by drawing from it that which is worthy, while staying true to biblical principles.
