This week, the children and I spent three full days at a Classical Conversations Practicum. You may remember that we have decided to join Classical Conversations for this coming homeschool year. Parents were able to attend the Practicum for free and there were several camps offered at a low cost for children.

Our littlest was in the nursery while the middle two were in Play Camp. Our oldest was in a Geo-Drawing camp, which he claims was boring because he “already knew how to draw a map of the world.” I think they all had fun, but by the last day, they were ready to be back home again. Three full days is a lot for small children, especially since they spent last week at VCS for five days in a row. They were exhausted by Thursday morning.
This year’s Practicum was about Math, specifically High School Math. I should have known this ahead of time, and if I had, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the Practicum. We have decided to homeschool one year at a time. That means that right now I am only looking ahead to this coming year. During and after which, we will re-evaluate and see what we think is best for our family in the coming school year.
One of the benefits of the practicum itself was that I was able to recognize, for probably the first time ever, that I am good at Math. By the time I started High School, I considered myself more of a literature/writing/music/drama type of student, so I didn’t push myself in Math or Science very much. I kept my focus in other areas. But I enjoyed working the Math problems in the afternoons of the Practicum, even though it did get a bit monotonous. It gave me a bit of self-confidence regarding my ability to teach the children higher-level subjects. I wish we had had more time to talk about how to apply the Classical Model to homeschooling, but I was able to talk with some other moms in order to have my questions answered.

I am certain that we are all going to enjoy this new journey of homeschooling as a complete family. Homeschooling one child had its challenges, but I think that when we are all working together on the same basic schedule and uniting ourselves in this way, homeschooling and life in general will function a lot more smoothly.
Besides educationally, in what ways has
homeschooling benefited your family?