Day: April 14, 2004

This is just a first pass at a schedule based on my thinking based on estimates of how long each item should take from the Well Trained Mind.

This is just a first pass at a schedule based on my thinking based on estimates of how long each item should take from the Well Trained Mind.

Planning

In the Well Trained Mind, the teaching of formal logic is highly recommended. The idea is expressed that the understanding of language is absolutely critical to the understanding of formal logic. The fifth grade is the year recommended to start laying the groundwork for formal logic by systematically doing logic puzzle solving. The recommended books are the Mind Benders series of books supplemented with the Red Herring series of books. These are not books in formal logic which does not start until the sixth grade, but they are fun way to introduce the topic. I have not yet ordered these books, but have them on my list.

The authors of the Well Trained Mind are big on teaching Latin. The reasons provided to teach Latin were not too convincing in that it appears that similar benefits would be derived from teaching Spanish. We are way more interested in having the kids obtain mastery of Spanish so they can more effectively communicate with our family in Mexico. Kelly and Christian’s new aunt, Minita, just graduated from La Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon (UANL) in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She got a double degree in Linguistics and Elementary Education. We are going to solicit her help in finding a way to test the kids to determine their level of understanding of Spanish and then find a curriculum and materials to do the Spanish teaching here at home in Oregon next fall.

There was a great blurb in the Well Trained Mind on how bad television is for a developing mind. As we do not have a television, we have already bought into that idea. I had not given much thought to the idea that the computer games available for kids have mostly the same drawbacks as television. The programs are mostly visual with little time provided for reflection or creative interpretation. With the exception of using our Mavis Beacon typing program for fifteen minutes per day in the summers, we are going to reduce computer time as much as is possible. The point that hit home the most was that every minute the kids are using the computer, they are not reading, creating art, practicing the piano. etc.

Progress

Christian and I worked on the MathIt again last night. He is doing really well. I think we should go a week or two more on the “DoubleIt” part of the program before we move on. In addition, both Kelly and Christian memorized a verse on their own quite well. I will give them another night with that one verse that they have already memorized and give them another verse to memorize for the rest of the week.||We want to make use of our Spanish speaking family to help us put together a great Spanish program for the kids. The Well Trained Mind discussed several topics with a little different take than mine and/or about which I either had not given much thought. Those topics include the teaching of Latin (I do not buy it), the disadvantages of television and computers, and the teaching of Logic as a subject.