Classical Education: How we do it and plan to do it...

How we have been doing it:
We are a Lutheran family, so the classical model fits in our religious life very well. The process of memorizing parts of the catechism works well in the grammar level of classical education. Our children are currently working their way through memorizing the 10 Commandments and their Meanings from Luther's Small Catechism. They currently firmly know Commandments 1-7 and are working on Commandment 8. Additionally, they've memorized the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles Creed, but not their meanings, yet. All in good time. As they grow they will understand these things better, but this lays a firm foundation for their faith. The Commandments are Law, so it is good to also have memorized the Apostles Creed which essentially is Gospel as it proclaims Christ crucified which is the remedy for our sin. As they grow into the dialectic/logic a new level of understanding will be evident; and as they continue to grow in this understanding they will be able to have sound judgement and effective expression. This is not to say that they don't understand the Commandments now, but that as they grow their understanding will grow as well.

How we plan to implement it this year:
We are using curriculum that has been recommended to us through both friends and The Consortium for Classical and Lutheran Education.
Here is what we are using for the various subjects this year:
Math: Saxon
Humanities (history, literature, art, geography): Tapestry of Grace (4 year cyclical approach)
Spelling: Christian Liberty Academic Speller
Grammar: Shurley
Logic: Aesop's Fables (while not truly logic, it does set a good foundation for later)
Foreign Language: Spanish (Rosetta Stone); It is not typical of classical educators to start with Spanish. Most begin with Latin. However, we have been working on Spanish for a little while and will continue it for a while. We will do Latin at a later time.
Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears
Science: Christian Liberty Nature Reader K
Religion: In addition to memorizing various parts of Luther's Small Catechism, we also are going through The Story Book Bible and Worshiping with Angels and Archangels.

For the time being we do not include Religion during the main part of the school day. This might change for us in the future, but right now we do this together as a family in the evenings.

Look for more posts about how we homeschool. Once we get going, I'll post about what our day looks like (our schedule).