The Well-Trained Mind

[Jumaanah]

Hello,
Just started reading the book and i'm quite impressed so far... any home edders using the book or the 'trivium'? Is it really as good and effective as the book says?

I'm considering getting the First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind books from the same authors but since my dd is already 9, book 1 would be too simple and I'm not sure about getting into the series later on, presumably it has a building block method.

I think I saw a blog dedicated to that method of teaching jumaanah and it seems quite popular , certainly in the US.

here

It was linked to from Susan Wise Bauer's home page so I cannot say how biased it may be. See if it gets you anywhere. I like some of what she says and also some of Charlotte Mason's approach but I find these workbooks from S. Bauer a bit off-puttingly repetitive. I have only viewed sample pages though, never worked with them and perhaps it is the repetition which brings the results.

thanks alot ZZZenAgain. I'm also considering getting a few books from the authors. Especially "the ordinary parent's guide to teaching reading" by Jessie Wise. I'll go through the blog. I've read lots of home ed books but i'm realling liking this one.

I don't HE but I like the idea of it. I knowSusan Wise Bauer is very popular. NOt sure whether my dd would like her approach. You can read some sample pages on amazon to get an idea of what her teaching books are like. They seem very scripted so lay out the teachers says ....... pupil answers something like.............then you the teacher asks .................

and so on. Then her approach involves narration, copywork Charlotte Mason style, early foreign language learning with an emphasis on grammatical structure etc. I didn't try it with dd but think my dd might have wilted with that approach. Have read a lot of reviews though from parents who feel it works very well for them.

Good luck with it.

We love the idea of doing it. Looks like the kids are going to school now though :(

We do some WTM stuff, including First Language Lessons.

ZZZen, you don't need to start with Book 1 - you can go in at Grade 3 or 4. That's what makes them quite repetitive! DS1 and DS2 complained by grade 4 that it was repetitive so as I'd only got a free download of lessons 1-20, we stopped there but in hindsight, I wish we'd carried on as it would have reinforced stuff that bit more. DD will be doing Grade 4 from September - she really enjoys it. She really enjoys the memory work - particularly the poems and as a languages teacher, I find the emphasis on grammar really useful for their French/Spanish.

What I really like about it, is the emphasis on getting things right but keeping writing to a minimum, rather than being all creative and getting it wrong and then having to 'unlearn' things. We find other ways of being creative. However, we do use Galore Park and Writing Strands for English as well.