Our Family

Our Family

Monday, January 10, 2011

TOS Review: Easy Classical

Photobucket
The Classical Method of Education is very popular in homeschooling but it can be difficult to figure out how to make it work in your homeschool. Easy Classical provides a variety of resources for those who wish to teach using the Classical Method. They carry schedules, writing guides, copybooks, and geography curriculum to help make your life easier while you teach. Their schedules break a year's worth of curriculum down into daily assignments that can be adapted to fit different learning styles. The schedules have been framed around the recommendations of Susan Wise Bauer's Book The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. I was provided with the Easy Classical Early Modern History (Explorers to 1820) Schedule to review.

Geared for grades K-6, The Easy Classical Early Modern History Schedule is 106 pages long and contains 36 week long schedules plus 45+ pages of charts, sheets, and helps to enhance your child's learning experience. The Schedule begins with the Explorers and How America Got her Name in week one and ends with Slavery and the Missouri Compromise. Each week is broken down in 5 daily schedules including assignments for: History, Geography, Writing, Projects, and Read Alouds. Each week has review questions (and answers) and quizzes. There are detailed instructions included for how to use this schedule and shopping lists for extra activities. It is also stated in the introduction to the schedule that you should not feel like you have to do everything on the schedule but to instead focus on the work and projects that fit your family and child's learning style the best.

The main books used for the History portion of the reading are: Joy Hakim's History of the US Series, Veritas Press History Cards, H.A. Guerber's History Series, and Story of the World History Volumes. The recommended Read Alouds and free reading to further enhance your studies come from Susan Wise Bauer's recommendations, Veritas Press, or other Classical homeschool sites. The Easy Classical website has a link that shows all of the recommended reading used in the schedule. They have created links for you for the best priced book sellers and a link to the World Cat website which will show you if the book is available at your local library. Click here to link to the book list.

Sample Introduction Pages

Sample History Schedule Pages

Sample Lesson Pages

Notebook Version $35.95 (comes in a 1" 3 ring binder.)
Digital Version $29.95

Since I do not have any of the resources needed to complete this schedule at this time, the only thing I can comment of is what I think of the schedule itself. The best part is of course that all of hte work has been done for you! The schedule is well laid out and easy to follow and understand. There is a list of icons for mapping exercises, history summaries, history songs, and reading narrations in the introduction that appear in the daily schedules to help remind you of the tasks you need to complete. A shopping list for the next week is included on each schedule to remind you of the extras you will need to complete your projects. Comprehension questions and answers are listed at the bottom of the schedule for the teacher and also on a separate page for the student. There are also several pages of step by step detailed drawings in the back of the schedule for your child to follow. The book choices themselves look wonderful and I am familiar with and have read a few of them.

There are a few things to consider about this schedule. It is a five day a week schedule and does not contain an option for a 4 day a week schedule. A lot of parent involvement is necessary working one on one with the child or children and reading aloud (not that that is a bad thing, just worth mentioning.) The Monday schedule seems to be a very heavy reading day which may be a challenge for some having a heavy day right at the beginning of the week.

To see what other crewmates are saying click here.

I received a complimentary Early Modern History Schedule for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review. I received no other compensation.

No comments: