Classical Education and Special Needs

As we are finishing this year, I was thinking a bit about the things that Miss K has learned and the plans for next year. I have moved to a more classical approach for both of the children. I was impressed with the things that a friend's son learned in Classical Conversations(CC) and so I looked into that thinking it would be good for J. Two years ago I signed the kids up for CC. After the year with CC and more reading and researching I have decided this is our approach.

When I signed up for CC I thought Miss K might learn a bit but honestly I didn't think she would do that much. She was in a class with 8 other 5-8 year old girls. She loved CC and was able to follow along with the class except for the review time which moved a bit too fast for her. She would sit quietly, answer some of the questions, each week she was eager to give her presentation even though we didn't always understand. It was also good for the girls in her class. There was one girl that was always so sweet to include Miss K in lunchtime games. I remind myself that it is good for other children to learn how to relate to children with special needs.

Miss K exceeded my expectations that year. She mastered the timeline and learned quite a bit of other facts as well. Even today at lunch she was able to name of a few of the state capitals.  I learned to raise my expectations.

Here she is giving a presentation.

What is our classical approach at this time? We are doing history in a chronological format. We are working on Latin and some of the other classics. We emphasize memory work (or at least attempt to).

What does that mean for Miss K and her educational needs? She does not want to be left out which is good. She listens to history with us. I would say that more than half the time she knows what we are reading and will remember it. We work to review our timeline on a regular basis so we all will remember it. Her brother has Latin and she has Latin. I purchased Songschool Latin. She loves having her own Latin and will often ask to do Latin.

Will she use it in the future? I don't know but then again I took quite a number of classes in high school and college that I don't use. So she might not use it but at the same time she is exercising her brain and learning to think.

I have raised my standards and I do expect that she will be able to learn this using this approach.

Adding this note -- As we were driving home from dinner, Miss K asked where we were. We told her and then I asked her, "who was the first president?" She replied, Washington, next Adams, next Jefferson." That was as far as she could remember and I will confess I couldn't help her much. I need to review it along with her. It has been a good year since we worked on learning the presidents.

Beth