A Very Good Place to Start

Welcome to the official blog of The Aquitaine Academy housed in the humble yet charming Repent-at-Leisure. If you're here that probably means you're me, in which case, let me take a moment to say that you're looking especially lovely today. In the event that you're not me, let me explain the purpose of our blog. I'm hoping to keep a record of our goings-on and use it as a way to help me track our progress. Sounds simple enough.

We are following a classical education model based on suggestions from this book:







Click on the book to learn more.










Here is the typical (ha) daily schedule for each child:

Eleanor:

• Piano
• First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind: Level Three
• Spelling using Spelling Workout C
  
• Directed Reading
  
• Cursive using Handwriting without Tears
• History using Story of the World and additional reading on Mon and Wed
• Earth Science using the Usborne's First Encylopedia of Our World on Tues and Thurs
• Writing - Currently using Writing Strands 3 but will transition to Classical Writing Aesop A
  
• Math using Saxon 3 (3 days) with Singapore 3A once per week
  
• Power Glide French

Henry

• Printing using Handwriting without Tears
• First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind
• Directed Reading
  
• History using Story of the World, once or twice a week
• Science using the Kingfisher Encyclopedia of Animals, twice or thrice a week
• Math using Saxon 1 (3 days) and will introduce Singapore 1A once per week

We don't hit all of our goals everyday and in fact, we don't hit them most days. I'm being introduced to the concept of "carschooling" which is where we have done some of our French lessons and some "read alouds" via the cd player. I'm also being introduced to the concept of ending the day crouched in a dark corner, rocking back and forth like one of Maslow's monkeys. Dinners aren't what they used to be and my toenails are still wearing the end of summer's last pedicure but at the end of the day, I still question if all this is really worth it. Let's find out.