Experiencing American History

Why read about American history when you could experience it? Go see the places and meet the people! After nine years homeschooling with Classical Conversations, I’m seeing the true beauty that the program offers. Instead of merely reading about American History, my 9th grader is diving into it from the original documents. Since school started, she has read, analyzed, and annotated original documents including the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Federalist Papers. No boring textbooks here. (A special thank you to Hamilton🎶🎵for making it even more interesting!) These kids learning the Socratic method and are assigned a week to lead the discussion over their American literature. Using Lost Tools of Writing, they learn to analyze and argue an event that happened in the book, the affirmative versus the negative. This writing style prestes them for debate - she’s currently researching border crossings! And that little song of the US presidents that your elementary kid sung in Foundations? These teenagers are now reciting the presidents… and the Preamble… and part of the Declaration of Independence. I love that Classical Conversations weaves the classes - skills from one subject lead to the next - and tie it back to God’s design. There are so many beautiful connections being made in the big conversation. 👉Give me your Philadelphia and Washington DC tips. We’re headed there for some further learning in a few months! 📸Williamsburg, VA; September 2020 PS: If you have Williamsburg on your radar, make sure you check out my blog with all the details! It’s such an amazing learning experience 🤓