The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (Third Edition)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393067084 ISBN 13: 9780393067088

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009

"If you're a parent who has decided to educate your children yourself, this book is the first you should buy."―?Washington Times

The Well-Trained Mind will instruct you, step by step, on how to give your child an academically rigorous, comprehensive education from preschool through high school―one that will train him or her to read, to think, to ?understand?, to be well-rounded and curious about learning. Veteran home educators Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer outline the classical pattern of education called the trivium, which organizes learning around the maturing capacity of the child's mind and comprises three stages: the elementary school "grammar stage," the middle school "logic stage," and the high school "rhetoric stage." Using this theory as your model, you'll be able to instruct your child in all levels of reading, writing, history, geography, mathematics, science, foreign languages, rhetoric, logic, art, and music, regardless of your own aptitude in those subjects.

This newly revised edition contains completely updated ordering information for all curricula and books, new and expanded curricula recommendations, new material on using computers and distance-learning resources, answers to common questions about home education, information about educational support groups, and advice on practical matters such as working with your local school board, preparing a high school transcript, and applying to colleges.

About the Author:

Susan Wise Bauer is a writer, educator, and historian. Her previous books include the Writing With Ease, Writing With Skill, and Story of the World series from Well-Trained Mind Press, as well as The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had, Rethinking School, The Story of Western Science: From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory, and the History of the World series, all from W. W. W. Norton. She has a Ph.D. in American Studies from the College of William & Mary in Virginia, as well as an M.A. in seventeenth-century literature and a Master of Divinity in Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literature. For fifteen years, she taught literature and composition at the College of William and Mary.

Review:

“An excellent resource for any family.”
- Educational Freedom Press

“[Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer] are thorough and pragmatic, offering a detailed curriculum for kindergarten through grade 12, as well as opinions on everything from Latin (an indispensable language) to the Internet ('a mixed blessing').”
- The New Yorker

“An A for Home Schooling... a remarkable compendium of information designed to help home-schooling parents give their children a traditional liberal education.”
- City Journal

“This book would be entertaining simply as the story of how Jessie, then a schoolteacher, decided to teach Susan, who now teaches literature at the College of William & Mary, at home.... But it's so much more than a good yarn. It's a mind-stretching tome.”
- Robert Holland, Richmond Times Dispatch

“Has caused a revolution within the homeschool community.”
- The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

“Homeschooling parents on a mission to find the ultimate resource―or parents of traditionally-schooled children interested in an excellent supplement―are all well advised to peruse the pages of Wise and Wise Bauer's classy guide to classical education at home.”
- The Boox Review

“An invaluable road map.”
- The Daily Democrat