FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Outstanding...should be on every home educator's reference bookshelf."—Homeschooling TodayThis book will instruct you, step by step, on how to give your child an academically rigorous, comprehensive education from preschool through high school. Two veteran home educators outline the classical pattern of education—the trivium—which organizes learning around the maturing capacity of the child's mind: the elementary school "grammar stage," the middle school "logic stage," and the high school "rhetoric stage." Using the trivium 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. Newly revised and updated, The Well-Trained Mind includes detailed book lists with complete ordering information; up-to-date listings of resources, publications, and Internet links; and useful contacts.

Author Biography: Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well-Educated Mind, teaches literature and writing at the College of William and Mary. Jessie Wise, her mother, is a former teacher and principal; she is now an educational consultant, speaker, and writer. They live in Charles City, Virginia.

SYNOPSIS

Wise and Wise Bauer provide an updated edition of their parent's guide to a do-it-yourself, academically rigorous, comprehensive K-12 education, for use in either full-time homeschooling or as a supplement to what a child is learning in the classroom. The revised edition includes updated ordering information for curricula and books, new and expanded curricula recommendations, new material on using computers and distance learning resources, answers to common questions and advice on practical matters regarding homeschooling, and educational support groups information. A former teacher and principal, Wise is now an educational consultant; her daughter, Wise Bauer, teaches at the College of William and Mary. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Wise, a former teacher and current home education consultant, explains that she decided to home-school her three children because the local public school "was a terrible environment socially" and ranked academically as one of the lowest in the state, and the private school she and her husband had chosen seemed unable to stimulate and challenge her children. Bauer, her older daughter and now an instructor at the College of William & Mary, adds the student's perspective. Together, they provide detailed information on a home-school curriculum for a type of classical education called the "trivium." Within each of the three stages of learning (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) are suggestions for lessons, how-to tips, and lists of resources. A common criticism of home schooling, that children have inadequate opportunity for social and emotional development, is also addressed here. For home-schooling a child or supplementing the education of one attending a public or private school, this book is a good purchase for most public libraries.--Terry A. Christner, Hutchinson P.L., KS Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Former-teacher Wise and her daughter Bauer (literature, College of William and Mary) draw, among other resources, their own experience of the former home-schooling the latter. Not a classical education in the sense of Greek and Latin, but an academically rigorous, comprehensive education from preschool through high school is possible within the family, they contend and demonstrate. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)