10 Things To Do With Children Ages 16-18

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Welcome to another week of the Teaching the Trivium book club!  I am so excited to read and discuss this book along with you.  I loved the discussion last week and would love to hear from more of you!  Today we talk about teaching children in the Rhetoric Stage. 

Today I'm writing you from Cincinnati, OH.  I am here for the Great Homeschool Convention!  My husband and I enjoyed the first day of sessions and are looking forward to a full day tomorrow.   

Chapter 14 - Ten Things To Do With Your Children Ages Sixteen Through Eighteen

I can't believe that we are nearing the end of this book!  Today we are talking about the rhetoric stage, and I believe that there are two more chapters after this one.

The Bluedorns talk about how this final stage of the trivium should really be comprised of two parts.  Of course there should be the education component, but there also needs to be an aspect of preparing our children for their adult life.  This chapter is broken down into the 10 things to do with children in the rhetoric stage and then three goals to have as far as preparation goes.

They say that in the rhetoric stage, you go from "coaching and correcting...to coaxing and directing."

A Suggested Course of Study

Like in the last stage, I do not have any expertise in the rhetoric stage, so I will run through the ten items and comment on things that I found interesting.


Family Worship 

• This should comprise of a systematic study of theology, plus personal devotion time.

Reading Aloud 

• Continue to read aloud, even to your older children.  Some books might be repeats of ones they heard when they were younger, but that's ok!

History and Literature 

• History should definitely be studied chronologically now.  It will look similar to in the last stage, but it should be more challenging material.

Rhetoric (Lots of great resources listed!)

1. Read everyday
2. Write everyday
3. Perform speeches or interpretive readings every month

Government, Economics, and Law


Languages

• "Unless the student plans on regular encounters with a modern foreign language, such as in missionary work, the study of ancient Latin and Greek will prove much more useful than the study of, for example, modern French, Spanish, or German."  (pg. 422)

Logic

• "The principles of logic apply to absolutely everything."  (pg. 422)

  
Mathematics

• Some students will want to go on to the higher maths, others will want to learn math that will help them in their future plans (computer science, accounting, etc.)

  

Science

• "The study of science will take the most diverse directions during the Wisdom {rhetoric} Level."  (pg 426)

Art and Music

• Formal lessons continued or art and music appreciation

Beyond Academics

I underlined a lot in this section =)  Some of you may not agree with the stereotypical gender roles it assumes, but honestly I love it.  I love how God created men and women with different strengths and abilities.  I believe that men and women are capable (generally speaking) of doing anything, but that doesn't mean that they are naturally good or gifted at certain things (or that they should do certain things).  I also think that the family is a crucial building block of the church and of society.  I don't want to dive deeper into that right now, but feel free to leave comments or questions below.

Here are some things I found interesting in this section:

• A parent's role will slowly change from instructor to counselor in the rhetoric stage.
• All children will study the same subjects, but they should approach the subjects differently (depending on their future goals).
• We need to be preparing our children for marriage.
• Modeling a good marriage is the first step of preparing our children for marriage.
• Boys must be mentored by their fathers to learn how to be the spiritual leader of their future families.
• Boys must prepare to support their future families (of course not everyone will marry, but the vast majority do).
• Girls must learn the basics of keeping a home and mothering.

I think that the art of 'family' is bring lost and I find that very sad.  Family just isn't prioritized any more and therefore, the skills needed to run every aspect of a family are not being passed down from mothers and fathers to daughters and sons.  My mother was wonderful and I learned many things from here, but looking back I wish that there was even more instruction and direction.  That being said, I don't know if I would have wanted it at that point =)

If we accomplish our goal of a good classical liberal arts education balanced with a good classical Hebrew education, then we will have produced some straight and sharp arrows for God's use.  (pg. 429)

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Do you have children in the rhetoric stage?

How have you prepared your children for their adult life?

How did your parents prepare you for your adult life?

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Thanks for reading along this week!  Leave comments here on the blog post, or share about it on social media (#ClassicalMamasRead).  I'll be sharing too, so follow me on facebook, twitter, or google+ and we can chat about it there as well!  Don't forget, if you want to share your thoughts about Teaching the Trivium on your own blog, link it up below so we can all come and visit!

Next week we will be talking about chapter fourteen of Teaching the Trivium.  If you haven't gotten your own copy yet, make sure you check your library or order one soon so you can be ready for next time!  Also, this is a 600+ page book, so I am only touching on certain points of each chapter.  There is so much great information that I am not covering, so if this discussion interests you, you are going to want to make sure to pick up your own copy so you can read more!

Classical Mamas Read Link-Up

Did you write about Teaching the Trivium on your blog?  Have you been reading and blogging about another book (for you, not a children's book)?  Do you have a book club going on at your blog (once again, not for a children's book)?  I'd love for you link up here so we can all be encouraged by each other and maybe find another great book to read!

I think I'm going to keep this link-up ongoing since there aren't going to be a huge number of posts and then anyone new will be able to be encouraged by the other book reading ideas and discussions.  If the number of posts gets too large, I will fix it.

Please note, all posts must be on topic (about a book you are reading) and appropriate (think family friendly).