Education: Symposium

Aug 31

We start our homeschool day with what we call "Symposium." It has looked different over the years in various seasons. I found that there were things I wanted us to read about and learn in our homeschool, but by the time with finished with the “basics” we didn’t seem to get to some of the beautiful topics like artists, composers, poetry, and Shakespeare. I had great intentions, but did not consistently get to it. So I decided to organize all of the things that really matter to me over some time in the summer and put them together in a “symposium book.” Some people may call this time morning time or morning basket. By beginning our day with symposium, we are sure to spend time savoring the things that matter to us and building a foundation of truth, goodness, and beauty.

For the past several years, we have signaled the beginning of symposium with the Doxology. This offers a little flexibility as some mornings we may begin at 9 and others closer to 9:30. When the music plays, everyone makes their way to the living room. Following the Doxology we have prayer, catechism, poetry, hymn, scripture, history timeline, and then rotate through one of either geography, artist study, composer study, Shakespeare, science, or nature study. I don’t assign a topic to a day of the week in case we happen to have an outing, doctor visit, or something that keeps us from symposium that day. By looping our schedule, we just do the next one at the next symposium.

Consistency and flexibility have allowed this time to develop into a rich experience and deeper relationships.

During the summer months I work on our symposium notebook pulling from various resources and compile it into a pdf and send it off to be printed and spiral bound. Each child then has his own book to make notes, drawings, and refer to during our time together.

I love this part of our day. We have had the best discussions over the years and learned so much about each other and God's amazing world.

Poetry Resources