"lazy genius"-ing classical education at home (with lots of links!)

Y'all, I am basically at heart a pretty lazy person. I work hard at my routines and schedules to make life easier for myself overall - less decision fatigue, less last-minute rushing, etc. I do prefer the term "efficient" because it makes me sound smarter, but there, I've let you in on my secret.

There is a blog or something out there called Lazy Genius, and I think this phrase sums up how I take on projects and life in general. So today I'll show you how I apply that to homeschooling. (skip to the last paragraph to get the basic idea)

We are members of a classical, Christian community of home educators called Classical Conversations ("CC"). I love the concept of classical education - which, in a very basic nutshell, is teaching to the child's developmental level, beginning with memorization, then learning about what they've memorized, then using and explaining what they've learned - and that it incorporates beautiful, virtuous subjects, such as classical music, great artists, rich history, and so much more. I also employ some Charlotte Mason techniques. I want baby to have a full, vibrant, rich education, without it being too much work on my part.

So what exactly does that look like for us?

We begin our day with a read aloud at breakfast. I found several of mine and my brother's chapter books from probably middle and early high school, so right now we are working our way through those (what you already have on hand = free!). Jake is usually still with us at this time of day, so he listens in, and as he finishes eating he leads us in a short family devotional time (currently using this great, easy, quick, thorough book).

Then baby and I will sing a hymn. Every month we begin a new one, and each week we add another verse, so that we begin with learning the first verse and end the month having learned the entire hymn. We actually don't even really sing hymns at our church, but the language and music is so beautiful, and the words so meaningful, that it's important to me that he learn them. For fine arts,
we lightly study one composer and one artist at a time, basically having music and art in the background of our day. Piano practice also counts as fine arts. And we do one art lesson per week from Art Is Fundamental - so very helpful for me, the non-artist in the family.

For math we use Saxon, which I know some find to be dry, but the teacher book literally tells me every word I need to say. If it's a concept I know he already knows, I'll skip the teaching part and just give him the drill sheet and worksheet and call it a day.

For language arts, I use a free downloadable curriculum from The Good and the Beautiful and I'll be honest, it feels like a lot. So sometimes we skip it :) Or I pick and choose what I personally want to learn and just teach him that. I have and LOVE the Moore-McGuffey readers. The first one roughly corresponds to 1st and 2nd grades, and the second one to 3rd-5th grades. These contain short stories that usually contain some sort of moral lesson. Baby likes the length, I like the beautiful language, and bada bing bada boom, reading is done. Our language arts curriculum also encourages poetry memorization so sometimes we work on that. Spelling Plus is the spelling curriculum I use, in addition to reviewing sight words included in our language arts curriculum. And lastly, for penmanship, we use a combination of resources from Simply Charlotte Mason and Classical Conversations.

For history I use documentaries or read from Story of the World or Mystery of History and for science we use documentaries, all corresponding to what we are learning in our weekly CC community meeting. For geography I have baby trace a particular map outline for several weeks, then add in boundary lines within the outline and trace that map for several weeks, then spend several weeks practicing drawing the map free hand and labeling it. Geography is only once per week. Also once a week he practices a typing lesson purchased from The Good and the Beautiful, and PE/health.

Now for the "lazy genius" part: sometimes I just do the bare minimum - review our CC memory work and show a few documentaries. At the end of each week, I prepare for the next week by putting all of the independent work he will have for a particular day into one sheet protector. I have sheet protectors labeled for each day of the week, and have them all on one of metal those opening loop thingies (you could maybe use a keychain?). On hard (for me) days, I'll hand baby the day's work, tell him to practice piano for 20 minutes and pick a chore to do, and that's it. We can always go back and review if needed. I'm not going to ruin him. It'll be ok.

Are you a lazy genius? Have any tips for making homeschooling easier? How was your summer??