The school year is almost over for many of you. Some of you have children in school and you are thinking about homeschooling them next year. Some of you may be worn out from homeschooling and you are thinking, “If only I could take a year off.” Some of you cannot wait to start Cycle 1 or the next level of Challenge! Wherever you stand today, this summer we have the event for you—Three-Day Parent Practicums!
Practicum is the Latin word from which we derive the word “practice” and it is defined by thefreedictionary.com as:
A school or college course, especially one in a specialized field of study that is designed to give students supervised practical application of previously studied theory.
This year’s subject for our Parent Practicums is Latin—your favorite subject! Don’t worry. We have secretly been teaching you Latin every summer, so if this is not your favorite subject you may be surprised by how much Latin you already know. Practicing Latin this summer will really help you during the upcoming school year, and the opportunity to meet with old friends and make new ones will reinvigorate you during your summer break.
Whether you are new to homeschooling or you have been at it for a while you are likely to have heard from some source that you are not qualified to homeschool. This summer I was speaking with a college professor, who is in Classical Conversations, and he said that after homeschooling, you (the parent) have more experience and are better prepared to be teachers than most college professors he knows. So the next time you see a college professor you might ask what he or she thinks qualifies him or her to teach your children! The summer Practicum is a way to strengthen your homeschooling—“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17 (NIV).
God bless you!