Looking forward to your next post.
Jennefer

The trivium works with all learning styles, as a teacher you just adapt to what would work best for your child. For example in memorizing a poem:

Hands-On: You could put 2 lines of the poem on paper strips, present the poem as a whole to read and then hand your child the first strip of two lines to memorize. You can challenge your child to put the strips in sequence as well.

Visual: Allow your child to illustrate the poem on the first day of exposure. This really helped my daughter in first grade. It is a way for the child to internalize and “own” the poem. It is also a great stepping stone for discussing the content of the poem.

Auditory: It is already set up for auditory learners, grin.

The trivium itself is an organization tool of what to teach and expect from your child based on their natural learning cycle. There are plenty of special needs classical homeschoolers, a framework doesn’t dictate how to teach your child, it should give you the freedom to use whatever works for each individual child.

There is a Special Needs message board at The Well-Trained Mind website where much more experienced homeschoolers could help anyone get started in applying classical approaches to your homeschool. I haven’t traveled into the Special Needs or Accelerated world of homeschooling since it doesn’t apply to our situation. I do hope this helps.

Jessica

What are the key ideas that are worthwhile to memorize? In U.S. History: the Presidents, the thirteen colonies, selections of our primary documents such as The Declaration of Independence, The U.S. Constitution, etc.

Look at your child’s current studies and you can determine quite easily what is important for memorization. If you have difficulty with any subject, feel free to email me and I’ll brainstorm with you.

For Poetry:

The Harp & Laurel Wreath offers poetry selections for K-12, it is an amazing resource. Berquist’s book also contains speeches and excerpts from great literature as well.

Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization (Book and Audio CD) By: Andrew Pudewa is another fabulous and widely used resource, there are online samples at ChristianBook.com. I do not know if Pudewa’s product is K-12 like The Harp & Laurel Wreath though.

I hope this helps,
Jessica

Thanks,
Sallie

Im so glad you are here! You are such a wealth of information and encouragement!

Lisa