Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

by Cheryl Swope

This revolutionary book guides parents, teachers, and schools in implementing the beauty of a classical education with all children, including those with special needs. This second edition provides updated resources, more strategies, streamlined prose, an extra chapter, an enhanced appendix, and new stories to delight, encourage, and inform the reader.
 

Genres: Christian, Education

303 pages, Paperback

Published September 30, 2019

About the author

Cheryl Swope, M.Ed. has home-schooled her 18-year-old adopted special-needs twins from their infancy with classical Christian education. She holds a lifetime K-12 state teaching certificate in the areas of Behavior Disorders and Learning Disabilities. She has worked with special-needs children, youth, and adults for over thirty years.

Reviews

[Leah Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

BIG recommend to homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers alike. Have a difficult child? A child with any range of disabilities or diagnoses? THIS is the book for you. One I hope to have more copies of in the office to give to parents.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting a lot when I bought this book. After all, I am already using the classical education model, and my child's special needs are really quite mild.

How very wrong my expectations were. There is simply SO MUCH good information in this book.

The discussion of classical education was fantastic. There was enough theory to fully explain the concept, and enough practical information to keep it from getting too heavy. Best of all, it stayed true to the book's title and was 'simply' explained. I have read much longer treatises on classical education that didn't cut to the heart of the matter nearly as well as this book did.

There was good information in here for homeschool parents with children of any ability. The concept of "assessing where your child is at" makes sense for ANY child. Work at an inappropriate level will frustrate both the student and teacher. Similarly for all of the teaching and learning strategies, which were very helpfully divided into age groups for ease of reference. Also, possibly my favorite part, a short 3-page list tucked away in the appendix on "How to improve attention, behavior, and manners" is full of practical and gentle ways to encourage children to do better, many of which are applicable to all children.

That little list is only possibly my favorite part, because it has stiff competition from the contents of the rest of the appendix, which is chock-full of resources about various special needs and learning disabilities, classical education, and curriculum resources. What better way to improve an already great book, than by referring you to even more great books?

Highly recommended to anyone interested in classical education, homeschool parents, parents of children with special needs, be they mild or severe, or anyone who wants to read a gentle and encouraging story of the benefits of classical Christian education for all children.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about homeschooling children with special needs in a traditional classical education . . . it has some useful resources and ideas, but it is almost obnoxiously Christian, and with that comes some baggage (like the repeated references like "maybe your husband can do some lessons" - um, in my family, I, the husband, do the main homeschooling, but I DO "let" my wife do some lessons). So, sexist, and occasionally ableist despite fairly progressive views of special needs. I guess I'm trying to say that I wish there were a more secular version of this book . . .

[Colette · Rating 5 out of 5]

So great, helpful, inspiring, practical. I don’t have a special needs child, but I found great wisdom and practical advice in every chapter. This is a wonderful treatise on Christian classical education. I will revisit this often. I underlined so much.

[Philip Schaffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swope does a wonderful job of interweaving the personal story of her children with an expostion and defense of classical Christian education. Her references to other works are an excellent resource for all educators and parents.

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended by a few moms in the Schole Sisterhood when I was asking questions about homeschooling my ASD ADHD child. The book is full of encouragement and modifications that I can use with my son to give him a worthy education, whether or not we switch to a classical approach.