Meet Diane Lockman, home school mom and author of Trivium Mastery: The Intersection of Three Roads, and  hear what she has to say about her provocative new book on authentic classical home education:

Trivium Mastery: The Intersection of Three Roads represents a new way of thinking about an old idea: classical Christian education. An authentic classical education does not look like the twelve year, public-school paradigm nor does it look like the three “stages” that some people call classical education. Instead, a true classical education can be reduced to concurrently teaching three primary skills to substantial mastery: language, thought, and speech. Homeschool parents can teach these skills in a variety of ways. Trivium Mastery frees the parent to tailor the curriculum to each child.

Trivium Mastery:  The Intersection of Three Roads

How to Give Your Child an Authentic Classical Home Education

by Diane B. Lockman

Outskirts Press, paperback, 312 pp., retail $21.95, ISBN 1432733281

* * * * *

Excerpt:  “Three Roads to Recovery”

In Part One, “A Missing Inheritance,” I discuss potential ways to teach the three skills and provide my personal “Road Maps to Mastery” to show the parent what milestones I look for in my own child’s progress. At the end of Part One, I set the stage for the post-trivium “high school” years where an ongoing dialogue between teen and parent or mentor drives instruction on a deeper level and moves the teen towards supervised independent study.

“Trivium Mastery is the clearest, most useful explanation of the huge thing called ‘classical education’ I have yet seen.”

Balanced, complete, and inspiring, it will be helpful for those new to the idea as well as those already familiar with the classical model. Diane Lockman has distilled what can often be complex and overwhelming into a truly applicable compendium of concepts for teaching and learning in the most effective way. Highly recommended.

~ Andrew Pudewa, Founder, Institute for Excellence in Writing

Part Two, “Twelve Classical Makeovers,” was particularly rewarding to develop. Through live interviews and skills assessments, I created strategic semester plans for twelve homeschool kids between the ages of 5 and 13. These makeovers represent how I would transition each child to an authentic classical education if I were their parent. Many of my blog readers write and say they love my ideas but want to know how to implement them. “Twelve Classical Makeovers” is my attempt to show homeschool parents exactly how to adopt an authentic classical home education one semester at a time.

“Trivium Mastery is an excellent introduction and guide to one of the most popular styles of homeschooling.”

Diane Lockman has done her homework and cares deeply about classical homeschooling. A recommended read.

~Rebecca Kochenderfer, Senior Editor and Co-Founder, Homeschool.com

Finally, the appendix includes the same interview questions that my case study families completed as well as several assessment tools to refresh the parent’s memory on the fundamentals of teaching the three skills.  You can use the tools in the appendix to craft your own classical makeover.  Like my family, you can recover your classical inheritance.  What are you waiting for?

P.S. Trivium Mastery: The Intersection of Three Roads was recently added to amazon.com’s “Hot New Picks” in the Family-Education category. So far, the feedback that I’m getting from early readers is very encouraging. Check out the 5 star reviews written by readers!

P.P.S.  Looking for other excellent books to use in your classical homeschool?  Visit The Classical Scholar Book Store for my favorites by age group.