1) Becoming well educated doesn't mean getting something out of the way in four years; it means learning how to learn for the rest of your life. It means learning a habit of mind. You won't be well educated in four years, but in ten you'll be way down the road, and in twenty, you'll be a wholly different person than you are now in your mental capacity and understanding. So don't worry about how long it'll take. Finishing isn't the goal. The goal is getting started now, and then becoming a permanent student of history, of books, of Scripture, of learning.

2) Since the above is true, what you begin with isn't as critical as you might think. As C. S. Lewis said of English literature, any part of it eventually leads to the rest anyway. Don't be too worried about the order in which you read or learn things. It's better to shift to areas or books that interest you more, than to keep plodding along in something that's going to ruin your desire to learn. Find a list of great books (see #4 below) and begin reading. Skip around. Don't worry about trying to read them in order unless you are the kind of person who can make yourself stick with that method. If you're not, don't fight it; jump ahead for awhile. 

3) The best education is one based on "primary sources", not secondary ones, so read the old books. I *strongly* suggest you find, first of all, a copy of C. S. Lewis's book God in the Dock: Essays in Theology and Ethics and read the essay in it called "On the Reading of Old Books". This is a wonderful essay about the value of old books, the original books, as opposed to modern ones *about* the old ones. In other words, he argues, we should read Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, or Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War or John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress or even Winston Churchill's History of the English-Speaking People, instead of reading condensed versions or modern retellings or modern (Heaven help us!) history textbooks. One very important reason for doing this is that you are trying to learn how to feed yourself and avoid being spoon-fed by someone else. 

4) Find a copy of Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book. Read the introduction; read the last chapter; look at his list of the world's greatest books that everybody should read, etc. Read the whole book carefully. It's the best book I know for learning how to *really* read books critically to learn from them. They should use this book in high schools and colleges, but they don't. More's the pity. Another book in the same vein (a bit shorter, a bit easier to tackle) written by a Christian is James W. Sire's How to Read Slowly. This book focuses on how to read different kinds of books and how to determine the worldview underlying a book. 

5) As you pursue your own reading education, read a wide variety of things: read histories, novels, poetry (lots of poetry! and read it aloud!), essays, plays, biographies, short stories, theology, philosophy, science, etc. Some areas you'll find you love--read more there. Other areas you won't like so much--don't worry; read what you find valuable, it'll still be beneficial, but don't kill your love of learning by dragging yourself through what you hate. You have to learn to find the line between self-discipline in studying what you know is valuable even though you don't enjoy it (you teach your child this, too!), and unprofitable self-torture. 

6) Let the books you read be your guide to other books. For instance, if you read C. S. Lewis's Surprised by Joy, you will run across many titles which he mentions that you will want to read. As you read them, they will mention books you will want to read, as so on. This will obviously take you *backward* in history, and that's all to the good. 

* Read "Classical Education and the Homeschool" by Doug Wilson, Doug Jones, and Wes Callihan. It explains and describes briefly but practically what classical Christian education is and how to approach it. 

Wes Callihan has a B.A. in History from the University of Idaho and has taught literature, history, and languages at Logos School, the University of Idaho, New St. Andrews College, and Veritas Academy. He currently runs Schola Classical tutorials and teaches summer Latin-in-a-Week courses. Wes and his wife, Dani, have six children and live in an old farmhouse in the northern Idaho. You can contact Wes at: www.schola-tutorials.com.