1. Explore everything you are being taught in church and see if it is correct. You may be able to explode some myths. One myth going around in many churches is "catechisms are bad." Collect catechisms, read them, and see what you think. See the intelligent, systematic way that many of them are put together. Read the Westminster, Heidelberg, and others. Then read the introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism Study Guide by G.I. Williamson, which explains that a catechism is not equal to the Bible, but is to the Bible as an atlas is to the earth. Another example; some Protestant church members are told that "Catholics don't read their Bibles." This is a generality that is often untrue!

2. Read history and more history. Find out how it relates to everything else. Find books by authors who are not often mentioned by those in the classical education movement. Try The Creators or The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin. Try old books by Charlotte Yonge. I like her even better than Guerber.

3. Read the great books. Buy them cheap at a used bookstore. You don't have to read them all. Try a sampling from each historical era, or focus on an era that interests you. If you want to, skip over the part that bores you or that is full of untruths. If you can't skip it, write a page on why it bores you or how it is untrue. (I once wrote a paper on the parts that I disliked in Charlotte's Web — a good book, not a great book, I know. Though I had "bucked the establishment" in writing it, at least I read the book and felt better for having written the paper.) Take advantage of helps to the great books like the 10-volume Great Ideas Program by Adler and Wolff.

4. Read primary sources. They are far more interesting than a secondary source. Many are touchingly beautiful, such as the letters of Galileo's daughter to her father. Read Augustine, Calvin, William Bradford. Choose singular works or anthologies such as Viking Portable Readers (Roman Reader, Medieval Reader, Renaissance Reader, etc.)

5. Read a paragraph in parallel Latin / English once a day every day just for fun. Sources of parallel Latin/English are Loeb classics (Prudentius is cool); the Vulgate Bible from the web; and Comenius's Orbis Pictus, the first children's picture book, written in 1657.

6. Find an author that has taught you well, look for a lesser known work by him or her, and you will often be pleased. Richard Weaver, author of Ideas Have Consequences, also wrote an excellent rhetoric text, A Rhetoric and Composition Handbook. Dorothy Sayers, author of the well-loved essay, "The Lost Tools of Learning," wrote many other essays you may enjoy, including "Creed or Chaos."

7. Listen to classical music on public radio or audio tapes from the public library. Try to learn names of pieces and composers. (If you can't take up an instrument, make your child do it.) Going to Suzuki violin lessons is wonderful! (Well, maybe after the second month!)

8. Study the history of education. Read primary sources by teachers from hundreds of years ago. Comenius was arguably the best educator of 400 years ago. Classical educators now sometimes want to focus totally on Latin and language in the early years. It is very interesting reading his writings telling of the extreme problems of education back when they did have this as the main focus.

9. Practice writing and speaking with clarity.

10. Don't listen to everything that the experts tell you. After all, you are being classically educated and you can now think for yourself.

11. Although reading is the "main" thing, don't forget people and experiences. Along with memorizing that poem or Bible passage this week, try memorizing the parents' names on your child's ball team.

12. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; love your neighbor as yourself; and buy lots of bookshelves.