The Nitty Gritty (Part 1)

I mentioned that I usually keep the kids on the same major topics, with my younger student following his big sister’s outline. And that’s how I usually begin my planning, too. I start by laying out what the older one will be doing, then look for resources and materials that parallel those subjects at a level appropriate for my son. History and literature are really the foundation of classical education in our “academy.” So, I thought I’d begin this series of posts about our 2006-07 academic year by describing my daughter’s history and literature curriculum plan.

Last year, the kids studied ancient civilizations (year 1 of The Well-Trained Mind history cycle). Therefore, this year they will move on to the middle ages and Renaissance. We’re planning to cover from about 400 to 1650 CE. My daughter’s “spines” for the year will be:

National Geographic Visual History of the World
The Middle Ages, by Morris Bishop
The Italian Renaissance, J.H. Plumb

She will also be reading from a wonderful book called The Mammoth Book of How It Happened: Eyewitness Accounts of Great Historical Moments from 2700 BC to the Present, which offers primary sources and eyewitness accounts of historical events.

She’ll be creating a record of her history studies using the History Scholar templates (the high school version) from History Scribe.

The backbone of her literature program for this year is a list of 14 “Great Books,” which she’ll read roughly in chronological order. We did a bit of rearranging for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, just because things seemed to flow better that way, we placed a book in order according to the time in which it was set, rather than when it was written. And there were a few pieces that we moved in order to have the reading coincide with some other event. For example, local theater companies are producing three of the Shakespearean plays on her list, and I wanted her to read each one right before seeing the live show.

With all of that said, here’s the list:

Le Morte D’Arthur (selections)
Koran (selections – We’re using the Dover “Selected Suras” version.)
Beowulf (the McNamara translation)
Tale of Genji, Lady Shikibu Murasaki
Arabian Nights (selections)
Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, Robert H. van Gulik
Mabinogion
King Lear
Canterbury Tales (selections)
Gawain and the Green Knight
Henry V
Richard III
Merry Wives of Windsor
Don Quixote

And we’re also planning on some more contemporary fiction and drama that relates to the era:

Anna of Byzantium, Tracy Barett
Lion in Winter, William Goldman
Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
Man for All Seasons, Robert Bolt
Anne of the Thousand Days, Maxwell Anderson
Nine Days a Queen, Anne Rinaldi

She has assorted short works on her list, including the “Gest of Robyn Hode” and selections from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain and Holinshed’s Historie of England.

I have a long list of videos and DVDs to watch from our local library and good old Netflix, including lots of documentaries and the film versions of some of the plays she’ll be reading. We’re also planning to watch episodes 15-30 of The Western Tradition series, available online at one of our favorite websites, www.learner.org.

It should keep her quite busy and engaged. I’ll admit this is one of my favorite historical periods, and I’m very much looking forward to sharing this with both kids.

Next time, I’ll outline my younger student’s plan and reading lists for the same topics.

As Good a Start as Any

Today seems as good a day as any to post my first official note here. We're a little more than a week away from the first day of our new academic year; the new desks are assembled and put in place; the bookcases are empty and waiting for us to fill the shelves with the books and curricula for this year; my lesson plans are (almost) complete . . .

So what do I want to say?

Well, several people have told me lately that it is a shame that my kids are the only ones who benefit from the work and planning I put into this homeschooling thing. And I've been encouraged to find some way to share whatever small amount of "wisdom" and experience I have with others.

Also, I know that I am always interested to see what other homeschoolers are doing and how they do it. Especially when I first got started, I found all those how-to books pretty unfulfilling: They seemed mostly to be long on inspiration and pep talks and general tips, but short on the kind of detail I really wanted.

So I've decided to share those details here.

In days to come, I'll start posting specifics about the books and resources my students will be using this year. For now, I'll start with the general outline.

We loosely follow the suggestions and framework from Susan Wise Bauer's book The Well-Trainined Mind, with a lot of adaptations and substitutions to fit our family's needs. I try to keep both kids working on the same general subjects and historical eras each year, with my younger student mirroring the older one's curriculum at his own level. This year's primary topics are:

Medieval and Renaissance History and Literature
Chemistry
Statistics
Logic and Rhetoric
Latin
Art History: Medieval and Renaissance
Drawing

My older student will also study German (her second year), Philosophy and Economics. My younger one is starting Spanish.

As you can see, we have a full year ahead of us! I hope you'll come back and check in now and then to see how we're doing.