Next Year: The Plan

Heeding the advice of Tracy Lee Simmons, next year marks a concerted effort to pare down studies and become more Latin-based as described in Climbing Parnassus. It’s pretty basic:

SARABELLE(8th GRADE)

Henle Latin I
Saxon Algebra 1/2

GRACIE(5th GRADE)

Latina Christiana II
Saxon 5/4

BOTH

Classical Writing – Aesop
Classical Writing – Homer with
Harvey’s Elementary Grammar and Composition and
Traditional Logic I

READING

Gilgamesh -- Ferry, David

DK Illustrated Family Bible -- Costecalde et al

Modern Rhymes About Ancient Times: Ancient Egypt -- Altman, Susan
Pyramid -- Macauley, David
Tales of Ancient Egypt -- Green, Roger Lancelyn
The Cat of Bubastes -- Henty, G.A.

Ancient Greece -- DK Eyewitness
Archimedes and the Door to Science -- Bendick, Joanne
A Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls -- Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Book of Greek Myths -- D'Aulaire, Ingri and Edgar
Famous Monuments Past and Present: Ancient Greece -- Behor, G.
Famous Men of Greece -- Poland and Haaren
Lysistrata -- Aristophanes/Dover Thrift
Modern Rhymes About Ancient Times: Ancient Greece -- Altman, Susan
Nine Greek Lives Vol.1 -- Plutarch/Scott-Kilvert, Ian
Tales of the Greek Heroes -- Green, Roger Lancelyn
Tanglewood Tales -- Hawthorne, Nathaniel
The Best Things in Life -- Kreeft, Peter
The Histories -- Herodotus/Marincola
The Iliad -- Homer/Fagles, Robert
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth -- Lasky, Cathryn
The Odyssey -- Homer/Fagles, Robert
The Oresteia: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides -- Aeschylus/Fagles, Robert
The Three Theban Plays (Oedipus and Antigone) -- Sophocles/Fagles, Robert
The Trial and Death of Socrates -- Plato/Dover Thrift
Till We Have Faces -- Lewis, C.S.


Most of the reading list has been compiled from Veritas Press’s 2, 3, and 7 (Omnibus) levels. The addition of Lysistrata is my idea, you probably won’t find it on any other children’s reading list, but what a fun way to teach my little pacifists to make love, not war. Looking at their Omnibus program, I am very tempted to order the Student Text w/Teacher CD-ROM, since I will be using most of their primary and many of their secondary books anyway. I would definitely be more comfortable with some sort of guide to lead me through many of these selections -- I’m sure you can guess which ones, right? If I can get them all in one place, instead of buying nearly a dozen Cliff Notes, it’s worth it to me. It would also be used the following year for studying the Romans as many of those books are on my list too. While Trinitarian thinking is not necessarily at the center of my thinking, I can appreciate having someone more knowledgeable in that department take me through the Bible as a historical and literary resource. Okay, I’ve justified it to myself now. That was easy.

We're not ready yet for the hardcore handful of Greek classics gone over with a fine tooth comb. Instead, the plan is to read broadly from well-written translations and historical fiction along with general background information. How these books will be used, whether read aloud or assigned to one child or the other or both will be figured out as we go through them.

Taking a cue from A Thomas Jefferson Education, we will be using the mentor approach where we all read and discuss the material and the didactic form of teaching with The Teaching Company’s DVD series of lectures on Ancient Greek Civilization. The girls will also keep a Commonplace Book to recap their daily lessons in.

Both girls will keep timelines, Sarabelle continuing hers from years past and Gracie just starting out. They may only be considered busywork, but they're great visuals.

A classical education, it's not all Greek to me.