Biblioplan for Families

    Biblioplan for Families was designed by a group of home school moms from Charlottesville who wanted the classical way of doing history that we recommend in The Well-Trained Mind spelled out in a 36-week plan.  The shrink-wrapped pack of paper is punched so that you can put it into a three-ring notebook.   Biblioplan is designed for families with children up to age twelve, and is Christian in orientation.
    The Biblioplan begins with a scheduled book list for the entire year.   This is a "library or shopping list" -- the authors suggest sources for buying the recommended books, but also note that you can check them out of your local library.  The recommended book list contains a total (for all grades) of 107 books.  A second list contains "optional books," primarily historical novels that can be used as literature supplements to the historical reading.  Each section is preceded by an annotated bibliography that lists the required and recommended books and describes them in detail.
    For each week's study, Biblioplan offers three class periods (assuming that you'll be following the WTM suggestion of doing history three times per week).  For each, the parent is given a weekly topic, a classtime reading assignment, a choice of three literature assignments (keyed to grades K- 2, 3+, and 5+), a family read-aloud assignment, a map/timeline assignment, optial writing ideas, optional additional resources, and optional additional fiction readings.  For example, Week 20 (the fourth of six weeks schedule for the study of Ancient Greece) offers the following plan (all books referenced are described in full in the annotated bibliographies):

ADDED June 4, 2001: Updated scans of actual Biblioplan pages!

Weekly Topic: Sparta and Athens: The Persian Wars (590-479 BC)
 
 

CLASSTIME	Cultural Atlas, pp. 22-25 (Sparta, Athens, and Democracy) Kingfisher, 1993 ed., pp. 77-79 or Kingfisher, 1999 edition, pp. 49-51 (Timeline of the classical world) Greek/Roman Civilizations pp. 11-13 (Lycurgus and Sparta)	Cultural Atlas, p. 26-30 (Persian Wars, Triremes, Hoplites) Kingfisher, 1993 ed., p. 80-83 or Kingfisher, 1999 edition, p. 52-53  (Overview, Persian Wars, Other) Greek/Roman Civilizations, p. 14-16 (Athens and Democracy)	Usborne Book of World History, p. 67 (The Greeks at War) Kingfisher 1993 ed., p. 84-85, 138-139 or   Kingfisher, 1999 ed., p. 54-55 (Athens and Sparta)   Greek/Roman Civilizations, p. 17-20 (Persian Wars)
Readers, K-2	The Aesop for Children (selected fables as you wish)
Readers, 3+	The Aesop for Children (selected fables as you wish)
Readers, 5+	The Lion in the Gateway, p. 44-85	The Lion in the Gateway, p. 86-109	The Lion in the Gateway, p. 110-finish
Family Read Aloud	Wanderings of Odysseus, p. 1-62
Map/Timeline	Locate Athens, Sparta		490 BC - Battle of Marathon 480 BC - Naval Battle Salamis 479 BC - Defeat of Persians
Writing Ideas	K-2 Copywork: Morals at the end of selected fables	3+: Which fable could you retell with modern characters and plot?	5+: Mini-report on Athens, Sparta, or the Persian Wars.
Optional Additional Resources	Optional Additional Resources: See Week 1 of Greece [ which lists Oxford First Ancient History, Ancient Greece: Nature Co. Discov.,  Greenleaf Famous Men of Greece Footsteps in Time (Activity Ideas)
Optional Additional Fiction	The Greek News (Powell)  D'Aulaire's -- More myths of your choice.

The Biblioplan for Families is a valuable resource for parents who want a more detailed plan than we offer in The Well-Trained Mind.  Remember -- as you should when using all step-by-step curricula guides -- that you should not feel bound to the suggestions in the Biblioplan; you should feel free to modify or skip any assignments that don't suit your family.   The writing assignments are interesting, but should be considered optional; they are not intended to replace a regular writing program.  You may want to supplement the literature assignments, which are fairly minimal, but working through the readings laid out in Biblioplan will provide younger students a good grasp of basic ancient history.

UPDATE ON 2/26/02: YEAR TWO IS AVAILABLE (MEDIEVAL/RENAISSANCE).  YEAR THREE (LATE RENAISSANCE/EARLY MODERN) WILL BE AVAILABLE IN MAY 2002.