asta
03-28-2009, 03:04 PM
Hi all. I posted this over at the Yahoo LCC group, but it's kind of slow for High School over there..
As we're winding to the end of 9th grade, kiddo has *finally* admitted that he preferred how I set up 8th grade (I used Gombrich's "A Little History of the World" as a jumping off point to research the different aspects of history from myriad sources that I came up with, plus a math program, science, and Analytical Grammar). I was essentially doing TRISMS "History Makers", but, as always, it was my own spin.
We're currently doing TRISMS Expansion of Civilization. I love it. Kid does great with it. Only he doesn't like it the way he liked the "mom" version. This disconnect is leading to him dragging out finishing things. We had a long talk, and he is really feeling like he wants a more of less (Drew's Multum non Multa).
So - not wanting to blow the farm on a bunch of curricula that wouldn't fit him anyway, I pulled my copy of LCC back off the bookshelf for a re-read. He and I have decided to do a sort of truncated LCC; he already did Greece and Rome this year, albeit not as "in depth" as he would have with LCC. It is just as well, as actually slogging through the Iliad and the Odyssey would have killed him (the transition to HS has been a bit... bumpy and he thought the excerpts went on and on...).
Using Drew's "Adapting LCC: A Further Example", this is what we have come up with:
Catch up reading between 9th and 10th:
How to read a book - Adler
Bullfinch's Mythology - Bullfinch
Portable Greek Historians, excerpts - Finley
Historians of Ancient Rome, excerpts - Mellor
10th Grade:
History:
*The Story of Mankind - Van Loon (this will be his main text instead of A Short History of the World by Roberts, as Van Loon's style is more in keeping with kiddo's personality)
*Utopia - More; Leviathan - Hobbes; 2 Treaties of Gvt - Locke; Communist Manifesto - Marx
(one person on the LCC board mentioned that these works may be too heavy since he thought Homer was overwhelming - I just don't know - I've never read any of them)
Literature:
*Beowulf; Divine Comedy (Inferno) - Dante; Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
Composition:
*Classical Rhetoric - Cothran
Logic & Philosophy:
*Socratic Logic - Kreeft
(the same person pointed out that this may be too much. I don't know. He did fine with Kreeft's Catholic apologetic "Fundamentals of the Faith")
Mathematics:
*Algebra 2 - Systematic Mathematics
Science:
*Chemistry - Dickerson & Geis
Language:
*German (tutor)
Art/Music/Religion:
*The Story of Art - Gombrich; College of Piping - Scotland; Catechism of the Catholic Church + History
___________________________________
I think it looks great. For 10th grade. When I shift to 11th, however, I run into a problem: Composition. I know that Drew suggests "Classical Writing", but their stuff isn't even published yet, AND kiddo is really responding well to Andrew Pudewa's style in IEW.
We have the main program (TWSS), which is designed to adapt to whatever, but we have been using Trisms, which tells us which bit to use where. I admit that I am uneasy about *knowing* what bit to apply to what work. I am deathly afraid that my kid who has never enjoyed writing, but does well at it (which is why I'm so happy he likes IEW) is going to be the kid who can't come up with a literary analysis essay to save his life.
Now, he will start Wheelock's Latin in 11th, and he will be reading (in theory) Shakespeare, Milton and poetry for Lit. He will do de Toqueville along with Am History, and will have Plato for philosophy. Will it be *enough* to simply have him draw his composition lessons from the application of IEW to those works? When I look at the focus of CWs (eventual) 11th and 12th grade program, it just seems like it is so *completely* different.
FWIW, I have 12th written out as the second half of Wheelocks, 19th and 20th c. novels for Lit, and a combo platter of Declaration of Statesmanship, additional founding documents, and an econ program I already own. He will round out Philosophy with Aristotle.
Obviously, both 11th and 12th will have mathematics, science, and theology (though my version of theology is quite fluid and subject specific, so I will probably only give him one credit for theology for all of high school).
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
asta
As we're winding to the end of 9th grade, kiddo has *finally* admitted that he preferred how I set up 8th grade (I used Gombrich's "A Little History of the World" as a jumping off point to research the different aspects of history from myriad sources that I came up with, plus a math program, science, and Analytical Grammar). I was essentially doing TRISMS "History Makers", but, as always, it was my own spin.
We're currently doing TRISMS Expansion of Civilization. I love it. Kid does great with it. Only he doesn't like it the way he liked the "mom" version. This disconnect is leading to him dragging out finishing things. We had a long talk, and he is really feeling like he wants a more of less (Drew's Multum non Multa).
So - not wanting to blow the farm on a bunch of curricula that wouldn't fit him anyway, I pulled my copy of LCC back off the bookshelf for a re-read. He and I have decided to do a sort of truncated LCC; he already did Greece and Rome this year, albeit not as "in depth" as he would have with LCC. It is just as well, as actually slogging through the Iliad and the Odyssey would have killed him (the transition to HS has been a bit... bumpy and he thought the excerpts went on and on...).
Using Drew's "Adapting LCC: A Further Example", this is what we have come up with:
Catch up reading between 9th and 10th:
How to read a book - Adler
Bullfinch's Mythology - Bullfinch
Portable Greek Historians, excerpts - Finley
Historians of Ancient Rome, excerpts - Mellor
10th Grade:
History:
*The Story of Mankind - Van Loon (this will be his main text instead of A Short History of the World by Roberts, as Van Loon's style is more in keeping with kiddo's personality)
*Utopia - More; Leviathan - Hobbes; 2 Treaties of Gvt - Locke; Communist Manifesto - Marx
(one person on the LCC board mentioned that these works may be too heavy since he thought Homer was overwhelming - I just don't know - I've never read any of them)
Literature:
*Beowulf; Divine Comedy (Inferno) - Dante; Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
Composition:
*Classical Rhetoric - Cothran
Logic & Philosophy:
*Socratic Logic - Kreeft
(the same person pointed out that this may be too much. I don't know. He did fine with Kreeft's Catholic apologetic "Fundamentals of the Faith")
Mathematics:
*Algebra 2 - Systematic Mathematics
Science:
*Chemistry - Dickerson & Geis
Language:
*German (tutor)
Art/Music/Religion:
*The Story of Art - Gombrich; College of Piping - Scotland; Catechism of the Catholic Church + History
___________________________________
I think it looks great. For 10th grade. When I shift to 11th, however, I run into a problem: Composition. I know that Drew suggests "Classical Writing", but their stuff isn't even published yet, AND kiddo is really responding well to Andrew Pudewa's style in IEW.
We have the main program (TWSS), which is designed to adapt to whatever, but we have been using Trisms, which tells us which bit to use where. I admit that I am uneasy about *knowing* what bit to apply to what work. I am deathly afraid that my kid who has never enjoyed writing, but does well at it (which is why I'm so happy he likes IEW) is going to be the kid who can't come up with a literary analysis essay to save his life.
Now, he will start Wheelock's Latin in 11th, and he will be reading (in theory) Shakespeare, Milton and poetry for Lit. He will do de Toqueville along with Am History, and will have Plato for philosophy. Will it be *enough* to simply have him draw his composition lessons from the application of IEW to those works? When I look at the focus of CWs (eventual) 11th and 12th grade program, it just seems like it is so *completely* different.
FWIW, I have 12th written out as the second half of Wheelocks, 19th and 20th c. novels for Lit, and a combo platter of Declaration of Statesmanship, additional founding documents, and an econ program I already own. He will round out Philosophy with Aristotle.
Obviously, both 11th and 12th will have mathematics, science, and theology (though my version of theology is quite fluid and subject specific, so I will probably only give him one credit for theology for all of high school).
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
asta