This school year, we’re going back to me fully planning the year. My home education ideals fall somewhere between Classical and Charlotte Mason. We’ve fully done both, and find that a mix between the two works best for us. I rely heavily on real books, but we don’t rely heavily on narration.

I wanted to share my plans with you because I know this isn’t something everyone likes to do. I know a lot of homeschool moms aren’t comfortable crafting an entire curriculum, or they don’t have the time or energy to do so. It just isn’t everyone’s “thing”. It is my “thing”, so I figured I’d share it, since I have it.

This year, we’re cycling back to Ancient History, which I am very excited about. We’ll have kids in all Classical stages and all Charlotte Mason forms. Essentially, I’ll have kids from elementary school to high school, so the plans for this year are for all grades. For simplicity’s sake, I’ve broken down the curriculum into four posts: Morning Basket, Grammar Stage, Logic Stage, and Rhetoric Stage.

Stages are not a one size fits all. You may notice the Logic Stage plans are too easy for your 8th grader, and you want to challenge them in certain areas. Go for it. You may think the Rhetoric assignments are too difficult for your 9th grade, bump them down in whatever subjects you choose or all of it. Swap out the books you don’t want for ones you do want. There are plenty of options out there, I’m just sharing with you what we’ll be doing.

You may notice I include some books that pure Charlotte Mason enthusiasts would consider twaddle. I try to include plenty of difficult great books for my kids to consume, but also know that I personally read twaddle from time to time for my own enjoyment. I’m just not opposed to letting kids read “fun” books (we’ll call them that instead of twaddle) to give them a break from the intense mental load of some great books. If you don’t like a book choice of mine, cool, don’t use it.

I’m simply putting this out there for anyone who wants to take a peek. Use it for your own curriculum. Use it for ideas to craft your own curriculum. Use it to look over and see options that exist. I’m just sharing.

The post Godbold Academy 2020-2021 Curriculum appeared first on Notes From the Parsonage.

The Rhetoric Stage is roughly high school. These students should be completely independent. Though, I do still include mine in Morning Basket, and choose at least one subject each year to do with them– not because they cannot do it on their own, but just to connect.

Bible/ Apologetics Curriculum

For Bible, all my kids who can read use the SOAP method of Bible study to do personal Bible reading each day. They keep this in a notebook. They choose whatever book of the Bible they want to read.

This year, I put together an Apologetics Course for my rhetoric stage students. Each book they read has a student guide that I created. We also have weekly discussion sessions to talk about what they are learning. The books they’ll be reading for Apologetics are:

On Guard

Mere Christianity

The Case for Christ

The Story of Reality

Can Science Explain Everything?

True for You, But Not for Me

A Student’s Guide to Culture

Medieval History Curriculum

For history, they’ll be using The History of the Medieval World as their spine. A spine is simply the book that they slowly throughout the year to keep their “timeline” moving. All other books are stacked and scheduled around this “spine”. They’ll be outlining each chapter as they read. They’re also reading The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England.

Medieval Literature Curriculum

For literature, they have quite a heavy load to read. (Which is why I went a little lighter in the history section.) I have them keep notes as they read so they can use them to write a book summary when they finish a book. There are a couple books where we’ll be using the Canon Press Worldview Guide as they read. I also had a hard time deciding on a version of Beowulf. If you want to see my side by side comparison of three versions, check out my Instagram story titled “Compare Beowulf”.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The Once and Future King

Pearl

Sir Orfeo

Beowulf

Hamlet (with Canon Press Worldview Guide)

The Canterbury Tales

The Three Musketeers

Don Quixote

Macbeth (with Canon Press Worldview Guide)

Romeo and Juliet

The Prince

Grammar and Writing Curriculum

For grammar, these students are actually using Rudiments of Anglo-Saxon. It is a guide for understanding and translating old English.

For writing, they’ll be using The Creative Writer, Volume 2 per their request. And they’re also reading Wordsmithy.

I noticed their handwriting has been slipping, so I’m having them do copywork into a handwriting notebook two days each week. They can copy something they have read, Scripture, or their memory work. They can choose print or cursive, just so long as they write neatly and cleanly. I’m not going to harass them about their handwriting outside of this notebook.

Biology Curriculum

For science, they’re using The Riot and The Dance including the labs. They’ll also be reading On the Origin of Species with the Canon Press Worldview Guide. They’re very excited about this class.

Character Curriculum

For character, they’ll be reading Confessions and Ivanhoe.

Logic Curriculum

I was going to replace logic with apologetics this year, but one of my rhetoric students revolted at that idea. So, they’ll be doing Canon Press’s Introductory Logic this year.

Foreign Languages Curriculum

For languages, they’ll be using Rosetta Stone for the language of their choice 4 days per week.

Math Curriculum

For math, they use Life of Fred. They’ve also been enjoying watching some Khan Academy videos, so they’ll do that, as well. This year, they’ll both be using Advanced Algebra.

For math, I always recommend that others stick with what is working for them. Math is so personal with what works for one kid might not work for another. And kids tend to get used to how their math is laid out, so changing curriculum can be quite a set back for them. So if it works, keep with it.

Other Notes From the Parsonage Posts You Might Enjoy

• Medieval History Curriculum for Grammar Stage Students
• Medieval History Curriculum for Logic Stage Students
• Medieval History Morning Basket Curriculum
• Ancient History Curriculum for Rhetoric Stage Students

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The post Medieval History Curriculum for the Rhetoric Stage appeared first on Notes From the Parsonage.

The rhetoric stage is essentially the high school stage. This level bumps up in difficulty quite a bit, as students are able to handle deeper and more difficult books. I expect my rhetoric students to be fully independent, except they do join us for Morning Basket. I keep all my kids running along the same history timeline, though they may be at a slightly different pace and very different difficulty levels. I give my rhetoric students a checklist of work for the week and they are responsible for doing it and checking it off. I usually check their work only weekly, though we do discuss their readings over dinner daily.

Bible

The Bible Among the Myths (1 chapter per week; weeks 1-11)

The Epic of Eden (1 chapter per week; weeks 13-23)

The Epic of Eden Small Group Study (daily reading plus weekly video and discussion; weeks 25-36)

History

The History of the Ancient World (1-3 days per week; weeks 1-31)(Keep a list of important people and dates in history notebook)

The Iliad with Memoria Press Student Guide (weeks 1-24)

The Odyssey with Memoria Press Student Guide (weeks 25-36)

The Epic of Gilgamesh (weeks 25-36)

Science

Nature Study: The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling (weeks 1-36)

General Science 2: Survey of Geology and Archaeology (weeks 1-36)

Language Arts

Grammar: 180 Daily Teaching Lessons for grade level (5 days/week; weeks 1-36)

Writing: The Creative Writer (weeks 1-36)

Literature

Till We Have Faces (weeks 1-6)

The Lightening Thief (weeks 1-17)

The Hobbit with Memoria Press Study Guide (weeks 7-11)

The Lord of the Rings (weeks 13-30)

The Sea of Monsters (weeks 18-30)

The Titan’s Curse (weeks 30-34)

Logic

Introduction to Logic (weeks 1-36)

Languages

Latin: Canon Press Latin Primer (weeks 1-36)

French: Rosetta Stone French (2-3 days/week; weeks 1-36)

Math

Life of Fred at level

Character

Plutarch Lives, Volume 1 (2 days/week; weeks 1-21)

Plutarch Lives, Volume 2 (2 days/week; weeks 21-35)

I keep everything planned out as seen above for each week.

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I encourage you, don’t feel like you have to buy all your school books new! Check out ThriftBooks.com for some great deals on used books. (That link is my referral link!) Also, check out Scribd, which is like Netflix for ebooks and audiobooks. (That link is my referral link!) There are so many great books available through both that will save you money. Also, remember to check your library. Libby is a great app that many library systems use where you can get ebooks and audiobooks through your local library. Of course, you can also max out your library card checking out great books, as well.

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