Medieval History Curriculum for the Rhetoric Stage

notesfromtheparsonage — Sat, 28 Aug 2021 18:01:11 +0000

I put together a Medieval History Curriculum for the Rhetoric Stage for my kids’ school year. This isn’t just for history– but also includes literature, science, Bible, logic, math, and other key subjects.

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:

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.

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