[ High School and Self-Education Board ]
Posted by kate in seattle on 16:57 May 10
In Reply to: Jeff Baldwin's TheGreatBooks.com program: anyone using this yet?...(m) posted by StaceyL in Canada
first answers, i will probably have more later.
it sounds as if it is really set up (the way he lays it out)for a class room situation. He says the ideal is 12 students. (in the iron sharpens iron essay)
Have you looked at the free discussion guide on the web - i thought answers were provided!! you don't have to 'know' what the answers are supposed to be.
i would keep all my children 'on the same page' because where else would those discussions come from? (boy 1 - gr 12, boy 2- gr 9 and boy 3 -gr. 7 next year?) there are great 'logic' level books for the gr. 7 so he could talk about a lot of the same stuff as boy 1 & 2 (theme, plot, character, don't change much between rhetoric version and logic version of texts)
so do a 1-year "history of the novel/great books/worldview" course with all 3 of them next year, choosing slightly easier texts for 7th grader if needed and plan on some great FAMILY discussions. I loved that I was reading all the same works as my two oldest this year. Granted, we did a lot of our discussing during 'class' (at the dreaded co-op - but we love ours)but we did some at home as well.
Have you thought about what books you might want to do next year?
As for jumping in out of sequence, I have that situation all the time at co-op. Do they miss out some? Yes, but they miss out on some even if they went through it in order because thye are not old enough to really appreciate it. And look at the thousands of history majors and lit majors who love their subject who were never taught it chronologically.
off to grade more papers
(my LEAST favorite thing about co-op)
kate