Carolfoasia Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I'm new (kinda old, but renewed really). So, I am just jumping in here. I read The Well-Educated Mind when it was hot off the press. Beginning in October of 2003, I started the novels with a rhetoric partner and completed it about 1 1/2 year later. Then, we started the autobiographies, but suicide (father) and divorce sidelined her. Then, my son started a classical literature course with www.thelmaslibrary.com, and I have been reading The Well-Educated Mind books that correspond to what he is reading. So, I am not doing it by genre anymore, but I am doing it chronologically. So, in the last six months I have been reading through the ancients. It has been so fun to talk with my child about these books. He has become my rhetoric partner now. My goal is to get up to A Midsummer Nights Dream by July because I am going to see it on stage! What are you doing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plaid Dad Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I just did a post on my blog on this very topic! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 We're reading things aloud together and discussing them. I love having them for partners. It is more fun seeing what they think than it ever would be with someone else. My husband isn't reading the books with us, but we tell him all about them and discuss them. He helps me a lot. My children do a surprising amount of discussing with their friends, too, some of whom have read some of the books in school or on their own. And I have to say that my respect for their gymnastics coaches has deepened as I hear bits and pieces of their conversations with them. They are discussing their physics and math with friends, family, and coaches, and they complain about Latin, and their current coach will occasionally speak French with my youngest. I use my husband and the rest of my family for enthusiasm and help with our physics and math, too. -Nan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdie Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I am getting ready to start on grammar this summer. I am also hoping to read some British ckassics while working through Lightning Lit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielle Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 I like SWB's books very much, but I found the "genre" approach of the Well Educated Mind to be a bit confusing. I like chronological, or at least varied reading. Since dd decided she still wants to homeschool high school, I gave her the option of going with a more conventional reading approach--Brit lit, Am lit, etc. but no, she's a devoted WTM chronology approach after all these years, so we're going with the 4 year rotation again, and calling it (something) Civilization I-II-III-IV. Unfortunately, while I'm well versed on 19th & 20 th century brit & am lit, even after all these years of hsing, I still haven't read the actual stuff pre-19th century. I found the Clifton Fadiman Lifetime Reading Plan really helpful. The summaries really make you excited about reading the actual books, and give you one opinion on what you're looking for. Also, in prep for high school (but also because I enjoy them) we bit the bullet and bought the Teaching Company series "Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition", which dovetails nicely with this approach. And Annenberg/CPB has a Western Civilization video on demand (free) series which is more focused on history than lit, but still goes nicely. So that's what I'm using--dd will begin the reading list this summer, and I began it before Christmas to try to stay ahead of her. The Fadiman book adds in important non-Western works, which I really like--not enough for a "non-Western" lit class, but seminal works. I'm reading the Ramayana (retold by R.K. Narayan, himself a stellar writer) now. Fadiman links some books (like Mencius) with their influence on political theoreticians in the west, and the non-western books make for a lot of thought on different standards of good and right. I highly recommend including this exotic "spice" and am sorry I missed it all these years. The more I read, the less educated I feel! but it sure is interesting. Danielle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in Central TX Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 I'm part of a local book club that started off reading selections from TWEM, but now we just read good books that everyone is interested in. The book discussion is usually led by the person who recommended the book. Without this group setting, I would not be as consistent in my literature reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 I have started reading many classics, I avoided them like the plague in high school. I just stared The Three Musketeers am in the middle of Introductory Logic and starting Visual Passport French Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolfoasia Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 I have started reading many classics, I avoided them like the plague in high school. I just stared The Three Musketeers am in the middle of Introductory Logic and starting Visual Passport French My Classics Book Club just read and discussed The Three Musketeers in November. I love Dumas. I think my favorite is The Count of Monte Cristo. My school was in Southern Cal in the 70's. I don't know anyone who was reading the classics in schools in that area. I think they were more "experimental" back then. I extent of my classics were The Great Gatsby (probably because of the movie with Robert Redford that came out at that time) and Siddhartha. Not much! I am making up for it, but I think I wasn't ready to read these books back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolfoasia Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 I am getting ready to start on grammar this summer. I am also hoping to read some British ckassics while working through Lightning Lit. What British classics are you going to tackle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolfoasia Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 I like SWB's books very much, but I found the "genre" approach of the Well Educated Mind to be a bit confusing. I like chronological, or at least varied reading. I did all the novels "in genre," but I am glad to be doing the chronological approach. I put all the books from The Well-Educated Mind in chronological order and indicated when SWB's list overlaps with Invitation to the Classics and Great Books. I am now just going down the list in chronological order. I, like you, like have the variety of reading! I think it was fine for the novels though. I like having historical context in which to hang the drama/poetry/autobiographies! Here is my chronological list if you are interested: Full Classics List from The Well-Educated Mind (the tabs didn't come out on my blog. I transferred it from my word processor) I found the Clifton Fadiman Lifetime Reading Plan really helpful. I will have to check this out. Is this iin a book? Is it somewhere on the web? we bit the bullet and bought the Teaching Company series "Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition", I love the Teaching Company. My son's classical lit teacher (He co-ops for literature with other high schoolers) has Teaching Company MP3 online (she obtained permission to use them). I broke down and bought the Vandiver DVD's for Home. I loved them. I might purchase more, but I think audio would be better because I will have flexibility to listen in the car. The more I read, the less educated I feel! but it sure is interesting. Danielle Oh Danielle, isn't that the truth? I am so behind the curve in all of this. Believe it or not, I didn't even pick up a classical book until Spring/Summer of 1996 when my mother-in-law handed me a copy of Les Miserables because I told her I had heard the music from the musical on a PBS special. I was "hooked on the classics" from then on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolfoasia Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 I'm part of a local book club that started off reading selections from TWEM, but now we just read good books that everyone is interested in. The book discussion is usually led by the person who recommended the book. Without this group setting, I would not be as consistent in my literature reading. What books have you/are you reading? I love getting ideas for books. Five of us who were in a "Book Babes" (our designated name from the cook at the restaurant in which we met) decided we were tired of reading more "fluffy" contemporary stuff branched out and started a new classics club. We started off with the TWEM "list," but many of the women didn't like the books on that list. They thought many were too depressing. So, we have stuck to classics and not just the list. The discussions have been so deep and meaningful to me! Tomorrow we meet to discuss A Tale of Two Cities. These are the books we have discussed from the TWEM List: House of Mirth Portrait of a Lady Madame Bovary Uncle Tom's Cabin Return of the Native Pride and Prejudice Anna Karenina Here are the "off list" ones: Great Expectations The Three Musketeers Mansfield Park Little Women Robinson Crusoe Hound of the Baskervilles The House of Seven Gables A Passage to India These are the ones we are reading this year: March 22:The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens April 28: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen June 28: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy September 13: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky November 1:Frankenstein by Mary Shelley January 10: Silas Marner by George Eliot We also try to get together to watch movies that have been made of the classics. Very fun! What is really fun is a few of us are now also reading through the Bible together and meet once a month for a Bible Book Club. Love the synergy of discussing literature with others! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolfoasia Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 We're reading things aloud together and discussing them. I love having them for partners. It is more fun seeing what they think than it ever would be with someone else. My husband isn't reading the books with us, but we tell him all about them and discuss them. He helps me a lot. Isn't that just fun! My son is reading through the ancients. My husband isn't reading them, but he goes to the lectures for the classics co-op, and I am at home reading the books. My 7th grader is reading the kid versions, and we just have a great time talking about all of these. My dh and I also watch the movie versions of some of the books. We are watching The Odyssey version that the Hallmark channel did about 10 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolfoasia Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 I just did a post on my blog on this very topic! :) I enjoyed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in Atl Posted March 21, 2008 Share Posted March 21, 2008 I've been reading more, taking classes again (fine arts), and learning or should I say relearning a good bit through my dd12's studies of Latin and Math. If she stays home for High School, I will be learning Trig & Calculus right along with her, as I never went past Alg 2 and some statistics in college. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 So glad to see you here.:) You're book classics club has inspired me with regard to my little book club. Since we started meeting a few years ago, we've read a variety of books, but time and again, it seems those which inspire the most discussion are the "classics". On the few occasions we've read contemporary fiction, several of us have opted out of reading the selection, or the discussion hasn't been particularly stimulating. We choose a year's worth of books in late summer, and when we do that again, I'm going to suggest that we go with just classics this year. I've mentioned that already to a couple of my friends and they're eager about it, too. As far as self-education goes, as cliched as it sounds, I do find that educating my boys is an education in and of itself. I learn Latin right alongside them, for example. In my own time, I like to read books that relate to the period of history the boys are studying. And then as you know I spend a lot of energy on the organics & sustainable living "stuff" ~ both in terms of reading and activism. Everything related to that is really my biggest form of self-education at this point. I love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veronica in VA Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 I read The Well Educated Mind when it first came out, and still use it for questions, synopsis of books, etc. But I have found the area I am most lacking in is science, and that is the area where up until recently I have concentrated a lot of my time. In college we were required to take 2 Western Civ lit classes and read a lot of the classics then. I actually read them, and was shocked when some of my fellow classmates settled for the cliff notes version. My husband also had these great books from West Point on the various wars, and they came with atlases, etc. I don't know if they are still available, but they really gave me an understanding of the Civil War, WWI and WWII, especially. I still feel horribly uneducated in science, but at least now I understand when red-shift, etc. is mentioned in the newspaper.:001_smile: I have lately turned to the classics again, especially those written in the 20th century, as that was one area we didn't cover too much in college. I had a gift card I received Thursday from Borders, and needless to say used it all up yesterday! One bonus I didn't expect from homeschooling is how I would get educated. Veronica Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolfoasia Posted March 22, 2008 Author Share Posted March 22, 2008 So glad to see you here.:) You're book classics club has inspired me with regard to my little book club. Since we started meeting a few years ago, we've read a variety of books, but time and again, it seems those which inspire the most discussion are the "classics". On the few occasions we've read contemporary fiction, several of us have opted out of reading the selection, or the discussion hasn't been particularly stimulating. We choose a year's worth of books in late summer, and when we do that again, I'm going to suggest that we go with just classics this year. I've mentioned that already to a couple of my friends and they're eager about it, too. You go! One of my friends who helped start the Book Dames commented that she always enjoys the Book Dames (Classics) discussion better than the Book Babes (Contemporary/Non-Fiction/Classics) discussion. We both wouldn't dream of dropping the "Babes" because we have been together for 7(!) years now, but it is more a social time where the Dames is a "Deep" time. So, they both serve different purposes in our lives, but I hear you about "opting out" of reading the current selection. I read so many books last year that were a waste of my time. It wasn't that they were necessarily "bad" books, but I just didn't walk away with anything to "hang my hat on," and I don't like wasting my time that way. So, I have decided to give myself permission to "opt out" now! Thankfully, the leader of the group agreed that many of the books were pretty worthhless last year, and we decided to really support the books we brought to the "picking party" this year. It also helped that the woman who tends to bring books that aren't really good discussion-type book realized that her books weren't good for discussion and didn't bring any suggestions this year! I was silently overjoyed. :lol: That club has also gone more into non-fiction too. So, we tend to read many books that help us see a bigger picture of the world. We read Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour this year, and it was a HUGE hit. It got the highest rating we have ever given any book (8.3). It generated a fabulous discussion, and it turned out that one of the girls had an aunt that worked with him (she didn't realize it was Chacour until she read the book and emailed her aunt). So, she brought current pictures of the work that he is doing in Israel. I would love to hear what your group picks for books! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lorna Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 I still feel horribly uneducated in science, but at least now I understand when red-shift, etc. is mentioned in the newspaper.:001_smile: I have lately turned to the classics again, especially those written in the 20th century, as that was one area we didn't cover too much in college. I had a gift card I received Thursday from Borders, and needless to say used it all up yesterday! One bonus I didn't expect from homeschooling is how I would get educated. Veronica Perhaps you would like to spend your gift card on some of these science books... recommended by Professor Shakhashiri. My husband and I are really enjoying 'The Joy of Chemistry' recommended by him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 What are you doing? I'm reading Omnibus 1 text and various readings. Reading all of Jane Austin this spring/Summer. Reading CS Lewis, slowly and steadily. Reading/watching Shakespeare (yeah, Netflix!). Lots of Bible reading/study. My doctrinal knowledge is terrible. I have a lllloooonnnnnggggg way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolfoasia Posted March 22, 2008 Author Share Posted March 22, 2008 I'm reading Omnibus 1 text and various readings. Reading all of Jane Austin this spring/Summer. Reading CS Lewis, slowly and steadily. Reading/watching Shakespeare (yeah, Netflix!). Lots of Bible reading/study. My doctrinal knowledge is terrible. I have a lllloooonnnnnggggg way to go. It you are interested, I am part of an online Bible Book Club www.3yearbiblebookclub.blogspot.com where we are reading through the Bible at a slow three year pace and talking about it chapter by chapter. We are in Exodus 35 today. :) I am not familiar with Omnibus 1. I will have to look those up. Austen in the spring/summer. That is a lovely time to read her. I have been watching the PBS Sunday night Austens. I have been really impressed with the new ones they have done, but I have heard that Sense and Sensibility is very good. I am going to read/watch Shakespeare in the early summer. I am hoping to read Hamlet, Richard II, and MSND. My library has them all on film too. I realized I didn't know Shakespeare very well when I took the "Never Ending Book Quiz" on Facebook! BTW, I am in Western Oregon. So, you are not that far from me if you are in SW WA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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