Have you considered including a monthly book club as part of your WTM style studies?

[outtamyshell]

I can't believe I am already planning for our third and final year of homeschooling already! We are planning to use University courses for math, science, foreign language and two electives. I just need to put together a plan for a WTM style history/english course.

 

This is our first course designed, planned, and executed on our own. I would love your thoughts on what should work and areas of concern. I also want to integrate additional people beyond just the two of us. Has anyone successfully created a book discussion group around your reading? We have a couple of adults in our lives whose thoughts I would love to hear.

 

I am thinking of having a monthly group discussion and inviting 10-15 people. We aren't starting until next school year, so that should leave me time to recruit the right people. I'm a little nervous mostly because I don't know how to plan for a book club. I think I need to get organized on how we are going to discuss the readings ourselves as well. I think we should schedule regular discussion times within the family.

 

I've picked up a ten volume series on the Great Ideas Program from the library book sale. Each book is considered a one-year reading program with two weeks per work. I believe we will mostly pull from the first volume... Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education. This 187 page book includes a very short bio on the author and an introduction to the reading. I was going to have dd add some additional historical study as well. She could present her historical context paper as a quick intro at the beginning of our book club. I know that the two of us could do the readings WTM style and have a formal discussion every two weeks. But how could we integrate others into our readings? Should we do a monthly book club? Should we hold discussions every other week and invite people to read & join us for the ones that interest us? Would you just invite people & leave it for open discussion? Have questions ready? I really want a discussion about the impact on our life today... where you see these thoughts reflected in currect society, etc. I was going to target my most intelligent and informed friends.

 

Here's the readings from Volume I...

 

Plato: Apology & Crito

Plato: The Republic

Sophocles: Oedipus the King and Antigone

Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle: Politics

Plutarch: The Lives of the Noble Grecians & Romans

Old Testament: Book of Job (we may skip or substitute)

Augustine: The Confessions

Montaigne: The Essays

Shakespeare: Hamlet

Locke: Concerning Civil Government

Swift: Gulliver's Travels (we may skip or substitute)

Gibbon: the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire

The Declaration of independence, Consitution, & Federalist (selections)

Marx-Engels: Manifesto of the Communist Party

 

I've read some of the other threads about integrating Great Books study into your homeschool, and I've taken copious notes. But I haven't seen any discussion about involving additional people in the form of a book club of sorts. I would love to hear what you think.

[Veronica in VA]

I think this is a wonderful idea. I would have loved this for my dd and myself. Last year I tried to get some of her friends who were using the same lit as us to do this - but it never got off the ground. Maybe you could advertise at the local library. We have a Great Books group there, but most of the books they read are not ones I am interested in and I've never heard of most of them. I think I might try once a month at first. You might also organize the meetings on a topic, instead of one book - sort of like Socrates Cafe.

 

Veronica

[mama25angels]

I think it's an excellent idea as well, I would love to be able to do one with my olders.:iagree: