I'm looking into Classical Composition as well, but we would also be starting "late". I found a schedule that lists the lessons you should cover and those you can skip to move through the program at a faster pace. I'm sorry I can't give credit to whomever created it, but I'll post it here for you. Maybe it'll help. "Good Morning, You've already received some good advice, and for the most part I would affirm what has been said by others. It can be difficult to skip stages in the Classical Composition program, but as already mentioned, you do not necessarily need to complete the early stages in their entirety. See below for an idea of what we think your student needs to accomplish in Fable and Narrative, in order to be successful in the later stages. There is also a list of lessons you could complete to cover the concepts listed. Fable · Need to gain mastery of the 3 Narrative components covered · 1. Recognition · 2. Reversal · 3. Suffering Should be able to explain and provide examples of the various figures of description · Making flashcards of the definitions in the appendix could be helpful Must possess understanding of the three forms of paraphrase · 1. Reduction · 2. Inversion · 3. Beginning in the middle Should begin formatting page properly, understanding punctuation, margins and paragraph breaks Narrative · Need to gain a mastery of 9 Narrative components covered · 1. Recognition · 2. Reversal · 3. Suffering · 4. Agents · 5. Action · 6. Time · 7. Place · 8. Manner · 9. Cause Should be able to explain and provide examples of the various figures of description · Making flashcards of the definitions in the appendix could be helpful Must possess understanding of the three (new) forms of paraphrase · 1. Condensing the narrative · 2. Changing the viewpoint · 3. Inverting the sequence of events Formatting should be continuing to improve Chreia and Maxim will require student to form 8 paragraph essay with clear breaks of thought between each paragraph Lessons to complete to cover the above material · Fable 1 · Fable 4 · Fable 5 · Fable 8 · Fable 9 · Fable 20 · Narrative 1 · Narrative 10 · Narrative 14 · Narrative 17 · Narrative 18 · Narrative 20"

I'm not familiar with the programs you mentioned, but Starting Points is one used in some churches in my area.🙂 https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/020676/Starting-Points-World-View-Primer.html?

If you're o.k. with Christian curriculum, Rod & Staff English is excellent and very affordable. Abeka is also a good option. Both programs are thorough and systematic. Both were recommended in the earlier editions of The Well-Trained Mind. Rod & Staff doesn't cover literature, though, but it covers everything else on your list. Not sure if Abeka's English includes literature. You can see samples of Rod & Staff's English 9 here: https://www.milestonebooks.com/item/1-129-1/ Here you'll find Abeka's 9th grade Language Arts here: https://www.abeka.com/abekaonline/bookdescription.aspx?sbn=380776 Hope this helps. 🙂

Hi Malam, SWB DOES recommend her own books. I copied an incomplete list. My mistake. I'll edit it.🙂

The history spines SWB has recommended in the four editions of TWTM are the following: 1st Edition A Short History of Western Civilization, Vol. 1, by Richard Sullivan, et. al A Short History of Western Civilization, Vol. 2, by Richard Sullivan, et. al The Dorling Kindersley History of the World by Plantagenet Somerset Fry 2nd Edition Western Civilization, Vol. 1: To 1500 by Jackson J. Spielvogel Western Civilization, Vol. 2: Since 1500 by Jackson J. Spielvogel History of the World by Plantagenet Somerset Fry 3rd Edition History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer History of the World, 3rd ed., by Plantagenet Somerset Fry A History of Asia, 5th ed., by Rhoads Murphey 4th Edition Ancient History The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard Medieval/Early Renaissance History The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade by Susan Wise Bauer The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople by Susan Wise Bauer The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History by Norman F. Cantor Late Renaissance/Early Modern History The Shaping of Western Civilization, Volume 1: From Antiquity to the Mid-Eighteenth Century by Michael Burger Asia: A Concise History by Arthur Cotterell The Renaissance: A Short History by Paul Johnson America: A Narrative History, Brief 10th Edition, Vol. 1 by George Tindall Modern History Asia: A Concise History by Arthur Cotterell Europe: A History. A Glorious Chronicle of Europe, From Kings to Peasants, From the Urals to the Faroes by Norman Davies Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties by Paul Johnson America: A Narrative History, Brief 10th Edition, Vol. 2 by George Tindall Although not recommended in TWTM, we have also used BiblioPlan (https://biblioplan.net/), but it is a Christian curriculum. It follows the 4-year history cycle. Hope this helps.🙂

Since this was posted on the High School board I'm assuming you're asking about teaching these subjects to high school level students. We outsourced the high school-level science courses my daughter took. Since she was planning to be an English major in college, she didn't take physics. There is an academy in our city, specifically for homeschooled students, that offers high school level science and math classes. For math, we use Saxon which is written to the student and meant to be done independently. I purchased the supplemental Saxon Teacher CD-Roms that she could used when she needed additional help.

I highly recommend SWB's talk on writing. In it she describes the different types of writing and how writing should be approached at the different developmental stages. In her opinion, all students need to learn expository writing, but not all students need to learn how to write creatively. Logic minded students, in particular, struggle with creative writing. She goes on to say most writing curricula is described as a "writing program" when in fact they are a "creative" writing program. This leaves many logic minded/engineer minded students feeling frustrated, unnecessarily. You can find the downloaded MP3 here: https://welltrainedmind.com/p/a-plan-for-teaching-writing-grades-k-12-mp3/ From there, you might consider starting with either Writing with Ease Level 4 or Writing With Skill Level 1. Writing With Ease 4 is for 4th or 5th grade, but Writing With Skill 1 assumes that they know how to write 3-5 sentence summaries of longer reading passages in history, science, and literature. If he can already do this well, he can jump right into Writing With Skill Level 1. All of her writing programs teach expository writing. If you decide to go with WWS, I recommend you adjust the workload assigned per day. For many lessons it seems to be too much to complete in a single day. I hope this helps.🙂

It looks like ABEKA's World History is a one-year course. You can also look into "Trail Guide to World Geography".

My daughter used all three books available. She liked them. She found them interesting. She said The History of the Ancient World was the hardest to follow because of the unusual names, but she liked them overall. They are college-level texts so it helps if their strong readers.

The following resources are recommended in the various editions of The Well-Trained Mind: 1) The Elements of Style 2) Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Research Papers 3) They say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing 4) The New Oxford Guide to Writing (rhetoric study) You may want to read the description of each on Amazon to see which one matches what you're looking for. I will say that The Elements of Style is recommended for all four years of high school (to be read each year and referred to as needed) in all four editions of TWTM. Hope this helps.

I agree with all of the above. I also do notes/facts page (we call it a History Foundations Page based on the 4th edition of TWTM), map work, and she keeps a timeline. Perhaps keep a log of any additional history reading. Just some ideas.

The worksheets are intended for extra practice to be used if the student didn’t quite grasp the concept after completing the regular lesson exercises. There’s a good chance you won’t need them at all. Did you purchase the test booklet? That you will need. You can find more information about the Rod and Staff curriculum at milestone books.com. Hope this helps.🙂

In The Well-Trained Mind, SWB says the following, "Try to make a realistic assessment of how many books the student will be able to cover in the course of a year. Eight books is a minimum; twelve is better; eighteen is stellar." This is assuming a student completes the work recommended in TWTM (per book) or something similar: Book Context page, Book Notes, & a Composition. ☺️

If you want to your student(s) to study history following the TWTM method, the 4th edition of TWTM lays out an easy-to-follow plan. I read the section on "History & Literature in the Rhetoric Stage" and I took notes. I'll copy and paste the section of my notes that cover history, in case you don't own a copy of the book. This will give you an idea of the sorts of "output" you can require then you can adjust to fit your course. Great Books Study: History & Reading History and Literature Study in the High School Years History study in the rhetoric-stage is idea-centered. During the rhetoric-stage, the student actively engages with the ideas of the past and present – not just reading about them, but evaluating them, tracing their development, and comparing them to other philosophies and opinions. * Goal – To develop a greater understanding of our civilization, country, and your place in time, stemming from an understanding of what has come before us. The History Study 1) Student should read a chapter from a readable narrative history. 2) Make a list of the most important dates in the chapter and write a sentence or two explaining why that date is important or why it stands out. 3) Write down the names of 2-3 important people with a sentence explaining why they’re important. 4) Write down 3-4 events that stand out. 5) List 2 events, people, or ideas student would like to investigate further. 6) Map work 7) Time line *** I only copied the notes related to the history study. I didn't include the notes related to the literature study.

Congratulations!!!