If you follow a 4 year history cycle

[iona]

At what age did your child read the classics (in translation). Do you think reading the older classics in 10th or 11th would better than 8th or 9th. I was thinking if i started our cycle when they were in 2nd/3rd they'd do ancients again in 6th/7th and 10th/11th. If I started now, they'd be in k/1, 4th/5th and 8th/9th.

 

I read (maybe in WTM) that the "older" classics are tougher technically, but the more modern may require more maturity as far as their content goes.

 

What have you observed with your own children. My boys are still young so this may be a silly question. Will I realise it really doesn't matter that much when I actually get there. I'd appreciate any thoughts you may have.

 

Also please chime in even if you aren't doing a four year cycle!

Edited August 11, 2011 by iona

[regentrude]

My DD did Ancients last year in 9th grade. She read Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Herodotus, Ovid and Greek tragedies. The reading was no problem.

If you search, there was a recent thread about a similar topic.

[iona]

I'll try searching. Was it on the High School board?

[Kim in SouthGa]

My son had no problem with the ancients in 9th, except maybe the Aenid (he hated that book!). I have been told by English professors that it is good to study Ancients first not only for chronology, but also because so much literature references/mirrors ancient works and it helps to know what they are talking about:0)

[iona]

Regentrude I tried searching but couldn't come up anything. I wasn't sure exactly what to search.

 

Kim-I agree that a solid grounding in the classics is necessary to understand more medieval and modern works. I'm wanting to adjust things more for my second child. He's not getting much out of ancients this time(I know it is just elementary school), and I'm wondering if delaying two years would help them both get more out of it. It is impossible to know what their maturity level will be anyway...hmm.

 

I appreciate your responses.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

I have waited until 8th/9th to read the Ancient classics in translation both due to content and level of difficulty. Reading a retelling in earlier years seemed more appropriate.

 

I should add that I don't think when my child was 6 I would have been able to accurately predict their ability to read the classics in as narrow a field as 8th/9th vs 10th/11th.

 

I think your goals in presenting the Ancient world to an elementary student are very different than the goals in later years. We had great fun with mummies, pyramids, Greek heroes, ancient battles, daily life in the ancient world and a variety of other topics. They were pretty well grounded in the basics when we were done.

 

The difference in the two year delay you are proposing is similar to the difference between a WTM cycle and the longer and later starting cycle used in the Veritas Press curricula. I'm not suggesting either curricula but rather that you compare the planning cycles of both.

Edited August 12, 2011 by JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst

[angela in ohio]

Mine did them last year in 7th and 9th. No problems at all. The older works are pretty easy to discuss, imho. They have a very clear point. I want to wait until they are older to cover more modern works, which have nuances and worldviews that we will need to wrestly with. They will need more discernment, more skills in analysis, etc.

 

I think 8th and 9th would be perfectly fine.

[iona]

I should add that I don't think when my child was 6 I would have been able to accurately predict their ability to read the classics in as narrow a field as 8th/9th vs 10th/11th.

 

I think your goals in presenting the Ancient world to an elementary student are very different than the goals in later years. We had great fun with mummies, pyramids, Greek heroes, ancient battles, daily life in the ancient world and a variety of other topics. They were pretty well grounded in the basics when we were done.

 

The difference in the two year delay you are proposing is similar to the difference between a WTM cycle and the longer and later starting cycle used in the Veritas Press curricula. I'm not suggesting either curricula but rather that you compare the planning cycles of both.

 

You are right about the predicting. If only rainbow resources had a crystal ball.

 

I have the vp option in the back of my mind as a possibility, so that was another consideration in delaying.

 

Mine did them last year in 7th and 9th. No problems at all. The older works are pretty easy to discuss, imho. They have a very clear point. I want to wait until they are older to cover more modern works, which have nuances and worldviews that we will need to wrestly with. They will need more discernment, more skills in analysis, etc.

 

I think 8th and 9th would be perfectly fine.

 

That was what I was wondering about. The difficulty in content vs. technical difficulty.

 

Thanks again.

[Abbeygirlsouth]

We did the Ancients in 9th (for oldest) and 10th grade for another, in order to cover Moderns by 11th and 12th when there was the maturity to discuss the modern philosophers.