Help me choose online classes

[swellmomma]

My kids have about 5 weeks left in their current online classes. This semester has really challenged them. They have been doing an Introduction to great books class, which they did the readings(the Hobbit, The Iliad, several selections by Plato, currently Dante's Inferno and more to come) and sat in the class listening but seldom contributed to the discussion. At the end of this term they will be submitting a 1000 word essay based on their readings. So quite a heavy course. Their other online class is classical poetry. Compared to the great books class it is a cake walk. This week they are studing the epic, at the end of term they will each read/recite a poem for the class that they like. Easy grade basically. The kids are new to analyzing poetry so again they don't say much in class but they soak it in and discuss with me afterwards.

 

I am looking ahead to winter term after xmas. I am hoping to ut them in 2 classes each again, and hoping to find a balance between a tough and an easier, but don't care if they get 2 tough, or 2 easy frankly.

 

THese are the 3 I am deciding between. Keeping in mind the actual selection of classes for winter term has not been decided, so these options may change, but for now these are what I am considering. I would ask the kids but they would opt for no classes, they prefer to be lazy and not do anything hard. I am not giving them an option.

 

Classic Adventure 1

There is a reason why mankind has always been fascinated with tales of adventure. They are not simply stories of the clash of swords, bold exploration, and derring-do - they contain a wealth of truth about ourselves and our world. In this course, students will use Socratic discussion to uncover the deeper meanings in some of western culture's best loved adventure stories. Books to be read incl Kidnapped, Farmer Giles of Ham, Robin Hood, 2 tales of Sherlock Holmes, Journey to the center of the earth and the tredmendous adventures of major brown. This one sounds like an easier course to me. It meets once a week.

 

Human Society

This course covers the history of Ethical and Political thought in the pre-Christian West in the Greek and Roman philosophers, poets and historians. What is the nature of justice? How do we know what is good? How do pleasure, friendship, virtue and God relate to a good life? What is the best form of government? Why do people disagree about the best form of government? Reading incl republic by plato, ethics by aristotle, politics by aristotle, and a handful of other titles. This will be a tough course, it is twice a week and deep.

 

Heroes of Greece & Rome

For centuries, schoolboys (and girls) have been fascinated by the heroic characters and tales that permeate Greek and Roman history: the tragic figure of Julius Caesar, and his assassination by friend Brutus; the battle of Thermopylae, where three hundred Spartans held off the entire Persian army long enough for Greece to prepare a defense; Alexander the Great, who conquered the known world--and beyond; the founding of Rome by brothers Romulus and Remus. This course will allow students to read about these (and more) heroic characters through the books that the Romans and Greeks themselves would have read, introducing such authors as Plutarch, Livy, Tacitus, and Herodotus. It will provide a basic intro to the historical stories that formed the Greek and Roman imagination, and give students a grounding in the history of the two nations that, perhaps more than any other, gave shape to Western Civilization. This sounds like a fun course, it meets once a week.

 

So if you were to choose 2 courses for your grade 7 & 8 students to take which 2 would they be?

 

(poll to come)

[Ghee]

I chose the first and third. I know they are both easy, but I think they've had one really deep class this year....after the holidays, we experience burn out (Well, we have in public school LOL this is the first time we will be hs'ing both before and after the holidays, so we'll see.)

 

I think both sound interesting, but aren't so draining that the kids will be freaking out about how much woooooorrrrrkkkk they've had to do :)

 

ETA: I don't think you'll be doing them a disservice. Even college allowed me to stack my classes so that I had harder classes at the beginning of the week and lighter at the end. I could even schedule so I went to class EOD.

[shanezomom]

Maybe I missed it in your post; how do you access the classes? Which online academy/curriculum provider? They sound great.

[swellmomma]

Maybe I missed it in your post; how do you access the classes? Which online academy/curriculum provider? They sound great.

 

I get them through www.wisdomhomeschooling.com Wisdom is an Alberta non resident school board that I register with (legally have to register to homeschool in Alberta). They offer these courses to their students. There is a boy in ds9's lit class from trinadad(though he may be an Albertan with missionary parents) and the kids great books instructor lives in Florida so it is not limited to only Alberta students I am sure. You could contact them and ask.