Teaching Yourself the Progymnasmata

[gonejustcouldntdelete]

Has anyone worked through the progymnasmata themselves? My dh and I have recently ordered Fable from Memoria Press with the intention of working through the series ahead of our dc. Does anyone have any advice (or warnings)? 

[Guest]

We started with MP Fable, Narrative, and Chreia / Maxim. 

 I did not find it very easy to teach initially. The videos were way too dry for me. They have 2-4 pages in the front of the book that briefly explain each aspect of the framework.The sample story is often presented in extremely archaic language. So it took me a little while to wrap my head around it, but once I did, my kids really thrived and grew using the curriculum.

I purchased the next level (Confirmation / Refutation) but we ended up switching to WWS at that point because I wanted them to have a foundation in academic / non-fiction / expository writing. 

I think you could totally work ahead in the series. There is a lot of repetition. You learn a basic format / framework, then practice it for the entire year.  I had my kids do each lesson over 2 weeks. As an adult, you could probably work through just a few lessons in each book and get a hang of the framework. Try watching the sample video lesson onilne. See if it "works" for you. If you don't like it, I don't think you have to have it. It's not entirely straightforward, but you can figure it out from the teacher's guide. MP also has an online forum and the experienced moms / sales reps will answer questions.

I kind of regret leaving the series (my kids produced beautiful writing!), but I ultimately prioritized a different set of goals. 

That being said, there are a lot on this forum who don't feel the progym is necessary for developing strong writers. There are also other progym curricula - Writing and Rhetoric (Classical Academic Press), and Classical Writing for example. I think CW used to be really popular on this forum back in the day, but it doesn't seem to be widely used now.

[gonejustcouldntdelete]

13 hours ago, WTM said:

We started with MP Fable, Narrative, and Chreia / Maxim. 

 I did not find it very easy to teach initially. The videos were way too dry for me. They have 2-4 pages in the front of the book that briefly explain each aspect of the framework.The sample story is often presented in extremely archaic language. So it took me a little while to wrap my head around it, but once I did, my kids really thrived and grew using the curriculum.

I purchased the next level (Confirmation / Refutation) but we ended up switching to WWS at that point because I wanted them to have a foundation in academic / non-fiction / expository writing. 

I think you could totally work ahead in the series. There is a lot of repetition. You learn a basic format / framework, then practice it for the entire year.  I had my kids do each lesson over 2 weeks. As an adult, you could probably work through just a few lessons in each book and get a hang of the framework. Try watching the sample video lesson onilne. See if it "works" for you. If you don't like it, I don't think you have to have it. It's not entirely straightforward, but you can figure it out from the teacher's guide. MP also has an online forum and the experienced moms / sales reps will answer questions.

I kind of regret leaving the series (my kids produced beautiful writing!), but I ultimately prioritized a different set of goals. 

That being said, there are a lot on this forum who don't feel the progym is necessary for developing strong writers. There are also other progym curricula - Writing and Rhetoric (Classical Academic Press), and Classical Writing for example. I think CW used to be really popular on this forum back in the day, but it doesn't seem to be widely used now.

Thank you; that's really helpful!

Part of the reason we're working ahead is to get a feel for how to teach it (*cough*see if we need to buy the videos *cough*). My dh would like us to learn it, so we don't need to use a workbook for the kids and can create lessons that would interest the kids more, especially in the later years; I'm being a pessimist/realist and saying that we'll need to pick a curriculum and use it.

[Helpdesk]

Check out this old thread:  

I found the Corbett book helpful in many ways...but the D'Angelo book was more accessible to my brain at the time I was learning all of this.  

 

[gonejustcouldntdelete]

16 minutes ago, Helpdesk said:

Check out this old thread:  

I found the Corbett book helpful in many ways...but the D'Angelo book was more accessible to my brain at the time I was learning all of this.  

 

Thank you so much!