Is this too many books for high school? « SCM Discussion Forum: Charlotte Mason Method Homeschooling

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Is this too many books for high school?

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Started 9 months ago by jenirae
Latest reply from jenirae

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jenirae
Member

We are starting our third year hsing 2nd yr cm. How many books are on your required reading list for your high schooler not including math, science text, poetry, grammar & comp or history spine? We are part of a monthly book discussion co-op this year which will be my 15dd main literature. They are doing Uncle Tom's Cabin, Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, The Walking Drum, An Old Fashioned Girl, and three others (can't remember them right now). In addition to that I am planning on having her read History of English Literature for Boys and Girls, literature in scm history module 4 which includes Men of Iron, Lantern Bearers, Voices of the Renaissance and Reformation, The Black Arrow, The Second Mrs. Giaconda, The King’s Fifth (though I may sub some for the 7-9 grade books like King Arthur, In Freedom's Cause, and Prince and the Pauper), How to Read a Poem (1/3) for scholarship, a Economics:A Free Market Reader for economics review, Roots of American Order (1/3) and a couple of Maybury's books for government, a science biography (in addition to Apologia Biology with labs and dissections), and Rural Hours for natural history. This is in addition to her independent history spine, current events, family hitory read aloud, family classic read aloud, family geography read aloud, and family Shakespeare. Is this too much or reasonable? I want to set her up for success and need to make sure she has ample room for math, which she struggles with, and composition, which she enjoys but hasn't had much instruction in. We reserve Fridays for co-op, field trips, and family nature day. if you would suggest cutting out something, what would it be? I can probably convince co-op to cut a couple of books if that would be best. Advice please.

Thank you
JeniRae

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
Tristan
Member

It looks like a lot to me. Many of those are really meaty books and you have to decide if you're wanting a brief exposure (fitting a lot in but not having a long time to ponder and live with the books by reading slowly) or if you want to aim for depth in fewer books (giving time for a more leisurely reading pace, which lets you live with and think about the books more).

Either approach is okay, it will vary by family. We aim for depth and time to linger. They have their entire life to read so I don't feel the need to cram in all the 'good books' in their school age years.

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
Bookworm
Member

I am all for challenging high schoolers---but this is a lot. Can she do SOME of the co-ops and other months do one of the history choices? I like most of the above books, myself, but all in one year would be a lot ot pull off. You look like you are doing a pretty good job of choosing literature for your time periods; perhaps you might not need History of English Literature? The Walking Drum is interesting, but it is not literature, IMO. It's an interesting summer read. Perhaps you could rearrange so she did SOME of the book discussions and other months did one of the history related books?

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
Rachel
Member

Old Fashioned Girl would also be a summer read or not at all scheduled, letting her read it in her leisure, in my opinion. My dd read that when she was 10.

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
jenirae
Member

Thank you tremendously ladies. It is very relieving to know indeed this is too much. Now for how to reduce. I agree Walking Drum and Old Fashioned Girl are more pleasure reads. I did not choose them, other moms in our book co-op did. After contemplating your advice I have decided to have her only do a portion of our co-op books. Yes I can cut History of the English Literature. What also would you recommend I keep and toss? Which of our co-op literature do you fell would be best to study? If your teen had little to no exposure to medieval/renaissance/reformation history which books would you feel are most essential. I was contemplating having her use either Grueber's book or Dorothy Mill's book as the Middle ages spine and Story of Liberty by Coffin for Renaissance/Reformation spine. I also have the truthquest guides for a little more momma hand holding for discussions. She participated in an economics class through co-op last year in which they used Penny Candy as the main resource. How do I know whether she needs more? She also did Making of America in co-op two years ago (our first year homeschooling). How much more government resources should I continue to have her read. Roots of American Order is supposed to be a great book, but she and I both have tried to read the first few chapters and it seems the furter into the book I get the less I understand. Is it valuable enough to continue to persue? I'm really not sure how much government and economics to continue having her read in our remaining 3 years of high school. I understand the probability of you having the answers to all my questions is minimal, however I would be most humbly grateful for any advice at all you could continue to give me. Thank you truly!

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
anniepeter
Member

We have used Annenburg Foundations materials for government adn loved them. There were several videos available through our library system, and we finished off with their website. We just enjoyed them as a family and discussed them at length. It ended up being the best liked and most remembered part of our "class" Just thoughts...if you decide to add something...

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
LDIMom
Member

Can you cut out some of the family read-alouds for her? I know SCM is based on the family doing many thing together, but I also know my 8th grade son has asked to sit out some of the read-alouds this year. So far, he is listening in, but as we go, I may honor his request. I know the SCM suggested ones are definitely below a high school level, so maybe she could be excused from some of them? For the Family Shakespeare, perhaps she could read the same reading on her own and just take part in discussions with the family. I have no idea your family make-up but our family reading is often done in very small spurts and my son much prefers to read on his own and then come back for discussion. Often he can read what it takes the rest of us a week to read in one sitting (for him) and then we can talk about it once a week. This frees him up for more independent study time for the more meaty subjects of math and science and composition. Just a thought.

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
4myboys
Member

WOw! That does seem like a lot. I agree with the idea of letting her "opt-out" of family read alouds, especially lit. I also agree that talking the co-op into using fewer books over a longer period might be a really good idea. Ideally, I'd try to get it down to about half if possible. Maybe have everyone vote on their top 6? If a mom's choice doesn't make the cut she can always assign it to her own students at home, or it can be kept for the next year.

Have you made an progress in trying to schedule all this reading out? Have you figured out how many hours a day your dd will have to spend reading to get through it all? If your daughter is an avid reader she might be able to get through the reading without much trouble, but consider how many written assignments and other work (math, science labs, etc.) she'll need to fit in with it all.

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
jenirae
Member

Yes I am feeling better and better about cutting her co-op lit in half. She is not a fast reader. She is used to pretty twaddly stuff. However since being home (2 yrs) she has shifted signifcantly away from twaddle but it takes her much longer. I will consider the opt-out option of some of the family stuff. Yes it takes us much longer to get through the material as a group then on her own. We have 15dd, 11dd, 8ds, 3dd. Looking st the rest of the resources I have on the table for next year is there more I should cut? What of the history would you keep? She has had pretty much zero medieval/renaissance/reformation exposure. Thanks again!

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
Rachel
Member

I would choose the Dorothy Mill's over the Guerber for the middle ages spine, at her age, but keep the Coffin book.

I say keep: Men of Iron, The Black Arrow and King Arthur (though Arthur is more Dark Ages, but if she's never read any, then she shouldn't miss it) , Voices of the Renaissance and Reformation and The King's Fifth.

Since you can fit in more audio books into a schedule tha reading books, I suggest her listening to In Freedom's Cause (and any others she has time for) at LIbrivox-it's there among several other Henty stories:http://librivox.org/in-freedoms-cause-by-g-a-henty/

Prince and the Pauper is also available on LIbrivox- http://librivox.org/the-prince-and-the-pauper-by-mark-twain/

Lastly, Lantern Bearers is the last of a trilogy from Celtic-Roman Britain, from what I gather; so it may be better to have all three on hand for her free reading. If she chooses to read it this coming year, fine, but it will be there for her to enjoy anytime over these next 3 years.

Regarding economics, keep moving forward through the MAybury books for the next 3 years, but those shouldn't be your sole source for government, since they are more economics related with materials covering the government's size and regulatory effects on the markets, etc.; but they won't teach her what all she needs to know about our Republic, the Declaration and Constitution and comparisons with other forms of government; but I think anything beyond the next Maybury book could wait till after this next year. Does that make sense?

HTH

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
Bookworm
Member

Ok, book by book here. Uncle Tom's Cabin is of course a classic--it could be read, however, during an American history study, which is what I usually do. Pride and Prejudice ought to be read by all high school girls--ditto Jane Eyre. A Tale of Two Cities is another one I tend to stick in its own historical spot--French Revolution time. (I will confess this is my least favorite Dickens and I let one kid skip the book and do the movie. Gasp.) The Walking Drum and the Old Fashioned Girl are easy reads--they are not terribly literary, BUT they are both fun to discuss. (One of the most entertaining book discussions I ever took part in was about The Walking Drum, incidentally.) Don't know if that helps with any of these.

Are you using a spine type book for this time period? Well written spines are a very efficient way to center a historical study and it is then easy to add a few more books. I love the Mills, unless she has had very little coverage, and then the Guerber might fit the bill. I LOVE The Black Arrow and would recommend it; Men of Iron and Lantern Bearers are fun reads, but not necessarily high school lit type reads--those I would think are optional depending on time and interest. I am not actually a big Prince and the Pauper fan and haven't made my kids read it (probably because I'd prefer to study the new printer manual, myself, lol). I'm not all that sure myself that it is all that historically illuminating. (Perhaps because I find it irritating.) One other Middle Ages read I especially like is The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. I LOVE this book! Probably because it's interesting and accessible and attempst to rehabilitate a historical figure I think got a bad deal in history (Richard III). We always read the Shakespeare play and then read The Daughter of Time and talk about it when we do Middle Ages.

For How to Read a Poem--do you mean the Eagleton book, or the Hirsch one? (If it matters, I much prefer the Eagleton.) I'm glad to see you are taking your time with it. I have a soft spot for poetry so I'd tend to keep this one. The Free Market Reader and a couple more Mayburys are easy reading and I'd also tend to keep those, although this again is a favorite subject.

As for government--if you mean the Russell Kirk book--I personally think it's a bit much for most highschoolers. I think Kirk can be hard to read until you are used to him. I will PM you with another suggestion. I do love Rural Hours. I have a bio suggestion for you too if you don't already have one. (Will pm you.) One thing you might consider is folding in American government the year you cover early American history--it fits so well you can often use a few resources to do BOTH, which is always nice. :-)

I second Rachel's suggestion of getting a few of teh history reads on audio and doing them while driving or doing something else, perhaps.

Any of this help?

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post
jenirae
Member

Thank you ladies for your suggestions. I have not read any of the history books myself and thus am going off other's recomendations and hopefully a little inspiration from the man upstairs. I hope to read at least some of her books this year. I havent been successful at that yet. Does anyone have sites or inexpensive resources to recommend that gives summaries and insights into those that I don't get to on my own?

I bought both Mills' and Grueber's Middle Ages spines. I see Mills as listed more for high school and Grueber a little younger. Bookworm you suggested if she has had no exposure perhaps the Grueber would be better. What is not in Mills' book that she would get out of Grueber's and vice versa?

I was mistaken in my original post. It was not How to Read a Poem I meant to write but rather How to Read a Book by Adler. I see this book frequently suggested. Anyone used it? Is it worth the time to spend on it? Incidentally she did read How to Read a Poem last year. It was the one by Burton Raffel. She enjoyed it very much.

Yes I did mean Roots of American Order bu Russell Kirk. The mentoring program we tried last year used it. There was a study guide to go with it as well. She spreads it out over four years I beleive. I read the first couple chapters with my daughter and then turned it over to her to do on her own with the guide. She would dutifully read it and I, due to my own negligence (not for the lack of trying), had no idea most of it was going over her head. Last spring I sat down to read some of it with her again. I understood very little. I had forgotten about the study guide and perhaps that would have helped. With neither of us "getting it" I suggested we drop it. It wasn't until a couple weeks ago I remembered there was a study guide to go with it.

The fact is I feel the time I have left to teach this daughter is very little and I don't want to waist it on that which is of little value. I still feel like I am learning how to homeschool, what a cm education is, and who my children really are and what each one needs. Now I don't know that that feeling will ever go away, it is probably just part of who we are as mothers, but it has been a big bite to chew all at once. I still have my three younger ones to teach in the mix(11dd, 8ds, 3dd) and feel I have little history of education in my background to fall back on. But what I lack in knowledge I hope I make up for in heart and will! So I really want to make choices that we will be able to be successful with and be careful not to over schedule.

I frequently see Maybury's books listed. Am I correct in understanding that they alone do not satisfy a course in Economics or Government. Rather they are good to continue to spread out a little in the course of her education for the ideas the present but for a complete course that would need to be tackled specifically on it's own? Assuming that is the case I would love suggestions for combining history and government for next year. We must maximize our time and resources!

As for the audiobooks while driving-- do you think it would be good for all my kids to listen to at their ages? Or just on her ipod independently? I do try to keep an audiobook going in the car but it is more on the level of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe or Little Britches.

Thanks again for all the help everyone!

Posted 9 months ago # Report Post

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