Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: Plutarch, scheduling

This topic has 29 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 9 months ago by ServingwithJoy.

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Author
Posts
June 21, 2013 at 11:39 pm
Nina
Participant
Do you study Plutarch’s Lives? If so how do you do it?
June 22, 2013 at 12:10 am
Bookworm
Participant
Yes, we do. We choose a Lives pair each year and once a week, we read from it. 🙂 I do a little prepwork, finding some historical background for context and looking up words I don’t know. We narrate afterwards.
June 22, 2013 at 1:36 am
Rachel White
Participant
What do you mean, “choose a Lives pair”?
June 22, 2013 at 2:59 am
Tanya
Participant
…and what age do you start?
June 22, 2013 at 4:39 am
missceegee
Participant
Greek-Roman pair. 12-13 for us.
June 22, 2013 at 1:53 pm
Bookworm
Participant
Plutarch himself paired up two different lives, and then compared them. Who was most successful? A better leader? Whose character lead him to greatness? Whose character led him to ignonimy and defeat? While many homeschoolers just read from them kind of randomly, since we discovered the great comparison passages, we always read the pairs and then the relevant comparison.
June 22, 2013 at 4:53 pm
Claire
Participant
I never knew that pairs existed? Where is that listing or pairing located? And the comparison passages? Where do you find those? I learn something new every day!
For what it’s worth …. Here is how we have done it thus far:
We started in early Elementary (2nd I think) with Plutarch. We read two lives per year by reading one passage a week. We narrate on sections as we read and then do a narrative drawing of our favorite scene (children’s choice) at the end of the reading. We pre-read each time – discussing what was happening during the last reading, going over vocabulary, checking out other relevant information such as maps, etc. Our drawings create a pretty neat little book of each Life at the end of the year.
I am always impressed with how much they take from reading Plutarch. It’s imposing to start, but my advice would be to plunge in and go for it. You’ll get better at it as time goes on and nothing is lost if your first readings/lessons do not go perfectly. I always giggle a little before I start reading and do some funny vocal exercises … the language is not as flowing due to longer sentence structure, etc. I have to loosen my tounge to get the rhythm right.
June 22, 2013 at 5:06 pm
Bookworm
Participant
Well, the pairs are paired up with the comparison passages following in almost all adult translation/compilations. I have to say, I would never be able to get through these with 2nd graders! The language is beyond college comprehension, which is why we have to prep them some especially before high school. (By high school the STUDENT can prep some of it.) Which translation are you using? All the ones I have are arranged in pairs with the comparison (if extant) immediately following.
June 22, 2013 at 11:19 pm
Claire
Participant
Oh, I don’t know. My kids have enjoyed/enjoy them. Maybe we started in 3rd? I remember being too intimidated the first year we homeschooled to start them, but we took them up the second year. We go slow. I read them aloud. We narrate along the way and do as I described above.
I don’t have a book of Plutarch’s lives … I’ve enjoyed the Ambleside schedule and suggestions for each life we’ve read. I print what I need for each term. Here is the link describing their method – http://www.amblesideonline.org/PlutarchSch.shtml I think they do a wonderful job of making it approachable. There are translations for every level it seems to me. I’m sure we’re not using the highest level yet. But we are enjoying them immensely.
I do hope you’ll give them a try Nina and Rachel!
June 22, 2013 at 11:35 pm
Faith R Miller
Participant
Is there a particular translation that someone can recommend?
June 23, 2013 at 1:16 am
Bookworm
Participant
I began using AO actually, but they are missing the boat when they do not do the pairs. The children’s translations are really just cute history essays. All the good stuff has been extracted. (As so often happens.) After reading many versions of one story, we decided the Dryden translation edited by Arthur Hugh Clough was by far the best and all the others seem dry and dull. They DO need a bit of prereading.
June 23, 2013 at 3:01 am
Tanya
Participant
Thanks, Bookworm, that is really helpful. And it doesn’t seem so overwhelming if you are doing one pair of lives in a schoolyear (if I’m understanding you correctly). Do you start in the beginning and work your way through? Or do you pick pairs “randomly”?
-Tanya
June 23, 2013 at 4:52 am
Claire
Participant
From the AO site I linked to earlier, I found this description of the version we are using –
The translation Charlotte Mason recommended was that by North, which is also the one Shakespeare would have used and which is full of nice, rich, Shakespearish language. Later on, the poet Dryden re-translated Plutarch, and in the 1800s that translation was edited by Arthur Hugh Clough. Dryden’s version isn’t always as earthy and interesting as North’s, but it is a fairly standard English translation and since it is readily available online it is usually the one that has been used for the notes.
Maybe that’s helpful in some way, to some.

June 23, 2013 at 4:32 pm
Benita
Participant
So, if we stagger our “extras” this year and spend one term on a Shakespeare play and one term on Plutarch – is it feasible to do a “pair” in one twelve week term? I have done one life in twelve weeks before. We use Dryden with Anne White’s guides from AO when applicable.
June 23, 2013 at 4:35 pm
Benita
Participant
Also, would anyone recommend using the Dryden version with my 8th and 10th grader and then using a “retelling” with my 5 th grader? She just doesn’t seem ready for Plutarch although she is ten. Or should I just hold her off completely until she is ready. I was new to Plutarch with the older two and so didn’t start with them until one was twelve almost 13 and the other 11.