Patti's Homeschool Mentoring

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Ideas and Links for Learning About Martin Luther King Jr. in Our Home School:

 Studying Martin Luther King Jr. in Our Home School

 

our house will watch the dream speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk 

 

then do copy work and narration of the dream speech

http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html

 

 for  younger students,  we'll add reading a book on MLK, here's a free one online mini book, you have to sign up to down load:

http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/teachers/minibooks.html

 

 the older students can explore:

http://www.mlkonline.net/

 

 

Whenever we read a biography of a leader, we feel it's important to study their own words.  

My favorite  classic book on Mr. King is:

The Words of Martin Luther King Jr.

http://www.amazon.com/Words-Martin-Luther-King-Newmarket/dp/0937858285

 

 

 

 and National Geographic has a good video on MLK,  after watching have the children narrate back what they heard:

.http://video.kids.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/history-kids/mlk-day-vin-kids.html

 

we'll finish up by creating a  Lapbook to be placed on the book shelf for the student to return to over and over again.   

MLK lapbook (printables too) for those that enjoy lapbooking:

http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/martin_luther_king_jr.htm

 

Thanks to  Homeschool For Free on Facebook for some of these links!

 

Our TJEd Mommy School aka: KidSchool or Home School Co-op in Action!

 

"In short, something truly amazing is happening. It is happening quietly, usually in small groups in unconnected neighborhoods. It is uncoordinated and mostly unorganized. Yet I believe it will shape the 21st Century. In the year 2100, it may well stand out as one of the most important trends of the century. It is quiet, it is spreading, and it is real: Mothers are seeing a need and filling it—themselves." ~~Rachel DeMille

Every Thursday we host a Mommy School

(home school co-op) in our home.

This blog post was inspired by the joy and fellowship

found inside our weekly gatherings,

and by the following essay, which goes right to the heart of the matter: 

What Homeschoolers Want Most:  http://www.tjed.org/2010/12/homeschoolers-want/

We have seventeen families participating in our Mommy School, and the children are separated into three groups: Scholar & Transition to Scholar (high-school age) Love of Learners (elementary through middle school ages) and Core (six and under). 

The common thread of our SW Florida TJEd inspired Mommy School, is that each family values, on some level, A Classical Liberal Arts Education and that we honor the Phases of Learning as described in the book:

Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning 

by, Oliver and Rachel DeMille.

The Phases are:  

Core, Love of Learning, Scholar, Depth, Mission, & Impact

for a quick understanding of the Phases: http://www.tjed.org/?s=phases+of+learning 

Love this photo... Mommy School in Action! The key to a successful Mommy School is to have mentors that have a passion for what they are inspiring!  

***********

"Mom Schools meet according to the needs of the students, and most Mom Schools tend to focus on one or a few areas of expertise. A network of such schools in an area provides a much deeper academic offering than the traditional co-ops. I call them Mom Schools because of the hundred or so I know, only a few are initiated by Dad. But in many of them Dad is partially or very closely involved." ~Rachel DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Home Companion

Our teens are a mixed phase crowd: We have a couple Scholars and the rest are in Transition or Practice Scholar Phase. On this day, they met for their Deeper Thinking Study Group where they rotate through reading Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors and discussing it. They practice and play a Latin game, are discussing the book The One Minute Philosopher and from time to time play Chess. This group is Mentored by one our moms.

 

Meet Ms. Miranda http://mirandasartofliving.squarespace.com/ 

She is our Deeper Thinking Study Group Mentor, Art Teacher and our resident Health Coach. She is the mother of three children , all of whom attend on Thursday.  Miranda plays a big role in our Mommy School where she alternates from Study Group Mentor to Cooking and Nutrition Class Instructor, I can pretty much throw her into any group and she pops the learning!  Today she filled in for our Art Teacher and facilitated the Scholar's Graphic Novel, Art Class.  

 With sketch books in hand, the students worked on understanding the format of a story board. 

From time to time, if we don't have a mom or dad who can Mentor a class, or study group, we go outside our family circle and hire someone. We all pitch in to pay for that person.

Ms. Vivian Hadding is a local artist and home school mom, we hired. 
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1441553613

 

My husband is a part of our Mommy School, he works from our home and stops early on Thursdays to Mentor an American History Study Group, a topic he has much passion for!

Yes, they meet in our bedroom... by the end of a Thursday every room in the house has been used!

Mr. Jerry reads to the students, followed by a lively discussion.  

 Their learning is mostly conversational.

 

Keeping the learning simple and effective!  They read, narrate back, write essay's on the topic, discuss and from time to time present and/or debate in this group.

******

The Call of Community

"Many home schooling parents intrinsically know that their children need a community of other home schoolers.  A community of like-minded people.  A community of people who "get" them."  

"When we decided to start home schooling we really didn't know that it would make our children different somehow.  We wanted something different for our children, but we did not equate that if we offered something different, it would actually make them different."

The New Commonwealth School pg: 16

 

This is our Love of Learning Science Study Group. It is Mentored by Ms. Michelle one of our moms. She has two children attending on Thursday.  You'll see a big age span amongst the participants, as our Core Phase (pre-K ages) usually join in during Science.

Each mom in the group brings with them their unique talents and passions. Ms. Michelle has two children that she is homeschooling, five altogether, and works from home as an editor.  

Every week, Michelle, along with her passion for learning,

brings science to life with fun experiment demonstrations for our

Love of Learning- Liberty Kids and our Core Phase- Acorn home schooler's.

Look at the faces of our littlest participants... so curious! :-)   The lessons are short and sweet and the little children leave when they have seen or done enough.

 

Some of our kids love to present what they have learned (public speaking and additional learning practice) some don't, they have the choice. This is my grand niece, she is a few weeks shy of turning five and has been coming to my Mommy School since she was in diapers. She LOVES playing at school, and eats up everything we have to offer on Thursday's!

Creating Lap Books (hand made, authored by each student, personalized science text book). Each week after the experiment, we create a page in our books. Then we have the opportunity to read what we have learned. At the end of the semester,  we take our books home, to be placed on our shelves, so we can visit with them and continue our learning over and over again.

***** 

 Our TJEd Mommy School does not replace in home education, but is set up to accentuate what the students are already learning in their home schools.  We come together, parents and children, and decide what we want to learn in a group setting, then we look to our families in attendance, or the outside community for a Mentor, someone who would study the subject for fun is best!  

The study groups enable us to bring the learning to life in different, and at times, more effective ways. We get inspired by the people who have passions for what they are Mentoring, and the inspiration is contagious!  It  encourages everyone to help, we are challenged by other points of view, and we (children and adults) get to inspire the others around us.  

We base each study group, as much as possible, from a classic book.  We keep our lessons simple, mostly conversational, and relevant to the students life, and try to avoid Conveyor Belt educational patterns.    We break up the day with movement, the older kids take a walk, the younger ones play outside, as well as inside and, we eat together, each family brings a healthy snack to share.   

The Mommy School gives the children practice at growing up in a community with their primary role models or trusted adults close by, who can redirect and inspire good character development as needed.  

 The parents get much needed support and company in their home schooling endeavors!

 

We call the kids in the Love of Learning Phase-Liberty Kids at our Mommy School.

This is a Liberty Kids- Classic Book Language Arts- Learning Circle and is Mentored by Ms. Patti (that's been my nickname for twenty years now!)  Both pre-K and elementary ages sit through the reading and discuss it with us. I follow the Charlotte Mason philosophy, with a bunch of Waldorf methods sprinkled in, to bring the books to life. 

We read a classic book, discuss it, pull vocabulary words from the days reading and use and define them. From time to time, we take the words and create a story using them.

Each week we take an emotional (preferably)  passage from the reading and copy it. The older kids (when they are ready), don't copy, instead, they listen and write what they hear. They check their own work for structure and punctuation, and correct any mistakes, conditioning them for Scholar- self directed learning.

We draw a picture about the story in our language arts lap book, on the same page as our copy work. Narration plays a big role in our circle, each week we start our gathering taking turns re-telling the story and insights learned. 

We also try and bring some of the books we read to life;  we may do handwork, for instance we made log cabins using wood carving tools when we read the Little House series, we cook, reenact and for the current book The Tale of Despereaux we are creating, out of clay, a diorama of the castle and the characters from the story.

When it is dry, it will be available to play with.

When we do the Language Arts exercises, some pre-k'ers stay, some go off and play. For those in the pre- writing stage- they draw a picture based on the story and dictate to a mom what it is, we write it for them while they watch. When they are ready, we take a word or two and have them trace the words, they also practice writing them underneath.

I always have other moms with me to help and to redirect any behavior issues.  

They are encourage to share their wisdom with the group too!

Example of a Language Arts Lap Book

A Waldorf Inspired Wood Working Hand-Work Circle, creating logs for log cabins.  All ages participate and if a child is not ready to use pocket knives and wood working tools, they let us know, and can watch or practice on soap with a plastic knife.  

When it is time to learn a new skill, we look first to the other kids in the house to Mentor!

For our Core Phase group, whom we call Acorns, I run a Waldorf inspired, short and sweet circle time. We read a classic book, do some singing, finger plays, and movement (YOGA). We do a little journaling, where we draw a picture and dictation, based on the story... the older ones practice copying my writing. We may do some handwork or Waldorf type art.

It is important that the learning activity be natural, so we avoid pre-fab, cookie cutter-popular pre-school and elementary school arts and crafts activities.

Instead, we turn to resources like, water color painting, conte, felt, wax, sewing, knitting, and clay.

The idea when working with Core Phase children is to keep the children moving,  up and down... Contraction (academics short and sweet) and then expansion (movement & play).

For more information on Waldorf inspired art and crafts: http://www.openwaldorf.com/art.html

Talk about passion! Cooking Class with Mentor and Health Coach Miranda a woman who loves what she does!!!  http://mirandasartofliving.squarespace.com/

And, what would a Mommy School be without that -all important-in the background- kind of support? Ms. Christie is that for me. We have been homeschooling  together for fourteen year. Her son and my daughter have grown up together.  She is my go to person!  With help from other moms, she runs the kitchen, sets up the food, does the clean up, helps with the children, and fills in wherever we need her.  

She keeps the space running and knows where everything is so she can acclimate a new family if I am busy and makes sure the kids put everything away in the right place.  

   

We try and host a Mentor Lecture for our Mommy School participants a few times a year. We invite leaders, and inspiring members of our community to come and speak.

This is a photo of Lawrence Reed, President of the Foundation for Economic Education with the children.  Larry has come two years in a row to speak to our families. http://fee.org/people/lawrence-w-reed/ 

The first year, he gave a talk entitled: My Favorite President, Grover Cleveland. The second year, he spoke about Adam Smith,Philosopher and the man considered the, "father of economics". The talk was based on Smith's classic book: The Wealth of Nations.

Parents and students attend the lectures. The parents are encouraged, and come prepared to model group discussions, and to inspire the students into the discussion if needed.

Life Skills practice is a part of our Mommy School. We used drills, saws and muscle to create an Earth Box Organic Garden.

Learning to grow food here in SW Florida has been a challenge.  We've had to overcome the sand problem.  Here is the fruit of our labor!

We are always asking, "who in our group is connected to whom in our community?"  One of our daddies is connected to the fire department.  One day they showed up right outside our front door for a "come to us",  kind of  field trip!  

*****

"The most exciting thing about Mom Schools may be that they promise not only a better education for the rising generation, but they are also educating the parent’s generation in neighborhood after neighborhood across the globe. It is inevitable that this will impact our freedoms, our prosperity, and our future." ~~Rachel DeMille www.TJEd.org

The beauty of multiple age learning is how the older students model for the younger ones! 

Personally, I find that one of the added joys of creating a Mommy School in our home, is that my entire family has attended.

In this photo, my grand niece, my two nephews and the little guy is my grandson ♥♥♥♥

Our Mommy School on Thursday exhausts me, and some weeks I dread it... but always, I mean always, when it is over, and the last family leaves at 6pm,  I realize I am exhausted in a most soulful and very good way!  

I am blessed to be a part of each one of these families lives!

 Every one of them, adults and children, are here because they want to be, and they each bring their  positive energy, so full of inspiration for all of us!!! 

My daughter, niece, nephews and grandsons are equally blessed to have this wonderful community to grow up in!!! ♥

This Friday morning I woke to find this on my chalk board...

Warming my heart and creating  :-) BIG SMILES :-) 

((HUGS)) to whomever wrote it yesterday!

 ~~~:-)p

This magazine has been by our side through most of our fourteen years of home schooling! ♥

Life Learning Magazine

www.lifelearningmagazine.com

Life Learning Magazine is a digital magazine that provides information about unschooling, self-directed learning, unstructured homeschooling, autodidacticism, and deschooling.

The Google Science Fair is Under Way! Are you a 13-18 year old who loves science? If you are, or know someone who is, tune into this channel to learn about the first ever Google Science Fair. You'll get details about how you can submit your own project online and be inspired by some famous scientists!

Google Science Fair Channel

http://www.youtube.com/googlesciencefair

http://www.youtube.com/googlesciencefair

Our friend Melissa sent this: Have you seen these History teachers??? I've watched a couple, they are cute.

History for Music Lovers

http://www.youtube.com/user/historyteachers

Music videos we made to make teaching history more fun!

Two days in the life of a home schooling fourteen year old: Car Schooling Tuesday & Tutor and Private Lesson Wednesday

Two days in the life of a home schooling fourteen year old:   

Her Facebook Status Tuesday:  

HUGE day! Reading on chair, reading on couch, reading in passenger's seat of van, reading in the very back seat of the van, more reading in the passenger's seat, lunch at Panera, even more reading in the passenger's seat, shopping at Kohl's, reading in the passenger's seat, shopping at Walmart, reading in the passenger's seat, Bob Levy lecture, now I'm home, and will probably read in bed. Lots of time w/ Mommy, and it was great! ♥

Car Schooling Tuesday:

~Woke up, breakfast, family work, read the Kite Runner, took notes, researched, and checked Facebook a couple times to say hi to friends. Went with mom to get x-rays after lunch, watched, learned, and asked questions.  Read and studied while driving around doing errands.  Spent some time memorizing new music notes, and mom tested me on them while eating an early dinner at Panera Bread. Stopped by Kohl’s and got some new clothes. Back in the car, I read aloud the TJEd for Teens book to Mom and we discussed the chapter on acquiring 5,000 hours of study in the Teen Scholar Phase, what a specialized education is, and the difference between intellect and intelligence.

The discussion today led us to deciding that I would sign up for Aleks Math Online, with TJEd.org.  We finished up the day by attending a lecture on the Constitution and its relevance, with speaker Robert Levy, President of CATO Institute. 

Mr. Levy is like a Rock Star in our teen circle.  My daughter and her friend were happy to have their picture taken with him!

 

Back home at 9pm, I am finishing writing a paper on Survival vs. Goodness for my Mentor Meeting with Ms. Black tomorrow. The paper has been developed based on the book Ender's Shadow and our discussions that followed; my Mentor hopes to publish the paper at the Center for Social Leadership, Youth site.  http://www.thesocialleader.com/ 

 

 Tutor & Private Lesson Wednesday:    

~Woke up, family work, headed over to the Island Racket Club for my 10am tennis lesson. I played well in the cold today, then came home for a quick shower. My piano tutor came at 11:45 for my piano lesson, and after that I spent a half hour watching and playing with my nephews. At 1:30 I met with Ms. Black, online, for my weekly Mentor Meeting. We discussed my schedule and the TJEd Planner, followed by a book discussion on my current read, The Kite Runner. We went over a paper I am writing on Survival vs. Goodness, inspired by the book Ender's Shadow; she is helping me develop my thoughts deeper. Ms. Black will be critiquing my paper over the next week and I’ll get my results next Wednesday. We also discussed my music studies and the TJEd for Teen’s chapter that I read with mom in the car yesterday. After our meeting I studied voice and finished my voice lesson homework. At 4:30 I had a voice lesson, then after I read a little more in the Kite Runner and spent the next few hours writing for fun.  I’ve been writing a novel and finally finished chapter 19. It's 227 pages so far. Then this evening I watched the President on TV, from the Tucson and America Memorial for the Arizona shooting victims with mom and dad. Afterwards, we had a small discussion about it.     

 

Life Skills Classes & Introduction to Family Work Boards

Here’s a question from a home school mom about…

 Life Skills Classes & and Introduction to Family Work Boards 

 

Hi Patti,

Have any of your TJEd parents developed any Adult Skills Class like the examples in the TJEd Home Companion?   Just wondering before I set out to reinvent the wheel.   ~~Sheils S.

~~ Some of the Life Skills Classes mentioned in the book are designed for parents to offer their own children, to facilitate the learning of common adult skills, and the acquisition of adult level responsibilities.  I have used these classes with my daughter and they work very well. 

You will find class descriptions on the following:  Baking, Preparing Meals, Grocery Shopping, Household Chores, Basic Auto and Household Equipment Maintenance.  

An example of a Class:

Baking:

Course Description: Learn how to bake a large variety of items.  Become such a great baker that you can fro it without assistance. 

Method: Learn from Mom how to bake all the items on the list.  Practice with Mom’s help until you can bake each thing without Mom around.  Have Mom sign off that you did it.  At this point Mom has created a Life Skills Sheet with the list and place for her initials when complete. 

Graduation: We will throw a big graduation party for you, and invite your friends to attend.  You’ll be the baker and treat everyone to a feast of your favorite baked items!

 

My Response:

Sorry Sheila, nothing organized that you can copy. Most of us are just going through our days and, when it comes to life skills, like the ones mentioned in the book, we take the kids along and show them and then test them when they think they have acquired the skill.  In my home school we have a list in our TJEd Planner and I sign off for my daughter there.   So in essence, we are all reinventing the wheel in an effort to personalize the tasks our family needs to learn.

My daughter is 14 now, so many of these tasks are being turned over to her. The chores/task- to academic study ratio is about three to one. One quarter chores each day, the rest is set aside for study time, since she is in transition to scholar phase.

It's pretty much the same for most of our friends who are teaching Life Skills to their teens.  The kids start doing the cooking, shopping, cleaning, fixing and organizing of space.  Which skills they study is decided based on what each family needs to manage their everyday lives.

Most of us that started Life Skills teaching later in our kids’ lives are still following the older children around, teaching them or modeling for them, how to do the tasks, or sending them back to re-do, if the job/task was not done well.

In our home school, we get up and start our days doing the chores/tasks together, before we go into studies. When the children are little we pretty much stay with them until they are able to do it on their own and the focus is mostly on doing chores and family work and, not academics in the home school.

Since my daughter is fourteen, if we are having a dinner party, she automatically knows she is a part of helping in the cleaning of the home, atmosphere décor, making the meal and cleanup, which we do when everyone leaves.   

 

Miranda from Miranda’s Art of Living http://mirandasartofliving.squarespace.com/

Is teaching cooking, nutrition and health classes at our weekly TJEd KidSchool which has been a big inspiration for wanting to learn about different foods and food preparation, as well. 

 

We follow Fly Lady's http://www.flylady.net/pages/df_monday.asp program for household chores, which I love because of its effectiveness, and what and how it teaches a person to manage their life and space.  It pays attention to every nook and cranny of the home inside and out and, the program also pays attention to self-care as well!  

So I would recommend using Fly Lady, as a way to not reinvent the wheel when Mentoring Life Skills and, when they start transitioning to Scholar phase include the TJEd Planner into the plan.

Sheila’s Response: Hi Patti thanks.

Mine are a few years behind your daughter, ages 12,9 & 3. I've attached our new "family work" board if you would like to share it. It's working and keeping things tidy around here and the kids love it too!! I have used FlyLady in the past and will likely introduce them to it as they get older. We are now working first before school.  Love the TJEd prospective on chores, looking forward to raising adults, not students. :) ~ Sheila S.

Aaahhh, yes! Raising Adults! ~~patti

So, would you mind telling me how your work board -works?

 Sheila S. on Family Work Boards:

Just as she describes in the Home Companion;  everyone has their own self decorated In and Out box, (except dad because he is at work all day for us). I labeled the Chart intentionally "Family Work" not Chore Chart because I wanted my children to realize we are a family, and this is family work. A family that lives together, makes messes together, cleans our home together. To emphasis this point I added the quote at the bottom. I started with her household chore list in the book and added and deleted to fit our home.

The top green pocket holds all of our household chores both indoors and out. Each morning or sometimes the night before, I sort through the chores that need to be completed for the day.

An "A" chore is more difficult than a “B” chore, cleaning the tub vs cleaning the bathroom mirror for example. Each child chooses 4 "A" jobs for the day, one "A" job/chore = 2 "B". Each day the choices are different bases on the cleaning needs of our home. I receive chores as well and move my  chore sheet from the IN and Out as a model for them. We all select our chore for the day at our morning gathering at breakfast.

 

I am happy to report this new method of chore assignments since Jan 1 has been well embraced by all. I am viewing chores as training adults who can take care of their own home someday and, not just cleaning all day because we are a family that makes messes,  quite a different perspective!

The girls are learning tasks that I never ask them to do before and feeling proud a confident in what they are learning. My 9 year old just learned how to clean the stove and oven inside, out and underneath, from complete top to bottom. Wow, was she proud of her accomplishment!

My next task is to tackle the adult skill classes. I hope to introduce this to them in the next few days with the baking, meal preparation, and grocery shopping classes to start.

I hope I did not leave anything out...please let me now if have any questions.

Yes, and we made Dream/Goal broads as our New Year Eve activity...thanks for all your wonderful ideas!!  ~~Sheila

 
 

Classic Book List

A good book can capture the imagination, while very subtly improving our child's knowledge of the world, of grammar and spelling, of vocabulary and a list of other benefits.  But more than that, a good book is both entertaining and thought provoking.  While there are many great books written today, here you will find the classics. 

 Most of the books on these lists of classical books or reads were published in the book "A Thomas Jefferson Education" by Oliver Van DeMille. The lists are found in the appendices of the book and are categorized by age group of the reader.

 The rest are some of my family's favorites.

  These are by no means all of the classics that are worthwhile to read! It's a list to get you started. Each family should choose which books fit their world view, interests and paradigms. 

  As you go through your home schooling journey, your reads will lead to other books so, I suggest you keep an ongoing list of your own somewhere handy.  

 

Contents

 1. Appendix A

2 Appendix B-2

3 Appendix B-1

4 Sources

5 External links

 

[edit]Appendix A

Appendix A is the 100 classic reads for adults.

Acton, The History of Freedom

John Adams, "Thoughts on Government"[1]

Aquinas, "On Kingship"

Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics

Aristotle, Politics

Aristotle, Rhetoric

Augustine, The City of God

Aurelius, Meditations

Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Austen, Sense and Sensibility

Bacon, Novum Organum

Bhagavad Gita

Bastait, The Law

Bastait, "What is Seen and Not Seen"

Benson, "The Proper Role of Government"

The Bible

Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy

Bronte, Wuthering Heights

Bronte, Jane Eyre

Carson, The American Tradition

Capra, The Tao of Physics

Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Churchill, Collected Speeches

Cicero, The Republic

Cicero, The Laws

Clausewitz, On War

Confucius, Analects

The Constitution of the United States

Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Dante, The Divine Comedy

The Declaration of Independence

DeFoe, Robinson Crusoe

Descartes, A Discourse on Method

Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Dickens, Great Expectations

Douglas, Magnificent Obsession

Durant, A History of Civilization

Einstein, Relativity

Emerson, Collected Essays

Euclid, Elements

Frank, Alas Babylon

Franklin, Letters and Writings

Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents

Galileo, Two New Sciences

Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Goethe, Faust

Hobbes, Leviathan

Homer, The Iliad

Homer, The Odyssey

Hugo, Les Miserables

Hume, Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary

Jefferson, Letters, Speeches, and Writings

Keegan, History of Warfare

Kepler, Epitome

Martin Luther King, Jr., Collected Speeches

Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Lavoisier, Elements of Chemistry

Lewis, Mere Christianity

Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Lincoln, Collected Speeches

Locke, Second Treatise of Government

Machiavelli, The Prince

Madison, Hamilton and Jay, The Federalist Papers

Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto

More, Utopia

The Magna Charta

Mill, On Liberty

Milton, Paradise Regained

Mises, Human Action

The Monroe Doctrine

Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

Newton, Mathematical Principles

Nichomachus, Introduction to Arithmetic

Neitzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

The Northwest Ordinance

Orwell, 1984

Plato, Collected Works

Polybius, Histories

Potok, The Chosen

Plutarch, Lives

Ptolemy, Almagest

Qu’ran

Shakespeare, Collected Works

Skousen, The Five Thousand Year Leap

Skousen, The Majesty of God's Law

Skousen, The Making of America

Smith, The Wealth of Nations

Solzhenitsyn, "A World Split Apart"

Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

Sophocles, Oedipus Trilogy

Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Thackeray, Vanity Fair

Torah

Thoreau, Walden

Tolstoy, War and Peace

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian Wars

Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Washington, Letters, Speeches, and Writings

Weaver, Mainspring of Human Progress

Wister, The Virginian

 

[edit]Appendix B-2

Appendix B-2 are classics for older youth to read and discuss with their mentors.

Alice in Wonderland - Carroll

Animal Farm - Orwell

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

The Anne of Green Gables series - Montgomery

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

“Battle Hymn of the Republic”

Ben Hur: A Tale of Christ - Wallace

The Bible

Brighty of the Grand Canyon - Henry

Black Beauty - Sewell

The Black Stallion series – Farley

The Bronze Bow, Speare

Caddie Woodlawn, Brink

Calico Bush, Field

The Chronicles of Narnia series - Lewis

The Collected Verse of Edgar A Guest

“Concord Hymn” - Emerson

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court - Samuel Clemens

The Constitution of the United States

David Copperfield - Dickens

Davy Crockett Legends - Irwin Shapiro

The Declaration of Independence

The Deerslayer – Cooper

The Defender, Kalashnikoff

Don Quixote de la Mancha - Miguel de Cervantes

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Stevenson

The Dred Scott Decision

The Education of Henry Adams

Eight Cousins - Alcott

Emily Post’s Etiquette

Ender's Game

“In Flanders Fields”

Flatland - Abbott

The Foundation series - Asimov

Frankenstein - Shelley

“The Gettysburg Address” - Lincoln

“Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” – Henry

The Giver, Lowrey

The Great Brain series - Fitzgerald

Gulliver’s Travels - Swift

Hamilton’s Mythology - Hamilton

Hamlet - Shakespeare

Heidi - Spry

The Hiding Place - Boom

History Reborn

The Hobbit - Tolkien

Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of - Twain

“I Have a Dream” - King

Ivanhoe - Scott

Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell

Joan of Arc - Twain

Jo's Boys - Alcott

A Journey to the Center of the Earth - Verne

Julius Caesar (play) - Shakespeare

The Jungle Book - Kipling

King Arthur and the Round Table - Malory

Laddie - Porter

The Last of the Mohicans - Cooper

“Let America be America Again” - Hughes

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

The Little Britches series - Moody

Little Lord Fauntleroy - Burnett

Little Men - Alcott

Little Women - Alcott

The Lonesome Gods - L'Amour

Lord of the Rings series - Tolkien

“The Man with the Hoe”

Mathematicians are People, Too (2 volumes) - Reimer

Moby Dick - Melville

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Douglass

National Velvet - Bagnold

Noah Webster’s Original 1828 Dictionary - Webster

North to Freedom - Holm

“O Captain! My Captain!” - Whitman

“Old Ironsides” - Holmes

Old Yeller - Gipson

Oliver Twist - Dickens

On Numbers - Conway

Paul Bunyan – Sheperd

Tales From Shakespeare, Lamb

Tarzan of the Apes, Burroughs

The Phantom Tollbooth - Juster

"The Present Crisis" - Lowell

The Real Benjamin Franklin - Allison

The Real George Washington - Parry and Allison

The Real Thomas Jefferson - Allison

“The Road Not Taken” s:The Road Not Taken - Frost

The Robe - Douglas

Robinson Crusoe - DeFoe

Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare

The Sackett series - L'Amour

Sarah Bishop, O’Dell

The Saxon Math series - Saxon

The Secret Garden - Burnett

Shipwrecked

Soldiers, Statesmen, and Heroes - Parry

Sonnets of Shakespeare - Shakespeare

Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers - Kavanaugh

Stuart Little - White

The Summer of the Monkeys - Wilson Rawls

The Swiss Family Robinson - Wyss

Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of - Twain

Treasure Island - Stevenson

The Trumpet of the Swans - White

“Ulysses” - Tennyson

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle - Lofting

The Walking Drum - L'Amour

Where the Red Fern Grows - Rawls

White Fang - London

William Tell

The Yearling - Rawlings

 

[edit]Appendix B-1

Appendix B-1 are classics to be read to young children.

A Christmas Carrol, Dickens

A Little Princess, Burnett

At the Back of North Wind, Mac Donald

Aesop’s Fables - Aesop

Andersen’s Fairy Tales – Anderson

A Wrinkle in Time, L’Engle

Aladdin and  Other Favorite Arabian Night Stories, Smith

Beauty and the Beast

The Bible

The Blind Men and the Elephant

Carry on Mr. Bowditch, Latham

“Casey at Bat”[2] – Thayer

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dahl

Charlotte’s Web - White

Chicken Little

A Christmas Carol - Dickens

Cinderella

Curious George, Rey

Dinotopia series – Gurney

The Dorr In The Wall, Angeli

Dr. Seuss series

The Emperor's New Clothes - Anderson

The Fourth Wise Man

The Gift of the Magi - Henry

The Giving Tree - Silverstein

“God Save the Flag” – Holmes

The Golden Goblet, McGraw

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg - Aesop

Grimm's Fairy Tales - Grimm

“The Highwayman”[3]

Hansel and Gretel - Grimm

Jack and the Beanstalk,

Johnny Tremain, Forbes

Just So Stories - Kipling

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Irving

“Lincoln, The Man of the People” - Markham

“Little Boy Blue”[4] - Field

Little Bea, Minarik

The Little Engine that Could

The Little House on the Prairie series - Wilder

The Little Red Hen

Little Red Riding Hood

The McGuffey Readers

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

The Tale of Despereaux,  Kate DiCamillo.

 “Paul Revere’s Ride”[5] - Longfellow

Peter Pan - Barrie

Peter Rabbit - Potter

The Pied Piper of Hamlin

Pinocchio

The Adventures of Pinocchio – Colladi

The Princess and Curdie, MacDonald

The Princess and the Goblin, MacDonald

The Princess and the Pea

Pollyanna - Porter

The Princess and the Pea - Anderson

Puss-in-Boots - Perrault

Rapunzel - Grimm

Riki Tiki Tavi - Kipling

Rip Van Winkle - Irving

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Pyle

Rumpelstiltskin - Grimm               

Rudyard Kipling Just So Stories

The Sign of the Beaver, Speare

Sleeping Beauty - Perrault

The Song of Hiawatha - Longfellow

Snow White – Grimm

Stewart Little, White

Tales of the Arabian Nights

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

The Three Little Pigs

Toby Tyler, Otis

Tom Thumb

The Trumpet of the Swan, White

The Trumpeter of Krakow, Kelly

"Twas the Night Before Christmas"[6]

The Ugly Duckling - Anderson

The Wind in the Willows - Grahame

Winnie-the-Pooh series – Milne

Winter of Fire, Jordoan

The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Speare

The Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Baum

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Read the Classics

 

WHY READ THE CLASSICS?

#1: They Teach Us Human Nature

Classics can teach us without the pain of repeating certain mistakes ourselves. Classics allow us to experience the greatest mistakes and successful choices of human history. If we learn from these, we will make fewer mistakes and have more successes. At a deeper level, knowing how others think, feel and act allows us to predict behavior and lead accordingly. ~ A Thomas Jefferson Education pg. 62

 

 We must read the classics, and families must lead out, or we will cease to be the kind of nation that deserves success, prosperity, civilization or happiness. This may seem too dramatic; but the reality is that Greece, Rome, Egypt, Israel and other great civilizations in history fell the same way, following a similar pattern. We may think we are above that; so did they.   ~TJEd, p 61

#2 We come Face-to-Face with Greatness, which is the first step to becoming great ourselves. Moses on Sinai, Buddha leaving the castle, Christ at Gethsemane, the caves of Mohammad and Plato, Paul on Mars Hill, Adam’s reaching finger, Washington at Valley Forge, Hamlet, Shylock, Othello, Macbeth, MacDuff, Hector, Penelope and Jane Eyre. Who we are changes as we are inspired by close contact with these.

 

 #3 Human beings need a frontier in order to progress. We do have one frontier left: the frontier within. In all of history, this frontier has not been fully conquered. The most challenging struggles of life are internal—and the classics can help. The classics deal with the real questions of life, our deepest concerns: joy, pain, fear, love, hate, courage, anger, death, faith, and others.

#4 Like barbells in a weightlifting room, the classics force us to either put them down or exert our minds. The classics make us struggle, search, ponder, seek, analyze, discover, decide, and reconsider. As with physical exercise, the exertion leads to pleasing results as we metamorphose and experience the pleasure of doing something wholesome and difficult that changes us for the better.

 #5- The Classics Connect Us To Our Stories:  The classics are the ark, the preserver, of stories which unite the cultures and the generations. Our personal set of stories, our canon, shapes our lives. I believe it is a law of the universe that we will not rise above our canon. And the characters and teachings in our canon shape our characters—good, evil, mediocre, or great.

 

~TJEd p. 65

#6-If you were evacuated to another planet and could take one book upon which to base the teaching of your family and establishing right for your community, what would it be? Your answer is a good indication of what your national book (canon) might be. Are your companion books through life in line with your canon? What about your definitions of good and evil? Is your life in keeping with your canon?   "When you re-read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before."  ~Clifton Fadiman

 

"When you re-read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before."

 ~Clifton Fadiman

Thomas Jefferson Education asked: Why study the classics?

Here is what some home schoolers said over on the TJEd Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Thomas.Jefferson.Education

W.H. said: I would say because doing so takes communication to a higher level. When communicating with another who is well read, one might say, "I love Big Brother," or "Who is John Galt" or "some animals are more equal than others “or” in a Machiavellian sense..." or “as iron sharpens iron”. To the unread these words at face value are worthless, but to those who have read common classics, a few words like these insert entire ideologies, emotions and complex thoughts. The difference in communicating with and without being well read is like doing a complex math problem, long hand or using a computer. Additionally in my case, I learn more about punctuation, vocabulary and spelling by observation than I ever did through instruction, but that is just the way my mind works. I did not really start reading until I was 30, but boy I wished I would have.

Thursday at 9:52am · Like ·  4 people ·

Thomas Jefferson Education said:  I love that comment! It is said of George Wythe that his legal decisions on the bench were a tutorial in the classics as his allusions chased one another up and down the page. Words are impregnated with meaning when we know the stories behind them. Like when Abigail Adams signed a letter, "Penelope." Such a wealth of love and fealty in one word--and they both clearly understood the allusion. And it was beautiful not just because of the information is transferred, but because it engaged both the mind and the heart in the reading of it, and its brevity was fraught with intimacy.

Thursday at 11:05am · Like ·  3 people ·

M. P. said: I like both of these comments, but I'd like to add something. Reading the classics not only teaches us about communication, but also about human nature in general. Human nature doesn't change through the generations or centuries. Learning about what happened in ancient Rome helps us better understand our OWN nature. As we understand our own nature better, we can make better decisions and get along with different people better.

Thursday at 11:32am · Like ·  3 people ·

Thomas Jefferson Education said: Totally agree. Sometimes see ourselves more clearly when we look in the heart and mind of an actor in a story than after days-long introspection.

Thursday at 11:34am · Like ·

K. B. said:  I believe that reading the classics teaches us two things. First, like M., said it teaches human nature and second, it teaches us history while inspiring us to look deeper and learn even more. As the old adage goes, "Those who do not learn from history and bound to repeat it" and it is so much easier to learn from a book than by experience.

Thursday at 11:53am · Like ·  1 person ·

S. H. said: I am starting, thanks to you!

Thursday at 12:11pm · Like ·

B. J. said:   When I read classics, they send me to other classics--for reference, verification, refutation. When I am well-versed in classics, I can see or hear with my heart so much more in the work or discussion--and in myself and other people. I can have a conversation with the author/speaker on his or her terms.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo for the first time (hanging my head in shame). As I've been reading, I'm noting and researching all the references to other classics Dumas makes. It's astounding everything I would miss if I didn't know these things or look them up! I'm learning so much and experiencing the work on such a different level. Plus, I'm learning about myself and others--as M. said, human nature. I love the classics!

Thursday at 12:32pm · Like ·  2 people ·

L. D. said: Reading the classics is like doing genealogy. It is from the classics we see whence we sprang, why we live the way we do. The fact that the classics are no longer being taught in favor of more modern literature and textbooks is apparent in political and economic arenas. It's okay to look back; we will not turn into salt like Lot's wife.

Thursday at 1:32pm · Like ·  1 person ·

B. K. @ K.B said: -you said it's easier to learn from books than from experience, I think I'm one of those stronger not smarter types that seem to need experience to learn. Do you do anything special to facilitate learning from books? I love to read, but find it hard to figure out sometimes exactly what I really could be learning from the source. Are there typical questions you ask yourself while reading? Do you treat fiction and non fiction differently and how so if you do? These sound like odd questions looking at them but I really would like to get more out of reading the classics, and I think I can but I tink there's more take home than just the face value usually.

Friday at 12:22am · Like ·

M. B. said:  Reading the classics gives us, at our instant disposal, an army of mentors to guide us in the dilemmas of our day. Any thing I might be struggling with-truly, any thing, has been faced and handled before, either well or badly. I can take the time before acting to seek the council of many who have experienced those same dilemmas ahead of me and then proceed with action based on a variety of examples and wise or ill council. I think that is so fascinating and exciting!

****

As for me, all of the above applies.  @ B.K.  I too learn from doing, the energy of motion and practice is necessary for me to assimilate.  So, I have a system that I follow while reading that was born out of me not really learning what others were getting out of a read.  I learned that I needed to become disciplined in my study.  I have questions that I ask myself before and while I read.  While reading, if there are references, I stop and look into them and anything uncommon to me I look up.  If there are math problems, science formulas, etc., I stop and practice the application of them or find someone to show me.   The first questions I ask about a book usually come from a previous read since one book always leads to another.   I have acquired the habit of taking lots of notes and I have a stream lined system for that note taking; things like different colored highlighter and the particular place I write the note in the book applies to different learning or application.  I not only ask myself  who, what, where, when and how the passage reminds me of something, but, also, how I feel about it, which has become just as important for me to jot down.   

 I learned early on that I needed to write my thoughts directly after each reading session even if it was only a short paragraph that I read.  I take advantage of online study guides, using their questions about a book to help in my discussion and/or writing and I’m careful not to read the opinion pieces before I form my own.   Also, I love online discussion groups and more importantly, having someone (a mentor) take me through the read has been the key to seeing how and what I can learn from a classic book.    

 Reading the classics allows me to learn according to my level of awareness and phase of development.  Re-reading, keeps the ever growing learning opportunity a pleasure!