How to Implement the Philosophy of TCT in the Upper Years

I have received numerous questions about how to carry the philosophy of The Children’s Tradition into the upper years. While I will likely write that portion of the curriculum in the years ahead, that would be at least a couple years away. For that reason, I thought the best I can do is write an article explaining what information I have that may be of service to moms DIYing those upper years. I have also written an article on the must-reads from TCT for students of all ages, many of which might form a necessary “on-boarding” year or two for older students. After they have covered the books from that article, the following will give you an idea of how to formulate a holistic gymnastic and musical education for students in the upper years.

Devotional Life

• Aid child in the formation of a personal Prayer Rule.

• Keep reading through the Bible. Rotate between choosing one OT book and one NT book to do a deeper study of. 

• Keep moving through the Psalms to sing. 

• Select scriptures for memorization/contemplation.

• Read historic Christian writings from your tradition. 

• Keep reading the Lives of Saints or Christian biographies.

Gymnastic

• Folk Dancing

• Boys: Competitive Sports, Home Repair Skills

• Girls: Physical Fitness, Homemaking Skills

• Musical Instrument Lessons (which is both Gymnastic and Musical in substance)

Folk Songs

• Students should be playing folk songs on instrument(s) of choice.

Writing and Composition

• Consult resources like Know and Tell by Karen Glass to gauge proper expectations for oral and written narrations.

• Look at something like the Progymnasmata to teach composition. The Scholé Sisters have a class on its implementation in their Sistership. Lost Tools of Writing is another option to consider.

• Continue with beautiful copywork of delightful poems, writings, speeches, etc. in various fonts. Introduce the skill of illuminating manuscripts.

Drawing

• Continue with formal drawing lessons, possibly moving on to painting. Students should also be doing a lot more drawing and brush drawing for nature study in the upper years.

Languages

• Latin: Continue Latin studies. I do not have a program to recommend at this time. For students who have not done Latin previously, Latin Through Stories by the University of Dallas still seems like a great option.

Humane Letters

• Poetry: Selected works from 1,000 Good Books List. Continue to memorize poetry. 

• Literature: “Adolescent” and “Youth” sections of the 1,000 Good Books List

• History: I will use Senior’s 1,000 Good Book history selections (from “Adolescent” and “Youth” sections") to form the core of our history stream, and then I will utilize Norms and Nobility by David Hicks as a reference on first-hand resources like speeches, documents, etc that wouldn’t fall within the scope of the Good Books list. We will continue to learn about artists and composers from the past. 

• Do Ourselves by Charlotte Mason at least one more time in the upper years.

Nature Study

• John Senior recommended nature study to continue through high school. Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock is still an excellent resource, even for this age. In many ways, the upper years is when Nature Study gets to become serious, with students making detailed drawings and notes of any and everything they inquire into. 

Star-Gazing

Keep getting outside to look at the stars. Keep reading Star-Lore by William Tyler Olcott, unless students have read through it all and can identify all the visible constellations. The next book he wrote was A Field Book of the Stars, which can take a student to the next level of learning in this area. After that, I confess your student is beyond my personal knowledge, and you will probably have a much better idea of what comes next than I do!