Hello Amanda! I just listened to your chat with Autumn Kern and I have a question. I have 6 children, my oldest is going into 9th grade and we have curriculum picks already, unfortunately because we are a one income family I can’t commit to buying a second curriculum (TCT) at this time, but I was wondering if you have a more affordable option to purchase a booklist, so no full curriculum, no lesson plans, etc, just a list books to be read by each level? Or can you point me to a resource on what Good Books we should be reading by what grades? Thank you so much! Definitely considering TCT for future years with my littles.
You can find the full 1,000 Good Books list in the back of Death of Christian Culture by John Senior, and there is a free pdf version online if you google it! That said, I never want cost to be a barrier to someone accessing TCT. If you really desire to use it in spite of the financial limitations of the moment, feel free to email me.
Would you organize the upper years according to chronological history stream, or based on the reading level of Seniors books? Also, what is the upper age limit that your y 5 or 6 is good for? Would it be too easy for my middle two boys, age 10 and 11? We've already read a lot of Twain, Stevenson, Dickens etc.
That is a good question. I can't say definitively, because I haven't gotten that far yet, but suspect it will be a mixture of both - having some aspects of chronological, but also having other dynamic choices based off of Senior's list. I see the value of having chronological teaching in the upper years, but I also think people can become overly rigid if they only focus on the time period they are in rather than the suitedness of the student for particular books at specific times. I really appreciated the episode of Scholé Sisters that addresses this with Angelina Stanford as a guest titled "History as a Center Cannot Hold". I think your boys sound like a perfect fit for the Years 4-6 loop. I'd recommend taking a peak at the previous article "TCT Must-Reads" to give you a partial taste of some of the authors being covered in those years. So many great ones like Howard Pyle, Frederick Marryat, Johann Wyss, Plutarch, etc. There is also a sample Year 5 timetable in the shop at thechildrenstradition.com.
Thank you Amanda. We've done a lot of Pyle too (love him!) Children of the New Forest etc, the one we've never done is Henty. Is there any Henty scheduled or is he a free read? Also how difficult is it to sub books, or do you recommend re reading books if they were read a few years ago? Lastly, are many of the books difficult to find? We are in Canada and getting older books or even Yesterday's Classics can be a challenge!
Henty is scheduled for the bulk of history, and there are extra Henty’s for free-reads. It is very easy to sub books with TCT; I made it with homeschool DIYers particularly in mind. The books from the 1,000 Good Books list for Adolescents are listed in the back by genre, so that can also be a helpful tool in making substitutions. That said, I also encourage rereading, so it’s really up to you! Lewis said literary people read their favorite books 20-30 times 😉 I’m not on that level yet, but that idea from Experiment in Criticism is the basis for why I encourage re-reading. It communicates a powerful thing to our children when they realize they can get more and more out of a good book every time they read it! As to the books being difficult to find, I would say some will be no problem, others there can be a challenge. I have tried to get many of mine as hardbacks, which is an extra challenge, but I think the majority could be found in a paperback version on Amazon. The reprints aren’t always formatted great, but they’re better than nothing. Also, Cor Jesus Press is working on reprinting some of the harder-to-find books right now!
Hello Amanda! I just listened to your chat with Autumn Kern and I have a question. I have 6 children, my oldest is going into 9th grade and we have curriculum picks already, unfortunately because we are a one income family I can’t commit to buying a second curriculum (TCT) at this time, but I was wondering if you have a more affordable option to purchase a booklist, so no full curriculum, no lesson plans, etc, just a list books to be read by each level? Or can you point me to a resource on what Good Books we should be reading by what grades? Thank you so much! Definitely considering TCT for future years with my littles.
You can find the full 1,000 Good Books list in the back of Death of Christian Culture by John Senior, and there is a free pdf version online if you google it! That said, I never want cost to be a barrier to someone accessing TCT. If you really desire to use it in spite of the financial limitations of the moment, feel free to email me.
Thank you very much!
Would you organize the upper years according to chronological history stream, or based on the reading level of Seniors books? Also, what is the upper age limit that your y 5 or 6 is good for? Would it be too easy for my middle two boys, age 10 and 11? We've already read a lot of Twain, Stevenson, Dickens etc.
That is a good question. I can't say definitively, because I haven't gotten that far yet, but suspect it will be a mixture of both - having some aspects of chronological, but also having other dynamic choices based off of Senior's list. I see the value of having chronological teaching in the upper years, but I also think people can become overly rigid if they only focus on the time period they are in rather than the suitedness of the student for particular books at specific times. I really appreciated the episode of Scholé Sisters that addresses this with Angelina Stanford as a guest titled "History as a Center Cannot Hold". I think your boys sound like a perfect fit for the Years 4-6 loop. I'd recommend taking a peak at the previous article "TCT Must-Reads" to give you a partial taste of some of the authors being covered in those years. So many great ones like Howard Pyle, Frederick Marryat, Johann Wyss, Plutarch, etc. There is also a sample Year 5 timetable in the shop at thechildrenstradition.com.
Thank you Amanda. We've done a lot of Pyle too (love him!) Children of the New Forest etc, the one we've never done is Henty. Is there any Henty scheduled or is he a free read? Also how difficult is it to sub books, or do you recommend re reading books if they were read a few years ago? Lastly, are many of the books difficult to find? We are in Canada and getting older books or even Yesterday's Classics can be a challenge!
Henty is scheduled for the bulk of history, and there are extra Henty’s for free-reads. It is very easy to sub books with TCT; I made it with homeschool DIYers particularly in mind. The books from the 1,000 Good Books list for Adolescents are listed in the back by genre, so that can also be a helpful tool in making substitutions. That said, I also encourage rereading, so it’s really up to you! Lewis said literary people read their favorite books 20-30 times 😉 I’m not on that level yet, but that idea from Experiment in Criticism is the basis for why I encourage re-reading. It communicates a powerful thing to our children when they realize they can get more and more out of a good book every time they read it! As to the books being difficult to find, I would say some will be no problem, others there can be a challenge. I have tried to get many of mine as hardbacks, which is an extra challenge, but I think the majority could be found in a paperback version on Amazon. The reprints aren’t always formatted great, but they’re better than nothing. Also, Cor Jesus Press is working on reprinting some of the harder-to-find books right now!