Stepping up to Seventh Grade

Next year - that is 2009 will see my oldest enter 7th-ish grade. She's not quite likely to be ready, so apart from the subjects that get their by the do the next thing method. We will probably wait for a year or such. But the question raised itself or are we going to do a classical ed, or simply a language arts based, living book one. The though of the first scares me a little as we get closer, not that I don't want to go there , I just don't feel confident.

It is good for me to admit this because it has been a long time since I have really had to admit that - but there it is Logic, Rhetoric and the progym scare me. Normally not much academic does- I can normally get my head around most things if I can see it - but these things are a little harder to see. At least they are from here in New Zealand.

So yesterday I took the plunge and ordered all the books that I have been avoiding for years - mainly because they didn't have direct relevance to our school days ...

My 2008 Reading list

• Finalizing workbooks from my PDF copy of Mother Tongue - which is also my personal grammar study.

• Wisdom And Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm For Classical Learning

• Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin Tracy Lee Simmons;

• "Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education" James S. Taylor;
  

• "Socratic Logic 3e: A Logic Text Using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian Principles" Peter Kreeft;

• Composition in the Classical Tradition [Paperback] by D'Angelo, Frank J.

• Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student [Hardcover] by Edward P. J. Corbett 

• The Art and Craft of Poetry by Bugeja, Michael J

I'm hoping that at the end of this I will have a clear picture of the way ahead. Having finally ordered the books, and resisted the feeling of panic that maybe I was out of my depth, I feel excited about the new journey. it will be good. My husband has even offered to read some of this alongside and the company will be good.


Now we just need the winter rains and the warm fire to complete the picture. The snow below is wishful thinking, the closest real snow to here will be at much higher altitudes than we are.