Two years ago, when we were reading King Lear with another family, I searched high and low for some paper dolls or paper puppets we could use to keep our characters straight as we read the play aloud. I never found quite what I was looking for.

My daughter has always loved drawing and painting. She started working on a set of people. She came to me one morning to announce that she had created a Shakespeare resource for families who might like to “act out” their Shakespeare as they read it. That gave her the idea to rework Shakespeare’s original play to include only the parts that were in the Lamb’s retellings we’d previously read and have puppets for each of those parts. Her adapted play is not to replace reading the actual Shakespeare play, but to allow co-ops or families to put on a shortened version that keeps the main story intact.

Hence Act It Out Shakespeare came to be. My 12 year old’s entrepreneurial idea. Currently, The Tempest is available for purchase. Complete with 11 puppets to cut out and glue to popsicle sticks (if desired), a play, and a lit of characters per scene so you can easily assign roles without going through the entire play.

Next, she is working on A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Much Ado About Nothing. Leave her comment to let her know which plays you will be doing this school year and she will add them to her running list.

My kids are now in Year 8 and 6 with a Kindergarten student joining in occasionally. We also have a 3 year old. We’re in the History Cycle of Ancient Near East (3500BC to 550 BC) and American and British History from 1000-1680AD. Since we’re starting from the very beginning, I especially wanted to add diversity to history this time around.

We discovered Charlotte Mason and jumped into Ambleside Online six years ago when my oldest was in Year 2. Year 2 is the same time period as we are doing now. However, back in Year 2, I wasn’t trying to add diversity to history. I was just sticking to the book list. I also didn’t have a very clear understanding of what the Charlotte Mason principles even were! It’s been such a wonderful journey delving deeper in my understanding of her philosophy of education. We no longer use Ambleside Online because we like the whole family to be on the same history cycle, but I still visit it often to help me choose books!

These are all linked to Amazon for your convenience. Nurturing Learning participates in the Amazon Affiliate program and receives a commission at no extra cost to you if you complete a purchase through our Amazon links within 24 hours of placing an item in your cart.

Ancient Near East

I purchased Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors and The Book of the Ancient World to use as spines. What I like about Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors is that I can use the corresponding narration cards from Simply Charlotte Mason.

Amber of Heritage Mom mentioned some great resources for studying the great nations of Western Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. We will add all of those books in as well. Some of those we are reading and narrating during our summer break, as they were available at the library.

American History

As I looked at American History for the 1000-1680 time period, and considered what narrative I wanted to teach my children, I realized that we have never actually studied the indigenous peoples who were here before the Europeans. Searching on the Living Books for All People Facebook Group, I decided on several books to round out both our Ancient and American History streams to include indigenous people of North America and South America.

We will read through the chapters (relevant to our time period) of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People and A Young People’s History of the United States. We will also read all of Turtle Island and Before Columbus.

World History

Ideally we would have read Our Island Story in this time slot, but we have already read this book. Leah Boden of A Modern Miss Mason recommends The Story of Britain. (We’ve actually used this book for Modern Times and it is one of my son’s favorite history books.) The Winston Churchill history books were another possibility. However, ultimately, I decided on the Genevieve Foster books (The World of Columbus and Sons & The World Of Captain John Smith) because I like how these books present a wider picture of people and events around the world for a time period. There are issues – I especially do not like the sections between page 29 and 41 in the Columbus and Sons book. I have not read the whole book yet, but have several weeks to do so before school starts. I will be assigning specific non-problematic sections for the kids to read.

How to fit it all in

This is how I am scheduling the books:

Monday – Ancient History of the Near East
Tuesday – Africa (see Heritage Mom for details)
Wednesday – (Term 1) History of Indigenous People in the Americas (Turtle Island and Before Columbus) (Term 2 and 3) America History (An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People and A Young People’s History of the United States)
Thursday – World History
Friday – Geography

Any other recommendations for adding diversity to history? Drop me a comment. What biographies and historical fiction do you love for this time period?

What do you do if suddenly, you need to homeschool briefly and need a short term plan. Here is what I recommend for grades 3-6.

Daily:
30 minutes of math
30 minutes of writing
10-20 minutes of grammar
unlimited time to read from the reading list (see below) and draw, pursue hobbies of the child’s interests

For the first three subjects, you can use these workbooks at the grade level your child needs. Once the child goes back to brick-and-mortar school, these workbooks can be finished as summer enrichment.

There aren’t lesson plans to go with these books, but just sit with your child and do a few sample problems together (for math) or read the instructions together and start an assignment together, then set the timer and have the child continue for the allotted time.

The reading list includes historical fiction and narrative science books. We have read every title on this list. I have starred the ones our family has especially loved. Have your child choose one from each category and narrate (tell back) to you after each chapter. If you want, these narrations can be written down.

These are all linked to Amazon for your convenience. Nurturing Learning does get a commission if you make a purchase through our Amazon links.

Classic Books

*Charlotte’s Web
Trumpet of the Swan
A Cricket in Times Square
*The Chronicles of Narnia
*A Little Princess
The Wind in the Willows
*The Green Ember (and other books in the series)
The Tale of Despereaux (and really, just any book by Kate diCamillo – this one is one of my favorites)
*The Saturdays (this book has 3 other books to go with it: The Four Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, Spiderweb for Two)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (and Through the Looking Glass)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
The Vanderbeekers
any Marguerite Henry book
Heidi
*Swallows and Amazons
*Understood Betsy
Ballet Shoes (and other Noel Streatfield books)
*The Princess and the Goblin
*All-of-a-Kind Family

Nature Lore

(books that are important for compelling kids to go outdoors and observe nature)

*The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (there is a sequel as well)
My Side of the Mountain
Rascal
Mountain Born
*Owls in the Family
*Kildee House
The Tarantula in my Purse
Bambi
The Call of the Wild or this one.

Historical Fiction

Sarah, Plain, and Tall
Strawberry Girl
Houseboat Girl
The Little House Books
*The Wheel on the School
Calico Captive
Indian Captive
Children of the Longhouse
Johnny Tremain
Soft Rain
Benjamin West and his Cat Grimalkin
Bound for Oregon
*Caddie Woodlawn

Add to this poems read aloud from this poetry anthology. (Check out this post on Poetry Teatime!)

I hope this helps you on your journey if life puts homeschooling in your lap for a while. Feel free to drop questions in the comments.

‘Hardly any lawful price would seem to me too high for what I have gained by being made to learn Latin and Greek.’

C.S. Lewis

A guest post by Carol from Journey and Destination.

Some background

I’d always wanted our children to study Latin but, like many other home educators, I had no background in the language myself, unless the medical terminology I learned years ago counts.

I’ve attempted Latin with all seven of my children but, like our French language learning, I spent quite a bit of money on curriculum that either wasn’t comprehensive enough, too difficult for me to teach or for them to use independently, or it was dull and lifeless. This was most noticeable around the ages of about 11 or 12 years when they were ready for a challenge, could handle the grammar, but also needed a creative, lively approach.

I started using French for Children by Classical Academic Press (CAP) with my daughter nearly two years ago just before she turned eleven & she loves it.

She had also been studying Latin using some resources we already had, some of which were good introductions to the language, but as time went on she started to complain about the lack of explanations, that the material was boring, and that it all seemed rather pointless. This was the same scenario I faced with her older siblings.

One day she said, “If Latin was taught like my (CAP) French I wouldn’t mind learning it.”

Enough said.

Classical Academic Press kindly provided me with a free Latin Alive! 1 bundle to use and review. This is our sixth week of using this approach and I’m very pleased with how much my daughter is actually enjoying Latin. Here are my honest thoughts on the curriculum and how we are using it:

Latin Alive! Book 1 by Classical Academic Press is the first in a series of three texts designed for about 7th to 8th Grade students and up. It is the next step after CAP’s Latin for Children but it is also suitable for students with no previous Latin knowledge and the DVD’s allow the student to work independently. (see video samples on YouTube)

My 12-year-old finds it challenging but not overwhelming. This is partly due to the grammar she has covered in her French studies and her ability to think more logically now that’s she’s older.

Classical Academic Press recommend that younger students follow one of two options, depending on their academic level (see their FAQ):

• Complete all three Latin for Children Primers (Levels A–C), then start Latin Alive! Book 2
• Complete Latin for Children Primers A and B, then move into Latin Alive! Book 1.

I did consider using Latin for Children C before commencing Latin Alive! 1 and I have to admit that I was a little overwhelmed when this curriculum arrived and I started looking through it. I thought perhaps I’d made the wrong decision.

Latin Alive! is extremely comprehensive and chock-a-block full, but after going through the introductory section of the first DVD, it was much less daunting. Now that we’re six weeks in, I’m confident that it’s an ideal fit for my daughter.

Latin teacher, Karen Moore, shares her own story of learning Latin on the first DVD: she explains how her love of Latin developed after her mother made her take Latin in Year 7, and why the study of Latin is relevant to us today. This was so good for my daughter to hear as well as being an encouragement to me.

The Latin Alive! bundle:

• 36 weekly chapters – 29 of these contain new material, the others are review
• A section is included at the back of the Student Edition listing vocabulary chapter by chapter and reference charts for declensions etc
• Latin Alive! Level 1 Teacher’s Edition – 323 pages; includes the complete student text & answer keys. The answer key to each chapter is found at the end of each chapter in the Teacher’s Edition; Student pages directly correspond with the Teacher’s pages
•   Teacher’s Extras in the back of the book contain various worksheets, projects and seven unit tests to be given after the unit review chapters are included
• Latin Alive! 1 – DVD & CD set with over fifteen hours of teaching on seven DVDs. The audio CD contains unit review Latin readings so that students can practice proper pronunciation and accent. The DVDs use the Classical pronunciation and a streaming option is also available

What Latin Alive! looks like in real life:

• Each of the 7 DVD’s in Latin Alive 1 contain between three to five chapters, and each chapter is about 30 to 50 minutes long.
• We decided to cover one chapter per week over three days. This usually takes about 15 to 30 minutes per day, although some additional time may be added for writing exercises. My daughter also keeps a Latin Notebook where she writes definitions or other material she wants to remember. It might be better for some students to spread the lesson over the week but this works best for us at present.

Last week we completed Chapter 5 and this is how it looked:

Day 1: Watched a section of the video that went over new vocabulary and explained transitive and intransitive verbs. The video teacher directs the student to stop the video and complete exercises in the student book as they go through the chapter together. Wrote definitions in Latin notebook.

Day 2: Continued with the DVD, going back where necessary to review the previous day’s explanations. Learned about the accusative case and direct object and completed assigned exercises. Finished watching the video for the chapter.

Day 3: Chapter reading – these readings started in Chapter 4 and at the beginning consisted of short sentences in Latin about Greece and Troy. By the time the student reaches Chapter 7, the readings are about two paragraphs long.
Read the Culture Corner, a short section to help the student learn about the culture and history of the Romans.
Derivative Detective – found a derivative for amat, nautical and spectat
Collaquamur or ‘Let’s Talk’ – used some questions and responses to review nouns; used ‘eye’ Latin to try to identify words.

Reflections:

I asked my daughter to say what she liked about this curriculum and this was her response:

-Well laid out
-It doesn’t assume you know all your grammar, but teaches you everything step by step
-Good teacher, explains things well
-Teaches you how to pronounce words properly
-Nice music

The Student and Teacher editions plus the DVD & CD set include everything you need for this course, although it is suggested that you have access to a Latin/English dictionary.

Here are some free online versions:

Lexilogos

Online Latin Dictionary

A support page for Latin Alive! is provided on the CAP website.

The only negative comment I have to make is that the Latin Alive! 1 text has recently been revised but the DVD won’t be updated to match the text until next year. I understand that this primarily affects Chapter 1 and that CAP has created an errata sheet for families to use in the meantime. This wasn’t an issue for us as it was only a matter of page or exercise numbers and it only took a few seconds to find the correct one.

Learn more about Classical Academic Press and their excellent products at the Classical Academic Press website.

Thank you, Carol, for providing this review of Latin Alive! You can get to know Carol by visiting her at Journey and Destination.