Maxim and Chreia in one year?

[DMDC]

I am trying to get a private school to use CW. The school begins in grade 7. Do you think it would be possible to condense all of Diogenes into one year or would that be overwhelming? I think that Demosthenes would definitely need two years, and with the students beginning CW in grade 7, they would have 6 years to cover the whole sequence which is intended to take 7. Maybe a better option would be to do Plutarch and Herodotus in one year? What would you recommend a grades 7-12 school do if it wanted to use CW?

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

I don't feel qualified to answer this question, to be quite honest. Whether students in grade 7 can even go into Diogenes would depend on their preparation, especially in grammar, analysis, and imitation.

Our take on the progymnasmata is that when you have completed Herodotus, you have completed the writing instructions that most schools offer, so perhaps, rather than ambitiously trying to go too fast, I would recommend Diogenes over 2 years, then Herodotus in 9th grade, Plutarch in 10th, and Demosthenes in 11th and 12th.

But if the students do not have the necessary background, I would do Aesop and Homer for Older Beginners in 7th, and cut one year of Demonsthenes out on the other hand.

We do sell to schools, but mostly in the younger grades. Only one school we work with has tried Diogenes in the older grades and that is with students who moved up from using Aesop in 3rd grade. -- And I should qualify this statement: The reason schools find it difficult to use CW in the older grades is that they don't have a steady stream of kids from 1st grade and up. Many students suddenly pop into private schools in 4th or 8th grade. The schools find it difficult to accomodate such a student in mid-stream. Homeschoolers don't have these problems. We just have 3 or 4 students and we just start where they are at. We're not trying to shoe in two new 7th graders in Diogenes, when the other 28 students started with Aesop.

Let me know if I can be of more help, please,
Lene

[viola]

Hello,

I just noticed this post and it is along the lines of my question.
I started my daughter who is in 8th grade on Aesop and Homer for older beginners. We are really enjoying the program and all it has taught us. But now, when I look at your schedule I am struck by lack of time on our part to complete it.
9th grade ( this year)-she is to do Diogenes maxim/beginning poetry
10th grade- Diogenes Chreia/ intermediate poetry
11th grade- Herodotus/ advanced poetry
12th grade - Plutarch ( or Demosthenes?)
And what about Shakespeare
I just found your program last year so my daughter started late. I just love it and her writing blossomed, especially the analytical quality of her writing. So what would you recommend as the most complete schedule she could hope for.
Thank you,
viola



i

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

I wouldn't worry about exactly how far she gets, not given that you are in Maxim this year and Chreia next. Our feel for the writing instruction given in main stream classrooms out there (public and private schools) is that generally student instruction K-12 doesn't go beyond the materials we cover in Herodotus.

Plug away, get as far as you can with her at a pace that improves her skills and helps her enjoy writing. Read lots on the side, both aloud and alone, so she is exposed to a broad variety of vocabularies and syntatical combinations, especially older writers are helpful in stretching our command of English, even if our ultimate goal is to write well in our own time abiding by the proper rules for our own time.

Each of our books are 22-26 weeks of work if you look at the student guides. This is plenty for most students for a school year. Choose whether you want to supplement with the poetry or move onto the next 'hard core' writing book instead. That would get you a jump on the essay writing if that is where your focus is.

I am glad to hear that she is doing so well with the program. It is always an encouragement to hear,

Lene