Core Curriculum (High School)
Jun 23rd, 2006 by willa
Core Curriculum
Note — Please keep in mind that we haven’t so far, in 3 years of high school, kept to the following list of Great Books exactly. We usually stick to the basic subject outline, but pick some areas to emphasize according to the individual student’s interest and ability, and the circumstances in our homeschool. For details about how we have adapted, or are adapting, the resource list, please see Detailed Plans.
Ninth Grade– Ancient Greeks & Hebrews
Religion
1-2 Introduction to the Bible(Old Testament) by Fr Laux
3-4 Mass and the Sacraments, Fr Laux
Literature
1 The Iliad
2 The Odyssey
3 The Oresteian Trilogy & the Theban Plays
4 Great Dialogues of Plato & Aristotle’s Poetics
History
1 Herodotus Histories
2 Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War
3 Plutarch The Rise and Fall of Athens & Xenophon The Persian Expedition
4 Great Dialogues of Plato (see above)
Math & Science
Algebra 1 (Jacobs)
Earth Science or Natural History
Language
Henle Latin 1
NT Greek (opt.)– Machen
Supplementary Resources for Ninth Grade
10th Grade – Rise to Fall of Rome
Religion
1-2 Introduction to the Bible (New Testament)
3-4 Eusebius History of the Church
Early Christian Writings: here’s a collection of the Church Fathers
Literature
1 Virgil Aeneid also Church’s retelling for children:
2 Ovid’s Metamorphoses (or equivalent, perhaps Bulfinch)
3 Aurelius Meditations, Plutarch Makers of Rome or White’s Plutarch for younger readers
Shakespeare –Coriolanus, Julius Caesar , Antony & Cleopatra
4 Augustine Confessions
History
1-2 Livy, The History of Rome
3 Tacitus The Annals of Imperial Rome
4 Augustine City of God
Science & Math
Geometry (Jacobs)
Biology(Apologia)
Language
Latin 1 (Henle)
NT Greek (Machen)
Supplementary Resources for Tenth Grade
Eleventh Grade– Medieval
Religion
1-2 Catholic Apologetics
3-4 The Ways of God (sel. from St Thomas Aquinas) see the Summa online
Council of Trent Dogmatic Canons and Decrees
St. Bonaventure Life of St Francis (not online, but here’s another book by the same author)
Ignatius Spiritual Exercises
Literature
1-2 Beowulf and a version for children
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Song of Roland and a version for children
3 Canterbury Tales
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Tempest
Hamlet
King Lear
4 Paradise Lost & Regained
Candide
History
1 History of the Franks
2 Einhard‘s Life of Charlemagne and the Stammerer’s
Chronicles of the Crusades (and here’s Medieval Sourcebook’s Crusades and here’s another book by Joinville)
3 Marco Polo Travels (here’s an excerpt)
4 Vasari Lives of the Artists
Machiavelli The Prince
Rousseau The Social Contract
Math & Science
Algebra 2/Trig (Foerster)
Chemistry (Apologia)
Languages
Latin 2 (Henle)
Greek New Testament or modern language
Supplementary Resources for Eleventh Grade
Twelfth Grade
Modern
Religion
1-2 Catholic Morality
Thomas a Kempis Imitation of Christ
3-4 Little Catechisms of St John Vianney
St Therese of LisieuxStory of a Soul
Lumen Gentium
Dei Verbum
Literature
1 House of the Seven Gables
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
2 Crime and Punishment
3 Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy
4 TS Eliot Complete Poems and Plays and Essays
Orwell’s 1984
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denesovich
History
1 Federalist Papers
2 Democracy in America
3-4 Marx/Engels Reader (see Modern Sourcebook on Marx & Engels)
Rerum Novarum
Modern Times (Paul Johnson)
Mathematics & Science
Alg 2/Trig (Foerster) or Calculus
Physics (Apologia)
Languages
Latin 3 (Henle)
Modern Language?
