I recently posted a rough draft of our schedule for next year. It includes Asian Studies for history, geography, and lit. If you also notice we follow the Latin-Centered Curriculum as our educational model. If you are confused because you never read the page about Asian Studies in LCC, don't be, it's not there.
Z is currently fascinated with the Japanese language, stemming from his interests in Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, and Naruto. He has asked numerous times to learn the Japanese language. Not wanting to waste an educational opportunity I have worked Japanese into our schedule for next year. What about Greek? We started Greek last year and after our experience I had already opted to keep the Greek fun and perhaps work it in at the high school level. We'll discuss Latin in a moment.
Because we entered the classical model of education at the fifth grade level Z missed some of the richness that classical provides at early elementary level. One of those was world history. Our previous curriculum focused on US History and took a more social studies approach to history. We missed many of the rich history of the Asian culture. Last year we focused mainly on Greek and Roman history, this year we are studying the Middle Ages. Next year my goal was to hit the Renaissance/Reformation period and Moderns in 8th. So going back to Asian studies to hit what we missed in previous year seems very in medias res of me.
My current plan is to use a history text as a spine touching only on the chapter on Asian history. We will then take a deeper look at the East Asian countries of Japan, Korea, and China. We'll also finish our three year world geography tour on the Asian continent. We'll also add in art with Japanese calligraphy, origami, possibly silk painting, or wood block printing.
I've very excited and have already picked resources for many of these areas. Pssst - many of these items were already sitting on my bookshelves.
Latin will still be our main language. Latin, math, and composition will still be our core subjects. Following an LCC will actually give us the time needed to pursue Z's current passion. So perhaps it is very LCC of us to take the time to explore Asia.
3 comments:
I really don't like leaving comments like this- so vague, as a newcomer- but I would love to know some resources for learning more about LCC. Any great books you have read on the subject, or online resources sites? We use sort of a hodge podge of Sonlight and The Well Trained Mind, but my kids are young so we haven't settled on anything yet.
Thanks!
Tabitha
Hi Tabitha,
www.memoriapress.com carries the LCC books, both first and second editions. There is also a very active yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LatinClassicalEd/
Are you using the WTM forums. www.welltrainedmind.com/forums That is a great place. You can search LCC to see how others use it in their schooling.
This sounds like a lot of fun to me - but we love Japan. Would you be interested in submitting this post to the Classical Homeschooling Carnival?
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