XI – Ancient History / Medieval History
Progymnasmata for the High School Student – Year One, Week Three
French Fables
You have most likely encountered Aesop’s fables in prose translation, but even in Greek antiquity, authors wrote versions of them in both prose and verse. After Aesop, the most well-known fablist, definitely in the French-speaking world, but likely well beyond, is Jean de la Fontaine, who wrote verse fables in the 17th century. But de La Fontaine was preceded by a female poet in the 12th century, known only as Marie de France.
Day 1 – Marie de France
Read Marie de France’s versifications of two of Aesop’s Fables. How else does she adapt the fable, besides turning it into verse? Write two complete sentences in response to this question. In the first sentence, describe the nature of the adaptation. In the second sentence, give an example of this adaptation.
2 – The Wolf and the Lamb / Aesop’s The Wolf and the Lamb
21 – The Wolf and the Sow / Aesop’s Sow Giving Birth and the Wolf
Select one of the Aesop’s fables that you have read thus far, and update its moral for the present-day by introducing a person or situation familiar to us today.
Day 2 – Jean de La Fontaine
Read de La Fontaine’s version of The Wolf and the Lamb. How does he further adapt the fable? Write a complete sentence in response to this question. Then versify in the style of de La Fontaine a moral from a fable by Aesop that you have already read.
Day 3 – Jean de La Fontaine
Compare Aesop’s Golden Goose with de la Fontaine’s Golden Hen. Can you add to or refine your response to yesterday’s question? Why do you think la Fontaine changed the goose to a hen? Does it being a hen change the story in any way? Write a complete sentence in response to these questions.
Aesop’s The Goose and the Golden Egg
de La Fontaine’s The Hen with the Golden Eggs
Day 4 – Jean de La Fontaine
A French philosopher once argued that de La Fontaine’s fable of the Grasshopper and the Ant could have deleterious effects on children – “You believe you are making an example of the grasshopper, but they will choose the ant …. they will take the more pleasant part, which is a very natural thing.” Write one sentence explaining how the Grasshopper and the Ant could influence children negatively. Then write a second sentence defending the good intentions of the fable. Refer directly to a detail in the poem in both sentences.
de La Fontaine’s The Grasshopper and the Ant
Lower Years History Curriculum
The Stories of Great Men and Women
Grades 1 to 4
These years can rely on picture books available at your public library and/or stories in collections such as were commonly published in earlier times. The names below are simply the most well-known historical figures that you can find in a chronological index of the latter that has been compiled in another post. Your favorite CM-website will be a good place to start in finding newer publications (such as the biographies by the D’Aulaires).
It is not necessary to be in any way systematic or orderly. In these years, it is most important simply to enjoy the stories. My only recommendation is to have a very gentle overarching chronological frame for each year. The only “violation” of this principle would be the reading of chapter-book biographies as the child gets older. The child can read these when he or she is ready to and would then return to figures or events from history encountered in previous years.
Although Charlotte Mason recommends starting with one’s own country, if I were doing this myself, I would probably be more wide-ranging in my choices. This is a good age to start thinking about the countries of the world, and the stories of great men of foreign countries would be a great way to do that. America will be privileged by nature of the very availability of materials.
Grade 1 – American History up through 17th Century
Leif Ericson – Christopher Columbus – Ponce de Leon – Hernando de Soto – Walter Raleigh – Pocahontas – Squanto – John Winthrop – Jacques Marquette & Louis Joliet – William Penn – Madeleine de Verchères
Grade 2 – American History, 18th Century
Benjamin Franklin – George Washington – Benjamin West – Daniel Boone – Paul Revere – John Paul Jones – Molly Pitcher – Francis Marion – Daniel Webster – Thomas Jefferson
Grade 3 – American History, 19th Century
Lewis & Clark & Sacagewea – Robert Fulton – Francis Scott Key – Longfellow – Robert E. Lee – Abraham Lincoln – James Audobon – Kit Carson – Andrew Jackson – Ulysses S. Grant – Clara Barton
Grade 4 – American History, 20th Century
You will not find much in the public domain, but there are an abundance of newer publications to enjoy.
Nihil sub sole novum 