Books About Curriculum

The Core Knowledge Series

Book cover: What Your First Grader Needs to Know
Author(s): 
E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

Titles in this series include What Your Kindergartner Should Know, What Your First Grader Should Know, etc. The series is written for parents of children in traditional schools to get an idea of how the schools are doing and to assist the parents in supplementing their child's education at home. The series amounts to an extensive "Scope and Sequence" which outlines the fundamental skills and concepts which should be understood in each grade and includes supplementary exercises, poems, stories and recommended resources to assist in fulfilling the stated goals.

The Educated Child

Book cover: The Educated Child
Author(s): 
William J. Bennett
Chester E. Finn
John T.E. Cribb

This book is designed to assist parents in choosing and judging good schools and how well their children are doing there. Brief "scope and sequence" lists (based on the Core Knowledge Curriculum) and some suggested resources are included. Although it is not specifically aimed at homeschoolers, homeschoolers are favorably addressed in several portions and will find much useful advice and ideas in the book.

The Well-Trained Mind

Book cover: The Well-Trained Mind
Author(s): 
Jessie Wise
Susan Wise Bauer
S. Wise Bauer

Jessie Wise started homeschooling her daughter (and co-author Susan Wise Bauer) in 1973. In this book they elaborate ideas and resources for a complete classical curriculum from preschool through high school. From a Catholic standpoint, I think this book would be most useful for those who are already using Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum, but looking for additional ideas. I found the explanations of the stages of the Trivium very helpful as well as some of the ideas for types of writing assignments, lists of subject material and tidbits on scheduling and record-keeping.

Designing your Own Classical Curriculum

Author(s): 
Laura M. Berquist

DYOCC is quite a bit different from the other books on Catholic Homeschooling. Instead of simply discussing homeschooling, as the other books do, Mrs. Berquist outlines an entire homeschool curriculum you can use with your children or adjust to your liking. She includes suggestions for putting together your own curriculum and a grade by grade outline which includes recommended texts, sample weekly schedules, a number of study guides, lists of important dates and people, poetry suggestions and extensive lists of appropriate literature and history stories.