How We Do: Plutarch's Lives {CMOpenHouse}

"Why do we have to read this?" I heard that many times when we would start on a Life from Plutarch. At the time, which was 6 or so years ago, my answer was very unsatisfactory- to them or me!

"We do it because it's on the schedule."

Worst reason ever.

But there really is a reason (many actually) to study Plutarch's Lives. I'll not really go into it here but will definitely {and happily} direct you to other places that do go into that very thing:

• George Grant, of King Meadows Study Center, equates it to the first "Book of Virtues"
• One of my favorite Plutarch bloggers- Nancy Kelly at Sage Parnassus- Plutarch Primer Part I {see Part II and III}
• Of course, AO's Anne White has put a lot of time and effort into the Plutarch Study Guides {you can also buy the first volume her study guides*, print and ebook}

*Amazon affiliate link. See Disclosure/Policies.

I love the advice Nancy gives:
Don't...

get bogged down in the planning, preparing, and presentation of Plutarch.  Just remember that this is a mind-to-mind thing.  A little scaffolding, reading, and then narrating.

For this year, since we really haven't been great at including Plutarch in our studies thus far, I chose to start with Aemilius Paulus. I had read a translation of this life a year or so ago and personally really appreciated the character of Paulus. In this particular life, but not all of them, there is a contrasting life covered: Perseus. I think this would be absolutely wonderful to do in a group setting, as it is only my son and I covering it this year.

In this post I will let you hear how we 'do' Plutarch in our week.  I am most grateful to Anne White for her study guides!

A little note**: this is how we go about the study. I do not know how others do it as I've yet to actually see or hear it. I get a frog in my throat at times, my son has allergies, and I don't know how to pronounce every word. The previous lesson was done one week prior. If after watching you have any tips, tricks, suggestions, etc., please feel free to leave a comment. All comments are moderated so you won't see it post automatically.

Without further ado, here is audio of a lesson at our house using Anne White's Plutarch Lives study guide, learning about Aemilius Paulus with my son who is in 11th grade using AmblesideOnline's Y10.

** I say again: This post was originally written for a CMOpenHouse series that will be starting in January where CM families share how they do different aspects of their education. By my posting this here I am in no way stating or inferring that this is the way to do Plutarch. This post will still be featured in the series. I just couldn't wait to post it here.