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Mackfam
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| Posted: Oct 11 2011 at 6:17am | IP Logged
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From the Circe Institute: Why Read Plutarch?
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
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JuliaT
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| Posted: Oct 11 2011 at 7:39am | IP Logged
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Jen, thank your for posting this link. Cindy is one my favourite bloggers. She always challenges me in educating my children.
I have been hit and miss with Plutarch. We have read a few lives but they have been interspersed with the happenings of life and the readings have not been consistent at all. I love reading them, though. My dd and I had great discussions about the actions of some of the people.
This link, hopefully, will push me back to Plutarch. 
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Grace&Chaos
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| Posted: Oct 11 2011 at 12:33pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for the article Jen. I have been thinking about Plutarch very much lately. I want to introduce it to my girls (11 & 8), but have just been at a stand still on it. I honestly never read any and feel very much intimidated by it. Some questions:
- Cindy mentions Arthur Cough's version, is this a good one to start with?
- How young are your kids when you start?
- How slow do you progess? Schedule it once a week?
- How does studying Plutarch look in your home? Read aloud, narrate?
- Does it coincide with your study of ancient history or do you study it every year?
Love to hear some more on this 
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Jenny
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Mackfam
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This would be good for me to discuss, too. I avoided Plutarch entirely until a couple of years ago when I started looking more seriously.
I've approached Plutarch in two ways, with the latter being the most successful for us:
** My high schooler read independently....V-E-R-Y slowly. This worked ok enough, but I kept feeling like the rest of the crew was missing out, and I felt like my high schooler would benefit from more open discussions on this rather than a more straightforward narration. So...I moved Plutarch to....
** A read aloud time: either during our morning basket or afternoon tea-time. Honestly, the afternoon time works better for us because the littles are napping, and they don't get anything out of Plutarch yet anyway. I read aloud from Plutarch, twice a week. Cindy is correct in the article, Plutarch is one of those meaty authors that you should approach: ** consistently so he becomes familiar
** in small amounts so he is digestible. The read-aloud-to-the-older-group approach works best for us. Our goal is to read 4 lives per term which works out to be about 4 pages, read twice a week.
Since this was our first jump into Plutarch, I chose the version offered by Hillside Education, Lives from Plutarch, the Modern American Edition of Twelve Lives by John McFarland, Pleasant & Audrey Graves (1966). It's a good version and isn't as challenging as other versions to read. We'll continue with Plutarch and slowly immerse ourselves in more meatier translations as we go. This is analogous to beginning with Shakespeare using Nesbit's help...and then the Lamb's...and then finally Shakespeare himself.
Next year, we'll use Yesterday's Classics edition, Plutarch's Lives for Boys and Girls retold by W. H. Weston (1900). I really like the historical context which is offered by Weston at the beginning of the retelling of each life in Plutarch.
There are only 4 overlaps between Weston's and McFarland's versions of Plutarch's Lives. (Of the remaining Lives which Plutarch wrote, there are 50: 23 pairs, half of which are Greek and the other half are Roman, and there are 4 additional stand alones which are not paired. So you can see that even if you read 4 lives each term, a total of 12 per year (assuming 3 terms), you would have several years worth of Plutarch from which to draw without necessarily repeating. You can read John Dryden's version of Plutarch's Lives online for free. (Dryden's version will give you a good idea of how Plutarch was the MASTER of the run-on sentence!)
The purpose of reading Plutarch's Lives is not for historical understanding, although that is naturally occurring in some of the reading, as Plutarch himself states in Alexander, the purpose of exploring these lives was to show moral character. Charlotte Mason had a good understanding of this, which is why she included Plutarch in her curriculum as part of her citizenship studies. Plutarch's Lives do prompt very rich discussions for older children with regard to the moral characteristics portrayed.
As far as age for reading Plutarch, a good guess would be 8 or 9 yo+. Depending on the version you read from, and the ages you are reading to, you may want to amend or omit some choice selections as you read. Of course, the older the child, the richer the discussions and reflections, but my 9 yo does enjoy Plutarch very much.
I'd love to hear how others incorporate Plutarch into their day!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Betsy
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| Posted: Oct 11 2011 at 1:34pm | IP Logged
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Jen,
Your post covers a lot of the main Plutarch recources, I wanted to add the work that Ambleside Online has done, specifically Ann Whites Study Guides.
The study guides that Ann Whites has put together are really quite nice. It breaks down the vocabulary, and helps facilitate discussion. It feels like my safety net for a area that I am not a comfortable with!
As for age, I don't know specifically what CM recommends, but the program that I am piloting starts Plutarch in Year 5/Fifth grade.
Oh, and don't forget that you can listen to Plutarch on Librivox, too!
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JuliaT
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I start Plutarch when my children are 9 or 10 (depending on their maturity level.) Plutarch is part of our Morning Time. We read a section once a week. I use 2 versions at the same time. I read the version at Mainlesson (the author's first name is Rosalie-can't remember the last name) for my 10 year old then I read the same section from Dryden's version. We also use Anne White's study guide from AO, that is how we know what section to use each week. I don't have he kids narrate but we do discuss. My hope is to do 3 lives a year but due to my inconsistency, we are lucky to get 1 done. I am hoping that this year will be different. 
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Julia
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CrunchyMom
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Funny, this is the second Plutarch article I've read this week! Plutarch for Everybody
I look forward to knowing him better alongside my children. As of now, most of my education regarding Plutarch is from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 
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stefoodie
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I was just coming in here to post that link, Lindsay! Too funny.
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stef
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Topic: Why Read Plutarch (article)
