Course Sample for Our Exploring Literature Homeschool Language Arts Course
Reading is one of the most important skills we can ever develop. When we love to read, the whole world opens up to us. Through literature, we can read fact or fiction, truth or myth, fables or legends, adventure or mystery; we can learn new things or rediscover forgotten ones, gain new skills and hone the ones we already have, hope and dream while striving toward our heavenly goal. In this course, you will be doing a little of all those things as you read the selections chosen to take you around the world. You will be reading the works of authors such as Leo Tolstoy, O Henry, Longfellow, and a great many others. You will read and examine short stories, novels, poems, histories, adventures, dramas, legends, even comedy. By the end of this course, you will be able to recognize and understand the roles of characters, conflict, setting, and point of view in a wide variety of literature and how they work together to make a great read. You will also learn a few details of some of the authors as well as the genres or types of literature you read which will give you a very solid base on which to expand your literary adventures in years to come.
All selections are available freely online through Project Gutenberg or other online sites as well as in most libraries. A complete list of the selected works is below. Whenever possible, I chose copies of works that would allow me to link directly to each day’s reading assignment. The main list will just be links to the actual complete books, if applicable.
“A Book” by Edgar Guest
“Now” – said a good book unto me –
“Open my pages and you shall see
Jewels of wisdom and treasures fine,
Gold and silver in every line,
And you may claim them if you but will
Open my pages and take your fill.
“Open my pages and run them o’er,
Take what you choose of my golden store.
Be you greedy, I shall not care –
All that you seize I shall gladly spare;
There is never a lock on my treasure doors,
Come – here are my jewels, make them yours!
“I am Just a book on your mantel shelf,
But I can be part of your living self;
If only you’ll travel my pages through,
Then I will travel the world with you.
As two wines blended make better wine,
Blend your mind with these truths of mine.
“I’ll make you fitter to talk with men,
I’ll touch with silver the lines you pen,
I’ll lead you nearer the truth you seek,
I’ll strengthen you when your faith grows weak –
This place on your shelf is a prison cell,
Let me come into your mind to dwell!”
To view a full sample of this course, click here.
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