High School Year One Schedule

The goal of the scheduling suggestions is not necessarily to give you an exact day by day or even week by week program to follow, but rather to provide a general set of instructions to help you develop a plan to finish the program comfortably within a school year. One of the main reasons for independant study or homeschooling is to allow you to fit your studies to your individual needs and preferences, so feel free to entirely ignore these suggestions. However, if you're looking for some additional structure, or if the list at first looks overwhelming and you're wonding if it's possible to do the whole thing, this may be of help.

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Section One: The Rise of Civilization

Read the first three chapters of Starr's History of the Ancient World (about 70 pages). Expect to get through these in one week.

History Begins at Sumer ch. 1, 2, 6, 7, 13, 16, 17, 25, 37, 39 (about 80 pages total)
This is a pretty readable book, and you may want to read about a bit, trying sections that look interesting. The selections that we have suggested should be something you can read in one day if you're a fast reader or maybe two if you like to take things slowly. This book is to give you a general feel for early Mesopotamian culture, so if you're getting bogged down in a given section, feel free to skip or skim.

Epic of Gilgamesh
If you're reading the Andrew George translation, read the text of the eleven tablets of the Standard Version. Read tablets 1-5 on one day, and tablets 6-11 on a second. Gilgamesh deserves a much closer read than the fragments that you've been reading for general cultural atmosphere, so take the time to make sure that you're catching the detail.

If you are reading Stephen Mitchel's translation, read up through the end of the adventure in which Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight Humbaba and fell the giant tree. Read the remainder of the story on the second day. Mitchel makes the epic into fairly smooth reading, but try not to let that allow the it to flow past you without noticing the detail. If you find yourself wanting to read more explanatory material about the poem when you reach the end, go back and read Mitchel's introduction, but by no means consider this a necessity. You may or may not find yourself agreeing with Mitchel's assessment of the poem.

Depending on how well you recall the Biblical flood story, you may want to re-read Genesis 6-9 to compare and contrast the Hebrew flood story with the pagan version found in Gilgamesh.

Plan on finishing Gilgamesh within one week.

Never to Die pp. 15-58, 63-96,101-165
If anything, Never to Die is quicker reading than History Begins at Sumer. Though you're covering about 150 pages, two days of reading should be plenty. Count on having this section done within a week. Again, you're reading to get a general feel for the culture.

Read chapters 4-8 of Starr's History of the Ancient World (about 100 pages). This should be doable within a week, spread out over two or three days.

If you are using Gombich for art history, read the Introduction and chapters 1-2 (about 60 pages total) from The Story of Art. If you are using Janson, read the Inroduction and chapters 1-4 (about 100 pages total) from History of Art. The Janson could take you 2-3 solid days to absorb properly, but if you are reading Gombrich, you can probably fit it in with the Starr selections in the previous week.

Total time for Section One, 5-6 weeks.

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Section Two: Greece

Read chapters 9-10 of Starr's History of the Ancient World (about 45 pages). This should be a couple hours reading at most, and cane be done the same week as the student begins reading Homer.

The Iliad The Iliad is divided into twenty-four books, each one anywhere from 450 to 900 lines in length. Some students may find Homer very dense reading indeed, others may find it relatively natural to read. Either way, he deserves a close and careful read. Plan on reading two books per day. This should take one to two hours, depending on the length of the books and the speed of your reading. Do this 3-4 days a week, and the Iliad can be completed in 3-4 weeks.

The Odyssey The Odyssey too is divided into twenty-four books of roughly equal length to those in the Iliad. Again, a careful reading is worth while in order to fully appreciate Homer, so rushing is not a good idea even if the student feels up to it. However, if the student feels he has the Homer's rhythm down and want to go a bit faster, reading three books a day instead of two is probably fine. I would not advise going faster than that. Plan to finish the Odyssey in 2-4 weeks.