Literature Study – Dante’s Divine Comedy: Inferno

Dante is a risky piece of literature to study with 10 and 11 year olds.  There is much in there which I should thoroughly disapprove of exposing them to at their tender age.  And yet I have found myself drawn to the learning possibilities. In the Inferno, Dante wrote about his views on Hell, some think as…

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Picture Study: Botticelli’s Map of Hell

Source The parchment was completed by Botticelli between 1480 and 1490, using the technique of the silver tip and coloured pencils.  This will be the first time we have ever studied anything coloured in with pencils!  The Map of Hell is one of seven of Botticelli's parchments currently kept in the Vatican library in Rome. Although many artists have tried…

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Dante’s Divine Comedy: Setting the Scene

Source I know I've said it before but I LOVE our literature studies.  I read Tusiani's version of Dante's Divine Comedy aloud to prepare the children for a 10 week study of the Inferno, concentrating on Canto I with Dante the pilgrim becoming lost in the dark forest.  Studying the Divine Comedy with 10 and 11 year olds is a…

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Importance of Picture Books for Learning Great Literature

Studying great literature has to be one of my most favourite times in home school.  I think because I design our own studies, it gives us lots of freedoms that following a curriculum of any type would remove.  I am able to keep it simple, complex or anywhere in between.  We don't have to ascribe…

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