Susan Finck-Lockhart

Originally published in a homeschool support group newsletter in September 2007.

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Biblio is the Greek word for book. Thus, the Biblioplan is a schedule of books to read through history chronologically. A group of homeschool moms wrote The Biblioplan for Families to follow The Well-Trained Mind and to incorporate materials with a Christian perspective in their history study.

This curriculum series covers the four historical periods defined in The Well-Trained Mind: Ancient History; Medieval, Renaissance, & Reformation (400 to 1600); America and the World (1600 to 1850); and America and the World (1850 to 2000). A high school supplement is also available.

Each plan comes as a stack of hole-punched papers that you can put into a binder. An introduction provides a brief description of how to use the program. Next comes the scheduled book list for the year and a list of optional resources.

The bulk of the curriculum consists of 36 weekly lesson plans with reading assignments for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. These lessons are grouped into units by topic; each unit has its own annotated book list.

Each weekly lesson plan is on one page. The Classtime section lists text readings from Story of the World (SOTW), Usborne's Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History, and other textbooks. The ancient history lessons include Bible readings during the study of Israel. The next section lists Readers (picture books, novels, and some nonfiction works) for three levels: K-2, 3+, and 5+. Below this is the Family Read Aloud, which are historical novels that the whole family can read together. The lesson plan also includes writing assignment ideas, map and timeline information, and optional fiction and other resources.

These lesson plans work great for families who need a multi-age curriculum. The older kids can read on their own while the younger ones listen to story books. Everyone can enjoy the Family Read Aloud time.

This program only offers a reading list and no commentary to guide your readings or activities. Nor does it supply suggestions for the timeline or map work. I used the Story of the World Activity Book for narration help, mapping information, and a few activity sheets to supplement our lessons. To create a timeline, I used the History Through the Ages CD (Home School in the Woods). I also like Blackline Maps of World History (Knowledge Quest) for some map assignments.

The Biblioplan for Families doesn't follow the strict chronological order of SOTW (which bounces from one civilization to the next). Instead, it groups civilizations together. The Ancient History volume flows more chronologically than the Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation (MRR) volume, but it places Ancient Asia after Rome. (Just a note: the table of contents of the Ancient History lists seven weeks on Israel, which is misleading. These incorporate the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians.)

In the MMR volume, the plan places the Explorers before the Renaissance, and most of the non-Western civilizations are lumped together. However, the curriculum does offer nine weeks on the Renaissance (focusing on the artists), whereas SOTW only has two. The Biblioplan uses a wonderful, conversational textbook for this period called Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines by Deborah Mazzotta (A Core Knowledge book).

I enjoyed how the Bible was woven into Ancient History, but I was disappointed with the lack of a Christian perspective in the MRR history. This is due to the lack of history books written from the Christian perspective for primary students.
If you want to study history classically but don't want to create your own reading schedule, the Biblioplan can work for you.… (more)