The week's reading can be divided up in whatever way works best for your family. Some students prefer sticking to one book and finishing a chapter in one sitting. Other students find it hard to focus for too long on one book and need to break up each week's reading over two days or even into five short daily segments. For that reason, we offer suggested reading for a week to allow parents to break that down into a tailored daily plan to fit their individual needs.

Year 6 reflects a transition year between the education of childhood and the challenging education of the upper years. As such, more mature subject matter is included in some areas. We have endeavored to make note of this where applicable, but we encourage parents to pre-screen such material to determine its appropriateness for their child and family.

revolutionary educational idea that education should conform to the natural development of human beings. What distinguishes Rousseau’s educational theory radically from his predecessors is his belief in the innate goodness of human beings: “everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things”, and “there is no original perversity in the human heart” (P37, P92). Since human nature is good and man cannot control “the education of nature,” Rousseau thinks that following the path of nature is the sole way to achieve success in education. The natural psychological and physical development of students becomes the guideline for Rousseau to mark out five different stages for Emile’s education from his birth until marriage.

education of childhood into three phases according to the natural development of children: from birth till the end of infancy is the first phase; from the end of infancy until children are 12 years old is the second; and the third period is from 12 years old to 15 years old. Rousseau insists that at the second period of life, which is close to the stage of elementary education today, children are not capable of reasoning. The main task during this period is for the children to exercise their strength and all the senses that direct the strength (P89, P132). Rousseau regards the limbs, senses and organs as the instruments of the intelligence. He holds that “sensual reason serves as the basis for intellectual reason”; a robust and healthy body will well prepare the mind for reasoning in the future.

relationship between the body and soul during this period reveals a stark contrast to Plato’s. Plato states that the education in music and poetry, whose main function is to cultivate virtues in students, should come before physical training. He thinks that “a good soul by its own virtue makes the body as good as possible” (Republic, 403d, P80). To Rousseau, the souls of children are still blind during the second stage of childhood; it is therefore against nature to teach virtues that they cannot understand. Rousseau further points out that the preaching of virtues may plant the seed of the vices in the children’s hearts since the notion of virtue is beyond their comprehension.