Course Redesign Update: May 25, Aesop and Infancy Gospels

After my happy romp through LibriVox yesterday, I decided to revise - and expand! - my content plan in order to incorporate more readings with available audio. I'm not sure I will get all 100 units up and running by August 1, but the spreadsheet assures me that it should be possible! You can see the current Content Plan; each week now has 8 options instead of 6.

Today, I got two new units started:

Aesop's Fables. I found an Aesop collection I really like at LibriVox (unknown author - but illustrations by Milo Winter), so I added another Aesop to the Week 2 selection; I went through this Aesop and removed all of the fables that already appear in the other Aesop unit, and it worked out perfectly in terms of length!

Infancy Gospels. This unit starts off with the Biblical account of the birth of Jesus and his youth as told in the Gospel of Luke, and then I include parts of the Protevangelion of James (beginning when Mary is twelve), plus one of the Infancy Gospels. I really liked being able to include both the Biblical and extra-Biblical materials together, just as I did for the Noah unit, and I'm planning on doing the same thing for the Adam and Eve unit also. I was prompted to choose the Infancy Gospels because of the great art tradition surrounding the "toppled idol" - a story that most people do not know these days, but which was well known in the Middle Ages.