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Natalia
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| Posted: June 02 2010 at 10:26am | IP Logged
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Theresa,
I agree with you, right down to being of two minds! I like the way SL does it: taking one year to do Non Western cultures. In a world that is getting smaller and smaller, it makes sense to me to know something about the other part of the world, doesn't it?
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Natalia
http://pannuestrodecadadia.blogspot.com
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: June 02 2010 at 11:00am | IP Logged
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Jenn, through 8th grade, we informally study history through living books, movies, discussion, maps, etc. No book of centuries or giant timeline (although I have specialty timelines hanging as fitting.) No planned order beyond what arises via interest and opportunity which has included mainly American History, European History, and other World History. For the high school years, we become more formal. Each of my children chooses one topic/era to master. For my dd that was The Revolutionary War and the Founding Fathers with a sub-emphasis on the writings of the time, especially Jefferson and The Declaration of Independence. For my ds, he is mastering WWII. So for us, the big picture is to pull together for oneself, via the science of relations/experience, the big world/time by starting small...connecting what is tangible, interesting, and familiar to eventually the more abstract and unfamiliar.
I must admit that there are times when I pine for a more orderly approach, a book of centuries, an all encompassing timeline, but those times are fewer as I see my older children grow in interest, initiative, and engagement with bigger, broader topics and concerns  .
Love,
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Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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Barbara C.
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I follow the four-year-cycle of The Well-Trained Mind. Next year is Medieval History. I also follow the concept that grades 1-4 is about just planting seeds. In grades 5-8 those seeds are cultivated more. The other kids will come in to the cycle wherever we are at the time.
I do go beyond the topics of the The Well-Trained Mind. For instance, in Ancient history I started with creation. I include a lot more Biblical/Church history, and I touch on non-European history more (India, South America).
I usually pick one book as a spine and then add in picture books, movies, websites, etc. We spend about 15-20 minutes twice a week at this time.
My goal is to make history as relevant to my kids' lives: Catholic history, history of other religions (we live in a very diverse issue), pop culture references that they often come across, etc. I also want them to see that historical events are made of complex people just like them who made complex choices like they will have to make.
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Barbara
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JennGM
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 12:23pm | IP Logged
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Just coming back to say how much I've enjoyed your responses. It's all be very helpful to me. I'm still open for much more feedback.
I'm not going to worry too much about 2nd grade but continue on with our smattering of famous Americans and perhaps some overview of World history, starting with ancients.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 1:03pm | IP Logged
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Erin wrote:
JennGM wrote:
From what I'm reading, Charlotte Mason approach was to have national history alongside with world history every year. |
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She did and frankly I just can't manage, we get whiplash.
What we do is one term (10 weeks) of national history each year and the rest on a time period of our choosing. I know many do the 4 year cycle method but well.. I'm not that disciplined. So we tend to spend 5 weeks + on an area of current interest. Although currently we are working our way through Vol 4 of History of the World (a whole 'nother post) |
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Yk, Erin, I've been working on our history plans this week as well as reviewing my CM resources. I'm wondering if that didn't work much better for her students because their "national history" is British. You don't have to study NEARLY so much ancient history before you start hitting their National history at about the same time.
In fact, so much of what we try and cram into World History is British because it is so closely related to our own countries' heritages.
On the other hand, Australia and the United States are so "new" as far as countries go, there is so much more of a gap to cross going back and forth.
Anyway, I think that her own National History was much more closely related to the World History they were studying.
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Lindsay
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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HeatherS
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 4:06pm | IP Logged
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Jenn,
Our family belongs to our local Classical Conversations community (our eldest 2 dds were in their Foundations program), and we implement their 3 year cycle of history used at the Foundations level at home. How that has translated for us this past year for my eldest dd in 1st grade-ish, and how I plan, (using a Classical and CM approach adapted to our family), God willing, for it to unfold through 6th grade is this:
1st Grade - World History from Ancient through Modern w/emphasis on historical empires, peoples and countries. A broad, informal overview here, b/c my hope in the early years of 1st through 3rd grade is to instill a love for history and geography, which I teach in tandem. CC also uses timeline cards which cover Creation through Modern America. Thanks to a talented tutor who compiled background music, our girls have memorized the timeline cards in order from start to finish and can sing the timeline aloud. I've found that these mental "pegs" are really helpful as they are listening to our SOTW CD's.
2nd Grade - World History from Ancient through Modern with an emphasis on Biblical and Church history. What I use here is our children's Bible, and picture books as well as Vision books on missionary saints and saints who founded religious orders, for ex. St. Ignatius of Loyola, and saints and heroes of the counter-reformation. Both these years are done very imformally listening to the SOTW audio CD's, which my girls LOVE.
During these two years of world history my hope is to study British history to give them a foundation of stories about the country that we in the U.S. owe a lot of our early history to. I have Our Island Story as an audio book. Superbly read, imho. That link is to the audio book, but it is available elsewhere as a download (same narrators). We began listening to this in May after we finished the SOTW vol. 1 audio CD and while we have begun the SOTW vol. 2 CD.
So-o-o our spines for these early years are audio books that are listened to and soaked up and which I have paused from time to time to have my dd narrate back to me. The rest are a very few carefully chosen living books/saints books.
3rd Grade - American history...a list of living books is still in process here...
4th Grade - World History from Ancient through Modern emphasizing the Eastern Hemisphere. I think that, like it's been mentioned here in this thread, it is such a great idea to learn about this part of history and the corresponding geography.
5th Grade - World History from Ancient through Modern similar to 2nd grade, but going deeper into the Protestant Revolt, the counter-reformation and missionary efforts of the Catholic Church throughout the world.
6th Grade - American History...I found that this link here on 4Real on the Landmark Book series resource list to be absolutely inspiring. I will use that for years as a resource and wish list! Thanks so much for that!!
I haven't even remotely planned beyond 6th grade, but I love to plan, so we will see how this works out for our family...I know that I do plan on letting subsequent dds join in on whatever cycle we're on, or just listen in.
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Heather
wife to Matt since '02, mom to Margaret '03, Jessica '04, Catherine '06, Elizabeth '07 and Susanna '09
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Erin
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 5:26pm | IP Logged
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Lindsay
What a fascinating thought!!! I'll be pondering this all day now.
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: How Do you Approach History??
