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mrsdgason
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| Posted: Feb 12 2013 at 9:49am | IP Logged
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Me again with the endless questions 
How do you decide what to study in, say for instance, history? Do you follow a rabbit trail, or do you look at your State's standards for whatever "grade" your child would be in, and take it from there?
For background, my child is 11 and in 5th grade (give or take) and I know we'll have to be more formal in high school, but the goal right now is to get him to like learning again. We had K - 3 in public and private schools and it was evident he was not benefiting from either environment and he was diagnosed as ADD and an "identifiable learning disability" which nobody was ever able to give a specific name. It was a mess so we brought him home.
We did boxed curriculum for the first couple of years and learned that's not a good fit for him - it was drudgery and made us both miserable. That's not what I want for him or me so we are gradually becoming more CM, which seems to be working so far 
I'm thinking ahead to what we want to tackle next and could use some guidance...
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Feb 12 2013 at 11:06am | IP Logged
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In your situation, for history, I would look around for whatever you can go out and do in your area. Or if he has a particular interest. If there's any reenactment around your area... museums.. acess to any really good fairly accurate movies or documentaries.. any era he especially likes or if he likes a particular things like vehicles or weapons or something. And then run with it. Learn what you can about that era, learn about that item over different time periods or in different wars. And of course along the way you can notice connections to other things and how it fits into history. But look for anything that is going to let him "fall in love" with history. Read living books. Biographies, good historical fiction, dump the history textbooks and sitting around doing worksheets and writing. Get active and talk about it rather than making it drugery. Inspire him, rather than worry about a bunch of checkmarks beside stuff he's *supposed to* do.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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SallyT
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| Posted: Feb 12 2013 at 1:13pm | IP Logged
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We have done a combination of things. In the beginning, with a child who had been in school for some years, I piggybacked on what I knew was already an interest -- Roman Britain, and ancient history more generally -- plus what I knew that child had already done in school. I also wanted, at least in very general terms, to follow something like a classical "cycle" from ancient history forward, and to do this through literature and hands-on, "fun" activities (we had lots of "history lunches" in the beginning, for example). Later we merged somewhat into the Mater Amabilis program, and though I've never done their levels as written, to this day I do do two "tracks" in history, an Old World and a New World track.
I do think it helps to have some kind of sequence, like MA's, laid out for a kind of template, suggesting what might be appropriate for a given age/level, so that you have some kind of framework to work within or around. Otherwise, I just think that a booklist with age-appropriate suggestions for good reading/read-alouds is the single best resource you can have. I have found Maureen Wittmann's For the Love of Literature to be invaluable in this way -- her history section has a wealth of great books laid out chronologically, era by era, and labeled by general age range.
To sum up, I do things at least loosely chronologically (in two tracks) so that by now I know that if we're doing Rome and George Washington's Worldthis year in grades 3 and 4, we'll be doing the Middle Ages/Renaissance and Abraham Lincoln's World next year in 4 and 5. But we're certainly not averse to rabbit trails, to field trips that have nothing to do with what we're "officially" studying, to independent reading that goes in different directions, etc. It just helps me to have some kind of a mental "spine" for it all and a direction in which I intend to be moving, as well as good books to enjoy together, one after another, all year -- otherwise it would kind of go to pieces.
I also really like the CM idea of a Book of Centuries -- we've kept one very loosely as a family project since my older kids were in their primary years, and I'm thinking of having my rising 5th-er begin his own next year, though I may wait till he's ready to start over with a survey of world history in 6th and 7th grades . . . Still thinking that one over.
Sally
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: Feb 12 2013 at 2:25pm | IP Logged
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My oldest is only in third grade, but here's what we've done so far.
Intro to American History just hitting the highlights of Columbus to Colonial America - this took two years of off and on reading. I did it sporadically.
We did a bit of early history with Story of The World, but didn't get past Egypt.
This year we are doing Am. History from Revolution to WWI following the Mater Amabalis schedule.
Mater Amabalis
Next year in fourth we will introduce ancient Greece with Famous Men of Greece as the spine and probably some British History.
I like the order of Mater Amabilis and Charlotte Mason Helps websites. They give me good ideas on what to study and when.
Hope that helps a bit!
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Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool
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SallyT
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| Posted: Feb 12 2013 at 2:29pm | IP Logged
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Oh, I'm so glad you remembered actually to make hyperlinks! (I did not). So much more helpful that way!
Sally
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Feb 12 2013 at 3:23pm | IP Logged
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You're getting a lot of good ideas. But remember your goal is to get him to like learning again.
When a child has been in school and it hasn't been successful, they often need a time of not doing something that looks like school so that they have time for the dislike of school to fade and the delight of learning to resurface.
You may really need to drop anything at all that looks like school to accomplish this goal.
It doesn't mean stop doing anything that you can count as school though.. read alouds and field trips and nature study, games that include math (but maybe not ones that look so much like math) often look different enough from what "school" was that you can explore these things and regain that love of learning.
For history, you can always explore based on interest and then as you add back in more school like pieces you can pick up a specific sequence.. but a sequence won't matter if you don't regain that interest in learning.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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MichelleW
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Here's another idea: Project Based Homeschooling
Check out her blog for some great suggestions to get started. This approach has revolutionized our homeschool and we LOVE it.
I will give you an idea of what this looks like for us this year. My daughter (13) decided her project of interest would be spinning. She has pursued technique all year and can now spin admirably on a spindle and a spinning wheel. The only parameters I gave my kids were that their topics had to be meaty enough to address possible transcript requirements. So, for history, she read books on the history of cotten, indigo, synthetic dyes and the color red. She decided to enter the National History Day competition (sort of like a national science fair but for history) using the topic: "The invention of synthetic dyes not only changed the textile industry but also the way society perceives and uses color." To explore this topic her reading has touched on fascinating events in Latin American and European history. By the end of the year she will definitely have earned her history credit. For science, she has been working on studying farming techniques that produce the best protein and bast fibers as well as the chemistry of dyeing various fibers. She has done lots of writing about the techniques of spinning and dyeing and has done interviews with various "local legends" in the fiber arts community.
My teenage son picked graphic design for his project area (he really wanted to do animating video games, but he has done quite a lot with animation already and after a bit of soul searching he decided that he wanted a better art foundation). He has been studying the history of fonts, video games and art. He has been studying the science of color, both the physics and psychological effects of it. He has also been studying the chemical compositions and histories of inks.
My oldest son is studying metalworking. His history project maps the usage of various metals through history. His science focus is on the crystalline structure of various metals and what that means in terms of best application. He is studying forging and casting at this time.
This was long, but just to say that pretty much any interest area has it's own interesting history that overlaps all kinds of other interesting history. We keep a timeline book and so I do feel that they are getting a "complete" education. This method has been fun for them, but has a bit more structure than unschooling (which was necessary for me).
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Michelle
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Elena
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| Posted: Feb 16 2013 at 11:40am | IP Logged
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I bought Cindy Downe's The Checklist to keep track of what we cover, but it also gives me ideas for things and interests I would not have thought to study! For 5th grade I would say you still have time to go with interests your child might have and to maybe even find some new ones! 
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Elena
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Kristie 4
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I would also encourage a real break from anything that looks like school- you want them to take the whole idea of homeschooling on and some serious time to delve into some neat things might really help. My kids have lots of interests, but they don't like me to plan around their interests, which I know is different for different folks. So for them, I would pick a cool area, say Roman Britain, birds, siege weapons of the middle ages, norse mythology etc. and do some neat reading, art, whatever that child really thrives on.
It is very individual though- so many folks say you need to totally decompress when coming home from a brick and mortar school, giving the child complete freedom, but some kids need some direction and co-operative working together...
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Kristie in Canada
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CrunchyMom
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Kristie 4 wrote:
| My kids have lots of interests, but they don't like me to plan around their interests, which I know is different for different folks. |
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I agree. I don't think that my children respond well to my turning their interests into "school." That isn't to say that I don't know the sorts of things they find interesting and choose accordingly.
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Lindsay
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: Feb 21 2013 at 8:42am | IP Logged
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You've had some great advice and lots of ideas :)
My main focus with history is to provide an overview - make sure the children get those connecting pieces. That might be one big timeline actually mounted to your hallway wall; folded into a binder or rolled into a tube to stretch out as needed; or something similar.
We use the Montessori Great Lessons for the grand overview; then we use Mystery of History just as a read aloud (well, that's how it started) to read through history - then my son chooses his own topics of study to delve into details. For the most part, this is entirely led by him.
Now, our local public school students are learning American history, so I want him "on par" with them; so I did implement that study this year, using RC History's guide for topics and a good book that is a story format version of the history of the US. It only goes to the late 1800s so we'll have to find something for this century, but it gets us started. And frankly, my son will be covering a lot MORE history and more in-depth than his public school counterparts. So much for being "on par" ;)
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: How do you decide what to study?
