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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Dec 17 2008 at 5:13pm | IP Logged
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Has anyone ever done this? I usually use a spine. I'm trying to teach a 10 yr old and a 7 yr old together next year. Early American history, year one of two years. I was thinking about using MODG 4th but I just noticed that I own most of the books from MODG 3, but I don't like the spine for that year. Then I got to thinking...do I really even need a spine? Couldn't I just read these books aloud, in order, maybe do a simple timeline and a couple of crafts and call it good? I own so many early American history books. How important is a spine for hanging it all together?
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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ALmom
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I did American History one year without a spine. When our oldest son was about 3rd or 4th grade, I simply ordered every single American History book in the Emmanuel Press catalogue, plus I had plenty on my own and we read them in a sequence without doing or assigning anything else. Honestly, that is the year this child became a history fanatic and even the next year when I mistakenly thought I should do a text to help him tie things together, couldn't dampen the interest. He just told me he'd already read tons more on that and would look for more information and ask for more books. I really don't think it is that hard to do history without a text spine. If you have the sequence of events in your mind that should be fine for the ages you're talking about. They went off and did their own projects - I didn't plan or expect any kind of output myself, honestly. That year was a great history year.
I am normally a plan fanatic but doing things this way, this year for this child was one of the best things we ever did.
Don't be afraid to go for it if this seems like the best plan for your family!
Janet
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sewcrazy
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We aren't using a spine these past 2 years. We are using historical fiction, reference books, unit studies and lapbooks.
LeeAnn
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LeeAnn
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mooreboyz
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My 11 year old is doing American History this year and although we use Story of the World, I have slowed the lessons considerably and added lots of biographical reading (which he really loves and Waldorf says this is a good age for bios) and movies. There are lots of great resources at the library...you don't have to buy. At times I have him write a report, a timeline of events, or some other activity...this week he wrote a letter to George Washington.
I think his depth of knowledge of this time period is great due to this eclectic approach. AND he loves it.
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CandaceC
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My favorite resource for American History at the moment is Serendipity!! I love Elizabeth's plans, book lists, etc.
No spine (that I know of?) just reading lots of good, living books, copy work, etc.
Oh and HEREis the link for serendipity's history section.
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Mary G
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I've been using Homeschool in the Woods time travers for New World and early colonial ideas. This has become our "spine" as FStSS was ok but too textbooky for me. I love HSW's activities and I can use their "scripts" for discussions or go with my own. They suggest books and have great activities that make the info come alive!
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Sarah M
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ALmom wrote:
| I did American History one year without a spine. When our oldest son was about 3rd or 4th grade, I simply ordered every single American History book in the Emmanuel Press catalogue, plus I had plenty on my own and we read them in a sequence without doing or assigning anything else. Honestly, that is the year this child became a history fanatic Janet |
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This sounds so deliciously CM to me. 
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Erin
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| Then I got to thinking...do I really even need a spine? Couldn't I just read these books aloud, in order, maybe do a simple timeline and a couple of crafts and call it good? I own so many early American history books. How important is a spine for hanging it all together? |
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You certainly can  I've never used a spine until recently.
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Bookswithtea
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Well, this is encouraging. I feel ok about putting them in the right order myself. And I like the idea of putting in enough books to cover the time periods, but also controlling the workload somewhat and not overplanning, like so many curriculums do, these days. And I guess I needed to know that its ok to do this without also doing lapbooks and crafts and the like. With the kids at these ages, that stuff just isn't happening as I'd like.
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Sarah M
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| And I guess I needed to know that its ok to do this without also doing lapbooks and crafts and the like. |
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I'm discovering that I don't really *like* doing all the hands-on work that unit studies usually require. I like crafting with my children, but not in a way that connects with our lesson (as in, reading a lesson on Egypt and then building a sugar cube pyramid). I didn't realize this before, but I enjoy teaching so much more when I just read aloud, and let the kids make their own connections and form their own knowledge. I'm finding that when the material is engaging, they will run off and do the unit-ish work themselves, like drawing pictures, acting out the story, etc. But WOW- what a stress reliever to realize that I don't have to plan in-depth activities for every lesson we cover. No salt dough maps of Egypt for me, please. I would rather just read and let it all sink in.  For winter term, I'm going to plan what we will read, and then let the kids form their own activities as their interest leads them.
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mavmama
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| Has anyone ever done this? Then I got to thinking...do I really even need a spine? Couldn't I just read these books aloud, in order, maybe do a simple timeline and a couple of crafts and call it good? How important is a spine for hanging it all together? |
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Thank you for asking this! I needed to hear about NOT using a spine, because I just can't get it done with a textbook--we are all miserable with that approach. Thank you again, I feel relieved!
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Liz
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SaraP
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Sarah M wrote:
| I didn't realize this before, but I enjoy teaching so much more when I just read aloud, and let the kids make their own connections and form their own knowledge. I'm finding that when the material is engaging, they will run off and do the unit-ish work themselves, like drawing pictures, acting out the story, etc. |
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This has been exactly my experience, too. I plan a few things - usually things like cooking food from the period/region we are studying or visiting a related museum or historical site - but for the most part we read real books aloud and then talk and play about them.
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MarilynW
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I did very detailed American history plans for the year (I would attach to my blog - but trouble with scripted pages again) using Our Pioneers and Patriots as a spine. But we never use it - the read aloud and independent reading is sufficient. This year is one where a lot of lapbooks and crafts are impossible - so we keep it simple - I am not even having them narrate this year. We use the Homeschool in the Woods timelines which they cut out and color and stick in their timeline notebooks (for saints they print out their own), we do some mapwork from Knowledge Quest and we do field trips whenever we can for close by historical sites - or the the newly reopened Museum of American History. We also play games such as All American Trivia Game and Way Back When - An Adventure in American History. I get as many relevant dvds out of the library too.
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folklaur
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Sarah M wrote:
Bookswithtea wrote:
| And I guess I needed to know that its ok to do this without also doing lapbooks and crafts and the like. |
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I'm discovering that I don't really *like* doing all the hands-on work that unit studies usually require. |
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I am glad to hear that others feel this way too. I always wondered if programs like Sonlight were "missing something" by not including it in their program....
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Mary G
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cactus mouse wrote:
Sarah M wrote:
Bookswithtea wrote:
| And I guess I needed to know that its ok to do this without also doing lapbooks and crafts and the like. |
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I'm discovering that I don't really *like* doing all the hands-on work that unit studies usually require. |
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I am glad to hear that others feel this way too. I always wondered if programs like Sonlight were "missing something" by not including it in their program....
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But like all things in my "living, loving and learning" here, we use all this stuff as jumping off points -- I'm not good at following directions , but do a great job at getting my creative juices flowing (and my kids too) by reading how others did things.
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vmalott
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MarilynW wrote:
| I did very detailed American history plans for the year (I would attach to my blog - but trouble with scripted pages again) using Our Pioneers and Patriots as a spine. |
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I went to your blog and dug up the plans...they are great! Thanks so much for sharing. Here is the link:
American History Schedule
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Valerie
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Bookswithtea
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vmalott wrote:
MarilynW wrote:
| I did very detailed American history plans for the year (I would attach to my blog - but trouble with scripted pages again) using Our Pioneers and Patriots as a spine. |
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I went to your blog and dug up the plans...they are great! Thanks so much for sharing. Here is the link:
American History Schedule |
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Thanks for the link.  Offtopic, V, but I am halfway through SOTW III and will hopefully be posting a review sometime this spring. Did you ever finish and review it somewhere? I'm only asking because you and I have discussed SOTW I and II more than once here on the boards. 
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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vmalott
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| I am halfway through SOTW III and will hopefully be posting a review sometime this spring. Did you ever finish and review it somewhere? |
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Nope, I haven't finished it...working w/a library copy. It seems to have considerable less American History than I would like, so we may wind up not using it. Also those first few chapters are really hard to stomach w/the negative view of Catholicism....more so than SOTW II, which surprised me.
I'm really at a loss as to what to do, really. I think the kids could use a good dose of American History for the next two years in the cycle, but I don't want to totally ignore what was going on in the rest of the world, either. Would the Genevieve Foster books be good for setting Am. Hist. in a world context???
Valerie
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Bookswithtea
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vmalott wrote:
Also those first few chapters are really hard to stomach w/the negative view of Catholicism....more so than SOTW II, which surprised me. |
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Well, I've made it through ch 20 and its only those two spots in the beginning that were icky. In all, I think its going to be easier to fix than SOTW II, where I have drop many chapters. 
vmalott wrote:
I'm really at a loss as to what to do, really. I think the kids could use a good dose of American History for the next two years in the cycle, but I don't want to totally ignore what was going on in the rest of the world, either. Would the Genevieve Foster books be good for setting Am. Hist. in a world context???
Valerie |
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We seem to be following the same history cycle. I am on the fence about it all, too. I am either going to break from World to do a year or two of American and then finish world, or finish world and then do 2 years of American. Can't decide which is the best route. Thoughts? Fwiw, I don't like the Foster books all that much. Maybe its just me but I find them to jump around too much/hard to follow. I've gotten so used to the fun of history on audiocd that I'm not as excited about American now.
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: Am history without a spine?
