Planning Time - History

History is easy. It's just a story.

OK, it's a really long story with multiple settings and countless characters. But still a story.

We use The Mystery of History. We are nearly done with Volume 3.

We will push hard to finish Volume 4 this year so that Emily (my senior) will be able to finish it with us.

When starting Mystery of History all those years ago, I had it in mind to do the whole thing TWICE before David graduated. Well, the books didn't come out fast enough for that. We made do and used other resources.

Suzy and James will get to do all 4 volumes twice. That's the plan.

So, for this year, we will work hard the first three weeks to finish the last few lessons of Volume 3. Then we will try to keep up the pace the rest of the year. We don't do tests or worksheets for history. It's a story and so that's how we study it.

I like to reinforce the topics with videos and hands-on projects. We also work on a timeline to put everything in order.

"History" Plans Complete

Unlike the LAST subject, I LOVE history!!

That said, I've put "history" in quotes in my post title, because we aren't doing actual "history" this year. This year we are doing GEOGRAPHY!

I wrote last summer about Mapping the World by Heart. But like most of my ambitious summer plans, it didn't happen. So this will be our social studies topic this year. The goal is for the kids to be able to draw detailed world and U.S. maps by heart. So, we'll give it a try!  All of the kids will do this.

If we complete that before the year is over, we will pick back up with Mystery of History 3, which we used last year and got partway through.

David (my senior) has completed his two history credits - American History and World History. The mapping class above will be the "geography" portion of his requirement. He did his Civics (Government) requirement last year. That just leaves Economics. So, we will be doing a book study on Economics using these three books - The Cartoon Introduction to Economics Volume 1: Microeconomics, A Bluestocking Guide to Economics, and Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?. These three books and the accompanying writing I will assign, along with the Financial Peace for Teens class (Dave Ramsey) that David took three years ago (or so) will complete his Economics credit.  I considered having Emily (10th grade) do this work along with David, but I don't think she's ready to master the content.

How We Do... History

Here is the third in a series of posts on how we do each of our academic subjects. (The first was on Bible study and the second was Math.)

I never liked history when I was in school. I didn't see the big picture until I was in college. Until I took a History of Civilization class, I didn't see any of it as connected. Because of this, I always wanted to teach my children history chronologically.

But for a long time, I couldn't really find a curriculum that did this, so we floundered around in Ancient Egypt and the American Revolution. I figured that at least if we had an interest in some part of history, that the love of learning about it would carry over to history in general. And I actually think that is a fine approach.

But, a few years ago, when a friend showed me her brand new copy of Mystery of History, I knew in a flash that was what I had been waiting for. Currrently there are 3 volumes in the series, with a fourth (and final) volume being finished

Why? Well, it's strengths are:

• Chronological
• Christian
• Conversational
• Creative

We have worked our way through Volumes 1 and 2. For those two volumes, I led the lessons, reading them aloud to my children, and then doing a project once a week or so to extend the learning. I don't really pay any attention to the tests. For those volumes, we did a timeline and we did the learning cards for volume 1 only.

As we progressed, I stripped the history lessons to exactly what we wanted. I don't want our history to be a bunch of memorization. I want it to be something that whets the children's appetites for learning more about history, as well as something that allows them to see each event in relation to a larger picture. It's learning a worldview and a context, rather than memorizing dates and names. (Note: I am not opposed to memorization. I just want more than that.)

For Volume 3, however, I needed to do something differently. As I have mentioned before, since I am working 20+ hours a week, I need to streamline our curriculum. So, David is "teaching" history this year by reading the lessons aloud to his siblings. He is gaining practice in reading aloud (which is something he needs to work on) and in teaching. Is it the most ideal way to teach history? Probably not. Are they continuing on toward my goal for them? Yes, they are.

What would I like to change or add? I would like to return to doing the projects. For MOH3, I would need the teacher book. The publisher changed the format for Volume 3. Instead of one volume with the info and the resources, the books were separated into a full color textbook and a separate teacher volume. I should probably order that and add that back into our history lessons. I think that adds a richness we have been missing.

Volume 4 (the final MOH) will probably not be ready in time for us to use it when we finish Volume 3. So, we will probably take the time in between to do an in-depth study of American History. Or maybe we will do a year of Geography since David already did a survey of American History. Our options are open.

Weekly Review - Week 27

This was quite an average week - lessons-wise - here at Cornerstone Academy. Five days of lessons, nothing unusual except Chess Club and a Friday afternoon visit with Michele to break the monotony of the days. The weather was rainy, really really rainy, for the first couple days and then COLD, quite quite cold for a couple more. Next week is supposed to warm up a bit! That'll be nice.

One thing that was different was the lack of any Bible study. I just couldn't muster the gumption to push everyone through it this week. Bible time often ends up being the time of the most complaining and unpleasant attitudes and I just wasn't interested in facing it. Isn't it odd that the time should be about praising the Lord and learning about his Word, but instead it ends up being CHARACTER BUILDING for all? :::chuckles, somewhat bitterly:::: Anyway, we'll do it next week. I promise.

Suzy is working on an art book. Several years ago, James did this art book at co-op. My friend Sarah is teaching it this year at co-op, but Suzy didn't end up taking the class for whatever reason. So, I decided to have her complete it here at home. She is enjoying it, perhaps just the attention from Mom and the opportunity to do "Art". Anyway, some of these pictures are of her mixing colors for one of the pages.

In History this week, the littles learned about St. Boniface, the Iconoclast Conspiracy, and Charles "Martel". I knew nothing about ANY of these before. One of the projects was to make crosses and decorate them, "icon" style. So I have some pictures for you of that.

David's been studying the Civil War this month and I found some DVD's at the library for him to watch. Emily sat and watched them all too, which surprised me, as I personally found them a tad dry - at least the parts I watched. They watched them in the afternoons while I worked on my writing.Civil War Journals: The Conflict Begins (from the History Channel) are the DVD's. I plan to have him watch some Civil War movies too - I had in mind Glory, Gods and Generals, and maybe Gettysburg. I'm not big on war movies, so anyone with suggestions there, please leave them in my comments.

Man, I DETEST working with pictures in blogger! Why don't they go where I want them? Argh!!!

Writing Desk - Antiques Roadshow

I adore Antiques Roadshow. I don't watch it regularly, although now that I'm not working at night, I should start!

Check out this Regency era writing desk. There is a video - secret compartments galore! Oh my, it is LOVELY. You'd probably laugh at me if I said that the beauty of the craftsmanship on this desk made tears come to my eyes. So I won't say it. You didn't hear it here!

Here's a pic, in case you are too lazy to click over. lol But then you'll miss the video! CLICK CLICK CLICK ALREADY! (Ok, I am officially loopy tonight. Sorry!)

I linked to Antiques Roadshow from this historical writers' blog - History Hoydens. Thanks, Janet!

If anyone wants to buy me a present, this desk would do QUITE nicely! A little Christmas-y hint.... lol

History Plans Completed (and Math Info)

Another subject completed - one of my favorites - History! We are doing some American history this year.

We've already read The Light and the Glory for Children (and I read the adult version). We are now just a few chapters into From Sea to Shining Sea for Children. (Again I am reading the adult version.) We'll finish the school year with Sounding the Trumpet for Children, which will take us to the year 1860. (All of those books are by Peter Marshall and David Manuel.) I've got all 3 activity books and I will be photocopying some pages from those to go along with our reading.

I've also got a book called American Adventures: True Stories from America's Past 1770-1870 and I will be integrating selections from that book as well.

Mostly our history work is me reading the chapter aloud while the children color a coloring sheet that goes along with the information. There are discussion questions for each chapter, so we'll cover those. Sometimes I'll integrate a picture book or a movie that goes along with the topic - like Star-Spangled Banner by Peter Spier or the Liberty's Kids DVD's that we have. The books include several games and some map work so that will be included and we also work on an ongoing timeline that we started with Mystery of History Volume 1.

If we haven't come to the end of May yet when that's complete, I'll pull out some Civil War stuff I have and we'll work on that.

Next year, we'll go back to Mystery of History and begin Volume 2. (I am looking to buy it used, if anyone has one to sell!)

So, there's history!

I'm not going to do a separate entry for Math for two reasons.
One - Bob teaches it, not me.
Two - it doesn't require any planning other than to make sure they have their books.

Here's what they're doing:

David - Math-U-See Pre-Algebra - he's on Lesson 14.
Emily - Math-U-See Gamma - she's on Lesson 9.
James - Math-U-See Beta - he's on Lesson 24 (need to get Gamma for him!)
Suzy - working on beginning addition concepts and counting by 2's, 5's, 10's. We don't have a curriculum for her - just random worksheets and practicing with Daddy.

How We Home-Educate, Part 1

Shall I describe a typical homelearning day for you? (This will be a day that we don't have any committments until late afternoon; days with other things going on are a leetle bit confusing!)

The kids are up before me usually, as I am rather a night owl and like to sleep til the last possible second, and then some. Sometimes that's past 9, but more often it is somewhere between 8 and 8:30. (If I were doing what my ideal plan said, I would be up at 7. Not happening right now.)

We usually get to our lessons somewhere around 9:30, but it can be around 10 before we actually get to it. We begin with our Bible studies. We learn a new hymn every month. This month it is Fairest Lord Jesus. Then someone picks one of our previously learned hymns to review. Currently we are doing a character Bible study on gentleness. We alternate character quality study with a Bible survey course called Bible Study Guide for All Ages, which we have been using for years. We are on volume 3 of 4. I am also reading them the book by the Mally kids called: Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. I highly recommend this book. Bible study usually takes around 30 minutes.

Last year we did art every day, but we finished the book and I haven't found another that works the same for us, so we have not done art consistently this year. However, they all love to draw and color so they do get plenty of that, and lots of crafts too. If we do an art lesson, it comes right after Bible.

Then we move on to Science and/or History. Science this year is Considering God's Creation, which I like. It's not a textbook, but a "notebooking" sort of curriculum. We did not begin at the beginning, but skipped to the unit on Plants and began with that. We just finished it last week. I like the fact that it is adaptable to many age levels. Next year, I imagine David will do Switched-on Schoolhouse for Science, or some other independent text, as I have decided against using Apologia, at least for now.

Mystery of History Volume 1 is our history curriculum and I love it. The lessons are just the right length. I love the mix of activities - some hands-on, some quizzes (which we often do orally or as a game), some review. Very strong program and from the point of view I believe in. I am hoping to get through the second half of this book rather quickly this year and begin Volume 2 before the "year ends". Currently we are at about 500 BC and just recently learned about Confucious, Buddha, and Daniel.

Once we have finished with these subjects, the kids begin their separate work. I'll write about that in a separate post, since I am, quite frankly, itching to move on to other things! LOL

Mystery of History

Thanks to my good friend Maryann, I found the perfect History curriculum. In my humble opinion, of course. :-)

HERE IT IS!! The Mystery of History: Volume 1 by Linda Lacour Hobar.

As soon as I picked it up and started paging through it, I knew it was perfect for us.
Short lessons written in a conversational manner
Starts at Creation and has a Biblical point of view
Includes Biblical events mixed in with other historical events
Can be done with all age students
Not a traditional "textbook" or a workbook
Has cool hands-on activities for each lesson
Organized chronologically and includes history from all over the world, not just western civilization
Includes timeline work
Includes map work

Hobar has written Volume 2 and is working on Volume 3. There will be 5 volumes when it is all completed. When I get to the end of Volume 5, I plan to start over again with Volume 1.

I planned my lessons out by writing down the pages we plan to cover each day and by choosing the activities we plan to do. I noted the items needed for each activity, so I am not surprised on the day that we need a white sheet cake and colored frosting.

Several of the homeschooling moms I know have also decided to use Mystery of History. I am excited that other people will be doing it alongside of us, because that only can mean more support!

If you are still looking for a history curriculum you can really enjoy, give this one a try! (Will post more later in the year, after I've had a chance to try it.)