"A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable." - Thomas Jefferson
What is our country thinking?! How bad are the school systems going to get?! If we don't teach our children about their nation's and the world's past, who will?
"A nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual with amnesia." - David McCullough
Anyway, I will get off my soapbox and just say that I am so glad that I am able to be home and give my children as even-handed, non-biased and broad education as I am able.
This year we will continue with Story of the World (SOTW) Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 as our spine with about 55 additional picture books and numerous hands-on projects. (We only have about eight chapters left in Vol. 2). We plan on "traveling" through history from about 1500 to 1850. Yes, I am a bit daunted by the task of covering that many years of world and American history. Thankfully, I am not required to make it all the way through to 1850, as I can set my own rules for the curriculum. If we need to slow down, we will. I would rather they learn from the past and make the connections necessary to understand the present. I am really excited about this next year. We finally get to America, and we get to cover this year some of my favorite people in history.
We hope to take some field trips to some great historical sights. I won't tell them yet, since they are still in the early stages of thought and planning.
Well, there you have a really long peek ahead into what we will be doing for history.
Blessings, Dawn
I totally agree with you. The thought that TJ will be written out of history is horrifying.
ReplyDeleteThat whole TJ thing is confusing. 1) I don't understand if this was for an AmHist course or just a specific study? 2) Can't kids study both Jefferson AND Calvin? My kids study both.
ReplyDeleteForgot to add...I love the little people for your timeline. I think I might be inspired, even.
ReplyDeleteHow fantastic!! I'm just starting to plan now for our year. Check out the book All through the Ages by Christine Miller. She breaks history chronologically. Each section has a timeline, resources for all ages, books listed by gade level for overview of the era (specific events, literature, historical fiction, biographies, and culture) Its a wonderful source book and spine to use. I've already decided that will be our spine for the year and we will focus on the events on the timeline that I want the kids to know. It will be a blast! Have a great year Dawn!
ReplyDeleteIn Colonial Williamsburg, Patrick Henry always answers questions in the future. Although he assures us he is not a soothsayer, he can know the future because he knows the past. He alluded to this textbook thing by stating that he and the other Founding Fathers would be highly upset about it.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Laurie
Hi Dawn. I'm glad you get on your soapbox about history. More people should, but so few really know history now that it is easy for the government (ours, the UN and other "leaders") and our "beloved" NEA to rewrite history. Nobody cares anymore! Most people want the government to do everything for them, and they are just fine with the government running their lives, cradle to the grave. So many people don't care about history. They don't care about their future or the future of the next generation. They just have their hands out, and as long as the government keeps dropping a morsel into it, they'll just follow along like a herd of buffalo over a cliff. My husband gave me something yesterday to post on my blog regarding history. I'll get to it this afternoon, but it was timely.
ReplyDeleteOK, stepping off my soapbox now . . . . I began organizing our books for history a few days ago. I bought All Through The Ages late last year and love it! Wonderful resource, as Michelle mentioned. I bought it before I was sure of the direction we wanted to take, though. At first I wanted to start with the Ancients and work through world history, but now I have decided to use TruthQuest History. We're starting with American History for Young Students I. Truth Quest guides have commentaries and book lists. I still love All Through The Ages, and use it when I can't find books that I want from the TruthQuest guide. I like your idea of the post-it notes. Last night I was trying to think of a system so that I would remember which books I'd planned to use. I'm bad about saying, "I thought we had a book about such and such", and then we'll all look for it, not find it, and then a month after we've moved on, my husband will discover a box of books buried in the cache that has just what we needed a month before. Yesterday I cleared a place on the bookshelf and gave him a list of books I'm pretty sure we have "someplace". Wish we had access to a library.
Sounds like you have a fun year planned with your children.
God bless,
Jenny
Good job! We use SOTW as well - to a certain extent anyway. It's going to be more of a jumping off point for us this next year - I referred to the timeline in the Appendix for our topics and the girls are going to create a notebook of research that they do on each. History is such an important subject!
ReplyDeleteBlessings