Marvelous Monday! HISTORY
Monday, April 6, 2009 at 1:01AM Ah, history. I can't get enough of it, but I wouldn't necessarily have said so when I was in school. Instead, my parents educated me far better by exposing me to historical places (we were the people who read the historical markers :) ) and great literature.
In our homeschool, history is what we consider to be our "spine", meaning that we plan the year around what it is we are covering in history. Copywork, read-alouds, dictation, movies, individual reading, and field trips are all chosen with history in mind.
We began implementing the classical approach from the beginning, when at the time all we had to draw from was Douglas Wilson's series of books: Classical Education and the Homeschool, Repairing the Ruins, and Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. Soon, however, we were given great tools from bushwhacking classical home educators Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn. And following in their footsteps were Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise's quintessential The Well-Trained Mind, and then the publication of the Bluedorn's Teaching the Trivium. There are of course now many more classical education providers on the market, and for that we are so grateful.
I'm getting to history, I promise! I relay our personal educational history because at the influence of Bauer and Wise, as well as William Bennett, we have always studied history on a four-year rotation:
Year One- Ancients
Year Two- Middle Ages
Year Three- Renaissance and Reformation
Year Four- Modern Age
The four-year cycle makes it possible for me to teach various levels of students at the same time. When a first-grader joins our history study, they jump right in wherever we are that particular year. I don't teach different historical time periods to different kids. No way. I expect more from the 8th grader than the 1st grader, for certain, but we all are on the same historical page, so to speak.
Walking Like Egyptians at the Rosicrucian Museum
We began with VERITAS PRESS. Although I love their history cards, there is definitely work involved in putting the pieces together and I found it cumbersome as I was learning the ropes my first four years of homeschooling. The curriculum was designed for the classical classroom, and it isn't particularly homeschool mom-friendly. I still use the cards and love to display them because the artwork is lovely. Veritas Press is like that- they produce lovely things.
The real reason I decided to look for a different history curriculum my second go-around of the four-year-cycle was that I was terribly disappointed by the shift in focus Veritas Press makes in the last year from world history to American history. I kept thinking, "So, what happened to the rest of the world???" I just wanted something that kept our eyes on world history that fourth year.
I'm not exactly sure how I found Linda Hobar's THE MYSTERY OF HISTORY, but there it was in my hands as we began our second four-year cycle. At that time I had a 5th grader, a 3rd grader, and a 1st grader. Immediately I was captivated by Linda's lyrical story-telling that wove Biblical and secular world history together in one long, rich, tapestry of a thread. I found myself gasping aloud that first year of The Mystery of History; Linda would point out things I'd never known before. She explains cultural and historical backgrounds of the people and events in the Bible, and my love of God's Word was deepened immensely that year.
And the coloring pages! Beautiful. The artist drew several lessons all on one page and then highlighted the individual lesson- difficult to explain but really quite captivating. You can download a sample if you scroll down on the resources page.
Linda's second volume covering the early church and the Middle Ages fascinated me even more as I learned of early church history I'd never been introduced to in my 38 years of a Christian life. Do you know who Columba was? How about Methodius and Cyril? Do you know why King Wenceslas was good? These were early heroes of the faith who lived during one of the darkest times in history.
Each lesson is typically two to three pages to read aloud, followed by optional activities grouped by age. Map work, reviews, and quizzes are included, as are terrific directions each week for creating a timeline and/or memory cards. There are three lessons per week, so there's no pressure if a day is skipped. In fact, we only do history on Mondays and Tuesdays, and we have no trouble fitting all three lessons in each week.
What I'm really loving are Linda's recordings of the lessons. I push "play", then knit while we're listening :)
And yes, only three of the four volumes are available. Pray for Linda as she completes volume 4.
Edible Topography of India
So, what then is there to do for year four until The Mystery of History Volume Four is completed? Well, last time around I purchased Jim Weiss' recording of Susan Wise Bauer's The Story of the World Volume IV. We are HUGE Jim Weiss fans in our home, and I was absolutely delighted when I learned he was recording The Story of the World.
I found activities and coloring pages and maps to coincide because I am personally not fond of The Story of the World activity books. I really wish they'd have the coloring pages redrawn. (Good grief. I sound snotty. I'm not trying to be- just attempting to give you my honest opinion.)
Because history is my favorite, I have collected many resources to use throughout the years. We don't use them for each and every four-year cycle, and that helps us keep things fresh:
♥ Dover Historical Coloring Books. These are detailed enough that even some of the older ones like to color them while listening to the recordings. They are economical enough that we could add one or two to our stash each year.
♥ Hold That Thought Notebooking Pages When I make history notebooks for each child at the beginning of the year, I print out these notebooking pages which cover both world history and church history. They are typically a drawing of the historical figure or event and a lined area for journaling. Some of the pages look like newspapers, adding interest to the kids' notebooks.
♥ Draw and Write Through History I was so excited to find these two books (Draw and Write Through History Greece and Rome and Draw and Write Through History Creation Through Jonah, Volume I) at a homeschooling convention a few years ago. They fit in perfectly with our history notebooks; the kids learn step-by-step drawing renditions of people (Roman gladiators, Moses, David) and places (the Roman Colliseum, the Tower of Babel, a Viking Long House).
♥ Amy Pak's Historical Timeline Figures Don't you just love it when homeschoolers produce beautiful products? Amy Pak saw the need for timeline materials and then used her artistic savvy to create lovely images. The pictures can be reproduced to any size and printed with or without the accompanying text.
And much to our delight, Amy has also created fabulous unit studies called Time Travelers History Study Series. Honestly, without a unit study that is pre-done for me with all of the printables included, I just wouldn't get around to doing the hands-on stuff as much. At the beginning of each unit I plug into our year's history schedule the activities that we are going to do. Pages are printed out or materials collected ahead of time (as in August) so that I don't have to think on my feet.
♥ Evan-Moor History Pockets Evan-Moor is one of the few traditional school publishers that I have really come to love, and mainly because of their "pockets" series. Again, nicely pre-printed pages that have the kids creating and studying everything from a colonial village to Chinese lanterns.
Medieval Princess
Phew! That was a lot! If you stuck with me, you get an extra gold star today :) Please also realize that our collection of history materials has been amassed over 12 years. There are numerous resources online all for free, from lapbooks to notebooking pages to coloring pages. Utilize Google and have fun!
Be sure to check out Cheryl's Marvelous Monday post all about history resources, too.
Reader Comments (24)
We just started using MOH and we love it!
I, too, did not enjoy history in a classroom setting. Once I married, my husband and I traveled to many places (in the US and Europe) that were rich in history. It amazed me how much history I learned and how much I liked it!
I am really enjoying Marvelous Mondays! Thanks!
Wow, Kendra! Thank you so much...and yes I did stick with you through the end..I love gold stars. We are rethinking our history cucciculum for next year and I feel like I have a wealth of information to check out now....all tried and reviewed!! Bonus! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
I am enjoying these posts every Monday! (Would it be okay if I steal your idea & do this "Marvelous Monday" posts on my blog? I'll link & tell others about you!) It is SO GOOD to hear from a mama w/ many children who has been educating for some time. Thank you, thank you!
We discovered the same thing about Veritas- I wanted to love it more & use it more but we never did. I was constantly in tears over trying to make it work in a home with many young littles. So, this year (mid-through), I switched us to Tapestry of Grace. I had always disliked the huge chunk of time they covered in year two... guess what year we started with? YEAR 2! :) It has has gone SO SMOOTHLY- I am able to teach all the different levels while keeping everyone on the same time period. We love the mapwork & lapbooks. Fun, fun, fun! (We are in week 7 of unit 1- so we haven't been using it for long!)
Hope you do not mind me mentioning something else. :) Thanks for all the suggestions- I am taking notes.
I'd like to add that My Father's World is also fabulous. It has the 4 year rotation as well. The books provided are wonderful, the read alouds perfect for the time period. The planner extremely mom friendly and all I need is on the bookshelf. Thank you for the links. I love to see what else is out there and especially in the area of notebooking pages and coloring sheets. I use them a lot. I love Marvelous Monday! Does being a book addict have anything to do with it?
Kendra- that was a fascinating post. Thank you for the details. Currently, I'm using Sonlight with my 6,4 and 3 yr old but not sure if I'm going to stick with it. I was wondering how do you pick your "read alouds" to go along with MOH readings?
Kendra,
I so appreciate this post! I am wanting to start teaching in a more classical way than we have the last couple of years. I have a first grader and a kindergartener. I was wondering if I should start next school year with the four-year cycle or begin it right now? Because I began a year late, my oldest may miss out on a year, but maybe I could condense the first two years a bit (we school year round)? Do you have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your sage advice!
Loving this series! We use and really like My Father's World here as well.
Wanted to ask you a question, Kendra. How long do you typically spend in school each day? I am finding with 4 school age kids and a toddler and a baby, my time is more limited than it used to be (of course.) I noticed that Timberdoodle also recommends Mystery of History -- and their estimation is that school should not last longer than three hours a day. My first thought on that is "Great!!" My second thought is "How????"
Any thoughts? :)
Thanks so much Kendra! I too LOVE history. I am curious how you put together your history notebooks, and how you decide on who reads what to correspond with your history lesson? We are planning on using Robinson Curric. We have the cd's but haven't started yet, since our son is still learning to read. The main focus of RC is literature. Most of the books are biographies, historical fiction, and classical books. All copywork, vocab, etc flows from the reading. I am wondering how I can incorporate MOH into this? "Traditional" RC'ers don't add anything to the reading, but my love for history won't let me do that ;) I just don't think the reading alone will cover as much ground as I want too.
Thanks for this great set of resources! The pictures are adorable too. :)
I love this series that you are currently doing!!!!
We do history in the same layout as your family and love, love, love it!
History is my favorite, too. I like how you put it that history is your "spine". We do MOH, too- based on your previous recommendation, and enjoy it!
Wow. That's a lot of resources for me to check out. Thank you for sharing everything. We are just beginning homeschooling in the fall and it can be hard to know what to get. Thanks for the reviews. :)
Melody
Oh. I forgot to say thanks for the heads-up about MOH's coloring pages. Didn't know about those...
I love the edible topography idea. Is that cookie dough?
Yes- sugar cookies :)
I LOVE Marvelous Mondays!!! Can't wait until next Monday! I have a question though. HOW do you plan all of your children's assignments? Sunday nights are filled with filling out assignment sheets for everyone and heaven forbid if we are busy all weekend with other things! Is there a better way?
Brandi-
Your question is a whole new post :) Watch for it soon...
Kendra,
I'm really enjoying this Marvelous Monday post. It's nice to get opinions on different resources. I have a question about your math post from last week. The Rod and Staff curriculum- can you get buy without the teacher's manuals for the younger guys- I hate to waste money on guides I rarely use, when I could be spending it on "real" books that we will read many times over. Thanks
Cheryl-
Completely unnecessary. Don't waste your money!
Hi Kendra! This has been our first year using the Mystery of History, and we absolutely love it! I was wondering when you are able to do geography lessons with your little ones, as well. (I believe that you had mentioned that you and your little one's have utilized A Child's Geography.) Do you ever take a year off of history to focus on geography?
Christine- We do geography as part of our Circle Time, so it's not something we focus on in lieu of history, particularly since they do map work with MOH.
We found Story of the World last year and are enjoying it this year! My boys are pk and 1st grade. . . probably look into Mystery of History when they are older too. Great series Kendra!
Kendra
Thank you for doing this series. I read this post when you posted it, but now, I am trying to figure out what we are going to do next year. Reading it over again is such a help. You are so thourough, I love it. I have been torn between MOH and SOTW. I think I know what I will be doing now.
Thanks again.
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