Making Sense of the Tangle of History
Jul 1st, 2010 by lapazfarm
I was planning history for Superboy, who will be doing a year of Greeks and Romans( the subject of another post) and originally thought I’d do ancients with JBug too, thinking it would be easiest and most logical to keep them in the same era.
But, every time I talk history with JBug she says something that tells me that she needs a ” big picture” year first.
She really has no concept of the chronological order of things: whether the Pharaohs came before or after “the Presidents” (as she calls the founding fathers) , when and where knights jousted in tournaments, or if Ninjas and Samurai still roam the streets of Japan.
Really, it is all just a jumbled mess in her mind and I need to help her sort it out in a logical way. So, before I dive deeply into a specific era with her, I’ve decided we will spend a year doing an overview of world history, giving her some mental “pegs” on which to hang her understanding of history.
Our main “text” will be the audiobook version of this:
Little History of the World: Classic Collection
I’ve read a lot of children’s history spines and I find this one to be the most story-like and captivating (aka “living” ) of them all. Unlike some other popular history spines, the quality of Gombrich’s writing is excellent and worthy of imitation. Plus, the way the audio version is read is totally charming and I know JBug will be enthralled.
I plan to let her listen to (and then orally narrate) one chapter per week. Next day she will work on a mini-poster (on 8.5 X 11 cardstock) with an illustration and a sentence or two summary (copywork). These posters will then be hung on a line, high on the wall, time-line style, so she can have a clear visual reminder of the order of things. Then as we read supplemental materials, we can discuss whether they came before or ofter the events on these poster “pegs”.
As far as supplemental materials, well, there are tons of great living history picture books out there and lots of compiled lists of them, so I won’t bother you with a list of my own. (Here is a good list if you are interested). I have tons of them in our home library already, and plan on pulling and making use of them to coordinate with and supplement our audiobook spine.
I’ve also recently acquired some new gems to help us along our way:
Life Story
Usborne Time Traveler
Tales From Far and Near / Tales of Long Ago: History Stories of Other Lands [2 books in 1]
And as a reference, to answer all of those inevitable questions I know she will ask, I have some meaty history encyclopedias we can draw from, but this one is more JBug’s speed:
The Usborne Book of World History
As far as scheduling goes, the plan is for history 3-4days per week, as follows:
- Day 1 will be listening to the audio followed by an oral narration.
- Day 2 will be making the poster and copywork.
- Day 3 will be for the additional related read-alouds (followed by oral narrations).
- Day 4 will be for JBug to read a related story to me (either from Tales from Far and Near or other easy-reader type books).
So, that is the plan for untangling history.
The books all look so familiar, like old friends, and I smile when I see them! Life Story was such an amazing book for giving us a sense of time, and our place in it! Hope it’s as wonderful for you guys as it was for us!
I love this! We have the Gombrich book and like it a lot. I just put the Burton book on hold so I can check it out. I really like the idea of doing a poster and then turning it into a time-line. Now to find some new wall space…
I saw that Gombrich book at Barnes and Noble a while back and snatched it up. Can’t wait to read it with the girls!!
That Life Story looks great — I will have to add that to my list!!
What a great idea, particularly the making of posters and hanging them up, timeline style. I love it!
We haven’t seen the Burton book before but it looks delightful. I will have to track it down.
We love “A Little History of the World”! It makes me smile to see the cover. We’re on break from it now while we finish “The House of Dies Drear” (a ghost story dealing somewhat with the Underground Railroad that we’re reading as a fun read-aloud). I have found that I can only keep up with reading one thing regularly! I am far more hopeless at this HS business than you are (luckily it all works out for us anyway). I love your plan! I’m looking forward to reading how it all turns out.
Great ideas. Thanks for the book recommendation too.
When I did bible history with my oldest son several years back we created posterlike timeline cards and he loved it! Such a great visual and it really sparked up the schoolroom for everyone. JBug will love it, especially with her increible artistic talents, they will all be masterpieces
Sounds like a super great year of history and I love the books you’ve listed, all gems!!
Theresa you and I are so almost doing the same things and I too am planning out adventure boys activities now . I don’t know if it is all the rainy weather or what but I have had fall on the brain .
I also have now decided on Story of Mankind & a Little History of the world from your suggestion as our library has both !
love the yesterday’s classic books because our bookstore carries them !
I’m thinking of science for both kids starting out with the Thames & kosmos ( did I get that right ) kit for milestones in science starting with aristotle and acient sceince etc. moving into biology etc.
I am stuck on the art thing . I’m so more a crafty person . thinking maybe wildlife sketching for autumn . the boys are doing riding lessons come fall so maybe sketching horses ? maybe child sized masterpeices ? I’m still working on drawing plants ☺
This looks great. I have never heard of the Gombrich book. I really like the idea of getting the audio question. Our library doesn’t have the hardcopy and their audio version is only online and isn’t compatible with our Mac, ugh! About how long would you say is the listening time on each chapter? Thanks again for these ideas!
This sounds lovely! I am always overwhelmed with the amount of quality history material out there. It is the tying it all together to gain “the big picture” that is so important!
the first book is unfamiliar to me; i’m definitely checking it out.
my now 13yo history freak has a whole shelf of greeks and romans. one thing i’ve found with the two boys .. they each liked completely different history texts. they just had different taste in how the material was presented. interesting.
*love* virginia lee burton’s “life story”!