History-Elementary Part II

The best thing to do before undertaking any program is to really figure out what kind of student you have. That should help narrow down your choices. But don't fore go something because it has more writing than your child may like to do, or requires more reading and so on. Consider those very programs to help stretch your child's abilities. Ignoring or avoiding them will only hurt the child in the long run-eventually they are going to have to do those things which they do not like. Get them into the habit of pushing through the undesirable task now!

What is nice about homeschooling is that you can stretch your program out if more time is needed. If it takes 18 months to cover your program, then it takes 18 months. And no, you do not need to cover every single thing. I do not know of anyone who is an expert in every time period of history! That would be a lot of info to store and frankly, just about impossible. Everyone (by the time they graduate) should at least know the basics of our country's history, major historical events worldwide, and some of the folks involved. They should, at the very least, be able to pin down the decade of these occurrences.

They MUST know how to look up information, or where to go to find the answers! That is one life skill that everyone should have. Sadly, many do not. I know there will be gaps in our children's education, but I also know that they have the skills, and necessary desire to be able to figure out how to find it!

Elementary students: 1-6 grades (approx.)

This is when the fun can really begin. Once the child has mastered basic writing and reading skills, they should be ready for a more scheduled program.
If you read the previous post, then you know that I love BF Books guides for history. I am also a big fan of SL. Whichever program you choose, be sure it meets the needs of you and the children. If it requires a lot of parent prep, and your time is limited, maybe it isn't a good choice. If you have a lot of students close in age, perhaps the Unit Study program is best (I have heard there is a lot of teacher prep-hmmm, maybe that isn't so swell). SL will work for a children close in age with similiar writing/listening/reading skills. BF can work but you may have to adjust a bit here and there. It probably will not work with big gaps in age/skills. You may have to do the similar studies jointly (primary and Intermediate) to avoid that problem.

If you follow the classical approach, then you would be familiar with the 4 cycles of teaching history. Teach one era, then the next and so and then cycle back (but in more detail) to the first. Not a bad idea really, it means that eventually-your child will cover it again and they should get it later if they didn't the first time. Many advocate starting with Ancient history so that when you get to American, your child can say they know how we came to be. Again, not bad.

We didn't know about all that tho. We just plunged forth into our BF studies and made the overall plan up while we went along. If I had to go back and redo it-I would be more careful to lay out the a revolving time block and stick to it. We had to take some side roads to get us to our end point. BF does not offer (oh, but I can hope) an Ancient History study for the early elementary. So I knew we had that gap. I also know they tend to lean a lot toward US history in the early levels. So I also knew, eventually, I would like to find some program that covers the other parts of the world, with similar teaching styles.

We ended up doing BF early Am., California , Science and the Intermediate level of Am. History.
We slipped in Green Leaf Press' Ancient Egypt. I was not super duper impressed, so we did not continue on to the Greece/Roman studies. So, again, another era missing. What I did do, was to take what I had on the shelf and read through those books and lightly covered the basics. I figured we would get back to it eventually.
I found SL 5 for the gaps on the other parts of the world. It is better known as their Eastern Hemisphere program. That is when I discovered SL and now my BF program had some serious competition!

With BF you can take a side trip and cover the History of the Horse, of Classical Music and of Science- if your child is in need of a little breather from the typical history coverage. They are still learning history so don't be afraid to try these little sweeties. Throw those in there if your child needs extra time to mature into the harder history programs.

I like how BF guides start with American history. Really though, it starts with Norse history and carries us through European events and people that lead to the settlement of the Americas. So it really does expand outside of US history. It uses enough but not too much info. Again, that gets a gold star from me. Elementary aged children (mine at least) do not need college level info on history. They simply are not going to remember everything, so why go so overboard and exhaust yourself and student?

Once we completed the primary Am. History we moved on to California history (so guess what? It no longer is published. I have my copy and books: but those of you out there-it may be difficult to locate. ) Now you may be saying, "What is up with Cal. history and why should I bother? We don't live in CA!" True. We don't either and never have. It is unfortunate that she dropped it. I didn't use it to learn CA history per say, I did it because it was an awesome introduction to all the wonderful explorers from all over the world who made their way to our Golden Coast. We learned about explorers I never knew existed. It covered the Gold Rush and settlement of the West. It covered the mission work of priests and Indian tribes there. For boys who love anything related to adventure, sailing and the stories of the West-it is perfect. My girls liked it but were not quite as impressed (too adventurous for them maybe-they like the castles and maidens and such).....I know my youngest will be my most excited student when we hit this program!
I know a lot of programs mostly cover the east coast and stop somewhere around the Louisiana Purchase. What a shame! I see she now carries the Early Am. and World History for Jr high. I wonder if she put the good stuff from the California program in there? That could be another option to try if you want to continue to use her guides.

So by the time the kids finished 6th grade they had a pretty good coverage of history. A few of my kids actually did some of these programs in their 7-8th grades. Due to moves, babies, daddy traveling a lot and finding SL later on, we had some years where there was little or no history. Yes, gasp if you must. Because of the coverage of these programs I didn't worry. It is far more history than their peers receive in PS!

I do like SL. The World Cultures I am doing with my 7 year old. It will give him enough snippets of a variety of lands and peoples before we slip into the American history. I would say, that if you purchase SL for your family and really like it-then stick to their plan. They do world cultures, then ancient, World, move to the Americas, hit the Eastern Hemisphere, come back to World, do American, God's Kingdom, World and Government. Kindergarten (I do not advocate the lower levels-see my comments on that in the previous post) through high school graduation. But buyer beware-it is not cheap! Even when you buy thru resale. The beauty though-they worked in every area of learning and scheduled it out. We just tweak it to suit our needs.

Sonlight can be very daunting, too random at times and could be down right boring. I found this out when I bought the 1+2 combo for my daughter. Less than 2 months into it, I realized it didn't make much sense. It bopped around so much that I was having trouble figuring out how it all "fit" and she loathed it! Simply put, it was too much for her at that time in her schooling career. I very warily decided to give the K program a try this year. I truly hope I am not disappointed. I do like the higher levels of SL, so suggest the lower ones with a bit of hesitation. Not having tried the 3-4 or 6-8 programs-I can only speculate. Time will tell.

So for our family, history has been taught through BF Book guides, and SL. They have read (or will) real books, done projects, time lines and spent a lot of time on the couch (my office) with me going hoarse with all those fantastic reads.

I do plan on giving Diana Waring's Ancient Civilizations a try for my youngest (possibly having my high schooler listen in) to get more of the early history in. I just have to figure out when I will squeeze that in.

I must say, BF does not schedule out anything but history with some writing projects. You will find some Bible in there, but not nearly enough to consider it a Bible program. SL schedules out Bible, history reading and literature. I believe they also have math scheduled out too. I would actually have to go look to verify that one. The other subjects have their own schedules you can purchase.

So that is what we do for elementary and into Jr high for history.

My brain is toast. Over and out.
Sheri

Oooo, High Schooooooool is coooool

Oh boy! High school. I am going to try to post my thoughts on good ole high school soon. Have to go thru the subjects first. I am a huge advocate of keeping them home for high school. Folks feel they are no longer qualified, therefore-they send 'em off to it. Boy! What a shame!

Back to this post's topic.....

High School History.
I had a blast doing this with my high schoolers. They are at the intellectual level to really discuss issues and happenings in history. They can and should work through most of it on their own too. So what do they need?

Good advice: go through your local high school's listing of classes to see what they require. Know your state's requirements too. You can google it or go to HSLDA.org.

I did not want my kids to slack in history during high school. I remember most of my peers (and myself included) only took the bare minimum to graduate. How sad.
So, after knowing how I liked BF guides and SL, the next step was to continue with those programs. Was never disappointed either.

This is what I wanted to cover: US and World in depth up to our current date, Medieval (includes Renaissance, Reformation), and possibly Ancient if time allowed.

I am very pleased with SL 300. This is the 20th Century World History program that covers this past century in detail. It has a lot of heavy reading and is time consuming. The benefits far outweigh this though. Be sure to read SL's section on whether or not SL is right for your family, and pay attention to their notes on some of the books included in this program. They can be disturbing for very sensitive children (for example: it covers Hitler's assisinatation of the Jews in sad but true detail).
I did feel they could of put a bit more emphasis on the Vietnam war and beyond. So I piggy-backed BF's US and World history for HS with it. We just eliminated redundant material and picked up where SL left off. This took the kids 2 years to complete. By the time they were done, they knew more on the Civil War, wars past this point, including the Vietnam and up to today's current issues. I know they have read more than most college graduates and probably most adults out there.

I had the kids do BF Medieval History in the 9th grade. They were ready for the reading load, but not ready for the heaviness of SL's 300. It was a good fit for our family. The Medieval covers the Reformation and Renaissance. I liked how it covered this time frame and the books were a good mix. My daughter will use it this fall. Since she likes castles and Kings and fair maidens, we are tossing in a lot of extras. We will build a paper castle (can be found thru Rainbow Resource's store) and investigating the Middle Ages through coloring books by Dover and Bellerophon. Just for the fun of it we will build a catapult as well. I am hoping we can get to the Renaissance Festival as a real living history option, too.

If time would of allowed, I most likely would of used BF's Ancient History program. My 2 oldest attended our local community college as well, so time was limited during the last 2 years of their schooling with mamma. I may try to squeeze in SL's 200 which covers church history, for my current high schooler but am not sure if we will have time. All these wonderful choices and just not enough time!

One area which is a must to cover: Government and Economics. These should only be one semester each. You do not have to bore the dears by using a textbook approach either. I put together a program using Blue Stocking Guide Economics and Political Philosophies. I made up a list of books and various assignments to go along with it. They worked thru it on their own (with some discussions on my part). I also had them attend a program nearby. It is called Student Statesmanship Institute. This week long program gives them a good understanding of how our government works and instills in them the need for Christians to be involved with our government. The web for that is : http://www.ssi-online.org/. There are other programs nation wide that address the same thing, just with a different name. Teen Pack comes to mind. Google to see what is near you. I highly recommend having the kids attend something of this nature.

Our community college requires all students to take government, so I didn't spend a lot of time going into depth...figured they would get it there. Some say that Uncle Eric is very liberal. I didn't feel this was true, but again, since I never completely follow any program to the letter, I may of just deleted what I felt was unnecessary or skipped sections-it has been a couple years, so I can not recall exactly. I felt what they did do was complete enough. Another option for economics is to do Abeka's Consumer Math (but now I am getting into math here, so will save that for later).

Since your child is older, include them in the planning of their history courses. Choose programs that interest your child and use the same ideas you would for the younger ones, the older kids still like hands on stuff!

When planning out their courses, be sure to always double check what the colleges are looking for. It helps if you know what schools (yes schools, because you do not know if they will get into their first pick) want for high schoolers to have taken. Be diligent about this. History takes a long time to cover and squeezing it in the last couple months of your child's senior year will not work. As for grading high school history, I go with the following met requirements:

• Have read the majority of the books in the program and can successfully narrate the stories back to me.
• Have completed the program's assignments with true effort, neatness and within a reasonable amount of time
• Did the writing assignments required (no sloppy work allowed)
• Can tell me the time frame (hopefully the exact years, but getting close is good too) the events took place and the people involved
• If it required a time line: having completed it by the course's end

No tests. Yes, you read that correctly. I know BF has tests and perhaps even SL. Never did them. Narration is one of the best ways to see if the child has grasped the concept of the books. Doing the writing is another bonus to knowing the subject. If they did a decent job and gave it their best, they got an A. Some slacking, and failure to do some of the requirements equalled a B. Nothing lower was allowed. I seemed to be right on too. When my oldest took her required history classes, she pulled As. So our homeschool grade coincided with the college ones. If they didn't come close- then one of us would of been wrong...and I am afraid that would of been me. You should know instinctively what they earned. This non-testing does not work for every subject, so be sure to keep reading the posts. I will get to those eventually.

There you have it in a nutshell. BF and SL reign supreme again in our household.

Til my next post....

Sheri

Suggestions for Curriculum

Since most of us are in the throws of trying to figure out our curriculum for this fall, I thought I would start a postings of ideas for those of you looking for new ideas, or suggestions on what to use.

Please note: The suggestions are based on what worked for my family throughout the years. Consider your student's individual needs and learning styles when choosing products. Use other reviews to help you in your decision as well. Remember, if it doesn't work, you can always sell it and try another one. If it does, be sure to let me know! I love positive feedback!

I will post a new thread on each subject so that you can click on whatever one it is you need help with.

With that, I bid you farewell (for the moment :-) )

Sheri

Definitions

I was thinking, maybe I didn't say what SL meant in my previous posts. SL stands for Sonlight.
Hope that helps anyone who may be unsure!

Have a great day!
PS: I hope to get some other posts going soon...

Sheri