Wednesday, September 23, 2009

History, Geography & Social Studies

History was my best subject in school. I still love it and can't wait to teach it!! : ) The traditional approach in public education is to teach facts from here and there and everywhere and there is generally no chronological order to the whole mess! With Classical Education, there is order (after all, isn't God a God of order? hehe). History is taught in chronological order from Ancient times to Modern times in just 4 years and then it is repeated twice afterward allowing the child to receive the entire history of the world 3 times by the time they graduate High School! I fell in love with this approach right away and it was just what I was looking for! You can read an article about the classical approach to History here.

Here is the 4-year layout of History:

Ancients, BC 5000-400 AD
Medieval/Early Renaissance, 400-1600
Late Renaissance/Early Modern, 1600-1850
Modern Times, 1850-Present

We are using "The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume I Ancient Times; From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor". We are also using the activity book and audio.

You may be saying what about Geography and Social Studies? So glad you asked! Not only is she getting a wonderful order of History, she will be learning Geography and Social Studies throughout the learning of History! From studying ancient maps and finding out just where what we studied in History is, she will also be learning their culture (Social Studies) of each time period throughout History. What better way to teach these subjects but all together?

I love the hands on application of the maps and we are using Knowledge Qwest's Blackline Maps of Ancient Times that go right along with "The Story of the World 1". My daughter has a great interest in maps and has had for a few years now. She learned what maps where from Dora lol. Since then she loves pretending she has a map and when we went to the Zoo and they gave us a map - she was thrilled with excitement to have a MAP!! She enjoys the maps in the Bible as well and loves looking at the routes that Abraham and different men of the Bible traveled. We are also using a Globe that includes astronomy/constellations at the flick of a switch.

As we go along in History, we will also be reading books from the library on the topics which we are studying that week. We also will be using our Usborne Encyclopedia of World History for further study. Narration will involve her telling me what we read in History in her own words, of which I will write down in a notebook. She will be memorizing various facts as well - such as the Pharaohs, Kings of Rome, Egyptian dynasties, etc.


Image credits: Amazon, Christian Book

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