I have been reading a lot of books about Charlotte Mason, Classical education and homeschooling in general. It seems to me like most programs seem to skip history in these areas. I want my kids to learn about the whole world and not just ancients, Europe and America. Do any of you use programs or certain books to teach about these areas? Which grades do you do this? Thanks!
I don't know the ages you are teaching, but YWAM has a series of books that tell about the lives of different missionaries and servants of God that were in many different areas of the world. For example: Amy Charmichael-she was a missionary to India, George Mueller-a missionary to England, etc. In these stories are references to historical happenings from that time period. They have stories of people in South America, Asia, and many other places. This would be a good informal way of introducing world history. I personally think people learn more about history when they read it in the context of a story--non-fiction or fiction (as long as it is not too far from the truth). For older kids: I would personally recommend that you let them use a reference book to find a historical event/era from one of these places and research it using the library, net-flix, the history channel, or whatever. Have them write a paper or make a "Eyewitness" type of book. I would not recommend trying to learn all of world history or even a large percent to it. It is too daunting IMO. Maybe it is that way because I have a hard time remembering names and stuff (I am more of a math person).
I agree about learning history better through books. I am an avid reader of historical nonfiction. I have especially studied a lot about Chinese history because I find it so interesting! I definitely don't want to study all of world history (that would take about 20 lifetimes), but I would love to give my kids a taste of a lot of different cultures. I want to study Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, Chinese history, Indian history, African history (an overview), etc. I would love to spend one year of history exploring some of these cultures just to give them a taste. I think it is a great idea to have them make a lapbook or something similar for each culture. What is YWAM? I am new to homeschooling and don't know the lingo yet!
My ds14 has been reading through the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia this school year. We love for a lot of reasons. It is set up chronologically with a timeline that runs across the top of every page. You find out what was happening in all areas of the known world at that given time. We use other materials and books as well, but this has been a wonderful springboard for researching cultures we never knew existed. We don't mind that it doesn't go into deep detail on each page, but it gives you the highlights and how it affected other cultures. Two thumbs way up from us.
YWAM is Youth With A Mission, it is a missions organization that encourages young people (I believe high school grads, but maybe younger) to travel and share the Gospel. They publish a lot of books that are really wonderful: Christian missionary stories, historical biographies, Christian living, and even some homeschooling books.
All credit to you for wanting to teach the history of these regions (which is really many different histories). I've had the privilege of visiting many countries around the world, and most are nothing like they are portrayed in the media. One thing I started to do after becoming an international traveler was to visit websites for newspapers overseas. Plenty of countries in Africa use English as their official language, and the same is true of countries in Oceania. Asia is a little more tricky, but you can still find some translated pages. Reading the news from their perspective can be quite an eye-opener. Their priorities are different, their view of the US and the world is very different, and you begin to get a sense of the culture. I realize this isn't history as such, although you do read some stories that relate to history, but I've found it quite a learning experience.
A dear friend of mine (who, sadly, died a few years ago) was born in India and moved to Britain in the 60s, I believe. His great-grandparents had traveled to south India as missionaries about 100 years earlier. They were seen off the dock at Bristol by their close friends, George Mueller and his wife. All four of them had previously lived in Devon, in southwest England. What I was reminded of when I found this out is that the names we read in books were real everyday people, as real and ordinary as people we meet today - and their extraordinary achievements tell of the goodness of God in their lives. The other day, I read a biography of Martin Lloyd Jones, perhaps the greatest preacher in Britain in the 20th century. Toward the end of his life, he was helped immensely by someone whose name I recognized. He had been the president of the Christian Union when I was studying at that university. For me, at least, it's so reassuring to experience these ties between historic figures and real life.
Steve, I could agree more. My husband and I did A LOT of traveling before we settled down to have kids. We went to China for 22 days on our honeymoon. It was the most amazing trip of my life. I have always heard so much about China on the news, but it was so much different when we were there. First of all, they are a capitalist country if there ever was one! They all wanted to move up in the world and own all kinds of things. In Beijing, our tour guide was very on message, but (in private) he hinted at all sorts of things. I am sure that he was at Tiananmen Square. He was so worried about the bus driver being in the party, etc. As soon as we got out of Beijing, people openly spoke their minds and it was shocking to hear some of the things they were saying about the government! We did have one local guide who was a party member (they would tell you if you asked) and he was definitely on message! I truly believe that you can't truly understand history (or a region) until you travel there. Eastern Europe, Bali, Singapore...they all exceeded my expectations! I really hope to be able to take my kids to these places when they are older (if we can afford to buy 5 airfares!), but, until then, I want them to explore these regions through books. I will definitely start looking at some of these newspapers! Thanks for the tip!
Sonlight has a whole curriculum that focus on Eastern Civilizations: http://www.sonlight.com/history-geography-5.html We are using this with my 6th grader now as a year long program, and my other 2 are doing a semester long modified version.
What ages are your children. The Mystery of History is useful for studying history around the globe in chronological order. Although it is mostly centered on the history of Western Civ., it does include African, Asian and South American studies. I used this with Biblioplan for literature selections when my kids were in elementary grades. Biblioplan integrates a variety of history "spines", including Kingfisher, with literature, map studies, and writing ideas. We love it! http://biblioplan.net/
