Unit study, by empire/era or chronologically? We have been doing unit studies, which we love, but I want to do chronologically too, and can't seem to decide!! Then I think maybe next year we can do chronologically for a couple of years, then go back and do unit studies on the bits we were interested in, in more depth, later. Or maybe stop on the way and delve deeper into whatever takes our fancy...... What do you do?
Hi Karen, We study history chronologically as we are using SOTW as our spine, but also do unit studies. We are still on Vol 1 and are only 1/2 way through after 18 months, as each chapter, we do a more in depth study on. So we are doing both.
We study history chronologically, but when something seems to interest one of gks then I will take extra time to find a video or design a project...
ya, I would too, I am usting STOW for my "spine" too and doing lots of side projects, I guess that is correct way to say it... How else is there to teach history than Chrono? Unless you do some modern, then pop back to ancient etc...
This year we are doing Presidents. I thought with it being a Presidential election year that would be a great time to study it. Vicki does better with unit studies. She pays more attention.
We're using Veritas Press. For 2nd grade, we're doing Egyptology; 3rd grade will be ancient Greece/Rome; 4th grade will be middle ages; etc. Our history ties in with our Bible. So, our Egyptian studies begin with Creation and links events in the Old Testament with the history/culture of Egypt, which, of course, played significantly into the early O.T. events.
Chronologically this year. I love doing unit studies, but we are going by something more set this year. There are some places that I am going to use a unit study that follows along with our curriculum, just because it is easier then doing all the research myself. All of their literature is tied in with their social studies and/or science. So it kills many birds with the same stone
We do both. We like to focus on certain point in history. These are the areas where we turn it into a unit study.
We're another Story of the World family. We started in January and the kids love it. Last year I simplified it and they just colored as I read. I was thinking this year we may get more in depth.
We are doing ancient civilization...and I have it arranged chronologically, but ds says he would rather work geographically... I am not sure if I can make that work... but we may try. We started with mesopotamia, and will move on to Egypt and then Isreal...so then do I move out toward India or Greece? Or should I stay in Africa?!! I just think it might be easier to do primitive all over the world...then work up in time...and I had planned a time line but I am freaking out about the scale. I don't think the hallway is long enough. :lol: He still hates history, but he is intersted in the myths and gods...I am not sure how much we can handle on this, he is currently amazed that people will "believe" that but when he figures out our own faith does have some out there ideas too... I want him to have true faith, but I don't want to limit his exploration of other cultures...sigh. this parenting thing is hard.:roll:
Chronologically, using MOH as our spine. Now, we're going to start using WP as our guide, and they go by civilization - but they use MOH as a spine and so it's MOSTLY chronological. Kinda. Like a pp said, we also tie our history in with Bible, and love how that works!
I think that studying chronologically makes the most sense to ME, but that may not work for everyone. Do you all make your own timeline? Or do you buy one? What is one you've found that is just the best ever? About mythology: I personally think study of mythology and how it relates to Greece, Rome, Egypt, etc. their people, cultures, and their understanding of their world is very important in studying these ancient civilizations. I started telling my kids simplified versions of the myths as young as 4. They can tell you about Perseus, Zeus, Aphrodite, and more. They know some of the equivalent Roman names for the Greek gods. But even as we talk about them as "gods" we also discuss they are not actual gods, just the version of god that the ancient Greeks and Romans believed in. Romans didn't even know these gods until they conquered Greece and decided that their gods were cool and proceeded to assimilate them into their own culture and belief and give them different names. If I remember correctly, there is reference to worship of Artemis (?-I'd have to look it up) in Ephesians. Greek and Roman gods aren't isolated from the Bible. Besides, these are entertaining (although somewhat graphic and disturbing at times) stories. They can be cleaned up for the kids. And it's fun to do a family tree of sorts to see how everyone relates to everyone else.
Yeah pretty much.... We have done some Australian history, then a unit on middle ages, mostly Europe, then back to Australian, now ancient Egypt - which is huge and spans a huge amount of time. I had planned to do more Australian, then another middles ages type society, maybe Aztecs, and another colonial, maybe American. All over the place really. So we have learned lots of good things about different times and people and places, but no big picture stuff, IYKWIM. Which is I guess why I am re-evaluating. Hmmm....
Ok - I'm using old fashioned education as my guide. My daughter is starting out using "On the Shores of the Great Sea" which so far is starting in Eqypt. We started reading yesterday and Abraham is passing through Eqypt My son is in American History tied with Eurpoean History (same timeframe from 2 view points is what I believe). But he's a history buff type person - LOVES it and reads different things just because. None of the chronological curriculums were working for us no matter how hard I tried to get it to work - but I think it's more me than the actual program. I would get frustrated and 1 kid was too high up in understanding for me to read to them and audio Cd's didn't work either.
WP is Winter Promise - it's kind of like Sonlight, only not quite as intensive, more level appropriate, and definately more hands-on. They have history, science, language arts, and more.
Jen, I started buying the timeline figures, but I learned it was a waste of money for me. It's easier to do an image search on the computer, then copy the pictures you want onto a Word document. Once you do that, you can reduce the pictures to the size you want. Today I did a page that had the Alamo on it, along with Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, Santa Anna, and William Travis. This was for a page in our notebook about the Alamo, but we will also put the picture of the Alamo on our timeline.
