Classical Homeschooling Newsletter

by Lene M. Jaqua
MikeJaqua@worldnet.att.net

Though there are many pre-packaged history curricula out there for the busy mom, somehow I have always found myself wanting something more tailor-made.... a plan which would take into account previous studies the kids had done, omit books they had already read, and focus on our family's heritage. I also wanted a plan which works for multiple children.

This is just an example of how such a study could be put together. Some of the ideas here are taken from browsing web sites of history-curriculum vendors such as Sonlight, GreenLeaf Press and Veritas Press. But most are from the combined wisdom of all the wonderful ladies on the Trivium list, who faithfully posted about history resources, and shared their book finds, curricula and web sites with all of us.

"In a Nut Shell:"
1) Divide world history into 4-6 year cycles.
2) Pick a basic world history text.
3) For each year of your cycle find biographies, historical fiction and historical literature appropriate for each particular era of study.
4) Develop a schedule for reading aloud to the kids, a reading schedule for each child.
5) Integrate this material with the writing, art, science and music curriculum.

If you have more than one child. Start the first child in chronological world history somewhere bewteen 1st and 3rd grade, depending on interest and maturity. When the next child reaches the age to join in history studies, he or she joins in the cycle wherever the oldest is at, and so forth for each child. --lmj

Step 1) Develop a long term plan for teaching World History:

For starters, find a basic world history text and divide all of World history into 3, 4, 5 or 6 year cycles. Plan to take each of your children through World history two to four times each. You may find as you get in to your first or second year that instead of four years, it will take you five or six. The details of how the study pans out are not as important from the onset. The point is that you have a long-term general plan which you will follow and alter as your children's interest or necessity directs.

Sample Four year plan:

Year 1, Ancient Civilizations:
Sumerians, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Rome

Year 2 Roughly 400 AD to 1600 AD :
Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Reformation, Renaissance, Explorers and Colonization of New Worlds.

Year 3, American History:
Revolution, Constitutional Process, WestWard Expansion, Civil War ...and concurrent developments aroung the globe.

Year 4, Modern Times: Post Civil War, World War I, World War II and current events.

Others may prefer three or six year cycles and will go more or less in depth for each cycle. The key is to get each child exposed to the concepts on the first run through world history and have him go more in depth during the next times around.

Step 2) Picking a Basic Text:
The basic text is you anchor to history. It will aid you in studying events chronologically. Most of us have found this very useful, since we are not historians by profession and need a little guidance in making sure we the proper historical connections.

Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World (grades 5-8) covers all of world history in one large volume. Hillyer's A Child's History of the World can be read aloud to even the youngest grades. Other choices for basic texts might be the books in Greenleaf's Famous Men Series each of which focuses on a particular historical era. The Church in History (read aloud for grades 5 and up) covers history from the time of Christ and on, with particular focus on the origin of church traditions and doctrines. Christ the King Lord of History is an excellent Catholic text which covers all of history and can be read aloud from 6th grade.

Step 3) Topics and People of interest:

It is a good idea to begin to prepare history studies four to six months in advance. For purposes of illustration, I have picked the Dark and Middle Ages about 400 AD to 1400 AD. Not incidentally, this is what our family is currently working on. The second year of our history cycle includes Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Reformation, Renaissance, Explorers and Colonization of New Worlds, a total of six topics. We school year round, so we're able to dedicate about eight weeks per topic, give or take a week.

For the Dark and Middle Ages, we have chosen to dedicate seventeen weeks. This is divided into seven weeks for Dark Ages and ten weeks for the High Middle Ages. We choose major events, people and literature which are covered in our three chosen basic texts Greenleaf's Famous Men of the Middle Ages, The Church in History and Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World ( The table in section two will show how we divided those texts into daily readings).

Major events:
The fall of Rome
Christianity comes to the British Isles
Vikings
Rule of Charlemagne/Onset of High Middle ages
William the Conqueror
writing of the Magna Carta.

Biographies:
St. Augustine
St. Patrick
King Arthur
Charlemagne
William the Conqueror
El Cid
Thomas Aquinas
St Francis of Assissi

Legends and myths:
Beowulf
Norse gods
Song of Roland
Robin Hood
Canterbury Tales

Step 4)Choosing Appropriate Literature:

At this point you can , divide your basic history text into weekly or monthly reading, stop right here and just make weekly trips to the library picking up appropriate biographies and historical fiction books relating to the topic at hand.

Many of us, however like to have the whole semster planned out with exact book titles planned for each week. Trustworthy sources on good biographies and historical fiction are invaluable, since you're not likely to have time to pre-read every book your child reads.

The top free choices are the Veritas Press and Greenleaf Press catalogs, which you can browse on-line or order in the mail. In addition there is Bethlehem Books and Ignatius Press and numerous others.

If you're willing to pay money for historical book lists All Through the Ages by Christine Miller is my favorite, because it is by far the most extensive, I have seen. Let the Author's Speak and Beautiful Feet also have book lists for different historical eras.

Armed with these free or bought book lists, we develop a weekly reading schedule consisting of
1) daily readings from the basic texts... (mom reads to kids)
2) a fiction/biography read aloud list alternating in difficulty, thus aiming at interesting both the younger and the older children... (mom reads to kids)
3) the individual book lists for each child to read independently

This is the most time consuming part of developing the curriculum. It requires time spent at the library or on-line the listings to see which books were available.

There are many sources for historical fiction, biographies, legends and non-fiction books on historical eras. At your local library, the Junior or Youth biography 92 section contains biographies listed alphabetically by the last name of the famous person you want to study. Also the 398.2 section contains legends and myths etc. Otherwise, subject key word searches might produce other historically related fiction or non-fiction works.

Favorite historical fiction book series:
G. A. Henty's historical fiction books
Landmark Books
Step into history
Meet _____
Childhood of Famous Americans

A few favorite authors: Scott O'Dell, Barbara Willard, James Daugherty, Clyde Bulla, RoseMary Sutcliff, Marguirite De Angeli, Alice Dalgliesh Allen French, Louise Vernon, Leonard Fisher, just to name a few.

Time Wise
It is hard to gage the time it will take a child to read a particular book and for the younger readers we certainly don't want to overwhelm them. My 1st grader is assigned a book related to history every 10 days. they are usually short books which she could read in a day, but her assignment is to read a chapter per day. My 5th grader generally has 10 days per book, including weekend reading. The average 4th - 7th grade chapter book, such as Rolf and the Viking Bow will have about 15 chapters. I expect him to finish it in about 10 days, give or take a day for a longer or shorter book. The point is that he has a daily reading assignment to complete after which he is free to read whatever he wishes for the rest of the day.

On-Line:

Beth Parker has put together an extensive page with links to reading lists and book series...scroll down a little bit and you will see links to many of the resources listed above :
Parker Family's Reading list

Also, Lauri Bolland has put together a wonderful web page featuring book and internet resources for study of the Romans:
...link will work soon = )....

Christine Miller of the Classical Homeschooling web site has a large website dedicated to History on the Internet
and Christine also has compiled a series of articles related to
Teaching History Through Literature.

Step 5) Integrating with the rest of the curriculum:
Our daily language arts assignments ( essays, compositions, outlining, narration, dictation) correlate with our history curriculum. Dictation from Barbara Willard's When Augustine came to Kent, writing an essay about El Cid, narrating the last pasage read aloud from Sir Gaiwan, or outlining daily passage from Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World. In the sample schedule below I have only included the essay/composition assignments. Generally, every four weeks, w e plan one craft related to our history studies . (Craft books related to history are found around Dewey decimal 495 at the library). Also, our art appreciation is integrated in the curriculum (for this run through the Middle Ages, we chose to focus on architecture), ditto for science and technology (we chose making of weapons), music and composers. We find CD's at the library with music corresponding to the appropriate era.