Give me a good reason to *plan* history!

[FO4UR]

...or not...

 

I've kept history very light on work, and very much just a read aloud time so far (ds7 is at the end of 1st grade, if we are counting grades). However, for some reason I was thinking that I should sit down with the enormous pile of books I've been collecting from library sales and schedule these books in chronological order and jot down some mapping/timeline/notebooking activities to go along with the big names/events.

 

So, ds7 raided my stash of books yesterday and begged me to read about Christopher Columbus and, of course, I obliged. He then drew the Santa Maria and a Map of the voyage...all of his own free will...and all very well.:001_smile: I asked him if I could have his work to put in his portfolio (state laws must be fulfilled and all...).

 

I'm wondering why I shouldn't just keep a "history box" of books available...rotating THAT in a somewhat chronological order and keeping this delight led. If I do go to all the trouble to plan, how do I keep it flexible enough to allow these delight-led moments?

 

Part of me wants to plan. Part of me thinks I shouldn't spoil his fun.

 

What says the hive?:bigear:

[Carol in Cal.]

Since he is so interested, I don't see a problem with encouraging him to do that routinely, and just following his lead as long as he is not just getting bogged down with one period or something. At around age 9, though, I would say that it would be good to start getting a little more serious. Personally, I liked having SOTW as a spine to organize around, but I didn't necessarily try to get through one volume each and every year. And we would stop along the way and pursue rabbit trails and such, and sometimes circle back quite a ways--like the time when we were really, really getting bogged down in SOTW2, and I found some really great books about the ancient world, and so we took a break and read about Alexander the Great again, and then visited a Hatshepsut exhibit, and then read again about her.

 

I do think that getting into a timeline is important by 5th or 6th grade, so that there is a sense of the overal sweep of history as well as of the rough order of major historical events. That will go a long way toward easing formal history study in high school, I believe.

[prairiegirl]

I don't have a good reason for you as I am thinking of doing the same thing with my younger two. I did planned history with my oldest and I just don't see the purpose of it for younger kids. I think there is time enough to do all of the history activities (timeline, notebooking, etc.) for when they are older. I am thinking of doing a more formal program for my oldest (who will be in gr. 6) and do history read alouds along with rabbit trails for the two younger ones.

[Food4Thought]

:bigear: Thanks for starting this. I'm starting 1st grade with my DS6, and waffling back-and-forth between fun read-aloud history and getting starting on the ancients, per WTM. I'm anxious to see what others might say about this.

[FO4UR]

I do think that getting into a timeline is important by 5th or 6th grade, so that there is a sense of the overal sweep of history as well as of the rough order of major historical events. That will go a long way toward easing formal history study in high school, I believe.

 

 

I agree.

 

I would like to do a simple timeline now. I'm pretty sure he would enjoy it, so long as there is little writing involved.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

Even if you do plan, you can still go off on rabbit trails! The guidelines are that you TEACH history, not that you have to get through all of book A by the end of the year!

 

With my DD, I plan on a weekly schedule, so if we find something new to explore or discover (or decide to take a week off!) we can just push week 13 back to week 14. :D

 

I do think its a little important to start with timelining to get a general sense of where in history different events are happening. But you could do this with child led learning. While you are exploring a certain time period/event/person, you could just add it to your timeline. This could also help you make sure that all areas are getting covered and not just one time period or place.