Memorizing dates for history: Do you require it?

[shanvan]

How much date memorization do you require for history? OR, do you not require any at all? I am mostly asking this for the middle school age crowd. I'm not that interested in my youngest memorizing dates, but I'm starting to wonder just how many dates to have DS (12) memorize.

 

I think TOG includes way too many timeline dates to even think of having him memorize them and I'm having trouble deciding on the important ones. Then I have the moments of wondering why bother at all if he's just going to forget. I suppose that's why I'd like to keep it to some of the more important dates. So if you limit memorization of dates, how do you decide?

 

I'm not interested in using VP cards and songs, or CC memorization. I'd just like some major hooks to hang world history on.

 

Shannon

[Guest]

Dates slip out of my dd's brain despite what we do to pound them in there. I wanted her to have the barest handful of major dates memorized, but that hasn't yet happened despite chanting, writing, drawing, setting them to music, etc. What she has developed, however, is a really good sense of what happens in relation to other events -- inter-date understanding, if that makes sense. This has come about through many playings of the board game Perspective, a timeline game that my dd inexplicably adores. Through this and other similar homemade games she's gained quite a good grip on what came before or after what other things, and the general era in which these all occurred.

[shanvan]

Dates slip out of my dd's brain despite what we do to pound them in there. I wanted her to have the barest handful of major dates memorized, but that hasn't yet happened despite chanting, writing, drawing, setting them to music, etc. What she has developed, however, is a really good sense of what happens in relation to other events -- inter-date understanding, if that makes sense. This has come about through many playings of the board game Perspective, a timeline game that my dd inexplicably adores. Through this and other similar homemade games she's gained quite a good grip on what came before or after what other things, and the general era in which these all occurred.

 

Yes, I'm contemplating just settling for the ability to order events in relation to one another.

[ColoradoMom]

We don't really do dates - but chronological order is important to me. We don't do tests either, so I guess if I was a tester then the dates would be on my list of stuff to know. At least a few things with each subject.

 

I think it is unreasonable to expect students to memorize Ancient Rome dates or ancient Egypt. But I think it IS reasonable to know when Caesar and Augustus ruled - if only to understand the difference between the two forms of government and how that changed the world.

 

Ditto for major inventions and start dates and end dates of wars. Not because the dates are the major point - just so they can put things in context with other happenings.

 

I like dates in big picture kind of way I guess! :001_smile:

[DragonFaerie]

I read a quote, I believe by Albert Einstein, that was something like 'I never memorize anything I can simply look up.' :tongue_smilie:

[OregonNative]

I read a quote, I believe by Albert Einstein, that was something like 'I never memorize anything I can simply look up.' :tongue_smilie:

:thumbup:

[NanceXToo]

My oldest homeschooled child is only just about to turn 10 this week. I don't try to get her to memorize any dates as of now. I like that Einstein (?) quote! LOL.

[Daisy]

There are a handful of dates that I consider important enough to memorize, but for the rest my goals are simply chronological order.

[Luckymama]

In my vast 5 weeks of homeschooling experience :lol: I'm not requiring dd10 to remember any dates. She is remembering the order of eras/civilizations, basic chronological history, which is one of my goals. 'Course we've only done Mesopotamia/Sumer with a smidge of Egypt so far.....

[Amy loves Bud]

How much date memorization do you require for history? OR, do you not require any at all? I am mostly asking this for the middle school age crowd. I'm not that interested in my youngest memorizing dates, but I'm starting to wonder just how many dates to have DS (12) memorize.

 

I think TOG includes way too many timeline dates to even think of having him memorize them and I'm having trouble deciding on the important ones. Then I have the moments of wondering why bother at all if he's just going to forget. I suppose that's why I'd like to keep it to some of the more important dates. So if you limit memorization of dates, how do you decide?

 

I'm not interested in using VP cards and songs, or CC memorization. I'd just like some major hooks to hang world history on.

 

Shannon

 

 

We try to get a skeleton of dates memorized. For example, for American history would look like this:

 

Jamestown

Mayflower

Declaration of Independence

Rev War

Constitution

LA Purchase

Civil War

Reconstruction

etc.

 

The major events. With those memorized, they can pretty easily plug other events into the general time frame to which they belong.

[Chris in VA]

One of my biggest regrets is that we didn't do more memory work, including dates, when dd was in K-2.

I don't think lists of Egyptian kings are all that important, but I would have liked dd to have easy access to the order of important events and the ruling or birth/death dates of important people.

I think of the dates I memorized as a child--they are few and far between, but at least I know Columbus came before the Mayflower, and the Magna Carta was signed by John, and Esther took place around the time of Confucious. I think it is basic cultural literacy.

[AFwife Claire]

We did CC last year, and so memorized that big 160 point timeline, but I didn't really like it or think it was that useful mainly because we didn't memorize any dates associated with any events. So if we learned about some new thing, esp. something that didn't happen in Europe or America, then there was really no way to know where it fit into the timeline. So this year I went through and picked what I thought were 32 important events in all history, and we are memorizing 1 event per week, along with the date. So that will give us a much smaller, but hopefully more useful timeline. (And it only has 32 points because we're in a small co-op, and that's how many weeks we are meeting! I'm doing memory work for the co-op.)

[johnandtinagilbert]

I just started with my high schoolers. I think I will spend more time on timelines and choose periods of time w/ major events and societies...I like your ideas :)

[Kareni]

We started homeschooling my daughter in 7th grade and did a three year long chronological sweep through history. I did not have her memorize any dates; however, I did have her make ten entries every week in her Book of the Centuries (a home-made time line book). I thought it more important that she be able to know the relative placement of major events than particular dates.

 

Regards,

Kareni