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history for visual learners?

razorbackmama

By razorbackmama,
in K-8 Curriculum Board

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It's easier for an older child; there are some terrific DVDs out there, both documentaries and historical fiction movies, from every era you can think of. There are things like Antiques Road Show, through which you can learn an amazing amount of social and artistic history.

 

For a younger child, a timeline might be a good activity to accompany more visual books like the Eyewitness series. We still keep one (dd is 14). You can either download pre-made pictures and dates to stick on, or have your child draw pictures, which is what we did, for events that are most meaningful for him.

 

Another good resource (sorry, not a whole curriculum) is the Fandex series -- those cards hooked together that fan out, with a picture on top and some facts down below. There is a Fandex for all the presidents, I know; I'm not sure what other ones are out there.

 

Another game we played fairly often when dd was younger was to take pictures (downloaded or xeroxed) and arrange them on the timeline, not aiming for exactitude necessarily but in a "what comes before what" sort of way. Mark Twain has a short essay called "How to Make History Dates Stick," in which he describes a color-coded timeline for the kings and queens of England which might give you further ideas for visual references.

 

If your child likes maps, you can use laminated maps as the boards for homemade games. Make cards suited to your child's knowledge level, along the lines of "Where did the Titanic sink in 1912?" or "Find where gold was discovered in late 1847, triggering the rush of 1848."

 

If there are any historical museums or re-enactments in your area, try to go see those.

 

Hope some of this is useful for you.

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wapiti

wapiti

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Interesting question. I wish I knew of one.

 

Random thoughts off the top of my head: if I was going to make my own, it would probably involve some sort of history atlas and the making of a timeline. There would be lots and lots of pictures/drawings, charts, etc. Perhaps brief bullet-point outlines for specific lessons/chapters, something to look at while listening, even when listening is an issue (perhaps the child could be underlining, highlighting, etc. while "listening" - something simple but enough to keep them involved in the lesson).

 

I think it'll be harder to get around the reading/listening as the child gets older. What age did you have in mind? Reading-but-struggling, or pre-reading?

 

You might find the ideas in this article useful, if you choose to put something together yourself. http://www.visualspatial.org/files/garden.pdf

 

ETA: in addition to the above, I think it would be important to be clear on context, in order to help them remember. identify the place for the topic on a large timeline, locate it on a map, first, and only then tell the story about it using lots of visuals. This is where history as a story may be very helpful, so long as the story is interesting, involves humor, emotion, etc.

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susankenny

susankenny

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Someone created an extensive movie list at redshift based on history time periods. http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/movies.htm#WOTE

 

Additionally, there is a movie list somewhere for SOTW. I'm sorry I don't have that link off hand, but both of these would certainly be helpful for a visual learner.

 

Lastly, the History Channel is wonderful! Do you have that?? If you're Christian, there are wonderful dvd products at cbd.com too.

 

If you subscribe to netflix, it should be perfect for the above lists.

 

Susan

 

 

ETA - Joy Hakim's "A History of US" has dvd's too!

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Susie in CA

Susie in CA

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I think you can easily make history visual or kinetic. We have always loved history the wtm way using SOTW and the activity book.

 

Lots of picture books in addition to the SOTW chapters

Coloring Pages

Maps (my younger son always loved maps, globes, etc)

Puzzles - the jigsaw kind

projects - lots and lots of them, clay, cooking, painting, acting - this was always the most important and fun factor in our history.

 

Often we would work on a puzzle or project and listen to related stories on CD.

 

Susie

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Shifra

Shifra

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Years ago, the Culture for Kids catalog had some videos with the series title being "Ancient Civilizations for Children". I think they are now "out-of-print" (is that the term for a video?). You can get some of them on amazon.com.

 

In the series "Ancient Civilizations for Children" were the following videos:

 

Ancient China

Ancient Mesopotamia

Ancient Greece

Ancient Rome

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Inca

Ancient Africa

Ancient Aegean

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razorbackmama

razorbackmama

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Thank you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I have one that I HIGHLY suspect is a visual/spatial learner. He's 8.5 and is a struggling reader. Reading aloud to him is pure torture.

 

I have another one that either is a visual/spatial learner or at the very least has auditory issues. He LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES The History Channel.

 

These movie lists - I haven't had time to even go look at the lists...having surgery tomorrow - are there descriptions on there about appropriate ages and such? Or would I need to preview them?

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lisabees

lisabees

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Kisten, good luck today. We'll be thinking of you. :grouphug:

 

My dyslexic, v/s learner started to love history after I asked this same question last year. The responses were quite similar. Once I gave in to idea of using documentaries A LOT, it awoke his interest. Timelines and maps and hands-on activities suddenly meant something to him. My ds loves for me to read to him, if it's high interest stuff, so we read a lot of historical fiction.

 

Also, try to tie science into the time period you are studying. Serious connections will be made!

 

Good luck (today and with your decision).

 

eta: Could you use this as a supplement? Please? I'm so curious about it! :) http://discoveringmusic.net/

Edited by lisabees
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razorbackmama

razorbackmama

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Kisten, good luck today. We'll be thinking of you. :grouphug:

 

My dyslexic, v/s learner started to love history after I asked this same question last year. The responses were quite similar. Once I gave in to idea of using documentaries A LOT, it awoke his interest. Timelines and maps and hands-on activities suddenly meant something to him. My ds loves for me to read to him, if it's high interest stuff, so we read a lot of historical fiction.

 

Also, try to tie science into the time period you are studying. Serious connections will be made!

 

Good luck (today and with your decision).

 

eta: Could you use this as a supplement? Please? I'm so curious about it! :) http://discoveringmusic.net/

 

Thanks so much! I'm already home again after my surgery. For having had spine surgery this morning, I'm feeling REALLY great.

 

This ds, yep, I suspect has dyslexia.

 

Now to figure out my "plan"....

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lisabees

lisabees

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Thanks so much! I'm already home again after my surgery. For having had spine surgery this morning, I'm feeling REALLY great.

 

This ds, yep, I suspect has dyslexia.

 

Now to figure out my "plan"....

 

Glad all went well. Take care of yourself!

 

Sorry I botched the spelling of your name in my previous post! :001_huh:

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Zoo Keeper

Zoo Keeper

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One of my boys is very visual/spatial and he loves anything Usborne for history. We have Time Traveler, Ancient World, Medieval World, and The Last 500 Years. Some folks complain that Usborne can be too many pictures with just snippets of info, but that is exactly what draws my boy in and keeps him looking (and reading). We have also found any of the DK Eyewitness books to be well worth many looks.

 

He does do narration pages of history (he writes 2 - 4 sentences after I have read the assignment to him); this only works because he uses blank top paper (lines on the bottom, blank on top) and gets to illustrate his narration after it is done. Lots of work with maps/globes get him excited as well. He keeps all his narrations/maps in a notebook and has frequent review days--he loves to see what he has done over and over.

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cathmom

cathmom

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There's a series of comic books called Asterix that is history based. They have them at my library, and I recently got out Asterix and the Goths (which is number 2, but number 1 was checked out) to see what it was. My dd read it and liked it. I can't read comic books (gives me a headache), so I didn't look at it too much.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix

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