Classical history 5000 BC to present, BUT what about pre-history?

[Novafan]

Is anyone here learning pre-history at home?

 

I suppose the enthusiasm for prehistory depends on personal views on evolution, but I'm surprised that SOTW and TWM recommends starting history at only 5000 BC.

 

For us, cosmic education is important and we are going back all the way to learn about the Universe and how it was formed and everything that leads up to early life and early humans. There is so much physical and natural science to explore by studying prehistory, so I want to do a good job providing information and materials on this time period.

 

Is anyone here studying prehistory at home? What exciting resources have you found? How about engaging projects? Books? Experiments?

 

I'd love to know how others are presenting the beginning of time and prehistory.

[Heather in VA]

I think you answered your own question as to why curriculums start at 5000 BC. What you study before that is very dependent on your religious or evolutionary beliefs. So those curriculum chose to leave that teaching up to us as parents.

[Novafan]

I think you answered your own question as to why curriculums start at 5000 BC. What you study before that is very dependent on your religious or evolutionary beliefs. So those curriculum chose to leave that teaching up to us as parents.

 

I understand that. The majority here seem to start with the later time period.

 

Are there many here doing prehistory?

[Bee]

We discussed it at the begining of starting SOTW vol 1 this year.I had 11 yo dd read a fiction book to go along with it.When she was 6 we did a kit that covered early man and evolution.I can't think of the name of it now.We discussed the theories of the origin of the world,dinosaurs and evolution as part of science last year when we did earth science.Dd took a science class on evolution a few years ago.She is more interested in the science than anything having to do with history and that is what she remembers best about all of it.

[St. Theophan Academy]

I think that yes it depends on your worldview - but also, really to me if you are going to study prehistory it would mostly be evolutionary studies, which I would group under science. I think you would cover it in science instead of as history.

[Pretty in Pink]

i have gently introduced the theory of evolution and prehistoric man with library books on the subject. i think in the elementary years the topic is easily introduced into your history study, while in upper middle/high school it can be explored more in depth as the student's knowledge of science grows. JMHO!

[mcconnellboys]

Stuff I have included for ancient history study in fifth grade, next year:

 

Introduction to What is History?

 

Discussion of Archaeology, etc.

Kingfisher Book of Ancient World, intro 6-9

Kingfisher (red), vii and pages 1-5

SOTW, pgs 13-18

 

Pre-historic Peoples

Kingfisher 10-15 (up to 8000 BC)

Kingfisher (red) 6-8 (40,000-4000 BC)

SOTW chapter 1

 

Books from home:

 

Egyptology

from 100 Greatest Archaeological Discoveries, pgs 11-27 (excluding 17, 27)

Eyewitness Early Humans

Cave Man (Cro-Magnon) coloring book - Liam read

The Stone Age News

Painters of the Caves, P. Lauber

Usborne Who were the First People?

Usborne Living in Prehistoric Times

from Usborne Ancient World, pgs 3-5

Eyewitness Mythology

Goddesses, Heroes and Shamans, intro to mythology

Prehistoric People, Laurence Santrey (Troll)

 

 

Week 2 - 4

 

Mesopotamia

Kingfisher pages 16-27

Kingfisher (red) pages 9; 20; 21; 22-23; 36-37

SOTW chs. 3, 5, 7, 8, 16, 17

 

Books from Home:

 

Science in Ancient Mesopotamia, Carol Moss

Heroes and Warriors: Nebuchadnezzar, Scourge of Zion, Mark Healy

from Ten Kings: Hammurabi - Liam read

from 100 Greatest pgs 29; 32-33; 35; 39-40; 45; 48-49; 56

from Usborne Ancient World, pgs 6-9

To Ride the Gods’ Own Stallion, Diane Wilson

Eyewitness Mythology

Goddesses, Heroes and Shamans, pg 64 - 71

The Crystal Pool, pg 18

 

 

Books I plan to use for fifth grade biology study that touch on evolution. This is using the Reader's Digest How Nature Works as my primary spine:

 

Week 2

 

“Evolutionâ€

Nature in Your Backyard (look for protists in pond water)

continue with books on microscopic life from last week

Complete Book of Microscope

Pets in a Jar

pertinent portions of Usborne Animal World

pertinent portions of What’s Under the Ground?

One Small Square: Backyard

 

Experiments/Activities:

 

Heredity activity; raise triops and sea monkeys; memorize classification information; plate grow bacteria

 

Sketches and Reports:

 

Do report on bacteria

Sketch a Virus

 

Timeline:

 

Add Darwin, Linnaeus, and Malthus

 

Workbooks:

 

continue with Microorganisms

msnucleus.org

enchantedlearning.com

Complete Book of Science 5/6: pgs 117-124; brine shrimp, pg. 40; classification, pgs 7-16

 

Field Trips:

 

Cincy Museum Origins exhibit? Other?

 

Botany Study: Foundations, page 2 of activities

(This is Kym Wright's Botany unit study available through RRC.)

 

Other books I have that I use to discuss earth origins include:

 

Rand McNally's Children's Atlas of Earth through Time. I have an older version of this and really like it's explanation of how the early earth developed. This is the best book I've found for a good, solid explanation of the actual physical characteristics of "cosmic dawn" through the development of the early planet up to the point of life.

 

The Kingfisher Book of Evolution.

 

And then I also have a bunch of books on dinosaurs and other prehistoric life. Don't know if you're interested in all that....

 

Regena

[JennW in SoCal]

We've studied prehistory here, especially at the beginning of the logic stage, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have on my shelves the Usborne World History series Prehistoric World as well as The Young Oxford Book of the Prehistoric World. Both my boys read and enjoyed Kin, by Peter Dickinson, which is a collection of 4 short novels that follows prehistoric kids.

 

We read about cave paintings, and did some art projects. We watched a fascinating series on PBS, I think it was The Journey of Man, about a scientist's genetic research that supports a theory of how man migrated out of Africa.

 

We spent time at the local Museum of Man which has an exhibit on the evolution of man. We also have spent time learning a bit about the local Native American tribes.

 

My boys were avid Dinosaur fans when they were little, and my younger one was especially intrigued with Ice Age mammals, and they still drop everything to watch a show on NOVA or one of the science channels when there is something about prehistory.

 

I guess I never stopped to worry if it was history or science we were doing, as it was all learning, all good and worthwhile stuff.

[Tracey in TX]

We are studying prehistory as science instead of history. It could be considered either subject.

[WABeth]

Stuff I have included for ancient history study in fifth grade, next year:

 

 

I will have a 5th grader next year and am planning ancient history and biology WTM style also. You are way ahead of me in the "planning" department. Any chance you would be willing to share more detailed lists of your history and biology plans for next year. Feel free to e-mail me if you prefer and of course I understand if you are not prepared to share.:)

[PixieKris]

We also tag prehistory on to ancient history (both for first grade and 5th). We read about the big bang, and then read book after book of creation stories from around the world. Obviously it depends on your worldview, but it was important for me to illustrate the similarities and differences in the creation stories, and how they all attempt to explain what couldn't be explained. It is a great jumping off point for comparing world religions as well, and comparing monotheistic vs polytheistic vs earth based vs seemingly philosophically based religions. Tons and tons of material, and I didn't want to skimp! Then we talked about the cavemen, and then the nomads.

 

At both ages, there was a great book called Big Bang! The Tongue-Tickling Tale of a Speck That Became Spectacular that my daughter loved. It was an alphabetical tongue twister that I had her memorize for fun. We did the dots on the balloon demonstration about how the universe is still expanding today. In first grade, we did cave drawings on crinkled paperbags, and between the grades we visited some local ancient etchings. There was a great video on cavemen at the library, and some on evolution. (I love Schlessinger Video's.) I think we also watched Stephen Hawking's movie about time right around then.

 

Have fun and good luck!

 

Kris

[EKS]

When we started this chronological history thing in 3rd grade we spent at least a month or maybe even two, beginning with the beginning of the universe (the Big Bang in our house), then on to the evolution of life, and finally the evolution of humans. It was really fun and interesting and was one of my son's favorite things we studied in history.

 

We're cycling back around to the ancients next year and my son told me recently that he was hoping that we would do the history of the universe thing again. The curriculum we will be using starts with the first civilizations, but we might do the other over the summer.

[Mama Lynx]

We use Cosmos, as well as Walking With Dinosaurs, etc.

 

With my oldest children, on my first run through history, we did prehistory before beginning SOTW. We read about the Big Bang theory, universe formation, Solar System formation, planetary formation, etc. We read about the origins of life, evolution, and dinosaurs - lots and lots and lots of dinosaurs.

 

We used our various history encyclopedias, and library picture books.

 

With the second run through we didn't really do that, but we tend to watch shows like Walking With Dinosaurs frequently, anyway.

 

On our third run though, I plan to have at least the oldest children read creation myths from various religions and cultures, Genesis, and Darwin. We will watch Cosmos, Walking With Dinosaurs, and Walking With Cavemen. I hope to include a Teaching Company lecture series on prehistory. We'll also throw in 2001: A Space Odyssey for fun :)

[Novafan]

Thanks for weighing in everyone. I see what some of you are saying about it being more science than history. I talked to my Historian husband (that's his thing) tonight and he said the same thing - it's more science/archaeology/geology/biology/etc than it is history.

 

Anyway, just wanted to know if there were some covering that time period and how. I love hearing about how everyone implements different lessons. It's why I love this forum.

[Pam in MA]

We added it in during Earth Science in year two. I was too overwhelmed starting our first year hsing do worry about it with SOTW1, but we covered it very thoroughly as part of science later. Models, timeline of the earth, Neanderthal skull models and tools. . . it was great. I did have to make up my own curriculum on it, though.

[Jenny in Florida]

Unfortunately, I'm not at home, so I don't have access to my files with the lists of all the resources we used. One thing I remember quite clearly that we all loved, though, was a series from PBS called "Origins." As I recall, it was four one-hour programs that started with the big bang and discussed theories about the beginnings of life on Earth.

 

We also visited museum exhibits of prehistoric artifacts, read some books and watched several other good documentaries on DVD.

 

I should be home this weekend. I'll try to remember to pull up my files from that year (along with what I've already got planned for next year) and post my ideas.

 

--Jenny

[freethinkermom]

Yes. We have watched tons of videos on the formation of the universe, dinosaurs, evolution of man, and early pre-civilization people's (Clovis, etc.). We usually watch these as a family rather than doing formal assignments. Ds6 will be doing a lapbook on life in the ice age after we work through our current queue of lapbooks. I may put together a lapbook on evolution for him too. We also have many books on pre-historic people and earth before humans. The kids tend to gravitate towards them for free reading so they don't need the topic assigned to them.

 

Some favorites:

 

Cosmos

Walking With Dinosaurs (the whole series)

Walking With Cavemen (Ale Baldwin version)

Walking With Pre-historic Beasts

Origins: Nova (and all Nova specials)

Iceman: Hunt For a Killer

Many more than I can remember

[Ellie]

That field changes quite frequently with new discoveries and such , so if you are going pretty far back then you will run into problems with the latest theory changing during the time you child is in school. I would say history curriculums tend to start at the beginning of "civilizations" vs. the beginning of our world.

 

There you go. It's called "pre-history" because there's nothing written down. How do we *know* what happened before anyone wrote anything?

[Julie in GA]

History centers on the study of documents and artifacts, but especially documents. The prehistoric era has no written documents coming from it, hence the term "pre-history" (i.e. "before the time of written records). Because of this, you just can't teach it like the rest of the time periods you're covering.

 

The best fit would be either science, or Bible, (or both), depending on your worldview.

[chiguirre]

The first 100 pages of the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History would be a great spine for an evolution study. If your kids are younger there's a series of 3 books that cover the Big Bang to Human Evolution by Jennifer Morgan:

 

Born With a Bang

From Lava to Life

Mammals Who Morph