mama2cntrykids Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Do people generally only cover Europe or do they cover the world as a whole? Why is it done in each manner? I'm trying to plan out my own curriculum for history next year, so I'm trying to figure out what to do (Europe only or world). Any help is apprecited! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oraetstudia Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 I mostly focused on Europe with short jaunts into Asia, Africa and India. For us it was mostly a matter of interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 The whole wide world. Because it's all fascinating. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NittanyJen Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 The whole world... because I want my kids to know we are part of the world, not necessarily the center of it. I love my country and I am proud of it, but I think we can work best with others if we understand their past, cultural and technological contributions, and traditions, as having developed with our own, rather than the "Europe was great, because it was a quaint incubator for our finally got it right country... Oh, and there are a couple of other civ's out there with weird and outlandish traditions like eating babies that we will study a little bit so we can be proud we aren't them" kind of history education I grew up with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 I have a degree in medieval history, mainly focusing on British history, so we mostly focused on Europe, particularly the British, but we enjoyed the little jaunts into other areas as well, especially as mentioned in SOTW2. That was plenty for my kindergartener and third-grader (who were all about the knights and castles anyway). There were many more supplemental materials available for Europe than for other areas. As they get older, I would like them to learn more about Africa, Asia, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 We're using SOTW2, and it has other cultures thrown in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 I thought of Europe as our river. As other countries and civilizations' streams flowed into that river, we'd take short jaunts up their streams. I just didn't want to get so far off course that we wound up on another river. ;) We've taken two years to cover the time period from about 400AD through 1600 though. We LOVE that time period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 (edited) Do people generally only cover Europe or do they cover the world as a whole? Why is it done in each manner? I'm trying to plan out my own curriculum for history next year, so I'm trying to figure out what to do (Europe only or world). Any help is apprecited! The first time we covered the Middle Ages, we were living in Europe. So it was not only a time to delve into an esoteric history, it was a way of making sense of the places and people around us. Just as an example, the baptismal font at one of the churches we frequently visited is held to be the ancient font in which Charlemagne ordered the local warlord, The Wittkind, to be baptised as a Christian. The middle ages flowed directly into our study of the renaissance and reformation and thence into the Wars of Religion, like the Thirty Years War. We did also study other civilizations. But I want them to have a broad and deep understanding of the culture from which their ancestors sprang. When we studied it last year, it was a bit more cursory, since there was an international move in the middle of that year. And there was more of a sense of how did the middle ages set up the age of explorations and colonization. In that case, we had been living in Asia for two years, and done one year of intensive study of Asia and Africa. So I didn't feel like I was slighting other civilizations. I would highly recommend the book The World in 1492. It has several big sections that cover what the world was like in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Each chapter is written by a different author, each with a perspective oriented a little differently. Another book I found really helpful is The Middle Ages: A Watts Guide for Children. This has more of an encyclopedia set up, and covers not only European places and figures, but also people like Saladin. ETA: FWIW, last year I was also trying to incorporate literature of the period like Norse legends, European fairy tales, Arthurian legend and the Niebelungenlied. These are works I wanted to make sure my kids had a basic familiarity with. Edited February 17, 2012 by Sebastian (a lady) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 We've been focusing pretty much on medieval European history. Next year, we'll do world history without dealing with Europe, using http://www.amazon.com/Asian-World-600-1500-Medieval-Modern/dp/0195178432/ref=pd_sim_b_3 and http://www.amazon.com/Empires-1200-1750-Medieval-Early-Modern/dp/0195178394/ref=pd_sim_b_5, and http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-American-World-Times/dp/0195174658/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329527777&sr=1-10 I just can't imagine trying to fit everything in one year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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