History help--how do you stay ahead of your children??

[Kristiana]

So I'm preparing for 2nd grade (SOTW 2) in the fall and honestly, I feel like the village idiot here! I haven't had a world history course since college in 1993/4 and because I was a music major that course was focused mainly on music (and a whole lot of art and literature until there was some music to study) rather than on the political history. Before that, I know I studied world history in 10th grade and 6th grade but I remember essentially nothing.

 

This year we really enjoyed SOTW 1, but I was learning it all right along with my kids. I had grand intentions of reading adult history books and the WTM rhetoric literature recommendations, but that fell by the wayside in a big hurry. And I feel like maybe we missed something, although I'm not sure what, kwim? And I know for a fact that was the very first time I've ever encountered China's and India's history.

 

This year I want to be more than just one step ahead of the kids and know more of the big picture. I am planning on prereading SOTW 2, but still, it's pretty simplified world history. I would love something like TOG's teacher's notes that would give an overview of what we're supposed to be learning and why (but I know TOG is not for me.) I consider myself fairly educated (or did), and some areas of history I know a lot about, but the Middle Ages is not one of them. ;)

 

So here's the question--How do I get ahead of my children? Books to read, videos to watch, how do you do it? Or do you just learn along with them, and figure by the time they're in high school, then you'll be fairly educated too?

 

We actually did just watch the History Channel's Dark Ages dvd and I learned a whole lot. So did DH and he was a history major in college. :)

[VaKim]

I just learn along with my kids, and have from the beginning. We all love history, and love learning together. :)

 

I am sure you will get tons of great suggestions from all these smart people though.

[Kathleen in VA]

I, too, learn along with my children. I read their history text aloud to them and oftentimes I'll say, "Wow, I didn't know that - cool!" Lots of times we will get out the encyclopedia and search things out even further - together. I think it's kind of neato because then they see me being interested as well and digging for more info just because I want to know - not because it was an assignment.

 

A wise teacher once told me, "The smartest people are not the ones who know everything, but the ones who know how to find out." Teach them how to find out by finding out together.

 

It's great fun!:)

[genie]

I'm in the same mental state you are right now. My history background is almost nonexistent. Up to this point I have been learning alongside my daughter, but I feel like I would be a better teacher if I knew more.

 

For example, I have a pretty good background in music, and until recently I have been teaching my daughter piano. About two months ago, I found a fantastic piano teacher with whom I promptly enrolled my daughter. I sit in on the lessons and am amazed at what all he teaches beyond what's written in the books. He pulls together ideas that would never have occurred to me. He shows her chords that can go with many of the songs in the books. He gives her history on the composers of the songs.

 

That's the kind of teacher I want to be. Would she get a solid education by my teaching her straight from a curriculum? Of course she would. But I want to give her more. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about doing that. Science, math, grammar, composition - all those I'm fine with. But history is such a HUGE compilation of facts and ideas, and the thought of trying to absorb it all is a bit daunting, and truthfully, impossible. I'm an overachiever sometimes. :)

 

So I will be watching this thread with interest as I continue to ponder the question myself.

[Mom2boys]

So far I haven't stayed ahead of my kids, I learn along side them. But, my oldest is in his second go-round of the history cycle, and by the time he hits the third, I feel I need to be ahead of him, so we can have these great Socratic discussions ala TOG (all though I know TOG isn't the curriculum for me either). SWB is writing a series of history books for adults. So far she has published "The History of the Ancient World". I plan to read each of those as a starting point for myself. I'm hoping to make notes as I go of topics/people to research further. If I do that the summer before we study each of those time periods, hopefully I will be well prepared to guide him through the third history cycle.

[Carol in Cal.]

Now that DD is 11 she is studying more on her own. And she just LOVES it when she knows something that I don't! As long as that doesn't happen often enough for me to be unable to have a good discussion with her nor to evaluate her work, I think it's all part of the fun.

[abreakfromlife]

I have my college Western Civ book, which is a great book. I read through that for now, to refresh my memory and learn new things before I do it with the kids.....I think when we get to the last rotation, I'm going to try TOG so that I can learn and have those kinds of discussions.

[tristangrace]

Maybe you could post this question on the High School/Self-Education board. I also will watch this thread for recommendations. My daughter begins ancient history at the first grade level this fall, and I'm reading SWB's "grown up" book on ancient history this summer. I am also working my way through the children's history encyclopedias we have. Beyond that, though, I don't know of specific resources.

 

Susan

[Jenny in Atl]

If I don't already know it... I learn it with them. There is no better way to give kids the love of learning, than to illustrate it yourself with them. If they see that you are excited about learning new things, then they will be too.

[siloam]

I really like the idea, but it doesn't work here. :001_huh:

 

Heather

[Colleen in NS]

So I'm preparing for 2nd grade (SOTW 2) in the fall and honestly, I feel like the village idiot here! I haven't had a world history course since college in 1993/4 and because I was a music major that course was focused mainly on music (and a whole lot of art and literature until there was some music to study) rather than on the political history. Before that, I know I studied world history in 10th grade and 6th grade but I remember essentially nothing.

 

This year we really enjoyed SOTW 1, but I was learning it all right along with my kids. I had grand intentions of reading adult history books and the WTM rhetoric literature recommendations, but that fell by the wayside in a big hurry. And I feel like maybe we missed something, although I'm not sure what, kwim? And I know for a fact that was the very first time I've ever encountered China's and India's history.

 

This year I want to be more than just one step ahead of the kids and know more of the big picture. I am planning on prereading SOTW 2, but still, it's pretty simplified world history. I would love something like TOG's teacher's notes that would give an overview of what we're supposed to be learning and why (but I know TOG is not for me.) I consider myself fairly educated (or did), and some areas of history I know a lot about, but the Middle Ages is not one of them. ;)

 

So here's the question--How do I get ahead of my children? Books to read, videos to watch, how do you do it? Or do you just learn along with them, and figure by the time they're in high school, then you'll be fairly educated too?

 

We actually did just watch the History Channel's Dark Ages dvd and I learned a whole lot. So did DH and he was a history major in college. :)

 

Hi Kristiana! Hope you and your family are well! Guess what, I had another WTM boardie at my house a couple of weeks ago - CleoQc! How fun!

 

Anyway, I liked your question, and wish I had some great answers for you. I have had grand intentions, too, of getting ahead in history. Made a timeline and everything. Right now my only hope is to stay a few weeks ahead with basic reading of SOTW and the KF history encyclopedia, and maybe a deeper dig into the encyclopedias or reading biographies. I have heard it said here that it is easier to get ahead on this stuff when your kids are littler - I'm starting to think I've missed that window! I've also heard it said here to go through the rhetoric stage suggestions, but I am just not able to do that yet - I really need to go through the logic stage suggestions first, with simpler reading and a timeline. I was a history flunkie, so I have to do this.

 

From what I've read here anyway from more experienced people, is to just set yourself to the task and do it. I find I have to do that with several things though - grammar, math, Latin, now Spanish maybe, logic (though I managed to get myself through a year of puzzles, so I'm ahead for now), then science, lit., and history. Oh, and I still want to teach my kids from Drawing With Children, so I have to figure out the next few chapters from where I left off.

 

Hope you are all doing well! I'll be back next week to check the boards, going to Cape Breton tomorrow for a week.

[CoffeeBean]

In 1st through 6th I tried to read everything first, in the spring or summer before when I was planning the year out. It got to be a prety big chore when the kids hit abput 4th grade and in all honesty I ended up doing History if US along with them but did read all the historical fiction and some I didn't use. Then we all just learn toegether. I'm sure they will learn things I don't know before their education is done. That really is the goal, to have a better education than I had and to find their passion and run with it.

 

CoffeeBean

[LisaNY]

Sometimes I read adult-level books on the historical period we will be studying, and sometimes I go to the young adult section and read books from there.

 

When we were studying the Middle Ages, I read a book about the Battle of Hastings, and another one, the title of which escapes me at the moment. While reading those, I was also going through The Story of Britain, which is a narrative history of Britain, from its founding to the present.

 

While studying Napoleon's Wars and the War of 1812, I decided to read Albert Marrin's "Napoleon", and "1812 - The War Nobody Won".

 

All of these things served to give me a fairly in-depth overview of what we were studying. Obviously, it is always helpful to know something about the subject your dc will be studying. I don't always read books on the subject. Sometimes, I will refer to more brief sources when there are constraints on my time.

 

Kristiana, your dc are still very young. If I were in your shoes, I'd continue my own self-study of history, knowing that I will be preparing for when my dc get into the Dialectic/Rhetoric stages of learning. Right now, it is not imperative to know a lot of the deeper issues, since your children are not mature enough to go there yet, anyway. :001_smile: You can continue to learn along with them, perhaps taking time to get your overviews from more brief sources. The Teaching Company courses are a great way to get an overview without having to invest a lot of time.

[EKS]

For history, I just learned along with my son. I did read a few adult books as we went along, not to help teach him but just for my own interest, things like Lies My Teacher Told Me and Guns, Germs, and Steel, nothing major.

 

I do think it is important to be several steps ahead in other subjects, such as math and science, because it is important to know how what you're learning there applies down the road.

 

That said, Teaching Company lectures are great. My son and I are watching Big History right now and it is fascinating!

[Peela]

I learn alongside my children and since I am an adult, I feel I get the bigger picture. It has also meant I am more drawn to historical fiction and documentaries that help me build on the foundation that SOTW gave me.

 

Now that I am using Ambleside, I am actually reading books ahead of my kids, finally. Any books I will read aloud, I just read the first chapter to get a feel for how much time we will need in the schedule. Any books I will hand to my kids, I am reading ahead. However my kids are 12 and 14 and the books are meaty-it feels important with AO, to me, to be able to discuss with the kids what they are reading, since reading literature is the core of the whole CM method. If I was back doing SOTW in 2nd grade- I wouldn't worry about it. Over the next 4 years before you get back to the same time period, you will have learned more than you realise.

[Ali in OR]

Teaching Company DVDs are a great way to get an adult-level understanding of some of the topics you study. Our library has some, but we've also started investing in some. My Christmas present last year was the History of the U.S. set because we are starting year 3 this year. And they nicely send new catalogs of what's currently on sale every couple of weeks! Everything goes on sale at least once a year. I can see all kinds of courses I would like to study for years 1 and 2 (The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Italian Renaissance, etc.) And I enjoy watching them--it's not a chore like reading a text can be. The lessons are about 1/2 hour long. I watch a couple of them while folding laundry! Even though my dd is only 3rd grade, I learn interesting things to share with her, like Viking helmets didn't have horns (that would just be something for your enemies to grab onto in a fight). And the flag Francis Scott Key wrote his poem about had 15 stripes--they soon figured out they shouldn't add a stripe for every state and went back to 13. And I really learn more than just trivia! Anyway, check your library and see what might be available for free to see if you like them.

[Kristiana]

Genie--I love your piano teacher example, I can really relate to that as I teach cello lessons and I can pull alot of stuff together for students above and beyond their books. But I'm nowhere close to being that kind of teacher for most of our homeschool subjects at present.

 

To everyone else--Thank you so much for all of your input and ideas. It sound silly now to worry so much when my oldest is only 7. But I feel like I should get a lot more serious about self-education while they are so young. It was like I suddenly came face to face with how much I don't know as I was preparing next year's plans. And don't get me wrong, we all absolutely loved history last year and we did learn all the details together and they see me loving to learn and finding out new stuff. But I keep thinking of this in terms of a forest analogy, I'd like to have an overview of the forest before I start getting to know the individual trees with the kids. I know it will come with time, and I really love history so there's a lot of motivation there.

 

The Teaching Co. DVDs sound great. In fact I was just looking at how many my library owns! They have a lot although not nearly enough history ones, maybe I'll have to put in some requests. :D I could make time for those. Thanks for the suggestion! :)

[Kristiana]

Cape Breton--I'm jealous!! I hope you have a wonderful time. Next time we come out to Nova Scotia, I want to try to get to Cape Breton.

 

You just reminded me, I'm supposed to be going through Drawing with Children too. :)