keeping ancient civilizations straight

[MrsH]

Does anyone have good tools or strategies to help DD (and me!) keep all of the different civilications and peoples straight?

 

We've already discussed Sumer, the early Egpytians, the Indus Valley, early Europe, Minoans and Mycenaeans... This week it's Babylonians and Hittites before we wrap back to Egypt for a few weeks.

 

I think dd10 is having a hard time remembering who's who, and why they mattered. This is my first exposure to much of this information as well so I'm struggling to boil it down.

 

Any suggestions?

[Chris in VA]

Are you using SOTW? You can download small cards with info on each chapter from the yahoo group called hannah's homeschool helps. Download two of each and play memory games.

Memorizing a sentence and using it for copywork for each civilization can help, as will associating each people group with a major accomplishment.

The SOTW Activity Guide allows you access to maps, so you can locate each group, and many activities to cement the facts, including coloring pages. You can also bring the people "alive" by reading supplementary historical fiction--remembering the events via fiction really gives a personality to the people and leads to better retention.

[MrsH]

Thanks, I appreciate the suggestions. Love the idea of small cards of info, but we're not reading SOTW this year and instead opted for following the Usborne encyclopedia in terms of deciding what order to go in. Is there anything not based on SOTW?

 

Each week we read 2-4 pages. She writes down facts and marks her timeline. We read a range of fiction (mostly the stories of each culture, so far) and non-fiction (she picks a sub-topic that's interesting). About every other week she does a map and we do also do a fair number of additional activities and projects. She could tell you, for example, all about the fact that some of the civilizations used seals but not which ones or why it matters. Or she can tell you that the Nile overflows (b/c we made the model) and that it runs through Egypt, but will then also think that all the other civilizations were on the Nile as well. She loved that we ate as if we lived in the Indus Valley, but doesn't remember that they're an amazing civilization in its complexity, and that it's still such a mystery to archaeologists.

 

She misses pretty much all the connections and really cool tidbits, which I think is the real problem to me. I guess I'm looking maybe for a list of civilizations and why they are still relevant today? What major advances, etc. Without us having to go through all the material again. does such a thing exist?

[ladydusk]

Are you doing any memory work for history? There are several resources of lists for memory available

 

Veritas Press cards

 

Classical Conversations cards

 

Grammar Stage Memorization (free download, has a nice list of history sentences. We don't worry about the dates, just the who's King Narmer? information. this was put together by a member here)

 

Living Memory (wish I had bought the download ... a wonderful resource for memory work including history, I believe)

 

Are you outlining and narrating? I don't have a 10 year old yet, so take my recommendations with a grain of salt, but what does it mean that "She writes down facts"? Is that in an outline or narration or a list? Is she doing any comparison or contrast between the civilizations?

 

Really, even though my kids groan about History sentences, they were the most helpful things for their remembering the differing civilizations.

[Samiam]

Honestly at her age, this is her first go around with Ancient history, I am not sure that she NEEDS to memorize every ancient civilization. She'll dig more in depth at a higher grade level when she goes through it again.

 

Some of the ancient civilizations had a important achievement here or there, but nothing that was SO amazing they have to be memorized and remembered in detail in elementary level, IMHO.

[MrsH]

Are you doing any memory work for history?

 

...

 

Are you outlining and narrating? I don't have a 10 year old yet, so take my recommendations with a grain of salt, but what does it mean that "She writes down facts"? Is that in an outline or narration or a list? Is she doing any comparison or contrast between the civilizations?

 

 

I probably missed something about the memorization but no, we have not done much with that. I like the idea of memorizing a few key facts, and appreciate the resources you gave.

 

For the facts, it's as recommended in WTM logic stage. She just reads and records 8 facts that were interesting to her. They are usually not the most important facts, and that's not the point. She uses them as ideas for further reading.

 

No explicit compare/contrast of civilizations yet, but that's a great idea.

 

I think I'm starting to wish that rather than covering everything a little bit, I'd chosen to just study a few of the civilizations. I want her to think this is all super interesting, but she's not really there.

[2_girls_mommy]

Are you doing lots of extra reading of library books on the subjects? That can help. Is she doing the writing of the summaries from the extra reading? That could help some too.

 

I think the fact that my 10 yr old is on her 2nd trip through Ancients this year (after going through all 4 vols. of SOTW in grammar stage) has made a lot of difference. So if this is the first trip through the history, then it will be a kind of whirlwind, but will hopefully be clearer on the next trip through when that comes.

 

Are you convinced not to use SOTW as a supplement? I know it is grammar stage, but it provides the stories that tie the cultures together IMO. As does a Bible study for us if you are so inclined. So many of the cultures are there and it provides further ties between them. Even though mine has officially had SOTW, I still use the A.G. to pick out some books for her extra summaries. And she can listen in to her sister's readings of it for a refresher. She likes to compare its summarizations of myths to the ones she is reading and tell us the differences :)

[Mrs Twain]

This year I bought Everything You Need to Know About World History Homework (4th to 6th grades).

It has a brief summary you can read about each topic, and then 2-3 key points about the topic. My kids are memorizing the key points. So far they have memorized Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Hebrews, Phoenicians, Persians, and Hittites. Next we will start the Egyptians (which has more points than 2-3, but basically the same idea).

 

I also bought Everything You Need to Know About American History for the same purpose.

 

I think these may fit your purposes.

[BugsMama]

What about Evan-Moor's history pockets? They could be a good supplement, and my kids remember the stuff they learned from them because of the hands on factor.

[bolt.]

I'd suggest a couple of memory devices in addition to learning content.

 

One is colour coding: When she writes about each civilization have her write the title in a certain colour, and decorate the page a little. Any time you present information about that civilzation, use that colour, either to decorate pages, 'edge' your text book with marker, underline things, mark on the timeline, as a bookmark, or just as a paper 'placemat' for her to work on... that sort of thing. In time, she will internalize that code and be able to keep them straight and separate.

 

The other punning: Make up something silly that is a play-on-words between the name of the Civ. and a key fact -- a fact that will be a seed for her to remember the rest of what she knows. Also make up a rhyme or accrositic, or something that keeps the civ's in order. (Like I always remember "Galatians, Ephesians, Philipians, Colossians" by remembering "General Electric Power Company".)

[MomatHWTK]

You could get a large world map and create little labels to stick on each region with a summary of the civilization.

[HS Mom in NC]

I decided to go regionally rather than chronologically for the first time around with the Ancients. We did go chronologically within each region, but it seems a jumbled mess to a young mind hopping around back and forth from culture to culture and region to region if you ask me.

 

We did the Middle East readings from SOTW and Usborne Book of World History and lovely related story books from the library. Then we made a lapbook out of her narrations turned into copywork and projects (or their photos.) Then we repeated the process with Egypt, Greece (including the various Mediterranean peoples at the time) and now we're in Asia (China first then India for various reasons.) Later we'll do Northwestern Europe, The Americas, and probably end in Rome. I think Greece and Rome get mixed up in a kid's head if they're done one after the other.

 

At age 7, I'm not focused on her doing a lot of memorization beyond the major events, major players, major geographical features, and basic story lines of classic literature in each region.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

Costumes! You can find something authentic/civilization specific to make to go with each one. Then your kid can dress/wear that item/outfit for each one while you're learning about it. Take pictures, too. I am totally looking forward to making the Mycenaean helmet! And here's Builder Boy dressed like an ancient Egyptian: one with a home-made Egyptian wig (instructions to make the wig here,) one with the double crown of Egypt.

[Paula in MS]

I can't say enough about how great the new Classical Conversations timeline cards are. The Age of Ancient Empires cards are fantastic. We are using the Usborne as our spine, reading SOTW in its order, memorizing the timeline, and focusing on the geography of the ancient world using CC and the Knowledge Quest maps. The information on the back of the timeline cards is just perfect for a 10 year old.

[Saddlemomma]

You can log onto http://www.studystack.com and build your own online flash cards.

 

My dd and I are doing MOH 1 Ancient Civilizations. They recommend making 3 memory cards for each lesson. Instead of doing that, I do the memory cards on studystack. Then I have my dd log on and review the stack. She can play hangman, wordsearch, matching game; there are 14 games in all.

 

DD loves this! It continues to build with each lesson, and she tells me she is actually remembering and having fun. She has now asked me to create a stack for Science!

 

You can even put maps on there! Wonderful tool. I hope this helps.