PachiSusan Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 We are going to use the WTM "style" of history this year with my 5th grader, doing ancients. I have a 10 year old that still ADORES coloring and drawing what she's learned, so I want to let her do that in her notebook as well, even though that's still "grammar stage" work habits. Right now I'm employing the "if it captures her interest, it captures her mind" stage. I am learning that there is enough information here to do JUST HISTORY all year long. I have to stop finding more and more information!!!!!! ***We are not using SOTW as a spine, but we are using our regular Seton History Book that spans the Ancients to the Renaissance. *** I read through WTM's section on history and shared the ideas of the notebook with Melissa and she was really intrigued. She said that she wanted to do it, so I have some questions. The book is very clear on how to outline. She says to get a 3 ring notebook and make 9 sections; 1. Outlines 2. Great Men and Women 3. Wars, Conflicts, and Politics 4. Inventions and Technology 5. Religion 6. Daily Life 7. Cities and Settlements 8. Primary Sources 9. The Arts and Great Books That's all great, so far. However, where does the information for 2-9 come from? I'm assuming it's from reading the Kingfisher or Usborne Encyclopedia and they just write down the important points under each category? Do they find books from the library of each of the points from 2-9 for EACH section? We are still unsure of whether we're going to do the big huge timeline or not. The Kingfisher has a time line in the book and I planned on reading through that and showing her what was happening all over the world at the same times. Is there something we would miss out on by not doing the timeline? One of our stopping points is simply we don't have the wall space to display it so that we could use it each week. This is what I have so far for Ancient Man...the beginnings of History: Before we even start the textbook, I know I am going to do a short lesson on archaeology, using the Usborne Introduction to Archaeology and the book "Motel of the Mysteries" . I will be using it to show her how important it is for archaeologists to not be so quick to judge what the purpose of something is when they find it. http://www.amazon.com/Motel-Mysteries-David-Macaulay/dp/0395284252 For this section, we will be using the Usborne World History book as the encyclopedia AND SPINE because my text book doesn't cover this section of pre-history either. The Kingfisher doesn't go into ancient man and the early hominids: And here are some of the supplemental reading books I'm deciding to use. Some of these would simply be a browse through, like the Dk, Prehistoric People and the Early Humans. You Wouldn't Want to be a Mammoth Hunter DK's The Early Humans Eyewitness book Exploring History - Prehistoric Peoples - Philip Brooks I wanted to do a short section on Art in Prehistoric time and thought the cave paintings would be a great rabbit trail to follow. I have a netflix documentary on the discovery of a different cave in France. The Secret Cave - Discovering Lascaux Painters of the Caves - Patricia Lauber Step into history: HUNT!! Can you Survive the Stone Age Lucy, Long Ago - to talk about evolution and the common ancestor theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 You can do it by introduction of people in the spine to keep it basic. If they go off on a rabbit trail and get into a bio, add it if you like. Homeschool in the Woods has an excellent CD set for this, or you can make your own. PS: I always have supplemented intentionally on this to include female figures. That's just me.. PPS: you can always do a timeline in book form as well. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 For timelines, I just draw a vertical line down a page of notebook paper. I don't try to do timelines "right" and I don't try to be "complete". I FILE things in a notebook, but don't try to CREATE a notebook, if you know what I mean? Let the dividers be a PLACE to file whatever gets DONE, rather than looking at the sections as a crossword puzzle that must be filled out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 Hi, I wrote this in another thread on the logic board. We do a Book of Centuries instead of a timeline. Mine like to create with colored pencils and markers, too. They are constantly sketching and leave a trail of papers all over our house. If you have creative/artsy kids, I don't see anything wrong with using that to your advantage with the history notebooking! Here's what was in the other thread: Book of Centuries - I printed this from simplycharlottemason.com. So, instead of a timeline, each kid has a big binder with a couple of pages for each century. My kids go through and fill in the pages with info that corresponds to that century. For example, my daughter wrote this huge description of the Egyptian gods and goddesses on one of the pages and included colored pencil sketches of them (yikes!). My son also devoted a whole page to Napoleon and wrote a timeline of his battles and included colored pencil sketches of his weapons. You could also use this idea for a Book of Masterpieces. You do the same thing, but with artists. My kids have an art history notebook also (she talks about that in WTM somewhere) and they include a paragraph about the artist and use markers or colored pencils to recreate a piece of art on the page. Also, for #9 in your OP, I always assumed we were supposed to be doing artist studies from the time period. We have an art notebook for that where my kids pick an artist, write a brief bio of the artist... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K&Rs Mom Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 I read through WTM's section on history and shared the ideas of the notebook with Melissa and she was really intrigued. She said that she wanted to do it, so I have some questions. The book is very clear on how to outline. She says to get a 3 ring notebook and make 9 sections; 1. Outlines 2. Great Men and Women 3. Wars, Conflicts, and Politics 4. Inventions and Technology 5. Religion 6. Daily Life 7. Cities and Settlements 8. Primary Sources 9. The Arts and Great Books That's all great, so far. However, where does the information for 2-9 come from? I'm assuming it's from reading the Kingfisher or Usborne Encyclopedia and they just write down the important points under each category? Do they find books from the library of each of the points from 2-9 for EACH section? We're at the end of SOTW1, and this was the first year for notebooks here. I went with different sections - notes/outlines, tests, activities/essays, mapwork, timeline. I think my edition of WTM might list it differently than yours (also possible I just made up those sections last winter, I can't remember). If you want to use those specific 9 sections, how about having her outline each day's reading, then make a page for *one* section based on that? I don't know how this would work with your text, but with SOTW & KF/USB each day seems to have a "theme" that could go in one or another section. This would give her a chance to do them as artfully as she wants, too - if the reading that day is about a person, she can draw/trace/color them & write a couple sentences; if it's about a city, she can draw a scene from it or a map; on a battle day, maybe a narration paragraph with map. For "primary sources" I'd use that section like a mini book report whenever you do use a primary source - many time periods/locations won't have any. I made my 10yo do a timeline, but not my 8yo. I 3-hole punched one blank page, and taped another on the end of it, then another, so they accordion-fold back into her notebook. I think we're up to about 6-7 sheets of regular printer paper, and that's reached near 0 BC/AD. She started with an inch per century, but that's getting crowded so the next page will have the years farther apart. When she needs to mark an event on it, she unfolds the last couple sheets. I think it is important at some point, to see how things overlap in different areas, but doesn't necessarily have to be 5th grade, and I think that making her own is more effective in cementing that than just looking at the one in a book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraceyS/FL Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 I would look into doing a timeline in a binder. We are going to use the HOmeschool in the Woods CD version - and I'm only printing it on one side of the cardstock so that we can add pages or spread it out. There have been a couple of threads recently and someone posted a link to one that was similar to theirs (i liked it the best after looking for months for something, it has subtle lines on it). My other choice was the paid Simply Charlotte Mason book of centuries. I liked the squares, and then the facing page with the key events in each area. I was going to make my own like it though (XL spreadsheet). Another option is to use a science project board - there are pictures if you google. (here is one: http://thehappyhomeschoolmom.blogspot.com/2012/05/we-finished-mystery-of-history-volume-1.html ) Finding figures to use and color will be another project for Miss M! We fail at the notebook thing.... but maybe I will have us try again! LOL!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 I know some people really get into their timelines. It just seems a poor choice of MY time and money to do that. I'd rather just scribble a quick one for the student to copy, and then spend my time on a read aloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrself Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 I agree with Laurel. We have history notebooks, but don't use the different sections. After thinking about it, I decided that keeping everything in separate sections would add lots of time used (over a whole year) without adding much value. We file it all chronologically. (Plus if me kids wanted to look back at something, I think it would be more useful that way.) I try to keep the list handy to refer to just to make sure we are covering a bit of everything. And we do a timeline in a 3 ring binder too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My3girls Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 This is our first year, but dd7 and dd8 are doing time lines on butcher paper that we roll up and put away between lessons. Dd11 is doing a book of centuries. We will be doing lap books for events or people that draw their interest the most or that I think should be explored in a little more depth. Like someone else mentioned, I try to highlight important women in history as I think they tend to get left out in most traditional classes. As this is our first year, it could definitely change. I'm amazed by how much there is for ME to learn on this adventure! I'm attempting to incorporate artist,author, and composer studies in with the history as well as science to some extent. I really like the idea of an art notebook for short biographies and reproductions. I might steal that one. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 You and your daughter might really enjoy history portfolios - http://www.homeschooljourney.com/ It's flexible enough that you can do what you want, but also provides ideas for writing or drawing or maps. The portfolio is on card stock and we just glue in writings or drawings. My younger has done ancients jr and Medieval and my older has done Medieval and renaissance. This year will be world history (non-western) so we're going it alone with a blank "unit study" portfolio. They do have a bit of a Christian angle to them, but it's easy to add or subtract what you want. We added in a section on early humans to the ancient portfolio, for instance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I have a timeline poster which I taped on the inside of my pantry door so we see it all the time. It works well, and it doesn't take up any wall space: http://www.home-school-curriculum.com/product/mark-it-timeline-of-history Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Let the dividers be a PLACE to file whatever gets DONE, rather than looking at the sections as a crossword puzzle that must be filled out. I've done WTM style notebooks all along with my guys, and like Hunter said, it is a place to put what we have done, not fabricate papers just so we have something to put into each section. I do not have all those divisions--we just put the papers in chronologically (so all the coloring pages, narrations, bio pages, etc. for Sumer are there together in the order they were done.) Do a paper, stick it in order the notebook. Repeat all year. Very easy ;) My two oldest prefer to do their outlines in a separate composition notebook (those black and white speckle notebooks). We have very much enjoyed using the Dover or Bellerophon historical coloring books. NICE pictures that aren't at all babyish. We like the SL Timeline Book; it lives on the shelf next to the history books at our house. It is spiral bound, has nice thick pages, and has held up very well; my two oldest share the book and it has seen a lot of action over the past seven years. Or you could make your own book using the nice pages over at Guest Hollow. I didn't have enough in the budget for the two younger ones to get their own SL book this year, so I printed off the Guest Hollow pages and am very pleased with how nice it all looks. I prefer a book timeline; a wall or big project type timeline would turn into an unwieldy mess at my house. Just too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PachiSusan Posted July 21, 2013 Author Share Posted July 21, 2013 Thank you everyone!! Reading on my phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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