Video history

[displace]

If you were to have a history curriculum with little parental involvement (audiobooks, documentaries, DVDs) and only with parental discussion but not worksheets or much book reading, what would you recommend?

 

DS is 8, gifted, in third grade and likes history. In the future I plan on a more intense curriculum but for now I need it to be a passive subject on my part with little or no reading unless audiobooks are available. We have listed to SOTW 1-3 multiple times, Liberty's kids once, we have America the Story of US (not listened yet), How the states for their shapes vol 1 seen once, and Kid's animated history DVDs once. We tried horrible histories a bit online but it was pretty disjointed and a little crude, though I may reconsider as DS is older now.

 

I will likely play America Story of US and replay some of the things he's watched already, but we have a low tolerance for repetition.

 

Have I missed some obvious sources? I looked at Disney Presidents but I'm not sure if it's dry or interesting.

[....]

One year, I created a 20th Century History through documentaries/Youtube video course for my kids.  It took me weeks to put this together (which is why I will never do it again - Lol), but we basically watched real footage of events throughout the 20th century and discussed the videos.

[MistyMountain]

I let my ds who is into history watch history documentaries on Netflix not for kids as long as they are rated PG. The History of US has audiobooks. I had to ILL them.

[displace]

I just realized I should have placed this in curriculum, sorry ðŸ˜.

 

Great tip about the books History of US on audiobook. I may be joining Learning Ally soon so that may be on there too. Good point about Netflix. I don't usually look there because I think it may be too mature but maybe not, depending on the topic.

 

I also forgot I used to get audiobooks based on lists from Bookshark and Sonlight, so we'd randomly listen to them. That was good too.

[displace]

One year, I created a 20th Century History through documentaries/Youtube video course for my kids. It took me weeks to put this together (which is why I will never do it again - Lol), but we basically watched real footage of events throughout the 20th century and discussed the videos.

This is a good idea, and can be shortened to "main events" or something since I'm not doing formal stuff. We can call it YouTube day. :)

[....]

This is a good idea, and can be shortened to "main events" or something since I'm not doing formal stuff. We can call it YouTube day. :)

 

I could not believe what we were able to find on Youtube.  We watched footage of Ellis Island, WWI, footage of early aircraft, the Hindenburg, combat aerial footage of dog fights, documentaries of the Romanovs, footage from WWII...I mean, it was incredible.

 

I wasn't sure what age you were teaching, so my idea might not be such a good one for a younger kid.  I did this when my kids were maybe around 7th grade.  Also, I spent hours sifting through videos.   

[PeterPan]

If he hasn't read any COFAs (Childhood of Famous Americans series), you might do some as read alouds.  

 

See, here's my problem.  I'm right there with you with not wanting to force him to read to learn yet.  On the other hand, a lot of what we're talking about is bumping up, bumping up, to the point where they miss elements of age-appropriate discussion.  Like you realize you could just get him Great Courses from audible for a credit and be done with it, right?  They're really good, and he'll probably like them.  Thing is, there's just that hole of development we're not addressing.  I don't know, I just really like the discussions we're having while I read him COFAs.  Honey for a Child's Heart talks about that too, about not skipping children's literature, how there *is* value to it.  But yeah, if I could get the COFAs on audio that would be slick, lol.

 

BJU will probably put their online video courses on sale for $99 again for Christmas.  I've offered another level to my ds.  He enjoyed the science 2 and heritage 2 we did a couple years ago.  And he likes TC courses and history channel and...  

 

I'm sort of all of the above.  Once you get way off the path, you're rudderless anyway.  I mean, at that point you want interest-driven?  Right now, my ds is actually more interested in whys and topics.  He doesn't want to study the names of presidents; he's asking why questions about the electoral college and voting.  So it might be to scratch your ds' itch, you need to bump up to logic stage thought processes and resources.  He may be more ready to think about whys and make connections.  His dyslexia and dyslexic brain may be DRIVING those kinds of connections.  

 

I don't really have a slick answer for either of us though.  My current thinking is occasional exposure to cohesive spines and lots of interest-driven exposure with preferred modalities to topics he's interested in.  So lots of pieces and connecting them by occasionally going back to the spines.  Spine-driven is not the only way to learn.  

[MistyMountain]

Isn't Childhood of Famous Americans fiction? I like them and historical fiction definitely has its place. I do like to mix sources that are meant for children their age with older stuff that really feeds that higher level thinking. With history it can be hard though to make sure it is appropriate. My son does also want to know the whys and can make connections.

Edited November 13, 2016 by MistyMountain