Homeschooler Savvy

Secrets of the Pharaohs...History comes alive

We are studying Ancient Egypt at the moment (using The Story of the World as posted about earlier).  Needless to say we had to have the obligatory trip to the library to immerse ourselves in Ancient Egypt.  A number of the references indicated videos and dvd's on Egypt.  We have just watched the PBS special "Secrets of the Pharaohs" and I highly recommend it.  It is split up into about 15 half hour mini series, or you can do as we did, and just watch it in two sittings.

The added bonus?  They have a website with lots of cool links.  A timeline that matches what you have watched, complete with pictures, dates and maps....perfect for the kids to construct their own timeline.  This is a great way to reinforce the dates and sequence of events that occured in this civilisation.  They also have a place where you can explore King Tut's tomb, explore a 3d version of Khufu's tomb and a site on how mummies are made.

Got an older child interested in scientific research on these archeological finds?  They also have a link on the mass spectrometry, taking DNA from mummies and deciphering ancient diseases...did King Tut not eat all his veges, or was he murdered by a blow to his head?

This is a very painless way to have history come alive, trust us! 

Aussie Kim and Louisiana Sue

History On Tape

 When is history irresistible?  When The Story of the World is on CD and the child is in control of the CD player.  Aussie Kim showed up with a CD for my Tiger a couple of weeks ago and he hasn't stopped listening to it since. I don't have to remind him to complete his history now. HE REMINDS ME! This CD has brought him hours of listening pleasure (and me, his mother, HOURS of blissful silence - which can not be underrated!).

Aussie Kim here - I have used this CD in our many drives to our afternoon activities, the downside is that the kids complain when we stop the CD (so we can keep up with map, timeline and biographies for the related chapters).  It is a major hit with both my 9 year old boy and 11 year old daughter.  It is much more fun than Radio Disney for me....

We both highly recommend these CDs as a history companion!  Below is a photo of the Ancient Times Volume. It is the first in a series of four that take the child from Ancient History to the Modern Era.

Reading My Kids' Books: Caesar's Gallic War by Olivia Coolidge

I loved it!  This book is one of those we are going to read for our study of the Ancients (for history, geography and literature) this year.  Apparently, when Caesar was leading his legions into battle with the Galls (58-51 BC), he wrote down what was going on (Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War).  This is new to me, but what an amazing historical document for historians to have!  This book takes Caesar's writings and retells the stories from the point of view of a young officer in his army and thus is a mix of fiction and facts. It really gives you an appreciation of what it was like to live in those days, from both the Roman and Gallic viewpoint.

 This woman has brought the Gallic wars alive for me. I think young good readers (from about 9 on?) would be able to handle this book.  However, it would probably be more completely understood if I read it to them and we marked a map of Europe where the action was going on. Warning: there are lots of long Roman names that contain -th or end in -us...

Meet Me In Mesopotamia

Another Classical Homeschooler I know, Hayley at mom and kids at home, found the the neatest websites for studying ancient history.

The British Museum has a super site all about Mesopotamia. Learn about early astronomers in Babylon. Explore the ancient palaces of Assyria. Don't know what a Sumerian Ziggurat is? Find out. This website is a fantastic supplemental source for the study of ancient history. Thanks, Hayley!

Oh, and if you're looking for a kid friendly version of the Epic of Gilgamesh (and really, who isn't?), read this post.

I'm off to tango on the Tigres!

Sue

The Classical High Schooler

Aussie Kim recently wrote about the classical approach to education as a homeschooling option. I thought you might like to know a little bit about how this works in our homeschool.

I roughly follow the curriculum outlined in The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, Revised and Updated Editionby Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. (By the way, if you haven't read it yet, please do. Please. For me.) When I first started homeschooling, I wondered around aimlessly without a thought at all about where we were going. I had no homeschooling direction. So, I started reading homeschooling books. I read lots of homeschooling books. This is the book in which I found my direction.

The Classical Education described in The Well-Trained Mind divides the twelve grades into three stages. It just so happens that this year, for one year only, I have a child in each stage. How about that? Since the this whole high school thing is starting to wear me down (just kidding, I love this stuff!), I thought I would start with my oldest and show you what a typical day looks like for us. Being a something of a geek, I have color coded it for you. If you can't read it - click on it and get the full picture.

I know this looks very regimented, and for some of you it may be a little to structured. Believe me, there are days when we chuck it all and go to the zoo. However, for the record, my children have requested the structure. They like the structure. I've tried to be less structured with them, and all I've gotten are complaints. (Their Father's DNA was highly dominant.) I am not by nature a structured creature, but I am a reed - I can bend.

Now, about the schedule...Sal is in what's termed the Rhetoric Stage of his education. During this year, according to the authors, "the student learns to express herself with fluency, grace, elegance, and persuasiveness." (Like, uh, right. Um, what they said.) The focus is on developing the student's ability to express his or herself both verbally or through written work. This is new territory for us. I'll let you know how it goes.

As in earlier stages, reading and history are combined through the study of Great Books (classical literature) in sequential order. In other words, you don't chop history and literature up into segments (such as British Lit., American Lit., American  History),  but rather you study them in order that they occurred or were written. Got it? Therefore, World War II would never be studied before the Crusades, nor would  Thomas Paine's Common Sense be read before The Odyssey. History happened in order, and should be studied likewise.

The study of Koine Greek (biblical Greek) is not necessarily recommended, but hey, free lessons! Enough said.

Korean Cultural Studies won't be found in the book, either. However, Sal will be traveling with my parents to South Korea in the fall, and I didn't think we should waste this opportunity to learn everything we can about the country beforehand. He is also studying Hangul (the Korean alphabet). When he returns from his trip, it's back to studying Japanese.

The rest of the schedule is pretty typical of an American high school education, although the science courses are not taught with typical textbooks, but rather through memorization of important facts and through scientific exploration (i.e. blowing up the kitchen - still kidding!).

What else can I tell you? It's all in the book. Don't be intimidated by the copious amount of information in it. Take in bite size pieces, beginning with your child's level.

Next time, I'll show you my middle schoolers schedule. She's in the Logic Stage.

An eleven-year-old female in the Logic Stage. A mother can hope.

Fourth of July reading

There's a neat post I came across over at SheiaOMalley.com.  Did y'all know that both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the fourth of July 4th 1826?  Well, you say, what's significant about that date?  It was the 50th anniversary of the first Independance day.....Ooooohhh.  

For more reading on this topic here are a couple of books by the same author which I loved, and which will give you amazing insight into how tenuous the beginning of this nation really was.  Happy 4th of July!

Cool Map of the States

Wikipedia has a really neat map that will show you the order in which the States joined the Union!

Cultural Education - AUSTRALIA DAY

Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We've golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea:
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history's page let every stage
Advance Australia fair,
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.

This photo is courtesy Flicker gadgetgirl - Australia Day 2005, Sydney Harbour.

What's going on here? I burst into song, the Australian National Anthem that is.  OK, the truth, I know the first verse and the first two lines of the second verse and the last two lines.  But I can sure hum the inbetween bits well...Haven't heard it before? Here are some fellows who CAN sing it right..

Saturday (January 26th) was Australia Day, the day we Australians' celebrate the claiming of Australia for Great Britian back in 1788 by Captain James Cook.  Two days later the French sailed into Botany Bay, who knows, but for a couple of storms at sea we could be speaking French!  The Aboriginies were convieniently overlooked when the claim on the land was made, their reference to Australia Day as Invasion Day has meant that the celebrations are now more focused on celebrating Australia as we are now, rather than what happened on this date 220 years ago).

In Australia, this day is a public holiday, except if it falls on a weekend, then we make it a long weekend.  What is the choice activity for Australia Day?  Well, the Prime Minister (equivalent to President) gives a short address and announces the Australian of the Year etc.  Remember we are talking Southern Hemisphere, so for the vast majority of the population think sunshine. That is: beach, pool, barbie (BBQ), and in the Australian tradition, one or many beers.  I was on the banks of Sydney Harbor with a bunch of friends the whole day for the bicentennial celebration - it was an amazing sight I will never forget. There was a fleet of tall ships, some of which had sailed all the way from England.  Anyone who had a boat was on the harbor.  The fireworks seemed to go on forever that evening. That was, OH MY GOSH....20 years ago in 1988.  OK, moving right along, the unofficial Australian Anthem: Waltzing Matilda....with explanations of Australian terms and sung by Rolf Harris (famous Aussie singer/songwriter)....

Here is another of the unofficial anthems of Australia, from a car ad from the 70's.

Football, meatpies, kangaroos and holden cars..............

Happy Australia Day.

History At My House: World War I

At our house, we use a total emersion approach to teaching history. We live it, breath it and eat it. It infiltrates large portions of our day to day lives. I wrote several posts on our Civil War studies last fall over at Life On The Planet. I won't rehash them here, but you are welcomed to read them.

I thought it would be fun to give you a running commentary on what it means to study a period in history at our house. I tell you what we did, what worked and what didn't. Interested? Great, stay tuned.

LA Sue

*Thanks to Aussie Kim for doing the Lion's share of posting over the holidays. She's so groovy, and she finds the neatest sites!

Making your own curriculum on a different country

Want to teach your kids about another country?  After going through a few years of history-geography curriculums with Sonlight, and having looked through a number of plan B curriculums, I am beginning to get the hang of this.  It's not anywhere near as complex as you would initially think.

After you pick the country and time period, then you need to do a bit of background research.  I would suggest skimming through an encyclopaedia (see earlier post on using encyclopaedia's on CD); and an expedition to the library and choosing some really cool picture books.....Hang on, no need for you to expend one bead of sweat on this project.  Pass it directly on to the kids (ok, perhaps you may need to guide them through this part, a function of their age and reading ability!)  Here goes: "What are the most interesting things you can tell me about country Auszebritica*?  (*fictional name!)  Send them off into the wilderness of the library.

So, now you have relinquished yourself of the job of researcher, perhaps all that is left are the deep and meaningful questions you could pose to your children to inspire them to do this research.  Once again, this is something you could delegate to them as well....(eg: What type of questions could I ask which would reveal the most about this country/culture/time period?)

Social Studies questions: "How long has this country been an organized community?  Has it had different types of governments?  Does the population follow a particular religion or a moral code?  Do they have a particular type of art or music style?  Has there been any big population changes (diseases, wars, immigrations)?  Who are these people's heroes?  What is their food like?"  (NOTE: cook some of it - this is a major attraction within our geography lessons!)

Geography, by far the most fun we have had is with Google Earth.  Get them to fly to the country in question.  "Let's have a look here....where are most of the towns?  Does it look like a good infrastructure (roads, rail, airports...)?  Is most of the country jungle, farming or cities?  How long do the rivers look?  Is the land flat or mountainous?  How far (and in what direction) is this country from the equator?"  This last questions indicates it's climate and what season it is now.

The Sonlight curriculum for Core 5, which is about countries in the "East" (a relative term if I've ever seen one!), guides you where to look in the encyclopaedia for answers to workbook like questions.  This is to help reinforce what they have read.  But the best part about their curriculums is that they supply a number of novels (mainly written from the perspective of children, typically Award winning books) which relate to the country-time period being studied.  It is obvious to me that my kids learn WAY more from this than from listening to any dry facts.  If you can do this for a history-geography program you will help it come alive!

One thing we do on a regular basis is look through a book called Material World: A Global Family PortraitMaterial World.  I have found it really helps the kids with a reality check on how lucky they are. 

Aussie Kim