Wednesday, April 20, 2011

History - Family Rotation



We will now be doing history in a 5 year, Family rotation. I think that this will allow some flexibility, while still allowing a fair time for each time period. This means each student will go through the rotation twice, with 2 other years left.

These 2 years can be used in a flexible way...

a) Spend the first couple of years doing light history (ie, 50 famous stories, A Pioneer Story, story picture books) - a good option for the oldest child

b) Do whatever period of the rotation an extra time. - a good option for middle children

c) spend the last couple of years focusing on a period of history the child wants - a good option for youngest child.

d) graduate a couple of years early (if ready on other subjects)

e) Spend the last couple of years focusing on a period of history required in High School by the government

f) don't do history for a couple of years (grades 1 or 2, or grades 11 and 12) to allow time for other subjects/interests

g) combine the above options (ie, 1 year at one end... 1 year at the other...)

This post just has an overview. There will be more detailed posts later.


Pre-rotation (optional)
50 Famous Stories
A Pioneer Story - Greenwood
other favorites

Note - similar time frames from the Synge history books are an option if you don't own A Child's History of the World.

Ancients

A Child's History of the World (ch 1-41) - Hillyer OR 
no Canadian History... instead do Canadian Geography (spine not chosen)

Middle Ages
(~500 to ~1453)

A Child's History of the World (ch 42-60) 
The Story of Canada (ch 1-2) - Lunn & Moore OR My First History of Canada (ch 1-2) - Dickie

Rotation 3
(1453 to ~1800)

A Child's History of the World (ch 61-77) 
The Story of Canada (ch 3-part of 4) OR My First History of Canada (ch 2-13)

Rotation 4
(1800-1919)

A Child's History of the World (ch 78-84) 
The Story of Canada (rest of ch 4 to part of ch 9) OR My First History of Canada (14-19)

Rotation 5
(1920 to present)

A Child's History of the World (ch 85-91)
The Story of Canada (rest of book) OR My First History of Canada (20-21)

Older Students, (generally through their 2nd time through the rotation) might also use "The Beacon Lights of History" by John Lord like a spine. As I don't have any students at this stage yet, I'm not working out the readings... but I am noting it here so I don't forget it!

2 comments:

  1. Heather, I really like your idea of having a 'pre-rotation' option before staring into the different time periods. I've been working on setting up Year 1 for my oldest and didn't want to miss books like 50 Famous Stories, but it seemed a bit too much on top of Synge or Hillyer. Thanks for giving me something to think about.

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  2. Well, I have to give credit to that idea from Old Fashioned Education. Not that they do a rotation, but they do 2 years of a kind of general history for Year 1 and Year 2... and then do a 5 year run through history, and then another 5 year run through history.

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