Yes, I could post something original, but it is March Break here, and I got to thinking that since our regular routine is gone, I may just as well expose you to someone else's brilliance, too! The tip of the day, today, comes from The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise.
do a double page spread
Sound simple? Know what? It truly is! I typically read this "wise" manual each year before I plan what I would like to teach and what curriculum I may want to add to our shelves. I stumbled upon their method of teaching history a couple of years ago and just love it. The recommended text is The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia; an excellent resource at a reasonable price. Here's how we go about it.
Monday: Time to snuggle up together on the couch, boys on either side of me, while I read out loud the double page spread. The boys are listening intently, the Ruth Beechick way of course, picking up the main facts one paragraph at a time. I have them record, in point form, the essentials ... including as much information as needed to help them recall the time period, and we add dates to our timeline.
Wednesday: This is the day the boys really look forward to this day that we affectionately call "fun report day". We do a short report on whatever caught their interest from the reading. It can be as simple as sketching a Celtic cross or detailed as researching a different language, like minuscule.
Try your hand at notebooking ... you may find you enjoy it as much as we do... you'll definitely feel "Wiser".
Kristina Campbell is a homeschooling Mom of two boys, ages 12 and 10. She has a B.A. in English, loves to write music and create art with her husband of thirteen years. She has published some of her poetry and has just finished a study guide for the novel Cheaper by the Dozen. You can visit her at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/onfire
Related Tags: homeschool, tip, Ruth Beechick, history, notebooking, Susan Wise Bauer, Jessie Wise
Comments
I love this way of doing history!
I used this way for several years with my son, and was VERY pleased with it! (TWTM is a great book for getting ideas from.)
I used the (now oop) "Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World" along with "Streams of Civilization" (both volumes), since the latter was written from a Christian point of view. I made a chart so that what my son was reading in the Kingfisher corresponded with the SoC volume.
I started this when he was a bit older, and for the first two years or so had him write a sentence for each paragraph, then for the remaining years he was doing this, had him write an outline for each page (one 2-page spread a week, I believe) in the Kingfisher. (The SoC was used as supplemental reading.)
Anyway, wanted to "plug" this way of doing history! We really enjoyed it!
In Him,
Donna C
Author of "Homeschooling Only One"
