This is the third post in the Virtual Curriculum Fair 2016. This week's topic is Exploring Our World: Social Studies and more Science. This year the Virtual Curriculum Fair is hosted by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World, Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses and Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset.
I am writing about our cake and icing method for studying history although it can also be used for other subjects.
We are a history loving family. My youngest daughter particularly enjoys history so enlarging the depth and scope of history learning has been a pleasure. The way that we have done this is putting the icing on the cake. The regular history curriculum that we use is the cake and the extras are the icing.
The current cake is the Veritas Press Self-paced Middle Ages. We previously used the Veritas Press Self-Paced Greeks, Romans and New Testament history. I have written about this curriculum before and this is something that we have really enjoyed using. Sadly, though the next year, on the Veritas course becomes more US based. We gave Younger Daughter the option of continuing with Veritas or going onto more world-wide history with Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer and she decided to go for the latter so we are due to start volume 3: Early Modern Times when we complete this self paced course.
To make the icing, I list each week's work from the Self-Paced course. This is the week's flash card title. I plan to list the chapters from Story of the World. The easiest thing is to write a table in Word with the title, suggestions from the literature selections for that week; other books we wanted to add and other activities. I try to do this before we start the course but continue adding as long as we are using that particular scheme.
In order to find the additional books, I use
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We are a history loving family. My youngest daughter particularly enjoys history so enlarging the depth and scope of history learning has been a pleasure. The way that we have done this is putting the icing on the cake. The regular history curriculum that we use is the cake and the extras are the icing.
The current cake is the Veritas Press Self-paced Middle Ages. We previously used the Veritas Press Self-Paced Greeks, Romans and New Testament history. I have written about this curriculum before and this is something that we have really enjoyed using. Sadly, though the next year, on the Veritas course becomes more US based. We gave Younger Daughter the option of continuing with Veritas or going onto more world-wide history with Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer and she decided to go for the latter so we are due to start volume 3: Early Modern Times when we complete this self paced course.
To make the icing, I list each week's work from the Self-Paced course. This is the week's flash card title. I plan to list the chapters from Story of the World. The easiest thing is to write a table in Word with the title, suggestions from the literature selections for that week; other books we wanted to add and other activities. I try to do this before we start the course but continue adding as long as we are using that particular scheme.
In order to find the additional books, I use
- the Veritas self paced literature suggestions
- other suggestions from the Veritas brochure
- books that are already on our shelves- we have a large collection of Ladybird history books which have been especially useful.
- suggestions from Story of the World activity book
- books from the local library
In order to find additional activities, I use
- Veritas self-paced additional ideas
- Story of the World activity board
- my history Pinterest board
- local activities and sites.
Helpful sites for finding activities and sites, in are
Whilst we try to keep the backbone of the history to its rightful week, some of the extras, particularly trips, can get displaced a week or so to fit in with other commitments. Also, if we are busy or someone is unwell, then these are the parts of our planning which can be dropped or postponed.
In addition, we take advantage of seasonal events which may not fit into the current history quite so well. These include
In addition, we take advantage of seasonal events which may not fit into the current history quite so well. These include
- a Young Archaeologist club
- Shakespeare week
- reenactments
I am always looking for more ideas. Please let me know about how you add to your history curriculum
f you enjoyed this post you may like to follow Delivering Grace by Google Friend Connect, G+,Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or e-mail.
Love your ideas. I love history too and try to add some icing ;) We do museum visits, find documentaries to watch, and read books on the subject.
ReplyDeleteYou're doing such a great job in your home schooling! That would be amazing to be studying castles in the land where the history occurred! ...I guess I get to study the American Revolution and the Civil War in the land where they occurred, but not the really old history. Loved your ideas.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Yes, having so much old history around is a privilege.
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