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chronological history w/ more than 1 child?
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I’ve been turing this question over in my head and can’t seem to arrive at a logical answer. If I teach history chronologically (which makes the most sense to me) what happens when my second child(daughter) starts first grade and my son is farther down the history rotation? Do I just start my daughter in whatever history module my son is in? Not only will she will miss out on the beginnings of history (the ancients), but what about all the first grade material I would have that would fit ancient history but not the current topic? Seems like this approach would defeat the purpose of teaching chronologically for the the second child and cost me more money, as I’d have to buy additional first grade history materials.
If I start my daughter in first grade at age six, I will have a 3 year age difference between the two children, I could start her earlier I suppose, she tries so hard right now to keep up with him as it is – but I don’t know if that is really fair for her. Should I keep their history/geography separate so I can teach it chronologically for both kids? i’d rather not, but I can’t seem to come up with a better idea. My mom suggested making up my own (condensed) history rotation and starting again at the beginning with both kids when my daughter is in first grade. Which would work, but we’d be moving pretty fast through world history and then there’s all that planning I’d have to do. Perhaps I’m making this overly complicated, can anyone with multiple children straighten this out for me? Thank you!
You start your next child where the oldest is. As it is a rotation, they will eventually get the ancients stuff too. I will eventually have 4 kids homeschooling, so that is the main way I see it happening.
What is the first grade material you have that you figure won’t fit? Stuff from the rotations or other stuff you happen to have that you picked out???
Does the next child pick up history in context without the background information recieved from starting at the beginning with ancient history first?
In regards to the first grade material – it’s both, as far as the materials from the rotations, while I’d obviously be able to reuse the family books/spine when we got back to the ancients, the other first grade books I’d have bought (Boy of the Pyramids for example) wouldn’t be that useful if were currently on module 3…. does this make sense? I also have some personal favorites that aren’t great matches, but oh well – there is probably some way to fit them it as literature reading.
I do the same as suzukimom. Right now with 4 & 7 but next year baby comes and who knows where we will be in the Modules when he is in K. So if you have the scm books you get all the ideas and expectations for different ages. They will come around at some point so they will hit all 6 mods twice. What age they are at that time is not a big deal. Most of my friends who do not use SCM start out with a brief world history followed by American history which makes no sense to me, same with friend’s kids in school. Anything “extra” we have are just puzzles or coloring books or library books so it isn’t expensive to do have multiple age stuff on hand. Make sense?
Thanks -that helps! I see that I can minimize expenses from the previous post – probably my hang up with materials comes because I REALLY like history, I want to be able to use “everything” so to speak – obviously that won’t work!
But what I’m still trying to decide is if each child learning history chronologically from Creation is more important than doing what’s easier for me – combining them together as we go through the rotation. I understand that each child goes through all the time periods twice eventually, but what I don’t understand is if they really need to start at the beginning? So far the answers here seem to be no. Does anyone else have any thoughts?
I vote for keeping them together!
I have two dc that are 3.5 yrs apart in age (I will have them 4 yrs apart for grade level.) My ds is going into 1st grade next year and I have chosen to start him in Module 3 (Matthew-Acts and Ancient Rome). Young children (below ~3rd grade) usually have very weak concepts of time so I don’t feel that at that age you have to start at the very begining and teach straight through whether it is your oldest or youngest. I chose to start him at this module for several reasons. 1. We have been reading through the Old Testament this year so I really preferred New Testament next year, particularly the life of Christ. 2. I think he will enjoy a “light” look at the Romans this coming year and the Vikings/Early Explorers the following year while my dd is too young to really join in. Then when we hit American history in the 5th module my dd will be 5 and while she won’t be officially “doing school” I expect that she will pick up alot just by being present with us.
As far as the books go, most books can be used for a range of grades. So while you would probably want to invest in some new, higher level, more challenging, books you could probably reuse some of the younger books for an older child. For example one of the books in module 3 for the 1st-3rd grade range is recommended for a 3rd-7th grader in a history guide from another company.
Just my thoughts for you.
Yes, it is going to take a while (probably around grade 3 to 6) before the sense of time is really there. And yes, it is nice to see how everything fits in chronologically, but no matter what you do, your children are going to be getting bits and pieces, as the entire history of the entire world would be impossible to learn.
My understanding is that the schools doing Charlotte Mason during her lifetime would do history chronologically – on a cycle too. I’m not sure if it was a 4 year cycle, a 6 year cycle or what…. but children would always be coming in in the middle, and getting the earlier stuff when they were older. If it was a 6 year cycle, than only 1/6th (about) of the children would happen to get history totally in chronological order.
Also – a Book of Centuries (or a Timeline for younger students) help keep things straight…
I currently have a 6yo, a 4yo, an almost 2yo, and am expecting. So about every 2 years, I will have another student in our homeschool. I honestly can’t see trying to do 4 different points in history as well as other subjects that HAVE to be seperate.
That said – if you really want it to be chronological, there are other CM options out there. I would suggest AO as they keep the different ages seperate – but then they start in the middle of history as they feel that the Ancients have harder concepts and stranger beliefs etc to encounter. And they do American History seperate.
I use a 6 year cycle as outlined here on SCM and base it on my oldest who is 9. I also have a 6yo, almost 3yo, and a 4 month old. There is NO WAY that I could do 4 different periods of history at the same time. The children are capable of making those mental connections, esp. with the help of a BOC.
Personally, I started with AO, switched to HIFI and then found SCM and it was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to study periods together to foster communication between all of us on the same topic that different time periods wouldn’t allow.
Also, over the past year the Lord has been teaching me to simplify and having all of the kids on the same cycle is tremendous in helping me with this. It also helped me to realize that my kids will have gaps no matter what and that if they love learning and know how to find the information, they will be fine. Lastly, if your family experience is anything like mine, you may learn more in teaching through one cycle of history than you ever learned in high school and college – I have!
Many blessings on whatever path you choose,
Christie
Our family started in Module 5 since we had already covered quite a bit of Ancient Egypt and they did not want to hear about another pyramid, so, I let them choose and it was Early Modern Times. I love having them in the same time period, reading some of the same books, talking with the boys about the same people/places, etc. It is so much easier and far more interesting. For now we are reading the suggested books and will continue until I feel comfortable venturing out, and so far we are enjoying this method so much more than the other one’s we were using.
Currently I am reading the lower level books and my oldest just listens right along with my middle boy. We listened to the first audio suggested and are waiting for the next book to come in for my oldest. I may or may not have my middle boy listen in on the oldests list of books, but it won’t hurt if he did, we’ll see. I can tell already that I will be reading half of these books aloud and assigning the other half. Which is brilliant and easy!!
BTW: We were using the MOH and although I totally fell in love with the concept (and will keep the book for a resource) it did not have the same feel and was much more difficult than this method, imho. In that book you basically keep your kids in the same time period and have them do activities for their individual age/grade level, but it still did not have the same feel. Can’t quite explain it, maybe we’ll use some of the resources I’ve acquired in the future, we’ll see.
And my boys are 11, 7 and 4. No more on the way:)
Thank you all – I really do want to keep mine together for history as it will be SO much easier. I needed the reassurance that they will still learn history well without each one starting at the very beginning especially since I keep finding information online saying learning history chronologically is the best method. This has also made me realize that I’m going to have to balance my children’s learning needs with what is best for me as their teacher/mother. Don’t know why this didn’t sink in until now. Thank you for sharing what you each do with your families as examples, as this helped understand much better. Thanks again!
For me it took time to sink in for two reasons. One, I am a very organized, left brain type of person so it feels very “wrong” to start kid number two in the middle of history and not start from the beginning. Two, my friends who homeschool using other programs than SCM and friends whose kids are in private/public school all start with American/state history and world overview or combine all ancient. It feels like I am swimming against the stream so I question myself if this is really okay and even though my girls have no idea who the first president was they can write their names in heiroglyph, name nearly every country in Africa, and understand the difference b/w the gods of the Egyptians and the true God. That being said, we are committed to SC philosophy and the fabulous resources on SCM so I am trying to trust myself more and it is working wonderfully for us this far.
We tried starting in the *beginning* but that just didn’t work out exactly like I thought it would. My kids know that God created the heavens and the earth and that He is the Alpha and Omega. That is good enough for me. I am thoroughly enjoying Time Periods and by letting them choose the time in history to study they’re naturally more interested.
Someone (I think it was missingtheshire, Linda) that mentioned her background in history and that even she has gaps. I believe whole-heartedly that most ps kids have gaps, I know I have gaps and that’s just the way it’s going to be. Honestly, there is too much history within each place in time to get all of it anyway. I mean how much time do we all have here on the earth with our kids anyway? It would take more than a few life times to get it all. I want to enjoy this part of schooling my kids that will not break them for the future if it is not done chronologically. Other subjects are more critical starting from the beginning like reading, writing, and math. just my 2 cents
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