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History: chronological or not?
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Hi, I just found AO last night and they suggest Ancients last. And then I read that some start with Mod 5 on SCM. I know we can start with whatever we choose, I’m just wondering why not chronological like CM used? Any input would be helpful.
Lots of people choose to teach American history to their children first – there are lots of great resources for younger kids out there. It won’t really matter where you start, especially if you are doing some kind of Book of Centuries or timeline to help “picture” where everything fits together. =)
We spent some time in the ancients using a program that we ended up not caring for. I allowed my kids to choose from the SCM modules and since they wanted to get as far away from the ancients as posssible, we chose mod.5. It’s been a very good (great!) two years and now we’re ready to go back to the ancients and probably just go straight through the modules. This will be our first year using the SCM guides for history, so I’m super excited to get started (we have a bit more time).
All of my dc have timelines (their own creations) and seem to have a pretty good idea of where people/events fit, especially my oldest.
HTH
My understanding (and it might be wrong) is that all the children in a “form” at a CM school (I think about a 3 grade range) were doing the same period of history… so if the form was doing the middle ages – the child that was in their first year of a form would start their history in the middle ages.
So really, it is like doing the history modules here. You do them in chronological order, but the kids start wherever you are in history when they get to the age to start school. So some might start at creation, others in the middle ages, others in modern, etc….
so it really doesn’t matter where you decide to start your first year….
I think maybe one of the reasons people start with American history is that there are so many great rescources. It’s easier for a young child to relate to something “closer to home”. Most people can probably plan field trips easily in thier own home-town. It also seems to make sense for people who want to teach American Geography first — my town, my state, my country. Another reason they could choose to study out of order is that they want to end up in a certain place — especially could be the case if the child(ren) are older and need to have American History for a HS credit.
I think Ancient history is a little more abstract for younger children. Middle School and high school students will get more out of these eras, which is why they are repeated. When I was in HS here in Canada we had to study Canadian History in the first year, and American History in the second. Ancient & Middle ages was taught as electives in grade 11 and 12.
I chose not to start a Mod this past year with my boys. We’ve been learning Canadian Geography and reading some Canadian lit. We were loaned Pioneer Story by a homeschooling friend and for some reason the boys like it, so we are continuing to read from it a couple times a week. Come September our boys will be in 6th and 3rd. We will start Mod 1 and hope to finish at least part of Mod 2 before the end of the year. A five year cycle will allow my younger son to repeat the cycle twice and allow my older ds to revisit ancients in 11 and 12. Both would get mod 5 & 6 at the highschool level, which is what I want.
Okay, this may sound odd, but I will explain how we chose to order the modules.
4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3
My reasoning: I only have two children left to Homeschool. Well, three, but one will be a senior and is only doing a few things with us next year. The rest for her is a hodge lodge. So, I have a 12yos and 6yod who will complete their Homeschool years with the SCM history modules. Our youngest son is getting older, so I wanted him to study the middle ages while he could still have a lot of fun with that time period. Works out nice because he will graduate after having three years in a row studying the Bible. Our youngest daughter will study along with him the first cycle through the modules, going into junior high after three years of Bible. Then, will graduate by the same order her brother will have with the Bible solidly under her belt.
Just one way to do it. Our older three children have followed various historical time frame plans. Sometimes we studied things in chronological order. Other times we did unit studies of a particular family interest even if it went out of order. Living books along with a timeline (book of centuries) seem to make sense whether they are studied in chronological order, or not.
If a family begins SCM modules 1-6 in order and continues having children, each child will begin at a different point in history anyway due to the family style learning plan.
Hth,
Becca<><
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