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Thoughts on studying ancient history with little ones
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I had never given much thought to it, but some dear friends of mine mentioned that for their families, they had decided to wait until their children were older to introduce ancient history. This was mostly because they felt that they had sensitive children who might be confused, frightened, or upset by certain topics in ancient history.
Like I said, I’d never really given it much thought, but after hearing that I wondered if it might be “dangerous” for my (rather sensitive) son to delve into this time period when he is so young. I was considering starting year 1 of Sonya’s guides next year which would include ancient Egypt. I imagined I would be careful with what we discussed, but am now wondering if I should rethink it altogether.
One of my friends said that she had friends who started with ancients for their first graders and later deeply regretted that they could not take back some of the information they had placed into their little one’s mind. I certainly do not want that to be the case for my own little one, of course.
If you’ve studied ancient history with young ones, would you please share your own experiences? And further, especially if you’ve used Sonya’s guide specifically. How did you find it handled those topics? Mummies, tombs, the afterlife, mythology and other gods, etc.
Thank you!
Teaching ancient history is new for us still. My DDs are ages 8, 6, and 3. We really enjoyed reading the Boy of the Pyramid–great mystery! We touched very lightly as does the book on mummies, afterlife, gods, etc. Just kept it short and matter of fact, i.e. the Egyptians believed their spirits would live on and would be buried with their things for the afterlife. Sadly they were wrong since they didn’t believe in the One True God. Their beliefs are based on superstitions.
We skipped over the stories of gods in the Famous Men of Greece, and just read the actual famous men, i.e. Socrates. I always reiterate EVERYTHING in Scripture happened, it IS a history book. We can trust His Word is truth always. But these stories about the Greeks we cannot know if they actually happened that way. The stories may have been changed.
We read in the bible people worshipped false gods, and I explain as the scriptures says that is is the imagination of man. They don’t believe in the One True God as Creator and worship the creation. It is all vain.
So with that said, I believe it is okay to say this civilization worshipped false gods, but not go into actual detail about the gods/goddesses because I believe that would confuse them.
I felt it was important to start with ancient history because I feel we need to start from the Beginning with Genesis. Joseph lived with the Egyptians, so it was neat to see what he would have experienced in that culture. He would been amongst their false gods and rituals but kept His faith in God.
HTH?
Tara
I opted to wait on ancient history. We’re using TruthQuest American History for Young Students. One of my reasons was what you stated. I believe they will get so much more out of it if we wait and can look with discernment at those civilizations. Another reason was that I operate a living books homeschool library. There are SO many wonderful living books for young children set during America’s history. I didn’t want my boys to miss those. So I guess that’s kind of a selfish reason. But we’re enjoying them.
I do not have sensitive children, but we have, from little on, introduced them gently to many topics, including people of other religions, evolution, abortion, death, worshipping idols (even toys and money), puberty (and my oldest is only 8 – she has the working knowledge of probably a 10 year old, perhaps – minus the graphic images), and the like. I can’t say if it’s because we introduced them so early to these not-so-nice topics that they aren’t sensitive, or it’s just the way they are built. But from my viewpoint, thinking back to my own childhood and what I’ve seen with other children/my friends/etc, it seems that the longer you wait to teach them these topics (gently at first, of course), the more shocked they will be when they find out about the “real world.” The real world is not a nice place, but they need to know what’s out there, in the safety and comfort of home with people who love them and want to protect them, before they just get out there and are hit with the real world *from* the real world, kwim? My poor hubby, though a missionary’s son surrounded by heathen superstitions, etc, was absolutely shocked when he got to college (a Christian college from the same denomination) and found out what the world is really like. 🙁 He and I really want to instill in our kids what others believe, why they believe it, and why it’s not correct.
We are doing Ancient Egypt right now, and we just read “Pyramid.” The girls LOVED it. We “built” “pyramids” out of tables and chairs sometimes to visualize what they were doing, or we drew pictures of pyramids, and we did discuss what kinds of gods the Egyptians worshipped and what they thought happened to them after death. We kept it all surrounded by God and the Truth of His Word, and they were fine with it. In fact, they laughed at some of the strange ideas the Egyptians had, such as worshipping the sun or cats.
But then again, like I said, my kids aren’t sensitive in the least.Hope some of this helps,
Sara 🙂
I think it depends on the child. I have 2 very different children and one had issues with the ancients while one did not. It was my younger, more sensative one who was upset and scared of the stories. We did do module one and only touched the Egyptian theme lightly. They both really like Boy of the Pyramids, but we did not go into detail otherwise. Then we did module 5 books and enjoyed a year of American history.
Now that they are a couple of years older (8 & 10) we are starting over again with the ancients. I am using Story of the World and they are really loving it now. I chose Story of the World because we already have so much Bible study in our days that using the SCM plan made for too much Bible…and that is possible. 🙂 We have our Scripture Memory System going, Bible Cards to memorize for Sunday School, Bible Bowl chapters to study for a monthly competition, personal Bible reading, and Family Devo on Thursday nights. So when I threw in SCM’s Bible study along side history, it was just too much.
So anyway, I would say that age, personality, Biblical knowledge, and how you as a parent present the lessons all play a part in which decision you make.
well here is a question to piggyback on this one: i was planning on module 1 next year as we have done a whole lot of american history, but nothing else, really. actually, i was planning to do mod 1 as our bible curriculum, doing it lightly, more focus on Bible, and concurrently do the middle ages mod as history. next year, i will have an 8th grade dd, a 4th grade ds, a 1st grade dd, and one pre-k & one toddler. i am sure the two littlest will not pay a whole heck of a lot of attention, honestly. they are happy to play nearby or listen to the occasional good read aloud (for a few minutes, anyway!) my dd, who is in K now, and is 6, might be a little sensitive, but i think that the older two might be ok. Should i be concerned about the younger kids? will this just be too much? But i just don’t know how else to get in the history for my oldest daughter before she graduates HS! do i leave my oldest to do her own work, and then work “family style” with the other 4 kids? It’s really hard to have a 4.5year gap between my oldest two students, especially when they are VERY different learners and personalities. sigh.
thanking you dear ladies in advance…
amy
A few questions DH & I asked ourselves while prayerfully considering which time period would best fit our younger dc (thanks to Michelle Miller of Truthquest History) –
“Does my (American) child have a firm grounding in the spiritual lessons revealed by American history?” This is more than just knowing the chronological flow and key characters. These issues are not only foundational, they are also a more ‘positive’ way to first explore the spiritual underpinnings of God’s leading role in human history.
“Is my child ready to tackle the deeper and more complex issues of world history? Is he/she ready to honestly evaluate pagan culures and see where their beliefs drove their culture? Is he/she ready to extrapolate those lessons to modern culture?”
“Does my (American) child need a more relaxed learning experience this year which affords lots of opportunities for ‘living’ history, such as dressing up and play-acting as Pilgrims, Indians, soldiers, woodsmen, and pioneers? Has he/she yet had an opportunity to enjoy the special children’s literature on these fascinating topics meant just for younger children?”
Something that occurs to me is that my intention (as years go by and our family hopefully grows) is to always have our whole family studying the same period in history. Which means that even if I choose something different for these particular children, there will simply be new young children when we cycle back around again and eventually do hit ancient history.
We did mod 1 with a 4 and 7 year old and are on mod 2 now with the girls at 5 and 8. The SCM guides allow so much flexibility that you could easily use other books for the dates that discussed topics that might be sensitive for your family. They also note when it would be more appropriate to use an alternative like the Vos Childrens’ Bible for Biblical stories that would be about more mature topics. Like you said, if you keep the kids together, eventually new children would hop in at a young age anyway. As far as American history being less complex or more relaxed, there are living books for young children that address ancient cultures in less complex and more relaxed ways as well. Children’s books on American History do leave out the gory details of our countries beginnings and are therefore more appropriate but like I said, this can be true of children’s books regarding ancients as well. I do not think you can really make a mistake in which time period you choose as long as you are reviewing the material ahead of time and using only the information you feel is appropriate for your family. It is very important to me that my American children (half adopted internationally) have a world view that I prayerfully shape. Considering American History is only a few hundred years old and world history is a few thousand, I want to be sure their history knowledge reflects that, especially since our faith is rooted in the world of ancient history.
We do History/Bible as a family. It has not been a problem (3 yrs homeschooling).
This works both ways too. My older children hear things that aren’t so mature…whichhelps to fill in some gaps that they maybe didn’t understand. And, the younger children hear things that are maybe a little too mature. I feel that about the time they start paying more attention to detail, and asking questions, is when they’re ready to hear some answers. So far, this has come at different stages for each of my children.
*I do, however, save some of the more mature things for my older children to read independently.
Kathi
We are doing Ancient Egypt this year with a 1st, 2nd, and 4th grader. There has not been a single thing that has made me uncomfortable to introduce. My kids have a sound foundation of Biblical knowledge and our look into ancient Egypt is always through a biblical lens. Some of the books drag too long for the youngest one, and she is still struggling with narration, but she gets the gist. Though we did watch a video on King Tut’s excavation this week, and the mummy grossed her out…so I didnt make her watch (And this isnt on the module list…just happened to be something we caught on tv)
But then again, like I said, my kids aren’t sensitive in the least.
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