Truth Questers?

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  • August 30, 2012 at 11:36 pm
    HeidiS
    Participant

    I am curious about the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the way you integrate the TQ commentaries into a CM lifestyle? I know the commentaries make for great discussion and jumping points for reading, but how does it look in a day to day scenario? Do you do TQ one day, read from a spine the next, let the kids do all the readings themselves? I have just one dd and her friend who will be with us 1 or 2 days/week. My plan is to read TQ on day one, let them find some good reading on day 2 and then read from a spine on day 3. Day 4 will be days to do their binder builder/notebook pages and map work. This is in addition to the novels they will have ongoing. I am thinking since I have the Famous Men book on audio they could listen to that as well, perhaps while doing their notebooking. Too much? Oh, the girls are middle schoolers, 8/9 gr but haven’t done much written narrations, mostly oral. Love to hear how history breaks down in your days!

    August 31, 2012 at 12:09 am
    momto2blessings
    Participant

    For Jr. Hi, I’m mainly using the SCM handbook and I’ve penciled in when to read complementary TQ commentary, and I penciled in TQ movie selections at appropriate times. Planning this year was so breezy:)  I read the commentary and spines, kids read the history readers independently. In h.s., I plan to add more of the TQ selections so will either use the SCM guide just for bible and geography, or may also use SCM’s history outline and just add in some TQ ‘don’t miss’ books. Not sure yet…have a few years:) 

    It may work well for you to wing it if you have avid readers, but for me it was difficult. When we did straight TQ we got to the end of the year and I felt like I had to cram to try and fit books in to finish out our topics…so many great sounding books….it was difficult for me to narrow!  Just what works here:) Gina

    August 31, 2012 at 12:03 pm
    jeaninpa
    Participant

    Heidi,

    I think your schedule looks great and very doable. We’re doing TQ Middle Ages this year.  Initially I was planning to do it in one semester and do Renaissance and Reformation the second semester, but there are so many great books that I’m going to stretch it out. My children are 7,8, 11, 13 and 14.  We’re using Story of the World, Famous Men, and Story of the Middle Ages (Guerber/Miller) as spines and adding in lots of extra reading and Map Trek.  This is how our history week looks:  

    Monday — We read TQ commentary and have discussion with all ages.  Then I read Story of the World to the youngest three and they often do some coloring while they listen.  Oldest two read Story of the Middle Ages independently and later come to me with an oral narration.  Eleven year old begins reading Famous Men and also brings an oral narration.

    Tuesday — same as Monday except a short written narration is required for oldest three.

    Wednesday — oldest three finish up any required reading (11 year old usually does one chapter in Famous Men/week; 13 and 14 year old usually do two chapters of SOMA, ocassionally it stretches to five chapters, but then we reduce the amount of extra reading) On Wednesdays we’re usually done with spine reading and work on mapwork all together.

    Thursday — timelines with 11, 13 and 14. All five children read from TQ selected literature independently.

    Friday — no history unless we haven’t finished something.

    We always have at least one family read-aloud going from the TQ list.  I have at least 60 books that I’ve scheduled in at different reading levels.  Some of my kids will only read maybe five of them and then listen in to the family read aloud, one of my kids will read all 60 and beg for more.  I like that TQ gives me so many options for that.  We did the lapbooks from AJTL last year and loved it — scheduled one day a week for that.  This year I feel like we need to focus more on some other subjects so haven’t added the lapbooks

    I hope this is helpful to you and that you are enjoying your history journey!

    Jean

     

    August 31, 2012 at 12:05 pm
    momto2blessings
    Participant

    Thanks for sharing, Jean….I’ve wondered a bit how we would tackle this in h.s.  You make is sounds so easy:)  I don’t generally do as well w/o a detailed plan to follow, but maybe there’s hope for me!  Thanks:) Gina

    August 31, 2012 at 12:37 pm
    jeaninpa
    Participant

    Gina,

    I love to plan!  It is one of my favorite things.  Follow-through, where I actually have to deal with my children who have plans other than mine, is not always as easy as it sounds!!  I have my schedules for Middle Ages and Renaissance and Reformation posted in the files section of the TQ yahoo group if you’d like to check them out. They’re in Open Office, so you can take them and modify with books that you choose, although I need to go back and change them there because I’ve decided to stretch both of them out over a year.  If you just ignore the week numbers, they’re fine, but they do cover K-12, so they’re loaded!  

    And, by the way, thanks for spelling ‘complementary’ correctly.  Smile  One of my pet-peeves.

    Jean

     

    August 31, 2012 at 2:41 pm
    momto2blessings
    Participant

    Thanks, Jean! I never think to check their files…really need to do that next time I’m planning.  Thanks for the reminder (and the compliment on complement:)  Blessings, Gina

    August 31, 2012 at 5:02 pm
    HeidiS
    Participant

    Thanks Jean! I have been looking at your plans for weeks now 😉 I was wondering how in the heck you would fit both eras into one year- I agree with the choice to stretch it out. I want to get my dd thinking not just about the past but how it affects her and her future and how the past affected the history of our faith…but I also want her to have time to read all these good books! I have Story of the Worls, Famous Men of Middle Ages, Oxford History of Middle Ages, Story of Liberty as well as Our Island Story and Our Empire Story ( going to use a few chpts from that for our Cnd History) I guess I feel a bit ‘spined’ out, so to speak, and challenged to fit in other subjects as well. How long do you find yourselves spending each day on history/geography? I have the great notebook pages that my dd can type right into on the computer which will make her happy but I want to do the binder stuff as well. She is 12, 13 in November..its weird how I managed and fit in 3 or 4 at a time but now that I am down to 1 I am struggling…

     

    September 1, 2012 at 1:43 am
    jeaninpa
    Participant

    Heidi,

    I really wanted to cover them both in one year, but there was just too much, so I put the schedule together and thought we’d adjust as we went.  It went fine until week five and then I could see there would just be too much.  I made some other changes as well, because I had copied some things from someone else’s schedule initially and there were some things that didn’t line up.   I’ll post the new schedule soon.  We spend 30-45 minutes a day on history, not including the family read-aloud.  

    Jean

     

    September 1, 2012 at 6:42 pm
    HeidiS
    Participant

    Wow, thanks SO much for sharing. I can barely find my way around a spreadsheet, never mind figure out how to post it. I truly appreciate your efforts and pray many blessing on you! Look forward to seeing your adjusted schedule. I am having an interesting time trying to choose with dd what novels go with what part of the study..I am tempted to just toss them all in a nice big basket and tell her “as long as you’re reading, you can choose which one to read”. I have too many books….is there such a problem?

     

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