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which way for history?
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I’ve really come full circle on this one. Right back to the beginning and undecided. Ugh. I wish I could just make up my mind which approach to take with history.
Does anyone do history without following the SCM module schedule? So far I’ve come across lots of benefits for doing history the module way – however – I’d like to know if anyone does history chronologically for each child. In particular I’d like to know how much more work is involved with managing separate history schedules for more than one kiddo. I’ve only heard from one other mom who said it was more work for her to combine her kids into one period of history than keep them separate… so can anyone give me a picture of how much work is involved with each approach? I’m looking for the positivies and negatives on each side. I’d like to choose one approach and stick with it and not switch my approach to history later on. I think if I had a more clear picture of the work involved I could make up my mind (finally) as to which way will work better for us.
6 History Modules – 2 cycles, everyone together (SCM) vs. chronological schedule, each child separate
How many children do you have?
I have 3 boys and am enjoying keeping them in the same time period, if anything, for my own sanity. We have done them separately in the past, well maybe I should reprhase that. My oldest has done a hodge podge of history: we’ve used textbooks, lapbooks, MOH, history pockets, etc., coupled with fieldtrips. My 7yo has tagged along and has had some of his own projects of sorts. Now while we’re reading either child can keep up with the pace because it is in the same time period. They listen in on each other’s books and just seem to get what time period we’re in because the books overlap characters at times. Yeah!
We aren’t going in chronological order anyway (we’re in mod 5 and haven’t done the others, yet). But, I figure that even if you went in order you could potentially stay in one time period forever because sooo much was happening at the same time. I just don’t have time to do that, plus it would be impossible to cover everything.
Even if the kids could handle separate time periods, which they probably could, I wouldn’t want to have to switch gears. And this way I know what each child is being exposed to for each time period and that I didn’t spend x amount of time on one child for his time period and not the other. I guess it’s a fairness thing, they’re all getting the same thing at the same time minus the books read, but they will eventually get a chance at those, too. Does that make sense??
We’ve chosen to put everyone in the same chronological history cycle for several reasons:
- Simplicity for Mom – with 4 kids all 3 years apart, there is simply no way that I would do an adequate job if they each do their own cycle
- Fosters Conversation & Deeper Understanding – we have more to talk about and understand better what each other is doing when we work on a time period together
- Older helps the younger – The older kids can help or assist the younger ones more easily because they are studying the same subject matter
- There is no way to cover everything no matter which approach one takes, so for us, it makes sense to do as much as we can together.
- The work load is much less for mom (in my case 1/4 of what it would be) when everyone is in the same cycle, and that’s just talking about history.
- Lastly, I can not think of any reason to not combine kids unless you have high schoolers who wouldn’t get through what’s necessary in time. They are still getting chronological history study, but the younger ones will just start at various periods.
HTH,
Christie
The only real reason I can see to keep the kids seperate, is if you are designing the history curriculum itself….
I have been working out what I want to do for Canadian History (I think I have the next couple of years mostly worked out…) – and by keeping my kids seperate, I only have to find resources for the age/level my kids will be for the year we do that part of history… whereas if I was keeping them all together, I would have to work out the main spine, and then also figure out what is appropriate books for each age level I’m teaching.
But otherwise, I would keep them together.
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