History Notebook/Book of Centuries

This is a continuation of a post about History Notebooks. I began with a "Book of Centuries" a few years ago, which is an idea from the Simply Charlotte Mason website. When the children were younger (Love of Learners and Core Phase), the Book of Centuries was great. We could draw pictures, print pictures online, or copy pictures from books and glue them on the various "century" pages with a few notes about the date, place, or person.

We were not extremely vigilant at keeping this up, but we added to it every now and then. In all, it was more scrapbookish than a learning tool.

After reading some of Living History's books, mainly "The World Before Christ", I find myself anxious to record what I'm learning about each time period, the events that took place and people that lived then, as part of my regular study materials. I felt the Book of Centuries was just not what I needed anymore.

In comes the History Notebook (see free notebook pages here). I decided to go back and write some notes about the previous Epochs I've studied. Basically I'm starting from the Creation again and moving forward. I'm not writing about every single person and event, but choosing the ones I felt I learned the most from. For example, I've studied Noah and the Flood several times, but not as much about Noah's immediate descendants. So, I wrote notes about Ham and how his wife Egyptus brings the line of Cain into the future generations. I also studied Nimrod and the building of the Tower of Babel.

One aspect that I am considering important is to note the various sources where I am getting the information from. Hopefully, when I go back to study these eras again, I'll be able to add the new sources of information as I study. Keeping all of these divided into Epochs, or time periods, makes cross-linking happenings in other places during the same era much easier.

I'm very excited about this new method of study. I do not have many local peers who are interested or willing to study the things I'm studying. This is taking the place of the classes and colloquial groups I used to have. My current book club is at a stage of books that I have already read, which is great so I can study these classics again, but also feels limiting on any new studies. I'm thankful I found these resources from Living History and feel inspired to study on my own.

World History Classics

This is a continuation of my posts on Classes by Classics. World History is an all encompassing task to study. One could spend their entire life studying all the cultures and their various histories throughout all time. Think of it...the entire world's history! Most of us are lucky if we study a few stories about a few important periods of time. I would like to emphasize that pretty much all non-fiction is part of world history, so we could really pull any non-fiction book and read it as part of our world history studies.

From the TJED for Teens list:

• Antigone
• The Illiad
• The Odyssey
• The Trial and Death of Socrates by Plato
• Nichomachaen Ethics by Aritstotle

We have added:

• The World Before Christ: An LDS Perspective by Dan Hunter
• The World After Christ: An LDS Perspective by Dan Hunter
• Great Books of the Western World

See my post about our History Notebooks for more about what we are doing for history.

American History Classics

'I cannot tell a lie.'

American History is a pretty easy one to find classics on...or so I thought. Once I began studying American History, I realized that so many sources vary in their coverage of events. For example, I was raised on the story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree...remember that one..."I cannot tell a lie." How disappointing to find out the story is a lie!

It then becomes difficult to find true historical writings. I find that older versions seem to be the most correct and that we need to make sure we are reading unabridged versions of stories and histories. It is my belief that each time we read someone's abridged version, we are getting more opinion than fact unless it is well documented where the information comes from.

NOTE: This list overlaps with American Government. We choose to work on 100 hours for each subject and only allow a work to count towards one subject.

From Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens:

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas
• "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death"
• "The Present Crisis"
• Also see the list for American Government

We have also added:

We found a fabulous history series by Dan Hunter at Living History Books. These are LDS based and we love them! There is an American History set that we have not started yet, but it is on the list (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2). We have some of the other sets and love the writing style as well as the detailed outlines, time-lines, maps, and references to where he got the information from; making this series of history books one of the few "curriculum" items we feel are classics. It is written from a very TJED point of view (no tests or worksheets) and Oliver DeMille even wrote the forward for them. Dan Hunter suggests that rather than test students, require projects or papers written on people or events (see below for more info).

HISTORY NOTEBOOK
We are embarking on a new idea to make our own history notebooks. I am getting mine started in order to "model" this for my teens. When I mentioned it nobody shouted, "Hooray! I always wanted to make a history notebook." Rather, I got one blank stare that said in silent mocking tones, "Seriously?" and another moderate eye roll that sarcastically mimicked, "Another great idea mom has to add to my full study load." I know, it might only seem appealing to the history fanatic, but I hope to get one started myself first and maybe inspire some others in my home later. ;-)

Check out this free download over at Living History Books on making your own history notebook.

Here are also some free notebook pages I made up to use based on the download listed above.  It didn't like his, not clean enough for me I guess. There are three different line height pages, including emergent writer (primary lined) pages, which Dan Hunter's does not include.