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Each August, I share Our Curriculum Choices for the school year ahead.
It’s always a nice feeling to have a plan in place. All the curricula picked out. All the ducks in a row.
In reality, though, plans change. Ducks get up and walk around. And you know what?
That’s okay.
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I’m so glad I found The Story of the World (SotW) curriculum for history! So far we’ve used and loved Volumes 1 through 3, and I just finished planning Volume 4 for the upcoming school year.
* 2023 Update: I’ve now used all 4 volumes and still highly recommend this curriculum! This year I’m starting again in Volume 1 with my middle and youngest kids!
I’ve already talked about how we customize SotW in our homeschool. In this post, I’ll show you how I tackle planning it.
2020 has been quite a doozy so far, hasn’t it?
Most of us are still reeling from the unexpected spin COVID-19 put on the last few months of this school year. And just when we thought things were looking up, we find ourselves in the midst of another set of trials and civil unrest.
It seems like a lifetime ago that I was planning out our curricula and wondering what the year would bring. I definitely didn’t expect all this!
The next stop on this Tour of Our Homeschool is the history shelf.
Early in this shelf’s career here in my home, it had the misfortune of being partly empty. And, since no empty space remains empty for long around here, it’s now become the “History-and-Geography-and-Health-and-Art-and-Bible-and-Character-and-Whatever-Else-I-Can-Cram-In-There” shelf.
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today so I’ll get right to it. If you missed the beginning posts in this series, click here to catch up.
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We love The Story of the World history curriculum.
(And, given that I loathed history when I was a kid, it’s no small potatoes for me to say that I love a history curriculum!)
After using Tapestry of Grace Primer for my oldest son’s first and second grade years, we started Volume 1 of The Story of the World and haven’t looked back.
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Well, it’s about time!
After years of historical knowledge going in one ear and out the other, I’ve finally found a system for learning and retaining history that works for me (and my kids, too)!
A key element of this system is making timelines. (The other elements that work for us – notebooking and using chronological curricula – I hope to talk about in future posts).
Growing up, one of the main reasons I disliked and couldn’t retain history was because I’m an “overall picture” kind of gal. But in school I had never been given the big picture of history – only out-of-order chunks. I memorized names and dates for tests. I filled in the blanks on my worksheets. I even did some fun projects. But, to my frustration (as a child) and embarrassment (as an adult), I retained very little information about the history of our world.
I don’t even like playing Trivial Pursuit for fear that my historical ignorance will be exposed!
(oops… the truth is out now)
Thankfully, the history curricula that we’ve used so far (Tapestry of Grace Primer and Story of the World) have both suggested creating timelines to keep track of historical people and events.
It’s been noted by some that I act a little like Dory from Finding Nemo and Finding Dory fame. I guess they think I’m a little forgetful and kind of distractible at times but I don’t really thi….
LOOK! Something shiny!!!
It’s… aluminum foil!!
I knew foil could keep my casseroles covered, among other household uses. And once I had kids and started scouring the interwebs for craft ideas, I came across a lot of foil-related art projects for the littles.
But, as it turns out, aluminum foil has been a surprisingly versatile supply for our homeschool studies, too!
