Timelines for Ancient History

How do you have your students make timelines when even the experts can’t decide on dates?

Over the years I have compiled my own list of people and events. I started with the Bible (beginning 4000 B.C.) and all the ages of the patriarchs. (That covers an amazing number of years!) From that, I got an approximate date for the Flood (2340 B.C.).

Here’s where things get tricky. The experts think that Mesopotamian culture got going around 3500 B.C. But mud bricks would never have made it through the Flood, so Sumer had to have started after 2340. Remember, though, that Noah’s family didn’t have to start their civilization from nothing. They were already accomplished artisans (they built an ark!), so they had a better head start than the experts suppose.

The Book of Mormon tells us that the Tower of Babel was in 2243 B.C.—a mere 100 years after the Flood. Many archeologists think it was part of Nebuchadnezzar’s great city, but I think that he probably just restored what was left of the original tower.

Egypt is another puzzle. Experts’ dates for the Old Kingdom are all before the Flood. (One book I read, however, indicated that Dynasties One through Three may have been mythological.) Could the pyramids have made it through the Flood? I’m pretty sure there would have been some evidence of water damage to them—so I’m betting that the whole thing started with Ham’s descendents. The Sphinx, however, does have water erosion! It must be much older, and has had the head re-carved several times (which is why it looks out of proportion).

Another Egypt question is the date that Moses led the Israelites out of bondage. I grew up watching The Ten Commandments and thinking it was Ramses that wouldn’t let them go. But the New Testament (Galatians 3:17) indicates that the Exodus was 430 years from the time of the Lord’s covenant with Abraham. That puts it about 1490--the 18th dynasty. (Ramses is the 19th.) I should add that the writers of the LDS Bible Dictionary don't agree with me, and put the Exodus during the reign of Pharoah Manephtah, almost 200 years later and 430 years after Joseph went to Egypt. I'm sticking with my dates though, because I think they make more sense!

My timeline is still being modified slightly, as I read and learn more. I'm sure it's not totally correct, but generally it has worked out well and given us a good idea of how things fit together.

Do I Get Any Time For Myself?

The past few weeks have been some of the busiest of my life! The busy-ness wasn’t just homeschooling, but a combination of back-to-school, harvest and food preservation time, and beginning chicken raising. Also, maybe I’m just not as good at multi-tasking as I used to be when I was younger. Anyway, I have had the topic of “time” on my mind of late.

The actual “school” doesn’t take much of my time: about one hour per day in the lower grades to about three hours a day in middle school. My high school students spend more time than this, but only some of it requires my attention. (Actually, the children usually get more and more independent once they learn to read.) I find that the best way to keep from being frustrated about time for school work is to never schedule anything else during the morning. I often have to remind other people that I have a full-time job teaching school and am not available until the afternoon.

Another time consideration involves housework. When the kids are home all day, the house gets messier than if the kids were at school! I spend a lot of time with cooking and laundry, and have my kids do most of the cleaning. We work mostly on one section of the house each day (Monday is kitchen day, etc.) so we can more or less work together. I spend time with younger children who are learning skills, but mostly the kids do the housecleaning. It’s an important part of their education.

Next, is time for planning. I usually spend 20-30 minutes on Sunday laying out the specific assignments for each child that week. In addition, I've found that planning unit/block studies can take a lot of time when I do it the way I described here. I think my greatest desire is for uninterrupted quiet time. Not only do I need time to plan my curriculum, but I need to be able to ponder—about spiritual things and about the needs of each family member. Unfortunately, I seem to only get this time late at night or early in the morning—when everyone else is in bed. I do recognize that early mornings may be almost impossible for young mothers who never get enough sleep. (I remember!) A daily quiet time might not be achievable, but I feel that a regular time away—with husband or friend watching the kids--is incredibly helpful.

And this leads to the big question: do I have time for my own needs and hobbies, or are they just swallowed up in the needs of my children? The answer is….yes and no.

There are things I want to do that I rarely get around to. I’m sure that is true of every mother—not just homeschooling mothers. And yet I find that my needs and hobbies have evolved somewhat over the years to be more about my children. Homeschooling is such a passion for me that much of my reading (of which I do a lot) is about topics I want to cover with my kids. I probably read three times as much as they ever hear about in their lessons! And this isn’t out of a sense of obligation, but because it interests me. When I’m chauffeuring to lessons or sports activities, I always bring along needlework (something I didn’t used to do before chauffeuring) or reading. Waiting in a car can be a great “quiet time!”

Also—though you’ve heard it many times before and it doesn’t seem true when you’re in the middle of it—remember this is just a short time of your life. With nine children, I had 23 years of nursing (some of the most time-intensive care—right?), yet it doesn’t seem very long in retrospect. With my youngest now in 2nd grade, I’m realizing that these homeschooling years will be over before I know it. Then there will be time to make quilts and learn to play the harp. I may even have too much “quiet time.”

Harvest Unit

Good heavens! I just realized that I skipped posting for the whole month of August! It must be because it was more fun to be outside in the garden than inside at the computer.

But now it's time for school--yet I'm still not ready for book work. It's so hard to do academics when we're trying to do canning, dehydrating, and freezing! One year I realized that this was just as educational as math, so I call it our "Harvest Unit" and count it as school. Today we dried basil and froze peaches. Tomorrow is applesauce....

We spend our "days off" at the park or in the mountains with our sketch books. We'll add in the academics gradually so that we're covering all our subject areas by the time the rainy days of winter are here.

My Four- (or Five- or Six-) Year Plan

(aka "Scope and Sequence")
When all my children were young, our homeschool lessons were totally interest-based. I didn’t really have an over-all plan. As Je got closer to high school, however, I got more organized. I decided to follow my state’s requirements for high school graduation, although homeschoolers don’t earn a state-recognized high school diploma. College entrance requirements tend to match (or exceed) the high school guidelines—so we needed to follow them.

All of my children do math and language arts at their individual levels each year, but our social studies and science we do together. My state requires two years of high school science, but exact courses aren’t specified so we can follow our interests. It’s the social studies requirements that are more detailed, and so I plan my years around those guidelines.

*We spend a year on ancient history (of the Western world)—Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome.
*Our next year of world history covers mostly the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
*When we have time (depending on who’s in high school and what they still need), we study other parts of the world—the Orient, the Arctic, or Africa, for example
*We begin U.S. history, beginning with exploration of the New World and including a significant unit on the U.S. Constitution.
*Whenever we get to the Westward Expansion, we do a semester of Washington state history. Then we finish U.S. history, up to the present.
And start over!

Plannning for Fall

It’s summer vacation :o) and I’m having fun planning for the coming year.
I asked each of my children what they want to learn about (astronomy, nutrition, disease, plants, herbal medicine). I looked at Steiner’s themes for my second grader (fables and saints). And I considered my general “scope and sequence,” which has us studying ancient history this year.
All I’m doing at this point is blocking out the units we will study for each month. I’ll plan in more detail when I actually get there. Here’s how it has come together:
SEPTEMBER
Most of our time will be spent with canning and dehydrating, so we call it our harvest unit. Also, while the weather is still nice, we’ll go to nearby state parks where we’ll draw in our new nature journals (a back-to-school gift). We’ll study astronomy, which will continue through the year as we learn about various ancient cultures and their views of the sky. It’s a good time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of men on the moon!
The last week of the month we’ll celebrate St. Michael’s day (the 29th). I’m thinking the dragon would be a good constellation to learn first….
OCTOBER
We’ll study Mesopotamia / Babylon. Scripture equates Babylon with worldliness, so we’ll spend some time with what it means to separate ourselves from the world.
D will be hearing stories about St. Francis of Assisi (his day is October 4th), who renounced worldliness to serve God.
NOVEMBER
L and N will be studying Egypt, so I’ll make up related stories for D to review his math operations and learn place value. I guess the math gnomes will visit the Nile River!
St. Martin’s day is November 11th.
DECEMBER
We’ll catch up on any loose ends, celebrate St. Lucia day, the winter solstice, and Christmas! We like to relax and enjoy this season.
JANUARY
We’ll study Greece. D will be learning fables from the Greek story teller Aesop. I’ll introduce Hippocrates, in preparation for our next unit. We’ll definitely tie in astronomy, because the Greeks knew a lot about the heavens.
FEBRUARY
We’ll learn about nutrition and disease. This should make for some interesting stories for teaching D about mathematical equations!
MARCH
L and N will learn about Rome. I will choose stories of 8 more “saints” to tell to Daniel, and he’ll make a reading book.
APRIL
N and L will have a unit on health and healing herbs. D will be hearing more fables, so I’ll choose some about plants.
MAY
We’ll all be helping with the vegetable garden, so we will study more botony. D will learn about Northwest animals, as well as plants.
JUNE
We may do a short unit on marine science. We often like to go visit our favorite tide pools for the low tide this time of year. I’ll see how we’re doing by next June!
Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to a really fun year (but enjoying every leisurely minute of summer too).

More Waldorf Principles--Steiner's Themes

I have mentioned that the Waldorf curriculum “speaks” to a child at his level. Let me tell you what that means. Language arts, math, and social studies are all taught through stories. But there are specific stories for each age group:

A first grader is rapidly changing and growing physically. He is losing his baby teeth. He is becoming more coordinated. All of his energy has been going to his physical body rather than to his intellect. He is still more in his imagination than in the “real world.” So he is told fairy tales—simple, archetypal stories where there are powerful Kings, where wickedness is punished, and where there may even be a little magic.

A second grader is learning to make decisions for himself as he approaches the age of accountability. Thus, his curriculum includes stories of “saints” and other revered people so he can see what GOOD is. And he also learns fables—to show him how to make choices between right and wrong, and that every choice has consequences.

A third grader is facing what Steiner called the “nine-year change,” and it can be traumatic. So he studies the Old Testament (even if it is not part of his religion) because its history parallels his inner journey. The expulsion from Eden, the slavery in Egypt, the wandering in the wilderness…over and over the Hebrew people fail, yet they are loved by a generous God who always gives them another chance and guides them to the Promised Land.

A fourth grader is discovering who he is and what the world has to offer. He hears stories about what it means to be human, to be different than the other animals. And he learns of Norse mythology, which is all about nines (his age). These ancient stories don’t always end happily: they are full of mischief and ambivalence, just like the real world.

I appreciate the way that each curriculum doesn’t just teach facts, but actually nourishes the child. Although I don’t follow Steiner’s themes up through grade 12, I like to use them at least in these early years.

How to "Build" a Unit Study

When I’m preparing for a new unit, I start by gathering all of my resources. Some of them I own, some I get from the library, some I glean from the internet. If I haven’t read or watched them, I do so (at least skimming through). I make a list of everything I want to use. (If I own something that I decide is not worth using, I get rid of it!)

The challenging part comes next. I spend some time thinking about what are the important ideas of this unit. [I know that’s easier said than done; I always have to find this quiet time in the early morning or late at night.] For instance, here are my ideas for our U.S. history unit about the 1950’s and 60’s:

--Americans are afraid of Communism. (Truman Doctrine, McCarthy, NATO)

--The US and USSR “fight,” but not with guns. (space race, arms race)

--The “Domino Theory” drives the Vietnam War,

--Vietnam is a different kind of war than we have fought before.

--There is conflict on the home front too.

--After Vietnam, America needs to heal.

--Blacks still don’t have equal rights.

--Non-violent protests bring needed changes.

I don’t articulate these ideas to my kids, but the ideas are the focus of our activities. I plan about one read-aloud book each week, along with movies and other short readings. Sometimes we do research, like the project we did with the above unit on learning about PresidentsTruman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and the part each played in the Vietnam War.

Usually, I have my kids make a Flap Book, Main Lesson Book, or some other project as a way for them to gather and remember what they have learned. I often keep those projects (especially anything 3-D) in an “interest box” which the kids can get out to look at or play with later. For instance, our astronomy interest box has star charts, a model of the sun-earth-moon, our tin-can constellations, and our Flap Books. Our middle ages box has castle models, wind-up knights, costumes, illuminated alphabets, and coloring books. Then the kids can re-visit that unit whenever they want.

I should mention that I don't usually worry about incorporating ALL of the subject areas into my unit study. We usually do some writing as part of our unit and there may be charts or graphs to work with, but we continue to do our separate language arts and math work as well.

Whole to Parts

I’ve really been thinking about this post, since Tori requested it. (Thanks for the nudge!) It’s one thing to know the definition of “whole-to-parts learning” and another thing to apply it. That’s why I didn’t consciously apply it for long after I was first exposed to the idea. And why I discovered I was actually teaching whole to parts in some cases, but didn’t know it. So, I will explain the idea as I understand it, and then try to give lots of examples of applications.

In whole-to-parts learning, instruction begins with the “big picture,” or in a natural setting. Then learners construct their own understanding of the components. (That doesn’t mean that students never spend time practicing facts—such as the times tables, for instance—but such practice comes later.) This is in direct contrast to a method where subject matter is taught and mastered as factual bits and then (hopefully) synthesized into a whole. Whole-to-parts learning is supposed to appeal to some specific learning styles, but I think it works best for anyone because it is the way that little children learn everything before they go to school. This type of teaching is student-centered (perfect for a homeschool!) and tries to create a context for learning instead of forcing students to be passive recipients of the teacher’s knowledge.

Confused? Here are some examples:

1. Waldorf students are taught the letters of the alphabet using fairy tales. We find a letter in each story, then draw a picture in which that letter IS the picture. I taught the letter “R” with Rapunzel. One side of the "R" is the tower wall. The top of the "R" is the window. The other leg is Rapunzel's hair. (If this isn't obvious, remember that the artist is a 6 year old!) Providing this picture-context has helped D to no longer reverse his letters.

2. Our history study is always based on biographies or historical fiction. (I didn’t want to teach history in the boring way I had been taught, and reading stories just felt right.) So, we might not get all the facts and dates, but we get a feel for the people and the time period.

3. In Waldorf 1^st grade, we learn all four basic math operations together. The math gnomes help each other with their work, so the children see that the operations are all related (eg. multiplication is fast adding).

4. Also in Waldorf math, we always work from the “answer” when learning math facts:
12 is two sixes
12 is three fours
12 is six twos
Also:
12 is two sixes
10 is two fives
8 is two fours
Etc.

5. One of my favorite grammar resources, called Editor in Chief, offers a short passage for the student to read and then tells him how many errors to find. It’s much more challenging than just identifying parts of speech or grammar rules out of context! And it seems less threatening to the kids to edit someone else’s work rather than their own.

6. When modeling with clay, Waldorf students are encouraged to start with one big lump and then pinch and pull to make legs, ears, windows, doors, etc.

7. Our science studies always begin with a “lab.” Even when using a textbook, I rearrange the order so we are doing something experiential at the start. The kids understand the concept much better when they’ve already seen it first-hand.

8. Both the Charlotte Mason and Waldorf models have kids spend a lot of time outside, in nature. They don’t get just a leaf to look at in the classroom; they have seen the whole tree (and probably drawn a picture of it and collected its seed pods and …).

As you have probably noticed, this teaching philosophy is not exclusively a Waldorf idea. But it is part of the foundation of Waldorf ed., and that has prompted me to pay better attention to how I am doing things.

I’d love to hear your ideas of other applications of this philosophy.