by Carole Joy Seid
NOTE: I am working on adding direct links to the books listed below, but until I get those completed, please visit The Elijah Company and search for the items that are of interest to you. Thank you for your patience.
In the early years of being a home schooling parent, when my son J.J. was a little boy, I would go to book fairs and spend tons of money on tons of things I took home and never used. It because a very expensive habit. As the years wore on and I kept spending money for things that sat on my shelf, I began to ask myself, "Why do I keep buying this stuff?" I never felt comfortable using it, and after a week or two of enthusiasm and exhaustion it would wind up in a closet somewhere. It took a while, but I finally realized that I really didn't want someone telling me I had to do 30 minutes of geography on Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock and an hour of science on Friday at noon. On the other hand, I had friends who had their kids playing educational video games all day long, and their attitude was, "Oh, well! It's getting the job done and it's good for their hand-eye coordination." Other friends had their kids plunked down on the couch in front of educational videos all day. I knew that these methods were definitely not my style either, so I kept looking for my niche. What was my style of teaching and what felt right for me? What could I get up every morning and be enthusiastic about? What would work best for my son?
Over the course of of several years, it gradually dawned on me that history is the logical core of all the rest of the curriculum. That is, if you want to build your own curriculum, history is the simplest, most common sense framework to build it on. History makes a great framework for all the other subjects because it follows a progression and covers everything else (except maybe math), like art, music, science, literature, and so on.
The other reason I decided history would make a good core curriculum was that, as a school teacher, both in public and Christian schools, I saw that our children are "American Historied" to death. The longer I taught and the longer I studied history myself, the more I realized that most children think the world began in 1492. They picture the history of humanity a lot like those gag maps you can buy that show the United States taking up most of the world, with just a little room left over for some of the other nations, like Mexico and Canada to squeeze on the map. If they study history at all in school (which is unlikely, because schools seldom teach history anymore - they teach social studies instead), children would normally cover 200 years of history in eleven years of school, and 4000 years of history in one year of school. I don't know about you, but I think that is a little unbalanced.
Not only is that approach unbalanced, but it robs our children of a true understanding of why the world is like it is today. I strongly believe that as a Christian parent one of my responsibilities is to help my children develop a Christian worldview - a warp and woof that they see the world through - so that when they read a book, see a movie, hear a song, go to a play, or whatever, they can discern the worldview being presented. The only way that discernment can be fully developed is to teach children about Western civilization and lay a foundation historically and philosophically from the time they are very young.
Even if our goal is to have our children love America and know American history, they cannot truly understand American history and thought without having some foundational understanding of the history of Israel, Greece, Rome, and Europe. After all, where do we think the founding fathers got their ideas about how a nation should be governed, about the rights of men, about law and justice? Do we think, "Poof!" they came out of a cloud somewhere? No, it didn't happen that way. Our culture and country were birthed out of a long history of government and thought over the past four to five thousand years. So, if you want to study American history, that's great. But study it chronologically where it belongs, which is at the end of 4000 plus years of Western civilization.
Now, how do we go about making history the backbone of our curriculum?
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE EARLY YEARS
I prefer not to jump into a time line and start serious historical study until children are about the third grade. If a child is too young, a lot of history can be too abstract and confusing, because the young child hasn't accumulated enough life experiences and associative skills to put some of the pieces together, even with a time line.
In the early years I recommend that you just do a general overview of American history with your kids. Nothing exhaustive, but just enough so that when Aunt Susie says something about the Pilgrims at Thanksgiving, your children don't say, "Who?" It just doesn't look good and it causes your relatives to start questioning whether you should be home schooling your children.
At this stage, you are simply going to snuggle up with your children and read to them a lot, but the books you choose will cover everything children of that age need to know about American history. No one will expect them to know about American history. No one will expect them to know much about world history at that age, but they will be expected to know about George Washington, and the Pilgrims, and Abraham Lincoln, and so forth.
Let me share with you some key authors who will help you study American history during the early years until you are ready to jump into a time line.
Perhaps my favorite authors are a husband and wife team, Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire. Ingri was from Norway and Edgar was from France and Italy. They met in Munich in art school, fell in love, got married, and moved to America. They have written a series of the most unashamedly conservative and patriotic biographies of famous Americans you could ever find. Each book also reflects a strong Judeo-Christian influence, for example they share about George Washington's mother praying with him each night and Leif the Lucky becoming a Christian and bringing Christianity back to his people. They also tell the real story of Pocahontas, who was actually the first non-white convert in the New World, was baptised, and changed her name to Rebecca. Our children have been robbed of these truths about famous Americans that the D'Aulaire books still contain.
Every child needs to read the D'Aulaire books. There are seven of them currently in print: Leif the Lucky, Christopher Columbus, Pocahontas, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincolnand Buffalo Bill. The illustrations are beautiful, because the D'Aulaires were artists, and there is a full page illustraton on every other page. So raise your children knowing and loving each and every one of these books.
Keep in mind that any time you can use a biography to teach history, always do it. Children have no interest in dates and treaties. They want to know about other children. What did they wear? What were they like? Were they naughty? Did they home school too? All of the D'Aulaire books start by sharing events in the childhoods of these famous people.
Biographies are a wonderful "hook" into history, because once children care about the famous people, then they want to know about wars, treaties, dates, kings and queens, and so on. Once a child has an interest in a famous person, then the child will want to know what was going on in the time in which that person lived. Education in a nutshell is studying the people of history.
You need to hang out in the biography section of your library, because many of the most wonderful books are out of print. Get a library card and teach your children how to find what they need in the biography section. But when selecting biographies, always remember that older is better. If a book was written in the 1950's or earlier, you will probably like it. If written in the 60's, it will be "iffy." In the 70's you're on your own, and in the 80's or 90's, don't waste your time. This isn't to say that there are no good books written nowadays, but if you're new at this, just stick to the older books until you build your confidence. Once you know the difference between a good book and a bad one, you can the good ones in any time period.
Here are some other great authors for the early years:
1. Marguerite de Angeli. She wrote Door in the Wall, Thee Hannah, and a number of other wonderful
books, many of which is out of print.
2. Alice Dalgliesh is best known for The Courage of Sarah Nobel, but has written many other great books.
3. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the Little House on the Prairie books. Every child needs to read these
books at least twice while they are growing up. These books are "Homeschool in a Box," because you can build
a whole year's worth of study around them by getting The Little House Cookbook and The Laura Ingalls
Wilder Songbook.
4. James Daugherty wrote many fine biographies that are great "read-alouds" for this age group.
5. Margaret Pumphrey wrote a little book called Stories of the Pilgrims. This is an absolute
treasure of a book that will tell your children things about the Pilgrims they will never find anywhere else.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THIRD GRADE AND UP
At around third or fourth grade, children are usually reading fairly well, so now is the time to start looking into ancient history. Your two tools for working with third graders and up are time-lines and unit studies.
A time-line doesn't have to be anything fancy. You can buy ready-made ones or you can just get some shelf paper or butcher paper, mark it off into sections according to what you are going to be studying with centuries or groups of centuries, put the dates in for your children and even do the writing in of the names and events. This way they only have to do the illustration part, which is the fun part to them.
If your children are not creative or artistic, there is no reason they can't draw stick figures or cut up magazines or even an old set of encyclopedias from a garage sale. But the need to do their own illustrations and not buy something ready-made. This way they have a sense of "ownership" in the creation of the time-line.
I've been asked, how do we choose what to put on the time-line? Well, you divide it into manageable sections of years based on what you are studying at the time. You don't want it to be overwhelming. The key word is "representative." What events represent, or sum up, what we want to remember about a particular time period?
Now, let's spend some time discussing the theory behind a unit study. I'm sure most of you have heard the term "unit study." There are many different definitions and expectations for what a unit study should be. When I was new to home schooling, we tried various prepared unit study programs that we purchased. I felt very locked in and intimidated and not in my niche. As I became more seasoned at home schooling, I realized how easy it is for anyone to develop a unit study on their own for free using only a Bible and a library card.
History gives a logical progression to build a unit study around. After all, you are not going to keep reading about Ancient Eygpt forever, you must move on to Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Reformation, Modern Times, and American History. So using history as your framework keeps you moving.
The concept of unit study is studying many different subjects, at many different levels, around a common core. What if you have four children and each child has six or seven subjects to cover? Who could teach four grades of seven subjects at the same time? Not even Superwoman could do it. It's not realistic unless you put each child in front of a TV and feed in educational videos all day. I was a trained teacher with a graduate degree and only expected to teach one subject each day in public school, and I could hardly keep up with that!
When using a unit study approach, the whole family is studying the same thing at the same time, only at different levels. The younger children may be reading picture books about Ancient Eygpt while the older children are reading independently something quite demanding, but they are still covering the same information and studying within the same focus, which is Ancient Egypt.
Where prepared unit studies and I parted was when I was a young home schooling mother. I was supposed to gather all this stuff, stay up nights preparing all the information and materials, then get up the next morning and spit it all back to my child as some sort of "all-knowing one," then stay up the whole next night and start the cycle all over again. For me, that lasted for about three days, then the unit study program went in the closet.
That's not what I want you to do. All I want you to do is read out loud with your children, learning with them as you go. Most of us, depending on how much education we have had, know very little about the history of Western civilization. I knew practically nothing. When I became a Christian at the age of 21, I attended a church in California and whenever the pastor would use a historical anology, like comparing someone in the Bible to Peter the Great, I didn't have a clue who Peter the Great was. I was part of the Baby Boom generation. I went to the best East Coast schools and we never studied history or read a piece of classical literature. Instead we read authors like J. D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut and e e cummings. Heaven forbid if we ever read something like The Scarlet Letter!
One of the beauties of home schooling is that you get to fill in your own educational gaps. If you never studied a particular era of history before, you get to do it now with your children. But it's not a matter of staying up nights and cramming in a lot of information you never knew before so you can teach it to your kids. That is not what I want you to do. I want you to get up with your children in the morning and read the Bible and then sit and read together for an hour or two. Do some math, then go outside and play or garden or dig ditches, come back in side and bake and cook. Just live real life. My point is that you are learning with your children as you go by reading good books together.
What books do you need? First, there are source books. These are books you are going to use for every unit that you teach. My desire would be that you take three or four years to get through a study of history from ancient times to present, so these source books will constantly be there as resources for you to refer to.
The first source book I recommend is How Should We Then Live by Francis Schaeffer. Everyone needs to own this book. Francis Schaeffer was a leading Christian theologian who wrote this book as a treatise on the rise and fall of Western culture. Chapter by chapter he covers history, culture, and worldview of different ears from Rome through the Age of Reason - all from a Judeo-Christian perspective. So he tells you about the artists, painters, sculptors, musicians, and philosophers as well as historical figures, focusing on their worldviews and what was the over-riding premise of the culture they lived in. To my mind, this book is the base of teaching a child how to think Christianly. When our son was growing up, I said, "J.J., if you can master How Should We Then Live and the multiplication tables, I will be a happy camper."
The corresponding book to HSWTL was written by Jane Stuart Smith and Betty Carlson, two women who were Schaeffer's associates. Both women were musicians, and they wrote a book called The Gift of Music, which is a history of music starting with King David and moving forward in time through several hundred composers in chronological order. So if you have a child who has any gifting or interest in the realm of music, this is the history of music from a Christian perspective. It is amazing to read this book and discover how many of the early composers were believers. For example, Bach wrote at the beginning of every piece, "To the Glory of God," and he signed each piece with "By the Grace of God." These are things we were never taught in school. It's such a joy to learn them now with your children.
Other resources you will be turning to again and again are Men of Science, Men of God (biographies of famous scientists), Streams of Civilization, Volumes 1 and 2 (history of the world from a Christian perspective) and Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. Also, A Child's History of the World by A. V. Hillyer is a great book if you ignore the first four or five chapters. These are all books you will keep zeroing in on through the years.
Another book that makes my heart sing is by Os Guinness. He and his friend, Dr. Louise Cowan, who is a professor in Texas, have compiled An Invitation to the Classics, subtitled "A Guide to the Books You Always Wanted to Read." What they have done is prepared a history of literature by presenting, in chronological order, important literature in the history of Western civilization. They start with Homer, move through the Greek poets, the Romans, the Middle Ages, and so on to the twentieth century. Each chapter analyzes each author's work from a Christian perspective, explaining his or her worldview, and summarizing the plot of some of his or her writings. some of the authors were Christians and others were definitely not, and your children need to know which are which. This isn't to say you want your children to know where the person they are reading is coming from so they can be discerning. You don't have to agree with everyone you read, but you do have to be exposed to these different great minds for the purpose of criticism and analysis.
An Invitation to the Classics is junior high and high school in a book. Not only does it provide a framework of literature to read as you study different historical periods, but it is such a help to know what the different authors believed, so you can study worldviews at the same time.
HOW DO WE BEGIN?
Now that we have some understanding of what we plan to do, how do we begin? The obvious answer is that you will begin at Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1. Read the Bible, and maybe Ruth Beechick's Adam and His Kin until you get to Joseph being sold into Egypt. then you are going to study Ancient Egypt, then Ancient Greece, then Rome, and so on, moving forward through history, using the Bible and good historical literature.
Egypt is not a super-important historical period as far as a contribution to Western civilization is concerned, but the contribution of Ancient Greece is gigantic. If you had to spend a whole year studying Ancient Greece, it would be time well spent. Greek thought is foundational to the history of Rome. Once you get to the study of Rome, you will find that the Romans didn't have an original thought in their heads! Everything Roman was really Greek, so you will see the time you spent studying Greece was very well spent. Also, the New Testament was written in Greek because at that time Greek was an international language, much as English is today. The Apostle Paul had a classical Greek education, being raised in Tarsus, and he also had a classical Hebrew education, being trained under Gamaliel. The New Testament, particularly the Book of Acts, is going to come alive for you as you study Ancient Greece and Rome. You are going to see Paul and Christ quoting classical Greek writers. That went over my head for years because I had never studied these things before. For example, when Jesus spoke of wolves in sheep's clothing, he was quoting Aesop, a Greek slave, and when Paul said, "Bad bommunications corrupt good morals," he was quoting a classical Greek writer. You see, if we don't study the classical writings, we don't realize how much involvement there is of the classics in the New Testament.
I also want to expose you to a very important piece of Western literature, probably the most important work of classical literature, and that is The Iliad by Homer. Homer was a blind Greek who brought together many of the oral traditions of the story of the Trojan War and wrote them down in the form of an epic poem. Rosemary Sutcliff, a modern British author, wrote a narrative version of The Iliad and also of The Odyssey (which is the story of the travels of Ulysses). Black Ships Before Troy is exquisitely illustrated and made appropriate for children. When you read it, you will understand why it has become a modern classic. It is a great story, that parents tell me their children read over and over again. And best of all, it's a boy's book. It's hard to find good books for boys, but this is one that will grab your boys.
The question always arises, "What about mythology? Why do Christian children need to know about pagan myths?" I will agree that it may not be wise to expose young children to mythology, because they have a hard time distinguishing between fantasy and reality. But once a child reaches the age where he knows the difference and has an understand of truth, Greek mythology becomes no different from any fictional story.
The reason everyone needs to at least be exposed to Greek and Roman mythology (and even some Norse) is that it is alluded to in every piece of classical literature your child will ever read. Mythology has also become a part of the speech of everyday life. For example, they may hear someone say, "He just opened a Pandora's box," or "That was her Achilles heel," or "She has a face that could launch a thousand ships." Understanding the myth behind these anologies is knowledge that all well-educated people share in common, and it is part of a body of knowledge that people will expect your children to own if they want to operate in a literate society. People who have been robbed of familiarity of these things, as I was, go through life like they are seeing with only one eye. When I was a child and read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Little Men and all her allusions to Greek myths, I had no idea what she was talking about. So please give your children this part of a classical education to equip them to function in the realm of great literature.
Now I am going to discuss another author everyone must read. Most of you don't realize that you are living in the Golden Age of Home Schooling and that many books you can get easily were not available to people who home schooled five, ten, and fifteen years ago. I would have to go through dozens of out of print book searches and spend hundreds of dollars to get the same books you now buy from home school suppliers for $15.00 each. One of the authors I used to move heaven and earth to find books by is Genevieve Foster. She lived in Illinois in the 1930s and 40s and was deeply concerned about the lack of good historical literature for her children to read. So she decided to write books herself. I think she is the very finest history author for children of all time.
The first book Genevieve Foster wrote was George Washington's World. She then went on to write books about the world at the time of Columbus, John Smith, Abraham Lincoln, Augustus Caesar, and many other famous historical figures. Her books are so magnificent because she takes a famous person and covers his lifetime, using that person as a springboard to tell what is going on all over the world during that slice of history. The books give you an international veiw of history during a specific time period. The concept is terrific, but what really makes Genevieve Foster great is that she is a great writer. Before her death, she said, "When I write, I craft every sentence as if it were a precious jewel." So her books don't read like history textbooks, but like great literature.
What you are looking for in teaching history is books that make your child want to stay up late reading them under the covers with a flashlight. Your kids will be begging to read these books, so don't spoil it by telling them they will be "learning history" by reading them. Genevieve Foster's books are irresistible, because she make you know and understand the people she writes about. With Genevieve Foster's books you can cover from Ancient Rome forward, and most of American history. Her Augustus Caesar's World is the perfect core book for a study of Ancient Rome.
After Rome, you will move to the Middle Ages, which is every little boy's favorite period. Boys would be happy to stay in the Middle Ages until they graduated from high school. There are many great books about knights, particularly the Arthur series by Rosemary Sutcliff, and A Boy's King Arthur by Sidney Lanier.
After the Middle Ages, go to the Renaissance and Reformation. This is when you will introduce your children to Shakespeare. Years ago in England there was a writer named Charles Lamb who had a sister named Mary. They were both gifted, brilliant people, concerned that the children of England were not becoming acquainted with the works of Shakespeare. So the Lambs decided to retell Shakespeare's plays in a narrative form easily understood by children. Their book, Tales from Shakespeare, has become a classic and is the perfect introduction to Shakespeare for children. When you read it with your children, start with the comedies, like "Taming of the Shrew." Read it. Act it out. Go to a play. Stick to the comedies first, then move on to tragedies and you will discover why Shakespeare is called "the Bard of the Bible" because his work is so biblically based in the Judeo-Christian ethics of right and wrong and sowing and reaping. You will also discover why he is the best-selling playwright of all time. But don't tell your children, "Oh, this is hard!" or "Oh, this is good for you!." Just read the plays and let your children fall in love with Shakespeare as countless people have done before them.
From the Renaissance and Reformation, you can move on to modern world history, and finally reach American history after you've built an understanding of the history of Western Civilizaton. When you study American history, your core resources will be the series by Peter Marshall and David Manuel: The Light and The Glory, From Sea to Shining Sea, and Sounding Forth the Trumpet. Read these in the original versions, not the children's versions, for the Christian backdrop to events from Columbus to the last century.
Three other resources will help you find books that are appropriate for each time period and age level. The first is Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt. The second is Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson. And the third is Turning Back the Pages of Time by Kathy Keller, which only deals with American history. All three provide booklists by historical period and age group, but each takes a little different approach and lists books that the others don't, so it is best to have them all.
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How Should We Then Live by Francis Schaeffer
The Gift of Music by Jane Smith and Betty Carlson
Men of Science, Men of God by Henry Morris
Streams of Civilization
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
Invitation to the Classics by Louise Cowan and Os Guiness
Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt
Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson
Turning Back the Pages of Time by Kathy Keller
Book of the Centuries Mark-It Timeline of History is a laminated double-sided 23" X 34" time-line that you can write on and wipe off. One side is marked with dates from 400 B.C. to 2000 A.D., the other side is undated.
Columbus George Washington Abraham Lincoln Pocahontas Benjamin Franklin Leif the Lucky Buffalo Bill
All of De Angeli's books are suitable for ages 8 - 12
Henner's Lydia. A young Amish girl must finish a hooked mat before she can go to market with her father. But Lydia is much more interested in the goings on around the farm. Thee Hannah. Hannah wants terribly to wear pretty ribbons on her bonnet. Hannah does not realize how important her "plain" bonnet is until a runaway slave tells Hannah that's how she knew Hannah would help. Yonie Wondernose. Seven-year-old Yonie can't keep his nose out of trouble, but winds up saving the day when his parents leave him in charge of the farm. Copper Toed Boots and a dog of his own are what Shad wants more than anything in the world. Skippack School. It is 1750, and young Eli, recently arrived in Pennsylvania from Germany, adjusts to his new life and new school.
The Boy's King Arthur edited by Sidney Lanier
All of Dalgliesh's books are suitable for ages 4 through 8. The Courage of Sarah Noble. Award winning story of an eight year old girl in Connecticutt wilderness in 1707. The Bears on Hemlock Mountain. There are no bears on Hemlock Mountain... Or so young Jonathan is told as he sets out alone over Hemlock Mountain. The Thanksgiving Story tells the Pilgrim story from the point of view of the Hopkins family whose little Oceanus was born on the Mayflower. The Fourth of July Story brings alive the history and spirit of the Fourth of July.
The Little House on the Prairie Series
Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret Pumphrey
The Landing of the Pilgrims is a Landmark History Book about the Pilgrims, their plight in England and Holland, their travel on the Mayflower, and their brutal first years in the New World. The Magna Charta tells of the document foundational to liberty in the Western world. Of Courage Undaunted is the story of Lewis and Clark and their historic expedition. Poor Richard is a biography of Ben Franklin.
Sutcliff is a master story teller whose books bring a period of history alive. They are suitable for middle school up. Black Ships Before Troy is the suspenseful retelling of Homer's Iliad. Wanderings of Ulysses, the companion to Black Ships Before Troy, is the retelling of The Odyssey. Outcast is about an infant rescued by a Celtic family from the wreck of a Roman ship who is eventually rejected by his village. The Eagle of the Ninth. The Ninth Roman Legion who marched into the wilds of Britain in 119 A.D. and disappeared. Fifteen years later, the son of the unit's commander sets out to recover the lost "eagle" - the standard of the legion. The Silver Branch is the sequel to Eagle of the Ninth involving the grandson of the lost Ninth Legion's commander. It is a time of Saxon raids and factories within the Roman Empire. The Shining Company. Another book about early Britain by this master storyteller. The Lantern Bearers. It is 450 A.D. and the last Roman Auxiliaries are leaving Britain. Aquila, a young soldier, fights to keep alight the lantern of civilizaton during the barbarian invasions.
The three books below are a trilogy about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table:
Many of Genevieve Foster's books have gone out of print but the people at Beautiful Feet Books have begun reprinting them in oversized paperback editions. These books are wonderful because they not only provide fascinating biographies of the famous figures in the title, but they also put the person's life into historical perspective by explaining what was going on in other parts of the world at the same time. The books are interesting, well written, and handsomely illustrated. Ages 10 and up.
Augustus Caesar's World
These books focus on evidences of God's direction and intervention in the founding and settling of America from Columbus through the War Between the States. They are well written and interesting and give you a perspective about American history you seldom find in other books. The Light and the Glory (Columbus through the Revolution) makes clear how God worked through our discoverers and founders. From Sea to Shining Sea (Independence to early 1800s) shows how God's plan continued to unfold as the young nation expanded westward. Sounding Forth the Trumpet (events leading up to the War Between the States to Reconstruction). We think this book tends to lean too much toward abolitionism, but it is still an excellent account of God's dealings with America during the War Between the States.
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