To me, at this young elementary age... I don't think it really matters to kids HOW FAR BACK you go in history.. to them, it is intangible and hard to understand. It doesn't matter if it is 500 years ago, 2500 years ago, or 50 years ago. It is "a long time ago" regardless. But, even at the ripe old age of (almost) 8 years old, my daughter has no problem understanding that Noah and the Flood didn't happen when the pyramids were being built. That Adam and Eve weren't thrown out of the Garden of Eden to just go a few roads over and stay with the Greeks. She knows that just because Grandma is "older" and was born "a long time ago" doesn't mean she was on the Mayflower. KWIM?
Heck, just myself, I have a hard time "grasping" ancient times, but I think a lot of that is due to I've already SEEN so much "stuff" (movies, books, television, etc) about things that my mind is jaded and has to literally sort things to make sense. I have more to sort out and work with. Children have less to get all jumbled up.. so I think THAT is a bonus!
Anyway, that is how a mind works. Each new thing is file away. things that may "go with" something we've already learned/heard about/seen, etc... might get "sorted" into multiple places into our brain (connections.)
Now, in my opinion, as such.... *I* happen to believe it makes more sense to "get the brain wired from the start".. and not (for instance) just start with the 1900's... learn all about that, THEN go , oh, say to 1200BC, and learn about that... then, oh I don't know.. go learn about the settling of America.. and THEN go learn about Egyptians.
Yes, I know there are many schools of thought on this. This is just what I believe. It makes more sense to me to learn from the beginning and move forward, and.... then as I've said, rotate back through, revisiting the history but on different levels (higher) with more in depth focus, more "people and events" and whatnot... digging deeper with each rotation. Thereby those "files" in the brain are getting fuller and fuller, and resorting and making more connections constantly.
MY silly example of a connection.....
(Oh! look... cuniform writing.... oh look... writing on scrolls.. oh look... writing on parchment.... oh wow! Chinese invented paper..... wonder why it took so long for other people to start using it.... oh look... movable type printing...on parchment? why not paper?.... oh... monks transcribing the Bible onto parchment.... oh... Gutenburg......oh..... modern paper... ...oh neat, typewriters and computers.... oh acid free paper that my mom uses for scrapbooking....scrap paper for me to draw on.. oh newspapers to papermache with...etc)
Anyway, my point (I think. LOL) is that history is history, no matter how far back it is. Yes I could keep my daughter in the "here and now" and only teach her from current events in the news. Would that work? For a while. But ONLY until she starts asking questions. For any sort of discussion, I'd say that 9 times out of 10 you're going to have to pull from "past experiences", information you know, things that have been previously learned, thought about, investigated.... all of which are HISTORY. it is OLD stuff!
Why do we have lights? Where did bathtubs come from? Why do we have a President? Why is Hawaii called a State? Why are there laws? Who do you think the first people might have been to juggle? Why does England still have a Queen? Why do we have roads? Wonder how people traveled in the desert? What do archeologists dig up and learn about?? etc etc etc. These and so much much more... ALL of our current lives.... are tracable back through history.
Yes, as I said, one CAN jump in and start out anywhere they please. I've no doubt that I learned about Columbus and the 13 colonies LONG LONG LONG before i ever learned about the Roman Empire! Do I know much about the Roman Empire now? Well, honestly? Nope.. ONLY what I managed to relearn last year and into this year when we studied it.
I'm actually not even sure I was ever presented with "The Roman Empire" growing up! If I did, I can almost bet it wasn't until highschool, and even then I'm not sure, as I only recall taking an American history class and economics and American Government courses! I don't ever remember having world history.. unless it specifically pertained to the USA (pilgrims leaving Europe..... the ancient civilizations of the "Americas"..... etc) I just don't think in the schools I attended, in anglo-saxon, predominately white cities and towns covered any of that , it was deemed "necessary." It wasn't until highschool when I began to really have friends of some other skin colors and begin to have "deeper" questions, that I even began to understand that the American History I was being taught was "from the white" point of view! If I did dabble once in school in the Roman Empire, I can tell you it wasn't revisited in my studies. Because of this, I totally feel like i'm learning all this stuff from the start, anew. i have nothing to fall back on and go "oh yeah, that kinda sounds familiar!"
Case in point... oh my gosh!!!!! Last night, I watched the TNT Original Movie of "CEASAR" that i had DVR'd on my television. (Thanks for the reminder, Kay!) Anyway, yes, I'd read Shakespeare's "Julius Ceasar" in highschool language arts class. I've seen "Ceasar" haircuts, even tried Ceasar Salad (Yuck) in my life. But.... last night watching that show.... IT ALL MADE SENSE TO ME!!! (yes i'm shouting.. with excitement) I know it was TV, and had its historical flaws.... BUT.... I recognized the geographical locations, I recognized the form of government, I recognized how one's education weighed into the standards of living. I GOT IT!!! Why? Because I had studied it with my kiddo last year! Reading Shakespeare's "Julius Ceasar" is going to be sooooo different next time I read it. Because I now know the HISTORY behind it!
Ugh, I'm getting off my focus. LOL Do I think my daughter remembers everything we learned last year when studying Ancient History? No way! But, as with our FIAR lapbooks (LOL) she does have a history notebook she looks at frequently. And as I mentioned, we reference back to "ancient times" when it fits the conversation / there's a reason to. I know she "got" Egypt and pyramids and pharohs and the Nile. I know she got the beginning of rules and laws in societies. I know she got why battles started and why. and other things. All that type of stuff laid a foundation, a place to come from, for our currrent study of Medieval Times... and through the Renn & Reformation..... and how that will paint the canvas as to why people started leaving "the known world" to reach out further.
In trying to wrap this up, let me say, that along with my expressed belief in chronological history study, i also firmly believe that we, as parents, both homeschooling and non-homeschooling, don't get as much "intellectual credit" to our kids. I've had many people say "but my kids just don't understand that far back!"
Kids are sponges. We KNOW that. (sometimes, too spongey! and pick up things we wished they hadn't!LOL) I know my daughter knows things about animals, and space, and knows pieces of music, and some Spanish, and who knows what else......... things I've NEVER specifically said to her, read to her or taught her. She just SPONGED IT UP!!! Me yammering on about William the Conqueror right now, might not mean two beans to her next week. But, ... one day..... perhaps when she hears the word "DUKE"... or "NORMANDY".... or "KING OF ENGLAND".... good ol' William might just pop into her head, even for a brief second. And, when we revisit him (at least two more times in our history study) she'll get to know him more and more. She'll get to better understand the craziness of his whole coming to power actual consisted of! Right now, it's just a story perhaps... but the seed has been planted, the file folder has been labeled, the peg has been hung, the bucket has been lined up, or as Kay says... the poke in the head has been poked. LOLOL
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