History is Alive :: Well, I want it to be...maybe in 2013

#4 demonstrating that possibly my first history project wasn't as well thought out as it should have been.

If you think blogging has taken a hit this year, ask #3 what he thinks of history. Every time I bring everyone together telling them we are going to have a history lesson #3 asks if it is a project history lesson.

Oh, I've disappointed him in this area over and over this year so far.

The other years I had a much better handle on activities to go with our history lessons. I'd say I was hitting about once a week with a recipe or small project and even some big projects that gave us a tangible aspect to the book reading, map coloring and narrations we do.

I've been trying to figure out what the difference was/is... What made me pull out the glue or the clay or the strange ingredients?

Fried plantains from our African feast dinner.

The baby? I thought of that...but #5 was this age when we started homeschooling in the first place and with two naps a day and a pretty easy going attitude right now, I don't think she's to blame.

The two-year-old? That's a good guess...and probably closer to the answer. He's so busy. He's so distructive. He's so demanding of all the attention and difficult to distract. But he also takes a nap everyday and timing history for nap time is easy, so I don't think that's it exactly.

Planning...ding, ding, ding!

History planning and knitting...always a good pair.

The past years I've gone through the book prior to school starting and make an overview plan including projects I want to do and supplies I will need to get.

I didn't do that planning this year. I will admit that the planning process is fun and I've liked that part. Then school starts and we start to get behind in my "plans" and I'm trying to re-figure what we're going to do. So this year I thought I'd skip the planning part and would just "go with the flow". Apparently I don't "go with the flow" very well.

But I think I can come up with a compromise. I'm thinking I should just do a broad, overview plan for just a couple of months. That way I'm not behind before I start. But I've got to get a plan in place and figure out some fun activities or history won't be alive in the school of Wiedz...I'll be having a 6 year old who refuses any history lessons!

**This year we are using The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 3: Early Modern Times and the accompanying activity book. I have really enjoyed the Story of the World series and even though I'd love to move to a more unit study approach to history I want #2 and #3 to have a complete round of narrations and pictures and maps and experiences from this method. Next year we will complete the four-year round and after that I'll move to a unit study approach for #2's second round through the four-year cycle.

This year we are going to spend the month of February going a little more in depth to the revolutionary war. We get to it in the SOTW3 but I want to take a little while to really enjoy it. I've got big plans to make this a fun as I can...I'll try to keep you posted!