Rewriting More History

  “The fatal mistake is in the notion that he (the child) must learn ‘outlines,’ of the whole history… of the world.  Let him, on the contrary, linger pleasantly over the history of a single man, a short period, until he thinks the thoughts of that man, is at home in the ways of that period. Though he is reading and thinking of the life time of a single man, he is really getting intimately acquainted with the history of a whole nation for a whole age.”     ~ Charlotte Mason

I love the way the Lord will send a voice of wisdom to speak to our unspoken anxieties even before we ask.    I am thankful for the numbers of you who wrote in various places about the credits, and I wanted to be sure you knew that I did read the HSLDA links.   I am clearer now, except that I forgot to list a couple of "courses," so I still have a fresh set of questions regarding where/if they count as a full credit, 1/2 credit, etc.    I believe that I can lump Vocabulary in with Language Arts, but Current Events won’t fit into Ancient History too well.   Also, if I count the actual hours that the oldest takes, it would equal far more hours than the credit value that I would assign to it in theory–she’ll never be accused of not stopping to smell the roses, you know?

So anyway, another of my almost-time-for-high-school anxieties was a nagging need for a textbook or something that provided history in a very linear fashion, making it easier than easy to develop a timeline, pull it all together, etc.   You’d think after years of using Miss Mason’s approach and seeing wonderful results that I’d know better, but I think that because several of these books are classics that I’ve heard of but not read myself, I was uncertain of my ability to be a valuable resource.   In checking out Hold that Thought Notebooking (see here), I found this quote, and I immediately recognized it as a word in season.   I placed it here as a reminder to myself, and I hope it ministers to you, too.   Also, I gave up scanning these history pages from the older two after repeated issues with the scanner, and I decided to take advantage of the camera instead.    I won’t list the notes under each pic as this post would quickly become way too long, but nevertheless, here goes.

 From our daughter (beginning on a previous page, not shown):

‘In that day, paved roads hadn’t been made.  People were still riding on dry or muddy dirt roads with ruts, rocks and no road separators.    Most people were, of course, use to it, but others wanted newer and smoother roads.    Roadmakers started thinking of different materials for the new roads, but sadly most ideas didn’t last long.   Also, people didn’t want to pay for new roads.   They were all thinking about making canals instead.  The road ideas were put aside for plans of making the canal.   With the help of Irishmen who were needy during their Great Potato Famine, the canal was finished in 8 years.   It was called the Grand Canal before it later became the Erie Canal.’

From our son:

‘Even though America was winning the war, England won many battles.  The last battle was in Yorktown.   America won.   After the war Congress tried to make a government.  But many people were scared that a president would be like a king.’

It is said that those who do not remember their history are doomed to repeat it.   Where might this country be if more of us got to embrace our history in this way?