Saturday, July 6, 2013

Social Science planning

When possible I like studying world history and world geography together. When we study the Celts I want us to study Scotland (so excited for that week!), as an example. That isn't always possible because sometimes 2 or more topics take place in the same place and, aside from England, I don't want to study the same place twice because I want to introduce as many places as I can. I also managed to mostly arrange the geography topics by continent, just by luck. We will be reading books on each country and putting together lap books. Many of our geography materials are coming from a program called Expedition Earth and also from Continent Boxes. Some of the countries we plan to study are not included in the Expedition Earth so I have to search the internet to find materials. Hopefully it won't be a problem. As I've mentioned before our history comes from here.  
This is the list of what we are doing when-


     HISTORY                                                             GEOGRAPHY

  1. Overview of the Medieval World                     Over View of World Geography
  2. The Byzantine Empire                                      Turkey
  3. Charlemagne                                                    Belgium
  4. Monks of the Christian Church                         Italy/Vatican City
  5. Islam/Arabs                                                     Iran
  6. The Vikings                                                     Sweden/Norway
  7. The Danes/Holy Roman Empire                       Denmark
  8. The Normans                                                  France
  9. 100 Years War and the Black Death               England
  10. The Feudal System                                         Germany
  11. Knights                                                           Wales
  12. Castles                                                            Ireland
  13. Medieval Villages and Towns                          The Netherlands
  14. Christian Church/Medieval Architecture           Spain
  15. Pilgrimages and the Crusades                          Israel 
  16. Richard the Lionhearted and Robin Hood        England
  17. The Celts                                                        Scotland
  18. Burundians/Habsburgs/War of the Roses        Austria
  19. The Mongols                                                  Mongolia
  20. The Russians                                                  Russia
  21. Africa                                                            Africa  *Africa is listed as it's own topic in history so I thought we would take 2 extra days during the week and study the entire continent at once. We will make time later to study each place on it's own.
  22. India/South East Asia                                    India
  23. China                                                           China
  24. Japan                                                           Japan
  25. Explorers                                                     Australia
  26. Pacific Ocean Islands                                   New Zealand
  27. Native Americans -North                             Canada
  28. Native Americans- North                             Mexico
  29. Central/South America                                 Brazil
  30. Central/South America                                 Argentina 
  31. The Turks/Ottomans                                    Peru
  32. The Renaissance                                          Panama
  33. More World Expansion                               Venezuela
  34. The Mughals/Reformation/Counter-Reformation  South Korea
  35. Elizabeth I/William Shakespeare                    Thailand
  36. Middle Ages Keepsake Books                    Arctic/Antarctica 
Over our Winter Break I am planning a unit on celebrations around the world. We are mostly of German, English and Scottish extraction so I am planning to incorporate more of those countries traditions into our family celebrations (we have been celebrating St Nicholas Day for years and the boys always looks forward to having St Nicholas put candy and a toy in their shoes).
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 15, 2013 at 9:04 AM

    FROM BUBBE:

    I wish I'd had you for an elementary school teacher: your classes are so much more exciting than they were when I was the Beastlings' ages.

    It seems to me many subjects can be combined and I think it makes the lessons not only easier to learn - by providing context - but also easier to retain the information learned; again, by providing context. Also, dry recitations of countries (with capitals, principal exports and other info irrelevant and uninteresting to an 8-year-old) make learning BORING, which makes kids not want to be taught.

    You're doing a FANTASTIC job teaching the boys!!!

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