History

For History in this inaugural year, I've chosen to follow Ambleside Online's suggestion to use Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin. Available in a number of online formats, this work tells, you guessed it, 50 stories spanning world history from the 600's BC through the 19th century AD. It includes stories from many world powers including Rome, Greece, England and America.

Instead of purchasing a hard-copy of the book or printing out the stories from an online source, I chose to download an audio version from Librivox.org. LibriVox is an online repository of free audio books where "volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net." Each chapter of the 50 Famous Stories was in a separate MP3 file which I added to an iTunes playlist, listened to them, then copied them to an audio CD for my K5-son to use.

Using a helpful list of the stories from the Ambleside Online as a starting point, I organized the stories in chronological order (I found discrepancies with some of the Ambleside list) and found images in the public domain (no copyright) to use with each story.

I made my K5-son a "Fifty Famous Stories" timeline book using the "accordian fold format" shown at Homeschool in the Woods.

He listens to a story from the CD and narrates it back to me. He then finds the image that goes with the story, colors and cuts it out and pastes it in the appropriate place in his timeline book.

Not only is he becoming familiar with places like Rome and Greece and important historical figures, it has also opened up a helpful dialogue about the fallen nature of man. For instance, this from the story on Julius Cæsar:

At another time, Cæsar was crossing a narrow sea in a boat. Before he was halfway to the farther shore, a storm overtook him. The wind blew hard; the waves clashed high; the lightning flashed; the thunder rolled.

It seemed every minute as though the boat would sink. The captain was in great fright. He had crossed the sea many times, but never in such a storm as this. He trembled with fear; he could not guide the boat; he fell down upon his knees; he moaned, "All is lost! all is lost!"

But Cæsar was not afraid. He bade the man get up and take his oars again.

"Why should you be afraid?" he said. "The boat will not be lost; for you have Cæsar on board."