History is the most absorbing and enthralling story you can tell a young child, because it’s true.  A good history narrative is as strange and wondrous as a good fairy tale.  Kings, queens, mummies, wooden horses, knights and castles can be as fascinating as giants and elves – but they really existed!
In classical education, history lies at the center of the curriculum.  The chronological study of history allows even small children to learn about the past in an orderly way; after all, the “best way to tell a story,” as the King tells Alice in Alice in Wonderland, “is to begin at the beginning and go on to the end.”  When the study of literature is linked to history, children have an opportunity to hear the stories of each country as they learn more about that country’s past and its people.  History teaches comprehension; young students learn to listen carefully, to pick out and remember the central facts in each story.  History even becomes the training ground for beginning writers.  When you ask an elementary-aged student to “narrate,” to tell back to you the information he’s just heard in his own words, you are giving him invaluable practice in the first and most difficult step of writing: putting an idea into words.
    How do you study history classically?  Find a central text, or “spine,” that tells the story of history chronologically.  This activity guide is designed to go along Volume I of Susan Wise Bauer’s The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child. Think of each section in The Story of the World as a “springboard” into the study of world history.  This book provides you with a simple, chronological overview of the progression of history.  It isn’t intended to be complete, but when you do history with elementary-grade students, you’re not aiming for a “complete” grasp of what happened in ancient times.  Instead, you want to give the child an enthusiasm for history, a basic understanding of major cultures, and an idea of the chronological order of historical events.
     For each section in The Story of the World, follow this pattern:

     1) Read the child one section from The Story of the World.  Longer chapters are divided into several sections, each section appropriate for one session of history.  Good readers can read the section to you instead.

    2) For each section, ask the child the Review Questions provided.  Answers given are approximate; accept any reasonable answer.  You can also make up your own questions.  Always allow the child to look back over the text when answering questions, especially if proper names are part of the answer.  This is training in reading comprehension (and it will help you evaluate whether the child is listening with attention, or whether he’s really understand what he’s reading).

    3)  Have the child tell you in two to five sentences what the history lesson was about.  You can prompt the child with the Review Questions.  Encourage the child to include the major facts from the history reading, but not EVERY fact.  We have supplied sample narrations simply to give some idea of acceptable answers, not to imply that your child’s narration should match word for word!

    4)  Write down the child’s narration if the child is not writing independently.  Good writers can be asked to write the narration down themselves.  To help with this process, listen carefully to the child’s narration and repeat it back to her while she writes; this will help with “writer’s block.”  For any given section, you can instead ask the child to draw a picture of her favorite part of the history lesson and then describe the picture to you.  Write the description at the bottom of the picture.  Put the narration or picture in a History Notebook – a looseleaf notebook that will serve as the child’s record of her history study.

    5) When you have finished all the sections of a chapter, stop and do additional reading and activities on the topic covered by that chapter.  This Activity Guide provides titles of books that you can find at your library for additional reading, along with maps, coloring pages, crafts, and hands-on activities.  Some topics (ancient Egypt or Greece, for example) have many more resources available to elementary-grade children than others (ancient Akkadia).
    When you reach a topic that has a wealth of interesting books and activities connected to it, stop and enjoy yourself and don’t feel undue pressure to move on (“We’ve got to get through Akkadia by Christmas!”).  Check your local library for titles before buying.  The recommended titles range in difficulty from first grade read-alones to advanced fourth grade.  When appropriate, ask the child to draw pictures or narrate about the additional reading as well.  Put these pictures and narrations in the History Notebook, which should begin to resemble the child’s own one-volume World History.  Don’t ask the child to narrate every book, or she’ll grow frustrated; use this as occasional reinforcement for a topic she finds particularly interesting.
    We have provided cross-reference numbers to the appropriate pages in both The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History and The Usborne Book of World History (as well as to the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and the Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World).   The Usborne books do not have a sustained narrative voice; instead they contain short “snippets” of information on a number of different topics for each civilization.  Since it is a more complete reference work than The Story of the World, though, it is a valuable supplement (and it has wonderful clear illustrations).

    6)  Choose appropriate titles from the recommended literature lists and read these with your child.  Most elementary students should also be doing a phonics and/or phonics-based spelling program; this reading should supplement those programs.  Classical philosophy discourages the use of “reading textbooks” which contain little snippets of a number of different works.  These textbooks tend to turn reading into a chore, an assignment that has to be finished rather than a wonderful way to learn more about the world.  Instead of following a “reading program,” consider using the “real books” from these literature lists.

Multilevel teaching

    The Story of the World is intended for children in grades 1-4.  However, the maps and many of the activities in this book are also appropriate for children in grades 5-8.  Each chapter of the activity guide also contains cross-reference page numbers for the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and the Kingfisher Illlustrated History of the World, two good middle-grade world history reference works.  To use The Story of the World as the center of a multi-level history program, have your older child read the appropriate pages from one of the Kingfisher volumes, place all important dates on a timeline, and do additional reading on his or her own level.  For book lists and more detailed directions on classical education methods for both elementary and middle-grade students, see The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer (W. W. Norton, 1999), available from Peace Hill Press (www.peacehillpress.com) or anywhere books are sold.
 

For parents

     Families differ in their attitudes towards teaching myth, in their willingness to view partially-clothed people in ancient art, and in their sensitivity towards the (inevitable) violence of ancient times.  We suggest that you skim through the activities in this Guide, glance through the literature that we recommend, and skip anything which might be inappropriate for your own family.  In addition, both the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History contain a number of pages on prehistoric peoples which may not agree with your family’s convictions about humankind’s beginnings.  If this might pose a problem for you, preview these books before purchasing.

UILE = The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History
UBWH = Usborne Book of World History
KIHOW = Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World
KHE = The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
 
 

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