Monday, February 8, 2010

My Book of Centuries

As I've been pondering about how to get a good, broad education about different areas and then to guide my kids into discovering these things themselves - I thought of a Charlotte Mason idea that I got really exited about doing.  It's called a "Book of Centuries".  I got a 3 ring binder and printed pages 42-123 from here.  I didn't print the pages before that because prior to 2000 BC, I didn't think I would need 2 pages per century.  Instead, I printed two extra pages in which I typed 4000-3000 BC on top and two pages with 3000-2000 BC.  I then hole punched all of the pages so that the two pages with the same century faced each other.  I made a title page, and voila - my very own book of centuries.

Here's what I plan to put into my Book of Centuries:

-Whenever I read about a certain person or even in Story of the World or other books (like biographies about composers, artists, scientists) - I will write a brief description with some key words to help me recall what I read under the proper century.  I will not write down any events or people whom I have not read about (I don't want this to be merely a time line - I want it to be something I can look at and remember what I studied).

-I'll underline or highlight any people I want to read or learn more about.

-I'll highlight the places in which things to place in different colors (ie.  I'll highlight "INDIA" in blue, the "MIDDLE EAST" in green, "ENGLAND" in yellow, etc) so that I can get a comprehensive idea of the history of each place.

-I want to have a section with books that pertain to that time period.  This will be the only section that I will not need to have read already.  I also want to put titles of books in here that I would like to read (or that I think my kids would like to read) that pertain to that time period.  I'm exited about this because there are several authors that write some really great historical fiction or biographies and I want to have these titles all in one place where I can look at them and where they fit into everything else that was going on in the world.  I'll do this with the books I read from my Great Books study plans, our devotional, our family reading time, and with some of the books that I think would be beneficial for the kids.  I have already printed out timelines for the G. A. Henty books, American Girl's series, also the My America, Royal Diaries,  My Name is America, and the Dear America series.  I also have the chronological order of the books on tape from Greathall productions which are at my library.  I also want to plug in the Childhood of Famous Americans books in there.

I've been so exited about this that I'm having a hard time doing anything else.  It will be so fun to be studying about a certain time period or a certain place with the children and then be able to have all sorts of books, myths and legends that we can read about from that time period or place.  It also had the added benefit that Spice seems to be getting exited about possibly starting her own Book of Centuries.

I also look forward to putting events and people in my Book of Centuries from my scripture study, my studies from The Story of Science series by Joy Hakim, and from Mathematicians are People, Too .
There's more, but I better stop here before I start overwhelming myself!

I haven't been posting very many pictures so here's a few pictures of the kids from when we went to the zoo last week:










I got some fun pictures that day, but I'll post them on my next post because I need to go feed my children some breakfast!

3 comments:

  1. Karen, this is great!!!!

    When doing your book of centuries, do not forget to put yourself into it. You are part of history too. Also, include current events. I love your book list idea!

    My BoC has a different date set up. For centuries that were ancient and we have little info, my dates are further apart, and for times closer to now, the dates drop from a century to a decade, and all the way down to 1 year. Mine are blocks that go across the page for dates and down the page for different continental groupings. That way it is easy to compare what was going on during a time. You know, Nephi living during the same time Lao Tzu, Confucious, and Pythagoras. I use my timeline pages like index pages where I not the name / event in the boxes. Then I add pages of content I want to remember on pages inserted in between those time-line index pages.

    Now I will add a resource list in that section too! Both book and I will add internet links too! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. Thanks Donna! I love the blocks for continental groupings idea! I think I'll do that down the pages of mine as well - I was noticing that at least the last 3 centuries would need a couple of pages per decade. I'll add that as well.

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  3. I love this idea! I feel like that's all I ever say on here, because all the things you're doing are so great. I'm seriously realizing I've got some big gaps in my education.

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