Planning for History in a CM way -- Texas History for High School

Let me take you on a journey - the way that I apply the Charlotte Mason method to a subject like history. In this case, it’s Texas History, a requirement for public-school children in this state at both 4th grade and 7th grade, and again, at university.

Of course, as homeschoolers, we didn't have to do this study -- ever. However, we decided that we would because my kids have grown up in England and only just moved to my home state in June 2016. It also would be a great way to invite along some other homeschoolers in a co-op, and widen our social circle.

In Texas - time to study Texas history!

The challenge was to map a well-documented study that's normally for ages 9/10 and 12/13, onto a more rigorous expectation for high schoolers. Further, to move away from the textbooks used at these years and even at college, and find some living books that would cover the sweeping timeline of the territory.

Just a reminder of what I mean by a living book — 

• A book that engages the reader and draws him or her into learning more about a subject; it is typically narrative in style and written by an authority on the material. Living books are written by someone with a passion for the material or by someone who has experienced the story first hand. - Sassafras Science

Textbooks are not living books, in general. There are some exceptions, such as the Exploring Creation books by Jeannie Fulbright from Apologia Science.

Another criteria for choosing books was avoiding twaddle. Twaddle means probably what you think it means — books that are silly, babyish, basic, usually bitty, full of pictures without extended text. Texas History has a lot of this rubbish on offer, probably because it’s a school subject and publishers can get away with quantity over quality.

Once I established the kind of book I was looking for, it was time to scour Amazon. I love Amazon because you can input a book title - for example, even the textbooks — and check out the related titles that come up in the search bar.

In some ways, though, I got to cheat on this step. I knew a living book that we used years ago, when I touched on the history of the Alamo with my children almost ten years ago. The book was called Journey to the Alamo by Melodie A Cuate. It’s one of those stories where modern-day children get whisked back in time by a magical trunk, and find themselves in the midst of the battle. Not especially strong for the high schoolers I was teaching, but a favorite for the middle-grade kids, and helpful for the search threads on offer when looking on Amazon.

I also googled Texas History and homeschooling, to get the way that other parents have navigated this subject before. No reason to reinvent the wheel, right?

Finally, I went to my library to expose myself to the bigger picture of Texas history than I remember from my own 7th grade education. I’m lucky that my local library has a very creditable collection, its shelves fairly full of Texas-related living books in the adult section. It was here that I hit on the best find: my spine book of the year.

“Good-bye to a River” is a memoir by John Graves. He wrote it in the 1950s after taking a canoeing trip down the Brazos, stopping by many of the homesteads of people whose family traced roots back to the 19th century. He picked up lore and legend, myth and hearsay, and as he floated down the river, camped on the shores, fished and hunted and tried to keep his puppy warm and dry, he took the experience and turned it into a repository of some of the last memories of people who had been there in Texas’s early days of settlement.

That is, settlement in the northwestern part of the state, a place that remained wild and dangerous until almost 1880, and rarely included much in the narratives of the southeastern portion and its famous six flags.

The only problem with the book is that it has its moments of gruesome raids and scalpings, so it’s in need of some editing and generous warnings about certain chapters that one should probably skip entirely.

My second book of choice was Sam Houston’s Republic. It came highly recommended on homeschooling sites, and the first pages seemed promising. Definitely a living book, but ever since buying it and trying to push through it, I’m backtracking. It’s not very well written, extremely digressive, and the kids literally groan whenever I open it.

Not a good sign.

These two books are working as our spine - the books that I use to take information from and discuss in our meetings. We also lapbook/scrapbook our sessions, building up a picture of regime change as we journey from Indian ranges, to Spanish and, to a lesser extent, French territory, Mexican colony, independent Republic, and the difficult years of unity and war. The overall idea is to vist the six flags of Texas while acknowledging the ever-present danger of the Comanche peoples to the north.

Six flags of Texas - with a Seventh!

We also have a bank of books that we’re reading and enjoying as bedtime reading or independent reading.

These include the remaining titles of Cuate’s Mr Barrington’s Trunk series, of which Journey to the Alamo was first. She followed this by San Jacinto, Goliad, Gonzales, Galveston, Plum Creek and La Salle’s Settlement. If you have middle schoolers, you could do your whole year of Texas history by reading this series. The only problem is that it’s expensive to buy, so make your library do it for you!

Another series that we’re using is written by Janice Shefelman. Titles include Comanche Song, Spirit of Iron, and Willow Creek Home. She also writes a book about German immigrants who arrived in Galveston (A Paradise Called Texas), one of the most important eras of Texas history when it comes to my own family! 

The Cuate and Shefelman books are great for 5th-7th grade, but not really great for high schoolers. We read them anyway as a family for fun, but sometimes the way to push the older students is to turn them loose and make them discover their own info. We’ve completed one sub-section of our study when, over Christmas, they had a bird-watching project to complete.

Big Boys do Scrapbooks

Next, because we’re entering the era of the Republic, we’ll be exploring origins of our Republic luminaries like Travis, Crockett, Bowie, Houston, and Fannin, each high schooler responsible for researching one of them. We’ll also be combining the middle schoolers and high schoolers for a salt dough recreation of the Alamo.

A trip to San Antonio is de rigueur as the weather improves, too!

I hope this blog post has accomplished two things: first, given you insight and perhaps encouragement that you can choose your own era of history and make it part of a Charlotte Mason education, particularly with its emphasis on living books. I should say here that I’m not saying that this alone is “the Charlotte Mason method”, but part of a whole philosophy that includes all the other subjects and various hallmarks like copywork, dictation, nature study, etc.

However, people often ask on social media about how to design their own CM-style history curriculum, so this post will probably give you an idea of the process.

Second, if you need ideas for Texas History, this should give you, at worst, a head start!

Drawing Contest for new Chaucer Book

If you've ever tried to introduce your children to Chaucer, you may discover that you can find either story-book versions or modern translations. The former is rather dumbed-down, and the latter is ... well, if you know anything about Chaucer, Too Much Information!!!

To my mind, there is only one book that gives an adequate flavour of The Canterbury Tales without all the rude, farty bits, and that's a very old book called A Taste of Chaucer by Anne Malcolmson.

Now a rare book!

Up until about three years ago, A Taste of Chaucer was available in paperback from Sonlight, but after the death of the author, it disappeared from the catalogue, and pretty much all affordable options dried up.

However, good news! The book is due to make another appearance, this time in ebook format, thanks to the generosity of Malcolmson's family.

Knights dance at the news!

The publication date is set for 10th of October, 2015. Sign up to the website for updates, and "like" the Facebook page.

In the meantime, the publishers are looking for homeschoolers to draw some pictures as illustrations of the new ebook. Details are here: http://www.atasteofchaucer.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-images-we-need.html

All styles, stages, ages and abilities are encouraged to enter -- the wider variety, the better. The only real limitation is that the pictures must be original and drawn in black and white.

Enter now -- all winners get free copy of the book!

Now THAT'S a big timeline!

Whether you're a follower of the Charlotte Mason method or not, I think having a working timeline for your family is a very important addition to your history studies.

Children can cope with our tendency to hop around historical studies -- even schools, notorious for having children dress up like Cleopatra one day and an Evacuee from World War II the next, are able to help their pupils form some kind of mental timeline in their heads.

Yes, the Egyptian pyramids were built before Hadrian's Wall.

But did you know the Egyptian pyramids were being built the same time that Stonehenge was being built?


In the Charlotte Mason method, the usual suggestion is to keep a Book of the Centuries. This is nothing more than a loose-leaf notebook where you insert pages in chronological order, perhaps even jotting down a list of things that happened roughly in the same era.

We have tried a "BOC" in the past, but it just wasn't visual enough for me -- just not enough

 for my liking.

Other methods have their own preferences: Konos curriculum has a wall timeline where you put cut-out figures on their century; Montessori has a little number-line kind of timeline that makes one work out that 1st century means 0-99 AD. I'm sure there are scores more.

In the end, though, we took 54 pieces of A4 card, used clear packing tape to stick them together (with a gap between the card so the tape works as a hinge), and created a 30-foot timeline. At the earlier end, each piece of card is a millennia, but as we work our way past 0 AD, it tends to be centuries.

Killer holds the 30-foot long timeline

Sometimes, we fill up a century easily, such as our study of the English Civil War last year. If that happens, we just tape another piece of card over the top, hinging at the top so it lifts up like a giant flap.

We mix photocopies and drawings,
text and print-outs
(Yes, that's Phineas and Ferb in the chariot)

We're in our fourth year of using this timeline, and it serves as an excellent tool for review as well as for putting our studies into context.

Why don't you try one? It will cost less than a fiver. whatever your currency!

English Civil War Workshop in Oxford

Traipsing around Oxford in the pouring rain in the wettest
winter on record (almost), we met up with 11 other homeschoolers at the Museum of Oxford for a workshop on the English Civil War.

Flood Times in February

Our hands-on portion was led by Kate of the Education Department, and she had the children try on replica clothes and think about what it would be like if suddenly 6000 extra people were billeted in a city of 10,000.

Kate Dresses a Cavalier

This discussion session usually takes about 45 minutes (so we were told), yet you know what homeschoolers are like:

• What do the beeswax candles smell like?
• How tall were the pikes?
• Did soldiers have to carry their blankets and food with them?
• What would water taste like if you drank it out of a leather flagon?
• Why would you even drink the water, if 6000 extra people were throwing their sewage into the Thames?

Look at all those raised hands!

So the 45-minute session turned in 1 1/2 hours, capped off by the chance to write with quill pens on parchment paper.

Getting the Knack with Quill and Ink

"Dear Mom, I gave my wife the
keys and she won't let me in
the house. Thanks."

The last part of the 2-hour workshop entailed some time in the museum collection, but unlike the previous incarnation of the museum, with lots of bits and bobs from the Civil War era, the current displays have very little to see of any era, and was very disappointing. Judging from the website, this is only temporary as the real galleries are due to open next month after refurbishment.

Killer in a Bowler

To me, the best part of these workshops are meeting other homeschoolers in the area. Today's group seemed especially wonderful, for some reason. Attentive and inquisitive, knowledgeable and keen, the kids seemed to get a lot out of it, and let others get a lot out of it, too (including the four mums and dads who stayed to join in).

A Mum Lurking for Her Turn
with the Quill Pen!

Camping When It's Term Time (School on the Move)

One of the advantages of homeschooling is the ability to go on holiday when the prices are lower, the venues are less crowded, and the field trips can be clustered if they're far from home.

Recently, we took a camping trip in June for just that reason.

A tranquil little tent by the pond.

June? you might say.  Yes, in England, June is still smack in the middle of term time.  Even the private schools, which break up much earlier than the state sector, are limping toward the end of their term in June, not finishing till the first week of July.  Only A-level students, finished with exams, and some university students, are free for the summer by then; everyone else has to wait till July.

We decided on our campground based on an eclectic range of criteria: within 2 hours' drive, affordable price, allows campfires, working farm, fishing, and proper toilets/showers that aren't coin-operated. We chose Lower Hill Farm near Much Wenlock in Shropshire. Although this is a very handy place for the wonderful collection of Victorian-era museums in Ironbridge, we had already been there a few years before, so we opted instead for some English Heritage sites: Much Wenlock Priory and Wroxeter Roman City.

Our campsite, being on the footpath along Wenlock Edge, was close enough to the village to take a lovely forest stroll there and back.

Kids walk faster on their way back to camp!

The priory at Much Wenlock is near the town centre.  It's a tranquil little patch of a ruined priory, interesting to me for two reasons: first, it's about the only Cluniac church I've every seen (most are Cistercian or Benedictine, I think), and is, I think, the only one in England to have a lavabo, which is a big outdoor washing station for about 16 monks to use before going in to dine.

It wouldn't be a set of ruins that I'd take a special trip to see.  Not so much remains of it, and even the lavabo looks like a giant wheel-cog stuck in the middle of a little grassy square, having lost most of its carvings and its octagonal roofed structure in days gone by. It is, however, pleasant for a picnic, and fits into the wider study we've taken about medieval churches -- tiles like Winchester cathedral, a chapter house with some Viking-style carvings, a clear distinction between dressed stone versus the softer, more distressed stone underneath (now weathered and forlorn), and the knowledge that a woman saint was once buried near the eastern columns (now only circles in the grass), attracting pilgrims in much the same way as St Albans, St Birinus, St Thomas Becket, and the many other saints we've seen over the year.

Some walls still standing at Much Wenlock

The next day, Wroxeter required a car trip, along the smallest, narrowest, most challenging roads I think I've had the unlucky privilege to meet! Yet, it was worth it.  They have a number of interesting ruins to mooch around on one side of the road, and a recreated Roman villa on the other.  The villa seems to be a new project, with only some of the rooms furnished, but I was glad to be able to see it as a replica, helping me understand Roman life even better.

Recreated Roman Villa at Wroxeter

The great advantage of English Heritage sites is that, as home educators, we are able to apply in advance for free entry to the sites as an educational group. We don't even have to be members.

Back at the campsite, we had another educational experience when we learned to fish the English way.  First of all, the easiest and cheapest equipment were poles called "whips", which are basically telescopic poles with a bit of line on the end, a bobber, and a small, barbless hook.  Bait?  Just kernels of sweetcorn or even plain white bread.  No rod and reels, no lures, no worms -- nothing I grew up doing in Texas.  Also, no keeping the fish either.  In England, angling is strictly a sport, and though there are a few places which will let you keep the fish for eating, they will be few and far between, and are closely regulated.

Rocky and Killer use a net to get the carp

Another lesson was that of perseverance.  Poor Phoenix.  She sat and sat and sat, baited and re-baited, tossed out her line again and again and again, and in the end ...

Phoenix with her hard-earned catch

... caught the biggest carp of the day!

The nights of an English summer are very long in coming.  The fishing pictures above were both taken after dinner, probably about 9 pm.  It was about then that I lit the evening campfire, we sat around the flames, and told ghost stories (but not too scary, or the kids would have nightmares, and I'd have to cram too many people in my sleeping bag!).  

Family focus around the fire

We also continued our tradition of using wooden skewers to paint interesting patterns in the night sky -- a bit like sparklers without the spark.  We are very fond of this method, and highly recommend it to Americans whose children are afraid of sparklers on the 4th of July.  This is perfectly safe, and provides a lot more fun for the money.

Busy Timmy makes a halo with his skewer

Staying at a working farm had some great advantages, including being able to buy fresh sausages, and pork-and-apple hamburgers right out of the farmers' back door.  On my night to cook, I bought 15 burgers for our little homeschooling party of 10.  Two vegetarians, and yet, all burgers eaten!  Wow!

Rachel the Roaster BBQs some "dogs"

Finally, we came to packing up on the Thursday after three wonderful nights.  Having had no rain, all the equipment was dry (rare in England), and even though we'd eaten most of the food I'd brought, we were still struggling to find places for everything to fit in the van.  The biggest triumph was my being able to fold up the pop-up tents successfully -- having watched the instructional videos many-a-time, I felt proud to have been able to do it for real.

One 4-man tent, twisted and folded to the size of a bike tire

Lapbook of Henry II

Here is a page from this year's scrapbook we're making to go along with our study of Our Island Story up until the end of the Tudors. (In previous years, we tried to do the whole book in one year, but felt we missed out on so much fantastic stuff, we slowed our progress this year).

Scrapbook Page on Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine

There are four items that make up the double-page spread, though true to form, Phoenix has added some cartoons and labels that weren't exactly in the plan for everyone.

The items are:

• Map of Europe showing the Angevin empire under Henry II's control and how he had more of France than did the King of France at the time. The link is here: http://tinyurl.com/ceufo39

• A cross-shaped book which, above, is labeled "Turmoil". Inside are some quick facts about Henry II.

With the cross-shaped flaps open, the topics
are Henry's castle-building, the "acquisition" of Ireland,
and his burial in France.

• A booklet of the story of Thomas Becket.

An Accordion-Fold Book of Thomas Becket's Life and Death

• A layered book about Eleanor of Aquitaine.

A 7-layer Booklet
(Sorry it's sideways!)

With some of the flaps open:
Eleanor's vital statistics, and (overleaf)
her two kingly husbands.

As usual, the session was mixed, the girls taking to the activity like ducks to water.  Cutting, pasting, fashioning, some even writing the labels rather than cutting the pre-typed ones.

Some people criticise lapbooks as busy work -
but in order to fashion the items correctly,
the student needs to pay attention to the
information and process what it's about.

The boys, on the other hand, either needed help with the cutting (otherwise, it's too taxing on their fine motor skills and they get tired, grumpy, and frustrated), or they soon got distracted with the shapes.

The cross-shaped lapbook template
gave Killer an extension idea!

Not everyone (ummm ... the boys) finished their scrapbook page on the day, so they got to work on them throughout the following week.  Little and often is fine -- in some ways, perhaps even better.  Daily, they re-visited the topic and got it reinforced.

In the case of lapbooks, sometimes
little and often is less frustrating for boys
who otherwise find the skills difficult.
Here is Busy Timmy, who is 5, who decided
he liked the look of the Big Uns' lapbooks,
and decided to do the activities himself.

Although I got the images from the internet and chose which ones to use, the templates came from a single site which I'm happy to link you to below. It's here, as well, that you can learn more in general about lapbooks. Just be sure you have plenty of gluesticks on hand, because there's nothing like running out of glue when you want to cut-and-paste your lapbook (trust me, I've been there and it was NOT pretty!)

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php

Trip to Ashmolean's new Egyptian Gallery

I must have been mad -- taking six children to Oxford's Ashmolean museum to look at their new Egyptian gallery.


Even madder to meet up with a friend who brought along four boys.

Two adults with ten children was ... just about do-able.

Oxford's Ashmolean Museum
est. 1683
(the current building is from 1845)

The Ashmolean likes to provide little worksheet "trails" to its young visitors, and while it's true that the children love to do them (and get rewarded with certificates afterwards for completing them), the practical side of rounding up ten children who want to dash through an exhibition just to tick boxes isn't, it would seem, completely thought out.

Ten items were identified and "collected" on their sheets, but did they read any captions?  Did they know what they were?  Like heck!

The shrine of King Taharqa --
 the only free-standing pharaonic structure in Britain

Anyway, my friend and I did our best to take them all through a second time and point out cool things -- like cartouches and the free-standing, stone pharaonic shrine of King Taharqa and real, live canopic jars like those they had fashioned out of spice jars and clay a few weeks ago at our history co-op.  I did enjoy hearing the children shout, "Hey, look, it's Duamutef."

Phoenix was fascinated by a series of glass plates, each with part of a drawing that, together, made up the CT image of a child's mummy believed to have been from 100 AD. We all wonder, however, that the radiologists hypothesized that the child had died of pneumonia when his lungs would have been removed (and put in the Hapi canopic jar).

The Ashmolean Mummy Boy 3
by Angela Palmer
Ink Drawing on 111 sheets of Mirogard Glass

Our final attempt to get extra mileage out of the trip was looking around some of the Grecian items, since we're turning our attention to Ancient Greece in the new year.  Instead, they discovered the room with pre-historic British artefacts and an interactive bow and arrow where you try to shoot some plastic cut-out stags.

Later, when I was cuddling Busy Timmy in bed and asking him what was the best part of the museum trip today, he said, "The revolving door where you go in."

What is Education For?

Recently discovered the RSA Animate stable of fascinating videos: talks with white-board cartoon drawings that illustrate a 10-minute precis of lectures ranging from education to capitalism and other economic issues.

Here is one of my favourite by Sir Ken Robinson called "Changing Education Paradigms":

And here's me with my children + friends, changing some education paradigms of our own:

Boo to "Batching!"
Children from 6 to 11 prepare to board
an imaginary LCV for re-enacting the D-Day landings.