I'm so glad you are planning to help curate the list of 100. The idea of the memory palace is new to me and I'm eager to implement it. I'm so very glad to see that the movement will be from room to room rather than camping in one room for a month or two. History has always been my weakest subject. (And hiding the labels, dots and images on the walls of our home from the young earth family and friends might be our biggest hurtle!! That it's something I'm still grappling with just adds complication.) In fact, just yesterday my son was asked what he's learning in history and he gave the dear in headlights look... "I don't think I'm learning anything about history..." quizzically looks at me... (Yes, it is in our curriculum. Yet somehow he doesn't think he's learning anything? Aside from the fact that we are working through the Science is Weird curriculum which is packed with historical facts.)
Anyway, choosing the 100 stories and how to tell them feels mega hard. I've been teaching history by country; spending each week in one or two countries- which has felt like drinking from a fire hose. But I think it has still been beneficial? I hope. We spent one year in Africa, one year in Asia and are currently in the middle of Antarctica, Australia & Oceania, Caribbean, North, South & Central America. Next year would then be Europe. How will you cover all of these countries fairly with only 100 events? Eurocentric history has been nearly impossibly hard to get away from. "History is told by the victor" being something that has me doubting that our records accurately depict the past.
I will have to decide whether to continue on our course and finish up with Europe or begin the palace approach. My son (Zeke...taking Comics now) is currently in 8th grade. Have you posted about how to adapt all of these wonderful frames to older students? We are working through the science lessons at an accelerated pace to fit them all in and so that hopefully he can join the live classes in the 27/28 school year. It is a bit overwhelming to think of doing a complete overhaul but these frames you've been sharing resonate with what I've been looking for since we started homeschooling 8 years ago! So, thank you!!
OK, so I just found answers to my own questions in other posts. I should read everything you've written before asking questions! Sorry to be redundant! Thanks for being more thorough than I can even appreciate.
Ha! It's all great. Actually, another thing that's great:
>>"I'm so very glad to see that the movement will be from room to room rather than camping in one room for a month or two."
Yeah — and I could/should have made a bigger deal of this. There are a lot of benefits that come from hopping around from one area & period to another: the more diversity one sees between them, the easier it is to notice. That's to say that jumping from modern → ancient → medieval → dinosaurs is actually pretty ideal, as is going from Africa → North America → Europe → Australia.
Well, there's a downside to this, too — "camping out" (as you so excellently put it) in one place/time can help kids see the similarities, too. So I suppose that both of these are good.
Oh, also:
>>"hiding the labels, dots and images on the walls of our home from the young earth family and friends might be our biggest hurtle!!"
Oh, so fully understood! I'm a former young-Earth creationist, and actually have a whole separate science project where I engage that community (https://www.reddit.com/u/ScienceIsWeirder/s/XZCTeZK3EM). And actually this week's Science is WEIRD (Hills, lesson 3) is all about how to do this well.
What works for some people is to say that they're not themselves sure about the age of the Earth, but that they want their kids to understand the mainstream model to better engage with it. (But your mileage may differ.)
Really enjoyed this as history is the subject for which I currently feel least confident about our approach. What we've done so far with geography has helped a ton with their ability to connect new knowledge to existing knowledge, and I think this will help continue that. I had sort of been planning to use our neighborhood park as a memory palace since our house is not particularly well-suited. But physically placing markers sounds really helpful so I guess I'll try to figure out 22 distinct spaces in... a hallway and a greatroom.
I planned out my path in a doc and then when I went to implement it I realized that it was going from right to left and maybe it's just the dyslexia but I'm fairly certain I wouldn't be able to handle that.
Not at all! I should be more explicit about this in the posts — all of these can be started at any age. (You may want to merge some of this with some of the stuff we'll suggest for later ages. But look for more of that soon.)
I'm so glad you are planning to help curate the list of 100. The idea of the memory palace is new to me and I'm eager to implement it. I'm so very glad to see that the movement will be from room to room rather than camping in one room for a month or two. History has always been my weakest subject. (And hiding the labels, dots and images on the walls of our home from the young earth family and friends might be our biggest hurtle!! That it's something I'm still grappling with just adds complication.) In fact, just yesterday my son was asked what he's learning in history and he gave the dear in headlights look... "I don't think I'm learning anything about history..." quizzically looks at me... (Yes, it is in our curriculum. Yet somehow he doesn't think he's learning anything? Aside from the fact that we are working through the Science is Weird curriculum which is packed with historical facts.)
Anyway, choosing the 100 stories and how to tell them feels mega hard. I've been teaching history by country; spending each week in one or two countries- which has felt like drinking from a fire hose. But I think it has still been beneficial? I hope. We spent one year in Africa, one year in Asia and are currently in the middle of Antarctica, Australia & Oceania, Caribbean, North, South & Central America. Next year would then be Europe. How will you cover all of these countries fairly with only 100 events? Eurocentric history has been nearly impossibly hard to get away from. "History is told by the victor" being something that has me doubting that our records accurately depict the past.
I will have to decide whether to continue on our course and finish up with Europe or begin the palace approach. My son (Zeke...taking Comics now) is currently in 8th grade. Have you posted about how to adapt all of these wonderful frames to older students? We are working through the science lessons at an accelerated pace to fit them all in and so that hopefully he can join the live classes in the 27/28 school year. It is a bit overwhelming to think of doing a complete overhaul but these frames you've been sharing resonate with what I've been looking for since we started homeschooling 8 years ago! So, thank you!!
OK, so I just found answers to my own questions in other posts. I should read everything you've written before asking questions! Sorry to be redundant! Thanks for being more thorough than I can even appreciate.
Ha! It's all great. Actually, another thing that's great:
>>"I'm so very glad to see that the movement will be from room to room rather than camping in one room for a month or two."
Yeah — and I could/should have made a bigger deal of this. There are a lot of benefits that come from hopping around from one area & period to another: the more diversity one sees between them, the easier it is to notice. That's to say that jumping from modern → ancient → medieval → dinosaurs is actually pretty ideal, as is going from Africa → North America → Europe → Australia.
Well, there's a downside to this, too — "camping out" (as you so excellently put it) in one place/time can help kids see the similarities, too. So I suppose that both of these are good.
Oh, also:
>>"hiding the labels, dots and images on the walls of our home from the young earth family and friends might be our biggest hurtle!!"
Oh, so fully understood! I'm a former young-Earth creationist, and actually have a whole separate science project where I engage that community (https://www.reddit.com/u/ScienceIsWeirder/s/XZCTeZK3EM). And actually this week's Science is WEIRD (Hills, lesson 3) is all about how to do this well.
What works for some people is to say that they're not themselves sure about the age of the Earth, but that they want their kids to understand the mainstream model to better engage with it. (But your mileage may differ.)
Really enjoyed this as history is the subject for which I currently feel least confident about our approach. What we've done so far with geography has helped a ton with their ability to connect new knowledge to existing knowledge, and I think this will help continue that. I had sort of been planning to use our neighborhood park as a memory palace since our house is not particularly well-suited. But physically placing markers sounds really helpful so I guess I'll try to figure out 22 distinct spaces in... a hallway and a greatroom.
I planned out my path in a doc and then when I went to implement it I realized that it was going from right to left and maybe it's just the dyslexia but I'm fairly certain I wouldn't be able to handle that.
If the memory palace is an approach for elementary, is it too late to start this in 5th grade?
Not at all! I should be more explicit about this in the posts — all of these can be started at any age. (You may want to merge some of this with some of the stuff we'll suggest for later ages. But look for more of that soon.)