Chronological History

One of the things that drew me to Charlotte Mason was the way history was taught, chronologically. Mue and I had been discussing the best way to tackle history with our oldest, Taro. We both agreed it made more sense to tackle it chronologically than the way we had been taught--very U.S. centric with world history thrown in as an after-thought.

There are generally two camps with history in most CM circles. The first involves starting with prehistory in year 2 or 3 and working up to modern times in year 12. The second is starting with (European) medieval history in year 3 and working up to modern times in year 6 or so, then repeating the cycle but starting with prehistory the second time through.

The benefits of the first method is you get much longer to dwell on each hostorical period and place. You move from the beginning to the present and there is no repeating information. The primary downfall with this method is that some aspects of history are taught when the child may be too young to get in depth about the subject matter. As they aren't repeated, the child doesn't have a chance to get a more in depth understanding of the subject matter when they are older and more mature.

The Pine Branch take on this? We use method 1 as there is a lot of history to absorb out there and coming back to a period a few years later adds repetition, which aids learning, but also gives the child a chance to become excited once again about the time period. If ancient Egypt was a struggle perhaps Mesopotamia will be more exciting.

In the end, use whatever method suits your children and family best.