Why so much history--why living books?

[hs.mama07]

Hi ladies!
I’ve been discussing HOD with an interested friend and a couple of concerned family members who are more used to traditional methods. They all asked about the use of living books and the emphasis on history. I’ve read a bit about living books and answered from what I’ve read (and from my experience so far), but it didn’t quite reassure them. Since my kids are so young, they question whether the HOD method will be an advantage over more traditional methods in the long run.

The questions go something like this:
Why so much history before high school? Multiple history books, history projects, history activities, history notebooking, even history books in science. In traditional methods, history is often just a part of SS. Students can still get a decent understanding of history and science from textbooks (or even just one interesting book—like story of the world) and they can experience science with experiments. So what is the advantage of the extra time spent on history (using it in both history and science and adding fiction books, lots of biographies, etc)? How does it help them in life to have such a deep understanding of what it was like to live back then and to know so much information about the lives of historical people…even great people? We can study other cultures that exist today and we can study great men and women that live today, we can even study an overview of great people and times in history…what is the advantage of more/deeper history?

And why do it with living books? Seems like a lot more information than is needed in upper elementary/middle school. (they understand the importance of reading some good books, but more for literature than for history/science…and not as many of them in each grade nor as many books at the same time).

So, would some of you be able to share how the extra emphasis on history and the use of living books has benefitted your family? I’d like to be able to answer them well…and be ready in the future. (besides, all their doubts are rubbing off on me a bit… eek! lol.

[Motherjoy]

My first piece of advice is to stop having conversations about homeschooling with non-homeschoolers. it's good to explore educational philosophies for yourself, to try to understand what you want in your homeschool. This knowledge is lost on people who are stuck in the traditional school mindset. Its the concept of throwing pearls before swine from the Bible. Dont try to explain or defend your choices, unless they are truly open to understanding. You can have these conversations later, when you truly understand for yourself what you believe.

Why living books? Because the teacher is not meant to be the fountainhead of all knowledge. We don't possess every bit of information that we want our children to know, so we put before them the words of others who were passionate about their subjects, and let them learn from the writers. We spread a feast of noble and beautiful ideas for our children with a healthy supply of good books. They will each take from this feast of good ideas what they want, what they make connections with, like a buffet. We don't set before them a plate of dry crumbs and expect them to be satisfied. Textbooks are like dry crumbs. They are filled with facts, but not beautiful ideas.

Why so much history? History is where we learn about the human condition. Where we see God's plan played out in our world. We allow history to teach our children about good actions, bad actions, consequences, and character. They learn from the lives of real people. The connections they make in history will be the framework on which they see the world around them, on which they make their own choices later in life.

[hs.mama07]

Thanks! You could be a writer.

The people asking are two homeschoolers who really are interested, just worried and still stuck in the PS mindset. The other person is a close relation...also open and kind, just concerned. Nice to hear such a passionate opinion!

[LynnH]

Motherjoy's post is excellent. I would also add that they are only thinking of history as something you memorize and regurgitate back since that is how ps approaches it. It is so much more than that when you use living books as Motherjoy has already explained. The other thing to remember is that so many skills are packed into those history boxes, because history with living books lends itself so well to those skills. These include things like oral and written narration which require much more comprehension of the material than just answering questions. Also things like comparing behavior of historical leaders to what the bible says, so they learn to always compare things they read or hear to the scriptures. In later years history is the basis for Socratic discussions where they learn to analyze primary source documents. I have a friend who was a ps teacher of honors 8th grade English. She just finished CTC and she talks all the time about how this curriculum is so superior to anything she every saw in ps.

[Motherjoy]

Okay, thanks for clarifying about who were speaking to. I remember when I started out getting lots of flack from friends and family. For grandparents, try to keep it simple. If you end up using HOD, you can always emphasize the aspects of HOD that they would find familiar, like math and LA. If talking about textbooks, you can always assure them that textbooks in history and science, are used later on, when kids are older.

All the lingo that I used in my post about spreading a feast is direct from Charlotte Mason. She had some brilliant ideas about educating children.

[MomtoJGJE]

I can answer the "why living books" from someone with a public school mindset. Because it's easier to remember things that way. It's even easier to put them together in your mind. That way when you learn about something else you can have something to build off of.

I did great in school. I had a 4.2 gpa graduating high school. I learned NOTHING about history. And it wasn't until I started homeschooling (with HOD) that I actually put together that "real life" history stuff and "Bible" history stuff were happening at the same time

But I can tell you that all the history I actually remembered from high school was from when we read real books (even in science class!) and when we watched movies. Because it was relational that way I suppose. It was not just facts.

Reading living books also enriches vocabulary in a way that textbooks just can't. Yes you might have words that you have to learn the meanings of for text books, but they will actually have meaning when you read them in the context of a person or machine or even animals (like some of the story time books)

[hs.mama07]

Thank you SO much. I guess when I talk about HOD I get rather excited, b/c people want to know more. This will help me answer some of their questions--and reassures me that HOD really is an excellent curriculum Appreciate it!