Bigger dilema!

KatieM · Post by **KatieM** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:46 pm

We recently started Bigger with my 7yr.old (almost

and my 10 yr.old (almost 11). We just use the history side of the schedule, and my 7yr.old uses the science. My 10 yr. old uses the history extension pack. There are many things I love about Bigger .... the poems and bible especially. My dilema is that we are not loving the biographical approach. We haven't done any Amer. Hist. before, so I think part of the problem is we're missing all the interesting information about the time periods (what life was like, etc.) I'm wondering if I should order Beyond, and just add additional related readers for my 10 yr. old? I have no problem picking out historical fiction to tie in for my 10 yr. old. What do you think? Any other suggestions?

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 5:15 pm

I have not done beyond yet but I have it.

We are doing Bigger though. I am not thinking from what you wrote that ordering Beyond would help but maybe someone else can chime in there. Do you think you need kind of a catch all for your older student to try to put the pieces together? Maybe they need something closer to a textbook feel to it for the spine to link everything. We have by Carrie's recommendation (for my 10 year who will be 11 in not too long) Short Lessons in US History. I am thinking adding something like that for the sake of the older child might help. http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/ ... _no=159075

Not sure if that is what you are after but this is a really good resource for older kids in Bigger. My son and my ten year old dd love it.

Tansy · Post by **Tansy** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:57 am

We like books I know Pheobe the spy was a big hit with my dd. its about a young girl who saves general Washingtons life. We also read "If You Lived In Colonial Times"

But we also are very hands on here.. and we went to a sort of.. working farm locally where my dd could card wool, grind corn ect.. http://www.heritagefarmstead.org/ If your in the DFW area and didn't know about it..

We made a churn* and made butter (which took my dd hours). And we made soap (great Christmas presents). Also She found Felicity movie in the library American girl series. She loved it so much I ended up buying her the cook book. Then we spend many a day making the food in the book which she has decided is not very tasty. Except the popover. You can even Flip the breaker on your house (we left the kitchen one on.) It was really fun. We used candles cooked on a hibachi and showed her how to build a fire. Tho I was without my beloved computer for 6 hours.. eeek! We also have been know to make cheese. jam go berrying and garden..

*To make the churn I used some (cleaned) tinker toys. But a dowel rod would do.
a wide mouth mason jar. And 2 plastic lids. one cut down to fit loosely inside the jar. one cut to match the same size as the mason jar lid.
I wrapped the bottom of rod with wire. Cut an x in lid and shoved it on rod all the way down to the bottom, then wrapped more wire on top. Cut a hole in the top lid and put rod though. Bought heavy whipped cream. poured it in put the whole thing together. And turned my head so she wouldn't see my smile whenever she complained we didn't have butter yet...

KatieM · Post by **KatieM** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:21 pm

Thanks for your suggestions. I am looking for things to flesh out Bigger and give the kids the whole picture than just the biographies are doing. We really like Bigger, I think I just need to include some general time period info.

SouthernMrs · Post by **SouthernMrs** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:46 pm

I hope it's okay to post this here.... As much as we love the history in Bigger, sometimes it did move a bit too fast for us. We too fleshed out the history a bit in Bigger by adding in some of the commentary from the Truth Quest Am. History guides (Vol 1 and 2 covered the history in the Bigger guide nicely) which helped to tie things together a bit. In each TQ guide there are also lots of wonderful children's books recommended for each time period covered. Usually the ones Carrie schedules in the extention pack are listed along with many others, so I would request a few extra from the library to let my dd choose to read on her own (we use the extension pack books as our history read alouds).

The only problem with using TQ with the Bigger guide is that Bigger moves so quickly through each time period. Sometimes, we had to stretch out a unit a bit just so we'd have time to read an extra book or two (more than 5 days). But the extra reading did help flesh it out. This was not the first time we had covered Am. History though. I was comfortable moving at a faster pace through previously studied areas, but we parked a bit longer on areas where we had not spent any time previously.

EDIT: I wanted to note that the history in Bigger doesn't require any fleshing out, but this Mom is a history nut and I love the commentary in TQ guides. This also enabled us to use some of the wonderful children's books written for this age group so long ago that are now sadly out of print.

I hope this gives you something to consider.

Charlene

Post by **Carrie** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:57 pm

Katie,

I agree that the biographical approach to history can feel spotty when you're used to an overview approach to history like we were taught with in school (and like many schools still use). The Charlotte-Mason style of learning is based on getting to know people and/or events in history through sharing interesting stories of people's lives or interesting anectdotes that will stay with a child over time. The CM approach allows the children to make the connections between people and events over time, rather than having us make the connections for them.

Children aged 7-8 will have a very difficult time "getting" the overview of events in a one-year sweep of American history even with an overview book. You may find that it makes sense to you, but you'll be explaining so much to try to have your child "get it".

For our kiddos, we just let them enjoy the stories of the heroes and heroines and don't worry about the dots being all connected until they get older. These are pegs for kiddos to hang information on that keep history personal.

For your 10 turning 11 year old, however, we do include "A Child's Story of America" in the Extension Pack schedule that is matched up to give the background details you are mentioning. So, if you don't have the Extension Package, you'll want that (since it's targeted especially for ages 10 on up).

Blessings,
Carrie

KatieM · Post by **KatieM** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:15 am

Thank you for your insight and suggestions. I may check out the Truth Quest Guides as I don't mind taking a little longer to do Bigger (even though personally I'm itching to get to Preparing!!!)

Carrie, I understand what you are saying about creating pegs. My concern is that this is the only year of American History we are doing. Will American history be covered quite a bit in the future guides?

Thanks!

Post by **Carrie** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:53 am

Katie,

American history will be covered again, but within the context of world history. We will emphasize American more than would be typical in a purely world history focus though, so you'll end up with a layered approach to American history by the time you finish the cycle with our guides.

Blessings,
Carrie