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Focusing your year on a certain part of the timeline can be fun for students!
One way to organize such a study is to divide your school year into months. Assign dates for each month. August 1880-1900 September 1900 - 1910 October 1910-1920 Etc. Then, ask your students to find and write short reports or draw pictures of something in each category you want to include. Some categories in each month's time period might be: Books published Music written Artworks Theater/Films Architecture :) Inventions What was happening historically? What was happening politically? Famous people born or died during the dates. (Choose one or the other and stay consistent:). What was happening in (choose a country). You could include any topics that stand out for you. Assignments could depend upon the age." Write a paper or paragraph (perhaps using IEW checklists) for each one. Draw a picture or keep a visual journal. Listen to the music and create a related art piece. Read a novel published in that time and write about it. Mix it up a little so that not every topic has a written or drawing assignment. Students tend to do well when they have the choice of what to study under each topic. This also encourages research and allows learning to be outside of a "school" book. We learned a lot using this method. If you try it, I hope you do too:). Smiles, Mrs. G. Note about Math and a Foreign Language - Both of these subjects, in my mind, require incremental learning, which means to me that they need to be attended to every day to build a strong foundation or base. I encourage beginning the day with prayers, but then 1-2 hours of math (depending upon the age of the student) followed by 1/2 -1 hour of a foreign language. When they are finished, it is fun to set them free for the rest of the day (or a given period of time.) If they know what is due each week or month, let them figure out the order that works best for them to complete the tasks. Teaching them time management early with hands-on experience is a gift that you can give, which will help them tremendously as they are given more responsibilities:).
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The theme-based year can be a lot of fun, especially for students with focused interests.
Many of the courses offered by Building Brilliant Minds use this method, but it can also be used to combine multiple subjects under one theme. Parents might try choosing (or allowing students to choose one theme per month or per semester). For instance, If the theme is dolphins, students could focus on dolphins (or trains or violins) to incorporate most of the required course types, such as: The biology of dolphins (genius, species, behaviors etc.) Maybe plant (or try) things dolphins like to eat The geographies of dolphin species Dolphins in history. Dolphins in art, movies, (and maybe music;) Contemporary dolphin training methods. Writing (IEW-like) research papers about dolphins Reading fiction or nonfiction books focused on dolphins. Creating their own dolphin-based artwork. Find words from the foreign language you are studying that relate. Related field trips If you have more than one student, asking them to give oral reports on their theme or topic helps everyone learn even more:). If you have older children, asking them to evaluate the work of their younger sibs, or to help also spreads the learning potential. This type of study could be accomplished for any topic. Allowing students to choose the topics that interest them when they hit the library (or the internet) may encourage learning to feel more like fun than schoolwork, build connections, and inspire them to learn about something else the next month. We also had great success with the theme-based year:). If you try it, I hope you do, too. Smiles, Mrs. G. Note about Math and a Foreign Language - Both of these subjects, in my mind, require incremental learning, which means to me that they need to be attended to every day to build a strong foundation or base. I encourage beginning the day with prayers, but then 1-2 hours of math (depending upon the age of the student) followed by 1/2 -1 hour of a foreign language. When they are finished, it is fun to set them free for the rest of the day (or a given period of time.) If they know what is due each week or month, let them figure out the order that works best for them to complete the tasks. Teaching them time management early with hands-on experience is a gift that you can give, which will help them tremendously as they are given more responsibilities:). If you try |
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