History in the making...

Election years always press home to me that each day we are living, we are watching history being made. What will folks say about us 10 years, 100 years, 1000 years from now?

For those of you who are homeschooling and of a conservative bent, check out Homeschoolers Heart Huckabee. Great learning activities on government and opportunities (if desired) to support a presidential campaign from the grass roots level.

If Huckabee isn't your cup of Joe, I bet a quick search will find similar websites for the candidate of your choice. It can be exhilarating to have an active hand in making history happen.

National History Day - Get Involved!

I just learned about a drive to get students involved in real history study disguised as a contest. The tagline at National History Day reads It's Not just a Day, It's an Experience! In this event, the contest is downplayed in favor of the process and the learning which suits me just fine.

The initial information came through a local homeschool list and I immediately got excited about it. I have bribed my history loving son into doing a project by promising it would also count for part of his english credit this year since there is a 500 word process paper involved. Advanced homeschool mom tactics in action.

My son's project will naturally include some aspect of military history which won't be difficult to fit into this year's theme of Conflict and Compromise in History. He is already scheming to use this as an excuse to build a diorama of trench warfare in WWI.

You can get involved as a student, a parent or a teacher so check it out! It is open to all students, public, private or homeschooled, in grades 6-12. You can get more information from your state coordinator. Projects can be started by teams or individuals and the final presentation can be in a variety of forms as shown in this introductory video.

57th History Carnival

Jinkers! My post on "Peter the Great...Right Brained Learner?" was selected to be in the 57th History Carnival over at the Official Osprey Publishing Blog. Here is what they say about themselves:

Osprey Publishing is an illustrated military history publisher, and we see our blog as a place for interested people to come together and talk military history – about anything and everything to do with it. We love it and we know you do too.

I am really jazzed to have my post included - even if they did put it in the evolution section - smile. The first entry in the carnival is from their own blog but very interesting...Why Study Military History? I am not going to duplicate the whole carnival - just want you to get a taste of the entries to pique your appetite. I am still browsing through the selections myself!

Peter the Great...Right Brained Learner?

I love it when two subjects I am studying suddenly converge. As my readers know, I have been working on a book project involving Jacob Abbott's Peter the Great. At the same time, I have immersed myself in teachings having to do with visual spatial or right brained learners so that I could figure out the best way to teach my youngest child who is certifiably weird. And I say that in the best "mommy loves her little darling" manner.


For those of you not curious enough to click on the link above, here is a list of some typical characteristics of right brained learners:

• thinking in pictures rather than words
• extraordinarily vivid imaginations
• sensitive and intense
• thrives on complexity - hard is easy and easy is hard
• excellent visual memory
• mechanical ability - love to take things apart
  
• natural gift with puzzles, mazes or numbers

These are just a few and right brained learners will show some of these characteristic strongly and others not at all. Most right brained learners are intensely curious and driven to learn those things that they are fascinated with and they want to do it themselves.

Which brings me back to Peter the Great. Currently in my research, I am reading through the fascinating tome of Peter's life by Robert K. Massie: Peter the Great, His Life and World Several sections have struck me with the idea that it is highly likely that Peter was right brain dominant. Let me find a relevant passage...

From page 134:

His most extraordinary quality, even more remarkable than his height, was his titanic energy. He could not sit still or stay long in the same place...The most accurate image of Peter the Great is of a man who throughout his life was perpetually curious, perpetually restless, perpetually in movement.

Peter's curiosity and vision for his country led him to learn, by doing with his own hands, shipbuilding, sailing, dentistry, surgery, and barbering (all that cutting off of beards). While growing up and before the time when he took a more active role as tzar, Peter amused himself with war games as other little boys are wont to do except that Peter's involved real men and real weapons - with Peter overseeing and in the midst of all of the various preparations and maneuvers, never simply giving orders and leaving it to others to carry out at a distance.

In his endeavors, Peter started out at the bottom, at least as much as any tzarevich could manage, and worked his way up, wanting to learn all the various parts along the way for himself. In his peacetime war maneuvers, he dressed and marched as a simple artilleryman. In the second campaign on Azov, Peter went as captain of a vessel rather than as admiral.

Here is another passage (p.198) from the time of Peter's Great Embassy to Europe:

All along the road from Amsterdam to The Hague, Peter kept seeing new things. Passing a mill, Peter asked, "What is this for?" Told it was a mill to cut stones, he declared, "I want to see it." The carriage stopped but the mill was locked. Even at night, crossing a bridge, Peter wanted to study its construction and take measurements. That carriage stopped again, lanterns were brought and the Tsar measured the bridge's length and width, He was measuring the depth of its pontoons when the wind blew out the lights.

This puts me strongly in mind of my youngest son. In his only formal school experience, two weeks in an in home preschool, the teacher had this to say on his evaluation: focuses on unusual objects for long periods of time; enjoys this more than interaction with others. Accurate observation at the time; however, I declined to accept her suggestion to have him psychologically dissected as my mother's intuition pulled strongly in the direction that he was okay, just different.

Peter the Great was also very different. And it was those differences that allowed him to conceive, hold onto, and nearly singlehandedly bring to fruition a vision of dragging his Russia kicking and screaming into the modern age. While his methods were often brutal and insensitive to say the least, the sheer breadth of his accomplishments within a single lifetime is staggering. And, I truly believe, largely a result of being the type of learner who sees the big picture.

Wrath of the Tsar

As part of my research for my current book project, I ordered a National Geographic dvd through interlibrary loan. It is called Wrath of the Tsar and is part of their Icons of Power series.

The 90 minute program is accurate and entertaining, if a little melodramatic at times. The life of Peter the Great needs no special effort at all to add color, action, and conflict! I think that some of the overblown feeling came from the repetition that occurs at the places where there were breaks for commercials. The producers also use the conflict between Peter and his son, Alexei, as the central defining relationship throughout the story. It works okay but sometimes it seems a little stretched, as if adding too much modern analysis to this late 17th/early 18th century tale.

The relationship between Peter and his son is one of the aspects of his life that is open to much interpretation and the actual cause of death of Alexei is shrouded in some mystery. Some materials will claim out and out that Peter had him murdered, while others attempt to document that Alexei was punished severely for traitorous acts and died as a result of the floggings.

There is an interactive history timeline that is basically a summary of the program. All in all, I found the casting and settings, as well as the use of art being interspersed, rather effective and the end result quite interesting. Keep in mind that any portrayal of Peter the Great has to include beheadings, battles, tortures, inquisitions and other unpleasantries so that needs to be considered for age appropriateness.

A History of US

This year I will going through 5th grade Calvert for the third time. It is not my favorite Calvert grade and one reason is the tediously dull American History text. At least, it was tediously dull - perhaps they have upgraded to a less dull text but history textbooks seem to have dull as part of their definition.

But Calvert has other strengths and I know an excellent way to supplement middle school American history. About 6 years ago, I read through Joy Hakim's A History of US with my two older children. It was a delightful experience. I remember the writing being crisp and entertaining and the stories enthralling. The only downside, for me, was a strong liberal bent to both the selection and presentation of the material. However, I never mind getting more than one side of a story and this is no exception. I find my understanding of history to be greatly enriched by viewpoints that challenge my own.

I am quite looking forward to making the journey with Ms. Hakim again...

A Little History of the World

Farm School Review of A Little History of the World

Wonderful review of a little book that I cannot wait to get for my family! It sounds as if it may be very similar to A Child's History of the World which I use to introduce my children to world history in 4th grade (or there abouts). Using the Calvert curriculum taught me the concept of starting with world history and proceeding "inward" - the opposite of our school system's method of starting with the neighborhood and proceeding outward. American history makes so much more sense in the context of world history. I will post my own review of A Little History of the World once I have the chance to read it!

History Resource Finds

In doing my research, I come across some great history resources. I have a links section but here are a few from the last couple of weeks.

History at our House offers online history lectures/classes. While I do not agree with all of Scott's assertions in his parental workshop, the class lecture that I listened to was excellent. This may grow into a valuable resource. Here is how he describes what he is working on:

Mr. Powell is now concurrently working on the development of an accessible, integrated history program for professional adults and the new homeschooling history curriculum History At Our House.

Another interesting resource that I came across is HyperHistory. There is a online resource and what looks like a fabulous world history timeline. I want one!! The online portion is interactive and covers a lot of ground.

Serendipity Books and More has a huge history selection. I bookmarked it to go back later and browse the offerings. My husband will be delighted...more books!

Tweaking the Timeline

When I started on my Peter the Great project, one of the first items that I added to my list was a timeline. I knew that I wanted it to show not only what was happening in Russia at that time but also in other parts of the world. That helps me so much to connect the various parts of history together. I love the history storybooks by Genevieve Foster that pull in the stories all over the world during a historical figure's lifetime.

So once again, I googled for timeline programs, hoping to find a free one that could do what I wanted to do. Alas, the free ones just couldn't quite cut it. However, I had downloaded a free trial of Timeline Maker basic. This is a very useful program that could do what I wanted - or close enough!

So I just needed to get rid of the watermark by purchasing a license. The regular price is $49.99 but I noticed that they offered educational discounts. I contacted them to ask if homeschooling counts and indeed it does! Hurray! 50% off with no hassle. I am looking forward to using this program in my homeschooling as well because there are so many ways you can utilize a timeline.

My only difficulty left is that the current version of the Peter the Great timeline prints out on 8 sheets of paper, yikes! I think I am going to split it in half and print out the Russian part on one half and the rest of the world on the other. We will see what my test families think of that.

Peter the Great and all that jazz...

For my first book project, I selected Peter the Great. Actually, it might be stretching it a little to say I "selected" it. That makes it sound like I carefully considered all the potential options - Jacob Abbott history books that have come into the public domain - then made my selection. In reality, Peter the Great was the first public domain work by Jacob Abbott that I came across, it struck my fancy, and I saw no reason to pick another book.

So far, it has proved to be a good choice. I have found the period of Russian history, late 1600s to early 1700s, to be fascinating. Both the book and the period of history have yielded a plethora of ideas for resource materials. My main difficulty will be deciding when to stop!

It has not been without its difficulties, however. Just the Russian names have provided a series of challenges. Even today Russian names are complicated as they tend to have patronymics instead of middle names as we think of them. Since this period of Russian history is when that practice developed, I have found it confusing at times. And there can be many different versions of the same name. You have to constantly make sure that you have the right person!

One of Peter's brothers, Theodore in Jacob Abbott's book, can be called Feodor or Fyodor , full name usually Feodor Aleksandrovich Romanov (Aleksandrovich being the patronymic as his father was Alexis I). Aleksandrovich may also be written Alexeiovich or Alexeevich. And since many names are repeated as in other ruling families, constructing a family tree can be an intimidating activity to say the least.

The Many Faces of History

When I was knee high to a grasshopper, I had the privilege of hearing Glenn W. Turner speak in person. Some of you may know him only as the man who went to prison for MLM shenanigans but he was, and still is, one of the most dynamic motivational speakers you could ever hear. I can still hear him in my mind exhorting the audience to "Dare to be Great!"

[Here is a free clip Of Mr. Turner that illustrates why he has impacted thousands of lives. Click on the clip at the very top of the page.]

My mom, a beautician by profession, had bought into his company, Koscot, and was making good money selling the excellent cosmetics and recruiting and training other girls to sell also. I won't get into the politics of the thing, but Mr. Turner was indicted for practices that were very little different than what other MLM companies were doing at the time. MLM has come a long way since then but that is a whole other post for a different blog...

Or maybe not. I started this post wanting to make the point that I was raised by a strong minded and industrious woman who more often worked for herself than for other people. That I get my entrepreneurial streak honestly.


However, as often happens when I dare to sit down at a keyboard, my post has gone astray and I find myself on another track heading for a destination that was better than the one I had in mind when I first drove to the train station.



My new destination is called The Many Faces of History. And my thesis is that there is no such thing as an unbiased historical account. It is simply impossible.

History is made up of stories and stories require a story teller. And that story teller has a life, a perspective, loves, hates, political views, religious views - all that goes into shaping the particular lens that they view the world through.

Just the mere decision of what facts to include and what facts to leave out have a powerful impact on the story that results. Or which version to believer when the facts are in dispute.

I will give an example from the first book I am working on for my project. [Peter the Great from the Makers of History series by Jacob Abbott] At one point, Peter's oldest son dies after a life of debauchery, idleness and treachery. There seems to be debate about whether he died from illness or whether Peter had him killed. I intend to do more research on the matter but I already know that I won't find out the answer conclusively. And what I choose to believe depends in large part on the biases I bring to my research.

While sifting through an author's biases can sometimes be frustrating, it can also be fascinating. It adds another layer to the study of history that teaches us to be discerning readers while sharpening and defining our own perspectives. The only real problem is if we think that the face we see most easily is the only one to be discovered.

My Favorite Homeschool Subject

When you homeschool, you get asked a lot of questions.

Right behind the perennial favorite "But what about their socialization?" is the WHY question. Why do we homeschool? why...why...why

I can give a short and sweet "Cause we love it" or I can spend an hour enumerating the many and varied reasons why we began homeschooling and why we continue to homeschool and why we plan to homeschool until the last child is graduated.

But the reason I only give once in a while out of fear that it will sound too self serving is that homeschooling has been good for me. Yes, while the questioner is either doubting my sanity or elevating me to sainthood, I am standing there knowing that homeschooling is one of the best things that ever happened to me, personally.

I often remark that I learned more in my first four years of homeschooling than in my four years of college....and mean it most sincerely. Particularly if one factors in the value of the lessons learned.

And out of all I have learned, setting aside the myriad of character lessons, I value most what I have learned about history. Of course, I didn't realize just how little I knew of history when we started. And the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know. History is truly a lifetime subject; one that never will come up empty when you seek to add to your store of knowledge and understanding.

Not all of my children share my love of history. I hope that they will leave my homeschool with, at least, a basic understanding of world history, America's place in that history, and an openness to learning more as they live their lives. I am fortunate, however, that my oldest son shares my thirst for learning more. It gives me a good excuse to acquire historical resources.

And now I begin on a new project that will allow me to share my enthusiasm for history with a wider audience. Stay tuned...