Our Big History Project

We've decided to try our hand at The Big History Project with my son next year. He'll be completing his tenth grade and whilst we want to cover history, so far we are yet to find any one program that we have absolutely loved and have absolutely wanted to continue to work our way through.

I have begun working on the teacher training (9 hours in length) so that I am well prepared for the complexities of this course. So far I am extremely enthralled and can't wait to get started, but then I'm a history loving kinda gal! I am excited to know that we can make this as involved or as simple as we want to, but yet everything is still there for us, in an organised, well laid out fashion that is used daily by teachers all around the world.

Some of the points that have been raised in the teacher training so far are all of the reasons why I am drawn to using BHP next year and hopefully over the years to come.

Be sure to register for the school component of the program, so far what I can see it contains a great deal more than the the standard registration.

Big History Project utilises challenging texts, it is organised and highly structured and one of the key components of the program is to sharpen the students critical thinking skills. BHP includes claim testing activities which aim to teach students how to analyse claims and has a strong focus on evidence based writing.

The activities are many and varied and include research activities and project based activities. I think this would be a fabulous course to complete as part of a small group co-op, but we are already stretched quite thin with our current co-operative activities so we will be tackling this on our own.

So how is the Big History Project structured? This is a secular program and does begin way back with the big bang. The entire program is broken into what BHP calls thresholds, where each of these represents a moment in time where the universe got more complex. It is made up of 10 units covering 8 thresholds, with the thresholds comprising of:

1/. Big Bang
2/. Stars
3/. Elements
4/. Planets
5/. Life
6/. Collective Learning (humans)
7/. Agriculture
8/. Modern Revolution

All of the materials provided throughout the course are designed to be downloaded, thus allowing for flexibility, especially in cases where there may be none or limited internet access. So essentially I could head to the library, download what we are wanting and head home to use it without needing to access my internet.

Each unit also includes a guide, lesson plans and assessments, so what I am most intrigued by is that we can choose how we do this. We can work through it simply as is or decide on our own structure. That of course, we will not know until we actually delve into the program.

The other reason that I am most drawn to this is the interdisciplinary approach they have taken when creating the curriculum. The students will look at disciplines such as chemistry, biology, archaeology, anthropology, cosmology, economics and of course history. The Big History project will show them how these disciplines are all connected, unlike many other courses of study that are disjointed and the student often misses the point and doesn't see how it all fits together into one big picture.

Let's hope that Big History Project delivers what they set out to achieve.

Given that I have only just recently begun the teacher training I don't really have a solid plan as yet as to how we will tackle this program. My gut feeling is that if we are both engaged we will take longer than the course suggests of up to one year. That way we can add in documentaries, living books and our History Odyssey series we have here.

I hope to share more of how this goes for us throughout the year. But for the first time in a long while we are actually feeling some excitement about history!

Have you utilised the resources over at The Big History Project in your homeschool? Please let me know if you have, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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ANZAC Day 2015 Picture Diary

We spent some time each day this week on the importance of ANZAC Day and remembering the sacrifices made by others.

I've put together what we covered this week in pictures.

Our picture book collection grows each and every year. We were particularly moved by The Red Poppy this year.

We completed our WW1 Coin collection that was put out and distributed through our local newsagent.


This 45 minute mini documentary retraces some of the steps from the landing in ANZAC Cove and the battles that followed in the hills. Very informative, we all learned a great deal from this one.

My eldest has been reading My Fathers War.


We watched several you tube clips.

During read alouds we painted our own version of a field of poppy's.

The kids purchased a badge each to wear during the march.


This is a Scottish clip, but still explains the story of the Poppy quite well.

Made ANZAC Biscuits.

We received a great pack put out by Veteran Affairs and spent some time looking through some of what it included.

The ABC interactive Gallipoli website is a wealth of information and we watched several of the clips on this site.




This song, The Little Red Poppy, was actually on a disc in the back of the book, The Red Poppy. It is very beautiful and extremely moving.

We visited our national War Memorial a couple of years ago and we spent some time looking back over the photographs and talking in detail about the various exhibits on display there.

Utilised our Skwirk subscription to extend the learning further.

Attended our local ANZAC March to cheer on the diggers and other participants, including my son, who marched with his Cadets Troop.


Shed many a tear as we imagined what an absolutely horrible experience it must of been.

 I do feel it is important we continue to remember, without glorifying war. Our younger generations need to know these stories, the complete stories, and so we will continue delving deeper into the ANZAC legend with each coming year.

Lest We Forget

More ANZAC themed posts:

• The Big List of ANZAC Day Ideas

• ANZAC Picture Books

• Printable ANZAC Unit for Young Learners

Looking for more ANZAC Day Ideas? 

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Follow Kylie @ Our Worldwide Classroom's board ANZAC (Australian) Day on Pinterest.


Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

The Big List Of ANZAC Day Ideas

ANZAC Day is around the corner. I have been searching the web to gather as many resources as I can for us to help our kids understand what ANZAC Day is all about. I hope the resources listed below help you as much as they have me.

ANZAC KIDS - has a gamut of games and interactive activities all for children.

ANZAC Day.org is an introduction to ANZAC Day for early childhood.

Why Are They Marching Daddy? Is a book we use over and over again here in our home.

ANZAC Websites has a huge amount of ideas and activities over in the classroom area of their website.

Suzie's Home Education Ideas shares ten ways to help children understand ANZAC Day

 The Australians At War website offers a 30 page printable document for primary aged children. This includes a teachers guide, outcomes and worksheets. They also provide documents for secondary students, war games and more.

The Book Chook has shared a collection of ANZAC Day books

K-3 Teacher Resources has a set of ANZAC themed printable words and offers ideas on various ways to use them.

For Teachers For Students has a great deal of information pertaining to the centenary, including printable pdf files.

RIC Publications has a free download available over at Teachers Pay Teachers, the pack contains a craft, writing prompts and other related activities.

 The Learning Curve has this very cool Slouch Hat craft with template available over on her blog.

Art Room With A View shares their Fields of Poppies art piece.

 I shared a glimpse inside a handful of ANZAC picture books here.

You can download my Free Printable ANZAC Day unit for young learners here.

ANZAC LIVE - have you heard of this site? It is brand new this year and sounds like a great idea. Follow the real people as they journey through the ANZAC experience. You have to check this one out.

I think I could continue sharing links and websites for some time. Once you start looking there is a wealth of information out there. I do hope some of what I have gathered though is useful to you over the weeks leading up to ANZAC Day. I have also included my pinterest board below where I have many more ANZAC activities.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

Follow Kylie @ Our Worldwide Classroom's board ANZAC (Australian) Day on Pinterest.

ANZAC Picture Books

ANZAC day is fast approaching so I thought I would share a small selection of picture books with you.

ANZAC Biscuits, by Phil Cummings & Owen Swan

This is the touching story of a little girl named Rachel. Whom along with her mother, bakes biscuits to send to her father whilst he is away at war.

Page by page the stark contrast is bitterly obvious between what the solider is experiencing in comparison to the warm quiet evening Rachel spends indoors.

The reader absolutely experiences the hardship and sacrifice made by the men, women and their families. However the harsher, more gruesome realities of war are left out here. Making this a perfect picture book for younger children.

The ANZAC Puppy, by Peter Millett & Trish Bowles

When a young soldier name Sam finds a puppy being given away he decides to take her to war with him.

This is the fictional story of Sam and Freda's time spent at war, the good, the bad and the ugly. Sam believed that Freda was his good luck charm and that she was most definitely protecting him, ensuring that he made it home safely.

Whilst a slightly longer book it is still most definitely suitable for a younger audience.

Jack's Bugle, by Krista Bell & Belinda Elliott

The story of 19 year old Aidan Jackson, an excellent bugle player, that went to war. It begins with Jack saying farewell to his loved ones, then shows a basic overview of their time spent training in Egypt.

From there the story solemnly moves to ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli.

Aidan, never returns home from the war but his bugle does and it ends up in the hands of a very unlikely character.

I would recommend this story for a slightly older age group than the earlier two books. It is somewhat longer and talks of the death and despair of Gallipoli.

The Beach They Called Gallipoli, by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley

This is the story of Gallipoli, as seen from the cove, the story of the beach.

French and Whatley worked superbly together to create the gruseome images of the months of bloodshed at Gallipoli.

Written in a journal format, with real photgraphs interspersed between haunting illustrations, this is definitely one for the slightly older child.

I reviewed, Why Are They Marching Daddy, couple of years back. You can see my thoughts and a few of the inside pages by clicking here.

Lest We Forget,
Kylie

My Other Posts About The ANZAC's

Free Printable Unit For Younger Learners

Illumination Patterns - Medieval History

We are well and truly in the mix of Medieval Times in regards to our history reading. This year we are following along with Story Of The World Book 2 as our spine. We are using loads of great books, documentaries and activities to enhance history though, as I feel SOTW as a stand alone is somewhat lacking for us.

Marveling at the intricate and ornate work done in Illuminated books really sparked the kids interest. The attention to detail and the sheer volume of time spent on creating these stunning works of art is simply amazing.

SOTW includes a simplified colouring page for those that wish to try their hand at illuminating a letter or two.

Marguerite Makes A Book, the story of a young girl living in Paris in the early 1400's. Through a series of events she is led to assist her father, a famous manuscript illuminator to complete a very important book.

This is a long picture book, broken into chapters. This is one of the reasons why we found the book so endearing, it truly was suitable for a wide variety of ages. The stunning illustrations kept my youngest captivated and the story itself has enough adventures and accurate detailing to keep the older of my crew enthralled.

By the end of the story you really have a feel for what it was like to create a book, the amount of effort, time and perseverance that was put into each and every one of these amazing hand made books, is nothing short of amazing!

From there we went searching. We found a pretty cool pinterest board with medieval illuminations, boarders, patterns and letters.

We came across this 3 minute you tube clip which shows some reproduction work of an illuminated letter.


   

 I really wanted the kids to try this out for themselves, but knew I had to choose something that was achievable. This clip has full instructions on creating your own patterned monograms in a fun, easy, creative way.

And so we set to it. I grabbed pencils, rubbers, fine tip markers and gel pens (my kids absolutely love using glittery gel pens) and sketch books.

They had the option of free hand drawing their chosen letter or I had already printed a large letter that we could trace. Having the outline definitely helped the less adventurous kids.

We all enjoyed working on these, it was creative, yet simple and very meditative once you got into it. The process definitely gave us a feel for the work involved in creating illuminated manuscripts.