Tapestry of Grace - Middle Ages - Important People

Tsar Vladimir I of Kiev (958-1015)

Emily is working through Tapestry of Grace's Year 2 curriculum at the moment.  We started the year with Ancient History, following Beautiful Feet's literature based history curriculum for high school and finished it before Christmas.  I thought we would continue with their Middle Ages high school curriculum but found that the latest edition uses a "spine" which does not have a Christian worldview.  I wrote a negative review at Christian Book Distributors.  I wish someone had done that before me, as it would have saved us some money.  Thankfully I still had my Tapestry of Grace curriculum, which I had to hurry and set up at the last minute.  I am glad we switched, even though it is a lot more work.  I love the Middle Ages, church history of that period is so rich and interesting.  Preparing for this week I learned about Vladimir I, King of Kiev, who introduced Christianity to Russia.  We will be going through a list of important people each week, and he was a new one for me.  Although Tapestry of Grace has reading assignments which cover most of the people on the weekly lists, I realize this time around that one has to look closely at the list because not all the people mentioned are included in the reading assignments.  You need to look up the ones who are not and do a little research.  They are all fascinating, made great contributions to the kingdom, and are worth studying.

Benjamin Franklin's Glass Harmonica

A lovely glass harmonica concert illustrated this week's reading in American Literature.

Also supplementing the reading of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography with art of that time period, an outline of El Greco's Burial of Count Orgaz in Start Exploring Masterpieces.

We are greatly enjoying Janice Campbell's Excellence in Literature's American Literature high school curriculum this year.

History Timelines

I've used several types of timelines to illustrate the passage of time to the kids.  The first timeline we did my first year of homeschooling was one many homeschoolers like, a long strip of connected sheets of paper pinned to a wall.  We added figures and dates to it as we went along.  Then, one day, I was looking at the discount shelves at Barnes & Noble and discovered The Wallchart of World History (Revised): From Earliest Times to the Present - A Facsimile Edition I think I paid less than ten dollars for it!  It was a great find.  We stretched it out in on the floor and spent hours looking at all the intricate lines, names, dates, colors...  We still use it and like it, specially because I can fold it back up and put it away! 

The long timeline on the wall ended up not holding up very well over time.  So, I decided that since we liked the old World Chart book so much, we would have our timelines in a notebook.  

The timeline chart has lots of useful information besides the long list of dates, events, and people.  It inclundes maps showing where those events happened too.  I also like that it begins with Adam and Eve and doesn't include politically correct history for the beginning of time - a rare find.  This edition isn't in print, but there are still some available for sale.

This week, Michelle started her own timeline notebook. She loves coloring the pictures, glueing them, and seeing how events progress along the line.
Building a timeline doesn't need to be expensive.  I use the History Through the Ages figures because I met the lady who makes them and just love her art.  For our pages, we used Donna Young's timeline charts on nice, heavy paper.  I also plan on having some of Michelle's own art work in the timeline.  I think it makes it more personal, plus I think Michelle is a pretty good artist too!

If all goes according to plan, Michelle will be done with history, from Antiquity to Modern times, in four years.  I plan to have her timeline bound into a book then.