We are excitedly jumping into our next phase of history, one I've never even been in: the Early Church and Medieval times.
Somehow, we've skipped over this time period. Rose Bud was working through ancient history when she went off to public school. Daisy was small and was lightly going through a little ancient history with us. When Rose Bud was very small, we went through Sonlight's Core 1 and only half-heartedly through Core 2, which contained the medieval period. Somehow it was much more fun to reach American history and we took our sweet time enjoying Cores 3 and 4. Somewhere in there Rose Bud and I (with Daisy tagging along) also did Core 5.
When Rose Bud went to public school, Daisy and Pepper and I tackled Cores 3 and 4 again, enjoying American history all over. I then debated and agonized over doing Core 5. So many wise ones who had gone before discouraged its use by a 4th grader, which Pepper was. So after investing in it and deciding to use it, at the 11th hour I bailed and we went for Core 6, Ancient History.
Well, it wasn't many days after that decision that I decided Mystery of History, which, being a Curriculum Junkie, I already owned was a better fit. And we never looked back.
And now we are beginning MOH2.
So without further ado, here are our first two weeks:
Mystery of History 2
Pentecost and the First Followers of Jesus c. A.D. 29
Saul, Who is Also Called Paul A.D. 31
Paul's Missionary Journeys c. A.D. 46-66
Nero A.D. 37-68
Martyrs of the Early Church c. A.D. 64-257
Read-Alouds (books I read to them)
Stephen, A Soldier of the Cross This book was written in 1896 and republished by Lamplighter Books. Although it is written in archaic language (lots of thees and thous and doest thou) the girls (and I) loved it! It was a great story with an exciting plot intertwining actual characters from the Bible with some fictional go-alongs in a story of how-it-might-have-been. It gave a good overview of what everyday life was like for various levels of society in the deserts of Egypt and in Jerusalem just after Jesus' death.
The Ides of April This very exciting story takes place in A.D. 62 during the time of Nero. It's not related to the Christians of the time, but rather tells the life of a Roman household and its slaves. One slave, having been accused of the murder of his master, has endangered all the slaves of the household. Another slave who has escaped capture endeavors to save them all. I began reading this aloud and then passed it off to the girls to finish. (I can only read so much before my voice gives out!)
The Life of St. Paul by Fosdick This is a Landmark book and thus very easy to read. I could assign it as a reader, however this article highlights some concerns about the author, Harry Emerson Fosdick. These concerns didn't keep us from reading the book. Instead, I chose to do it as a read-aloud so that we could discuss concerns as they came up. The book does point out some interesting ideas about Paul's life which I hadn't realized before. For example, he points out how Jesus was a country boy, growing up in a rural area and being familiar with rural ideas and farming practices. Along with that, the people he preached to were also mainly rural people and this is evident in the illustrations he uses; illustrations about sheep, crops, birds of the field, vineyards. Paul, on the other hand, was a city boy from Tarsus, a booming metropolis. He was well-educated, knew several languages and was a Roman citizen. Hence his illustrations were of things like running the race (a reference to Roman athletics) and such. He seldom mentioned anything related to farming or livestock. In any case, we did notice that there is no mention of Jesus' divinity or the Holy Spirit in the book. Also, in the later chapters, Paul is painted as being concerned about losing the respect and love of the churches, whereas the Biblical Paul would have been concerned with the churches losing love and respect for GOD (not himself). We discussed this discrepancy and pointed out how one needs to be aware of the perspective and world-view of the author whatever one is reading.
(Incidently, here is a list of Landmark books listed chronologically)
On-going Read-Alouds
We are reading each day from the One-Year Chronological Bible (NLT). This is the Bible that got me to finally read through the whole Bible. And I love the readability of the NLT. Whichever version you choose, this is organized chronologically, so we've had Galatians inserted into our Acts of the Apostles already. Readings are short, 15 min. a day. We began with Acts.
Trial and Triumph I have probably too many books about Early Church history, but I am finding, as we read through them, that they each bring something different to our experience. Thus far we have only read about Polycarp and Blandina in this book, but both came to us in nice, short, story-format chapters. Sometimes it's nice just to have something easy to read.
In that same vein, we are reading from Foxe: Voice of the Martyrs. This version is published by Voice of the Martyrs organization. This book tells the stories of the apostles, as well as early martyrs. It has an old-fashioned feel with very old drawings (gory!) throughout.
Somehow, we've skipped over this time period. Rose Bud was working through ancient history when she went off to public school. Daisy was small and was lightly going through a little ancient history with us. When Rose Bud was very small, we went through Sonlight's Core 1 and only half-heartedly through Core 2, which contained the medieval period. Somehow it was much more fun to reach American history and we took our sweet time enjoying Cores 3 and 4. Somewhere in there Rose Bud and I (with Daisy tagging along) also did Core 5.
When Rose Bud went to public school, Daisy and Pepper and I tackled Cores 3 and 4 again, enjoying American history all over. I then debated and agonized over doing Core 5. So many wise ones who had gone before discouraged its use by a 4th grader, which Pepper was. So after investing in it and deciding to use it, at the 11th hour I bailed and we went for Core 6, Ancient History.
Well, it wasn't many days after that decision that I decided Mystery of History, which, being a Curriculum Junkie, I already owned was a better fit. And we never looked back.
And now we are beginning MOH2.
So without further ado, here are our first two weeks:
Mystery of History 2
Pentecost and the First Followers of Jesus c. A.D. 29
Saul, Who is Also Called Paul A.D. 31
Paul's Missionary Journeys c. A.D. 46-66
Nero A.D. 37-68
Martyrs of the Early Church c. A.D. 64-257
Read-Alouds (books I read to them)
Stephen, A Soldier of the Cross This book was written in 1896 and republished by Lamplighter Books. Although it is written in archaic language (lots of thees and thous and doest thou) the girls (and I) loved it! It was a great story with an exciting plot intertwining actual characters from the Bible with some fictional go-alongs in a story of how-it-might-have-been. It gave a good overview of what everyday life was like for various levels of society in the deserts of Egypt and in Jerusalem just after Jesus' death.
The Ides of April This very exciting story takes place in A.D. 62 during the time of Nero. It's not related to the Christians of the time, but rather tells the life of a Roman household and its slaves. One slave, having been accused of the murder of his master, has endangered all the slaves of the household. Another slave who has escaped capture endeavors to save them all. I began reading this aloud and then passed it off to the girls to finish. (I can only read so much before my voice gives out!)
The Life of St. Paul by Fosdick This is a Landmark book and thus very easy to read. I could assign it as a reader, however this article highlights some concerns about the author, Harry Emerson Fosdick. These concerns didn't keep us from reading the book. Instead, I chose to do it as a read-aloud so that we could discuss concerns as they came up. The book does point out some interesting ideas about Paul's life which I hadn't realized before. For example, he points out how Jesus was a country boy, growing up in a rural area and being familiar with rural ideas and farming practices. Along with that, the people he preached to were also mainly rural people and this is evident in the illustrations he uses; illustrations about sheep, crops, birds of the field, vineyards. Paul, on the other hand, was a city boy from Tarsus, a booming metropolis. He was well-educated, knew several languages and was a Roman citizen. Hence his illustrations were of things like running the race (a reference to Roman athletics) and such. He seldom mentioned anything related to farming or livestock. In any case, we did notice that there is no mention of Jesus' divinity or the Holy Spirit in the book. Also, in the later chapters, Paul is painted as being concerned about losing the respect and love of the churches, whereas the Biblical Paul would have been concerned with the churches losing love and respect for GOD (not himself). We discussed this discrepancy and pointed out how one needs to be aware of the perspective and world-view of the author whatever one is reading.(Incidently, here is a list of Landmark books listed chronologically)
On-going Read-Alouds
We are reading each day from the One-Year Chronological Bible (NLT). This is the Bible that got me to finally read through the whole Bible. And I love the readability of the NLT. Whichever version you choose, this is organized chronologically, so we've had Galatians inserted into our Acts of the Apostles already. Readings are short, 15 min. a day. We began with Acts.
Trial and Triumph I have probably too many books about Early Church history, but I am finding, as we read through them, that they each bring something different to our experience. Thus far we have only read about Polycarp and Blandina in this book, but both came to us in nice, short, story-format chapters. Sometimes it's nice just to have something easy to read.
In that same vein, we are reading from Foxe: Voice of the Martyrs. This version is published by Voice of the Martyrs organization. This book tells the stories of the apostles, as well as early martyrs. It has an old-fashioned feel with very old drawings (gory!) throughout.
AND we are reading from Peril and Peace, Volume 1: Chronicles of the Ancient Church. Again, this is more of a story format. However, rather than JUST stories of the martyrs, it also gives the history of the ancient church, such as background of the martyring Roman emperors and what worship in the early church looked like.
Readers
Pepper somehow escaped reading The Bronze Bow, although Daisy had finished it last spring, so Pepper has read that already this fall. Pepper also read The Beast of Lor by Clyde Robert Bulla, about the Romans in early Britain. Daisy read Titus: Comrade of the Cross, which is a prequel to Stephen listed above. It was too challenging for Pepper, but Daisy enjoyed it, in spite of its 32 chapters and the 5 days I gave her to read it! Both girls also paged through The Roman Colosseum by Elizabeth Mann when we read about Nero.
Other Media
"Prisoner for Christ," from Adventures in Odyssey Bible Eyewitness (CD#3) told the story of Onesimus, the slave of Philemon (of Philemon in the Bible). Twice Freed also tells the story, but the girls deemed the book, "boring."
They've been working through the Drive Thru History series and watched episodes from Greece and the Word DVD which touched on the travels of Paul.
And we love the Diana Waring CDs! This year we are listening to the Romans, Reformers and Revolutionaries set. For these two weeks, we are listening to Digging Deeper, Disc 1: The Exploding Church and What in the World's Going On Here? Disc 1, Track 2: 1st century Church & Emperors.
Maps and Timeline
We are combing the map exercises in MOH2 with our MapTrek maps. And we use the Homeschool in the Woods timeline figures on our timeline. We add the figures suggested in MOH and any others that we've read about for the week.
