History - Story of the World & Intellego History of the World Volume 1: In The Beginning

We started The Story of the World (SOTW) last week and although we have been very much enjoying the book, I wanted to add in more depth, along with some online activities. Thanks to the ladies at The Secular Homeschool forum/community, I researched multiple suggested secular history curricula and we have added in the Intellego Ancient History Volumes 1, 2 and 3 Unit Studies.

Today we started with Ancient History Volume 1 and CKW really enjoyed it! We discussed how to think like an historian and archeology, especially as compared to geology and paleontology. We did a quick diagram of our family tree and then discussed how our family history has affected our lives today - drawing parallels to world history and our world today. CKW made up a list of questions to ask his grandfather about his childhood (75-80 years ago), as well as another list he is hoping that his grandfather will be able to answer about his great-great grandfather's childhood (140 years ago). The links in the Intellego units are a hit, to say the least.

I was pleasantly surprised how much he had retained from our SOTW readings. When the Intellego unit asked what he knew about history, he was able to state quite a bit of correct information about nomads, hunter/gathers, the fertile crescent, Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, mummies, etc. Any concerns I had about whether or not he was retaining information from our shared reading sessions have been put to rest!

Canada Post is still on strike, so I continue to wait for our Moving Beyong the Page and Teaching Textbooks orders. I have the Critical Thinking books I ordered here, but think I will save those for the 'real' start of Grade Two. CKW enjoys ancient history and when I told him tonight that this was how homeschooling happens, he immediately jumped up onto me and very excitedly said: "Well then, I want to be homeschooled for sure!"