"It is a much disputed matter how we shall begin to teach history."
"children should begin with their own times and read history backwards. We want to give reality to history by showing that it is not something remote, to be found in books only; we want to show that the life of each child forms part of history; then we may lead him on to see that the whole world is different for each man that has lived, better for each noble life, and to feel quite early that God has sent him into the world with some work ready for him, and that his business is to do that work."
"To a little child ... we must proceed from the known to the unknown..."
"I venture to think that a child who begins history thus--not at the Creation, nor even at the Christian era, but at his own "nativity"---will get to understand it better than if he tried to survey the world from any other "pin-point" in time."
Enter: The Century Chart- a record of a child's life history
"The first square stands for the time before he is a year old...the second square for the time when he is one year old, and so we mark the squares accordingly. The first line gives the first decade of life, in the second line we have all the tens, in the third all the twenties... A child very quickly learns to read on a black chart the number corresponding to any square in the century of squares; "
"Later, ...historical events, are added"
"children should begin with their own times and read history backwards. We want to give reality to history by showing that it is not something remote, to be found in books only; we want to show that the life of each child forms part of history; then we may lead him on to see that the whole world is different for each man that has lived, better for each noble life, and to feel quite early that God has sent him into the world with some work ready for him, and that his business is to do that work."
"To a little child ... we must proceed from the known to the unknown..."
"I venture to think that a child who begins history thus--not at the Creation, nor even at the Christian era, but at his own "nativity"---will get to understand it better than if he tried to survey the world from any other "pin-point" in time."
Enter: The Century Chart- a record of a child's life history
"The first square stands for the time before he is a year old...the second square for the time when he is one year old, and so we mark the squares accordingly. The first line gives the first decade of life, in the second line we have all the tens, in the third all the twenties... A child very quickly learns to read on a black chart the number corresponding to any square in the century of squares; "
"Later, ...historical events, are added"
The quotes above are from this article I read recently about introducing history to a child. It mentions this idea of a Century Chart; there are examples and also a beautiful little story at the very end.
This is one for my oldest son. Each square has a photo of the big event in his life that happened that year. It was easiest for me to print tiny pictures of each event to put in the square. The first photo is the night he was born. (The photos are a little different from the article's examples where stamps/drawings were used.)
This is made from 12x12 cardstock. Using a ruler, I drew a one inch grid first in pencil, then with a fine-tipped black marker.
I cut off the excess paper on 2 sides. The grid sheet is attached to some nice scrapbook paper with gold corners.
My son's name (covered up) and the year 2007-2107 (a century) are in the title line.
I might move the graph off-center to make a space on one side for writing other dates of special events.
For now, ours is in a scrapbook page protector, but I'm looking for a frame with a removable back so we can admire and add to it yearly.
This is one for my oldest son. Each square has a photo of the big event in his life that happened that year. It was easiest for me to print tiny pictures of each event to put in the square. The first photo is the night he was born. (The photos are a little different from the article's examples where stamps/drawings were used.)
This is made from 12x12 cardstock. Using a ruler, I drew a one inch grid first in pencil, then with a fine-tipped black marker.
I cut off the excess paper on 2 sides. The grid sheet is attached to some nice scrapbook paper with gold corners.
My son's name (covered up) and the year 2007-2107 (a century) are in the title line.
I might move the graph off-center to make a space on one side for writing other dates of special events.
For now, ours is in a scrapbook page protector, but I'm looking for a frame with a removable back so we can admire and add to it yearly.
"How valuable some such tabulated knowledge is as a basis of historical teaching...
... it forms a framework, which from the first saves events from getting shaken into
disorder in the memory..." (Oh, I can relate to that!)
I'm looking forward to adding a new photo for the year that has passed at his next birthday. I want to say a little prayer for his upcoming year, when we do. I also hope it causes us to reflect on the passage of time that the chart represents and the changing and growing that have been done.
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