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02 August 2014

A Book of Centuries

I've been reading about the Book of Centuries, and I think I've been doing a timeline in a book, rather than a Book of Centuries. I like my timeline in a book, and I think I will continue it, at least for now, especially since we absolutely do not have space on the wall for a timeline. But this Book of Centuries looks like another sort of critter entirely.

Laurie Bestvater has a pair of fascinating articles that trace the BoC concept through some original sources. She has put a lot of effort into researching the concept! And I like it. Though, when I take a realistic look at myself, I don't know that I have room for such a thing right now. Happily, Hero is still too young - looks like it's better for kids who are closer to 10 or 12, and who are comfortable with writing. Hero is not quite 8, and has some distance to go yet before he could be described as "comfortable" with writing.

I still have a number of questions - Miss Mason talks about going to museums and sketching real artifacts you see there. We are quite a distance away from that kind of museum, and unlikely to move closer, should we move; we do not love a city. It may be possible to make up for this lack in online museum tours; I will be interested in trying to find some examples of how Real People deal with that. Hopefully I can find some. If you have one or know one, I'd love to see the link in the comments.

Another interesting thing is the issue of drawing skill. In our timeline books, we have been pasting in pictures with a mini-narration, kind of like a lapbook flap book. According to the resources Laurie gathered up, Miss Mason's students were to draw in their books -- these were specifically not books for gluing. There's a lot to be said for that; the act of drawing would, all by itself, go far to cement in the mind the information. But this also poses a bit of a challenge: thus far, I have yet to figure out an effective way to teach drawing. Part of the problem here is that there are so many worthy things we could be doing. Many more than there will ever be time to actually accomplish. However, if we can get out nature journals going, that would help. I love the way that Miss Mason's suggestions interlock like this.


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