1. Timeline - Yes, every homeschooling family has to have a timeline. Ours isn't terribly exciting except that we don't keep it updated very well. The problem is that it's above some bookcases, so I'm the only one who can reach it well. So, I end up writing on it and figuring out where the dates need to go, so the kids get very little educational value out of it. (I, on the other hand, am pretty well versed in the order of things until about 30AD.) This week, we're going to catch up on the timeline, but in a way that allows the kids to be more participatory. I wrote the names of events on clear labels. The kids will look up the dates of the events and then put the stickers on the timeline - I think they can reach it well enough to put on stickers and, if not, we can always bring in the ladder. My plan is to make up some new labels every few weeks for the kids to put dates on and put on the timeline. I don't expect them to recall specific dates, but I would like for them to have an idea of the order in which things occur in history.
2. Olympic questionnaire - I recorded a PBS show about Olympic preparation in Beijing for the kids to watch next week. They are going to have a questionnaire to fill out where the letters of the answers are coded to numbered spaces at the bottom of the questionnaire. Not terribly original, but hopefully a way to get them to pay some attention while they're watching.
3. Olympic timeline cards - I'm taking 3x5 cards and having the kids fill in the year, city, country, one interesting fact, and one interesting athlete for each of the modern summer games. Actually, I'm filling the card out partway - one or two pieces of info - and then having them complete them. When we're done, we'll tape them to a window in chronological order. My goals are for the kids to remember a few of the most famous athletes and recall some of the political events around the Olympics (the Nazi Olympics, the hostages in Munich, the boycotting of the Moscow Olympics, etc.). They can find all the info on www.olympic.org or in some books that I got from the library.
4. Country cards - One of my goals for studying the Olympics is to learn about lots of different countries. I'm not sure how we'll decide which countries to include - medals earned, interesting athletes, etc. - but the kids will fill out a 3x5 card on each country with info like continent, language, primary religion, important geography, important economic info. We have a large World Map in the dining room that we'll use for locating the countries, as well.
I hope this goes even half as well as it's planned. If so, I'll consider it a success. Monday is the big day!!
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