Do you remember having to memorize endless dates, places, events, and names in history class? When I was in grade school, social studies was my least favorite subject, mostly because of that requirement. But as I grew older, I had some teachers who made the topics come alive with real stories of real people, and I developed a love for history. 

That’s also the way we do history and social studies lessons in the Charlotte Mason method. Instead of giving us a myriad of facts that we need to remember for a history test, we look into the lives of the people who lived during that time period, and get a taste of how it really was. 

Living Books for History Studies 

The living books we use include biographies as well as history books that were written either by someone closer to that time period, or passionate history-lovers who help us put ourselves into that timeframe. 

Teaching Chronology in the Charlotte Mason Method

Another thing that stands out to me about the Charlotte Mason method is the intentional teaching of chronology. Chronology is simply the way that things occur one after another. The problem is, when we read events in history, sometimes it’s not easy to imagine when they happened in relation to one another. This is where the different CM tools come in: 

Personal Timeline

Because young children generally do not have a clear grasp of time, the personal timeline is designed to help young children visualize the concept, beginning with their own lives.

The personal timeline is essentially a few sheets of paper or board glued together, each sheet representing one year of the child’s life. 

For example, for a 6-year-old child, you might have six sheets glued together into one continuous piece. For each page, or year of his life, the child might draw memorable things that happened. In his first year, he might draw a picture of himself as a baby. In the second year, he might draw a picture of himself and a younger sibling who was born that year. 

Adding a picture every week helps cement the idea that one year follows the next. 

History Timeline

After the personal timeline, the child can then progress to a history timeline. The history timeline follows the same concept of having several sheets glued together, but instead of each sheet representing a year, it may be divided into columns of a few centuries. The entire timeline can then be folded accordion-style, or pasted onto a kitchen wall. The goal is for the child to be able to see how time flows from one end to the other. 

Once a week, you can have your child draw or write the names of people he encountered in his readings into their corresponding history. For example, if he read about Ferdinand Magellan this week, he might draw a man on a ship under the century labelled “1500-1600 A.D.” 

Book of Centuries

After a year or two of getting the habit of adding to a history timeline, your child might start to use a Book of Centuries. You can visualize the Book of Centuries as kind of like a history timeline in book form. Instead of pulling it out as an accordion, you have every page representing a century.

There are many ways to adapt the Book of Centuries. Some people leave one side of the page blank to allow the child to draw things in them relating to the characters he writes onto the year grids on the other page. Others include pages for maps. 

Goal for History Keeping

The important thing to remember is that our goal is not to compare our Book of Centuries with other people’s, nor is it a requirement for a school grade. The goal in using these history-keeping tools is for us to form connections with the people and events that we read about, making them a part of our lives and understanding. 

Geography: Mapwork to Place the Events 

In terms of geography, we also intentionally read living books, and add an activity called mapwork. 

Mapwork is simply pointing to the map, globe, or atlas, the places that we read about. This can be as simple as, when reading about the vikings, pointing to Norway, and then moving on. Or, when reading about the journey of Marco Polo or Magellan, pointing out the path that they took to get to their destination. 

My older son recently asked for more detailed maps because he wanted to see the places he reads about in his books. Since I only have a detailed map of the Philippines, I went looking for an atlas. Yippee, I found one for a very good price at Booksale, my favorite preloved bookstore here in the Philippines! Since then he’s been happily checking out the paths taken by the characters he reads about, such as in places like Scotland, Africa, and elsewhere. 

Civics and Culture (Citizenship)

For the Philippines, our social studies generally comprise of HEKASI: Heograpiya (Geography), Kasaysayan (History), and Sibika (Civics and Culture). (Or is that dated? Haha, I think that was the term when we parents were in school!) 

In the Charlotte Mason method, we encourage our students to learn about culture, civil responsibility, and citizenship. Just like in history lessons, we benefit greatly from using living books for this. As Charlotte Mason says in Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6 of her Home Education Series): 

A century ago when Prussia was shipwrecked in the Napoleonic wars it was discovered that not Napoleon but Ignorance was the formidable national enemy; a few philosophers took the matter in hand, and history, poetry, philosophy, proved the salvation of a ruined nation, because such studies make for the development of personality, public spirit, initiative, the qualities of which the State was in need, and which most advance individual happiness and success. 

Taking a cue from the free curriculum offered on AmblesideOnline.org, we have added Plutarch’s Lives to our studies. These stories tell about many famous people in Rome and Greece, such as Julius Caesar, Cicero, and other statesmen, giving us the chance to look into different leadership styles, character flaws and strengths, and other things that teach us how to be good citizens. 

In terms of our Filipino culture, though, we are still currently in the search for good quality living books. One of the things I personally want to incorporate in our studies, which is still in the works, is learning about the epics and mythology of our land. For Panay, we have the epics of the Panay-Bukidnon, which thankfully is out in translated form after the painstaking work of decades done by passionate individuals. Since the Philippines is an archipelago of islands, I wonder about the riches that we have in our oral literature! 

Learning to Love History 

In summary, the Charlotte Mason method of teaching history and social studies aims to help us develop a love for history as well as strengthen our analytical skills to learn from the life and experiences of other people. I’m excited to have you join us in this journey of learning and loving learning!