my history studies

My friend and I, recognizing our deficiency in the discipline of history, and looking ahead to growing children that we will be responsible for their history education, have decided not to panic but instead to get serious about our own studies. Thus we have begun a course of study using Vision Forum's History of the World Mega pack. Mega doesn't really do it justice. It's 10 DVD lectures and 40 CD lectures--3000 minutes--and one study guide. This will form the spine for the kid's history when they hit the upper years. I don't really know how to arrange a course of study out to it (how much time to allocate for each topic and what additional reading to incorporate and how long will it take to complete, writing assignments, etc.), so I figured what better way to figure it out than to go through it myself. This study makes up one leg of my "you not them" methodology.

my own studies or "you, not them"

Over a year ago I read two books by Oliver DeMille on the method of schooling he calls a Thomas Jefferson Education. I have not fulling embraced the method but I learned a few things that I have implemented in our home. The most significant is the "You, not them" principle. 

The idea is simple. You cannot give what you do not have and, most importantly, you need to set the example for your children. You need to design your own studies and then get to work. I'll say it again because its so simple I'm tempted to neglect it and so hard for my lazy ears to hear:

YOU need to study. I need to study. WE need to study.

Your children need to see you doing what you want them to do. They need to see your passion and excitement over learning history and reading good literature. They need to see you learn a new skill, starting from the beginning and working until you master it. They need to witness you wrestle with a difficult subject and hear you discussing new books. They need to hear you and your husband argue over the significance (or lack of) Conrad's Heart of Darkness (you know, just as a random example that has no connection to real events). They need to hear you stumble over the pronunciation and meaning of new and difficult words and witness as they become a part of your daily lexicon. They need to SEE in YOU that education is a way of life that doesn't stop when you get a job and have secured enough leisure time for yourself you can move on to the fun stuff.

This doesn't mean go to college and get a degree. It could. But it's deeper and more fundamental than that. It's grassroots. It starts with who you are and begins at the kitchen table; at the library pouring over book after book and passing them back and forth to your friends; in conversations with people in your community that have expertice in a skill you'd like to learn; or hearing stories from a family member who has a special passion for a subject that your own education left you deficient.

For me it was hard to know where to start. I choose to focus on history, doctrine/theology, and my old-love, literatue. For me the three mingle together and weave one great big web that has no limit to how far it stretches, its center being the Bible. And I'm not in it to acquire a certain amount of head knowledge, but to be changed by it. I'll give more details later on the specifics of how I attempt to incorporate my own studies into an already busy life. It's tricky but so worth the effort (even the feeble efforts that mine are)!