There are two reasons I never became a clown in a circus.  For starters, I can’t juggle.  This inability to juggle manifests itself by the simple fact that we (the boys and I) often focus on one subject at a time . . . and if we like that subject – we learn about it all day long.  I suppose you could call this approach the classical version of Montessori education.

Secondly, unfortunately I saw the movie Poltergeist and it SCARRED me for life.

I would imagine that a larger reason that we focus on one subject is because there are so many things that I they want to learn.  Because there are so many amazing topics the brain can consume each school year, I find that our school year never ends.  Which – can be a good thing.  I’m not complaining.

Savoring Education

Savor is a word that I associate with food – a good, rich meal.  It leaves you satisfied and content.  You pause to sip water, never gulping the contents of your glass.  Savor represents empty plates and dinner guests remaining at the table for several hours afterwards.  Bedtimes are forgotten as the kids contribute to the conversation. 

Summer is our time to really savor education, seasoning it with rich timelines and riveting living books.  Lingering on the floor to color.  Laying out a blanket under our massive backyard trees, quietly squashing ants that threaten to invade our sacred space. 

How to Produce Savory Education

The meals that I enjoy the most are the ones that I come hungry to.  Rich meals are better enjoyed when you know they are scarce and special. 

I have been anxiously looking forward to summer.  While Classical Conversations was in full swing, we focused on our 160 point timeline, and largely dropped our history reading.  I couldn’t juggle history memory work AND an actual history curriculum – especially when what we were using wasn’t lining up with our memory work.  It wasn’t a fluid experience, like a meal that has an Indian course with a French baguette. 

So when I went to the Great Midwest Homeschool Convention  in Cincinnati, I spoke with many vendors about their approach to history.  Nothing quite filled the hole for our savory summer plans.  We needed to play catch-up – and play it quickly.

Brimwood Press Cooks History

We have a huge gaping whole in our history knowledge.  We know Egyptians like the back of our hand . . . and then the names of various huge events in history that are included in the Classical Conversation timeline.  While this is great, I felt like we were anorexically  thin on truly capturing the entirety of history. 

I felt like I needed my children needed to be able to give an elevator pitch of history.  Because if you can understand the whole of history, then you can more easily place and remember the details that season history. 

I turned to Brimwood Press, a sous chef when it comes to helping students gain an attainable and quick view of world history. 

Our Summer History Nourishment

This is the first summer that we have the chance to take a real summer break – no babies were born and we didn’t take extended pauses in our educational pursuits. 

I want to and I think we NEED to (have a vacation).  We need to practice having fun. 

For this reason, Brimwood Press fits nicely into the amount of time I have to cook up nourishing content in a short amount of time – their history is like a whole foods protein shake on safe steroids. 

Let me share my personal chef for the brain with you:

What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization

What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization boasts of covering 5,000 years of history in 14 lessons.  The Brimwood Press history curriculum is only supposed to feed you for one month but nourish you for years. 

Adults children:

• develop a mental timeline of Western Civilization by by learning about 14 historical eras from the teacher’s manual and historical coloring book
• understand key contributions or achievements in each era with the help of Father Time in Calendar Quest
• become aware of influences that have shaped Western Civilization through the “Hats of History” cards

What Brimwood Products Are We Using?

Calendar Quest – a fictional story that parallels history similar to Magic Tree House or Imagination Station, two curious children travel with Father Time to 12 historical periods in a refrigerator box {ahem}.  While they travel a repeated them is learning how the actual calendar that we use today came into existence. 

What Ever Child Needs to Know About History – You could call this book the “textbook,” as it elaborates upon the pegs or facts shared in Calendar Quest. 

This books contains stickers (much to Gabe’s delight).

Additionally, the perforated Hats in History Cards are included and how to use them (great tools by the way because they create a concise and easy to memorize timeline, should you wish to fatten your brain)

Color the Western World – while visual, this large and glorified “coloring book” keeps the kids busy while I read to them from Calendar Quest or What Every Child Needs to Know About History.

Why Every Parent Should Use Brimwood Press

I was not educated classically.  Though I was an honor student in high school, I really don’t remember one decent meal in history.  And while the female mind often thinks that she is “alone” in this world, I have to believe there are others of you out there that don’t remember history. 

I tell you, the Western History Civilizations Study is the gourmet fast food drive thru of history.  While this isn’t intended to nourish you for an entire school year, it is an AMAZING summertime stroll down memory lane – an excellent 5th course to the dinner table (literally).

If you would like to beef up your history elevator pitch and nourish your brain with succulent facts that will enrich you thinking, then join us in taking a month of time to survey 5,000 years of history with Brimwood Press.

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