History of the World

On the homeschool shelf at this house are a couple of volumes which make the attempt to write a History of the World: one is titled The History of the World and the other The Outline of History (H.G. Wells). Is there a more daunting task than to set a goal of putting into print the vast scope of the events of the past - even if you limit it to the era where there exists a record, however scanty, and you limit yourself to strictly facts (disregarding the tenuous nature of facts in history), it is nonetheless an ambitious plan to want to implement. Nevertheless, a collection of texts for homeschooling cannot avoid including one on world history.

Rather than an endless and perpetually incomplete single text, however, the concept I have is to at the core of the history unit a chronology which is divided into annual recitations of primary, significant and decisive events with subdivisions for births/deaths, publications, art, etc. The idea will be to use the chronology as a base from which to develop articles, links, studies and assignments.