Homeschool History

Do you wonder if teaching homeschool history going to be boring?

History was one of my least favorite subjects in school. I remember having to memorize the names and dates of Spanish explorers and Chinese Dynasties. How boring! My children on the other hand, say "living history" is their favorite subject.

Why the difference?

I think that people who enjoy history either enjoy memorizing OR are taught that it is a great adventure story. Needless to say, our family approaches the subject as a story and we love to read "living books" to bring history to life. I have learned and retained more historical information as a homeschool history teaching mom than I did in high school and college combined. The light bulb in my head goes off every day….”so that’s why Ghengis Khan was important” or “I didn’t know Daniel lived around the same time as Buddha.”

I first got the idea to teach history this way after reading The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer. She suggests starting a program “from the beginning of time” ~ even with young children. So that’s what we did. Now they are older, we are still "cycling" through the different time periods of history, and having a blast while learning more than I ever could have imagined. To think the public schools in my state are considering leaving out many older time periods because they aren't "relevant" is a shame!

It doesn't matter if your child is young or in high school, it is easy to build a homeschool history curriculum (without buying a text) with a little research, “living” library books, DVDs, the History Channel, websites and field trips to local (and far away) historic sites, museums, historical dramas, and re-enactments. We’ve had fun making feasts featuring foods from different countries and time periods. Making history “come to life” has been a real education for the whole family.

A private chat with Martha Washington.

What better way to learn about the "stocks" than by hanging out in them for awhile...

If your daughter loves the American Girl series of books, check out Craft Ideas for Kids.com for American Girl crafts, plus alot more.

We recently chose to use Sonlight for our history curriculum and we love it. There is alot of reading involved, so it's not for everyone. Click the banner to the right to find out more.

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