About a month ago I wrote about realizing my big girls were approaching "school age," looking up kindergarten standards, and discovering that they were in kindergarten actually. Since then we've been continuing the reading program I have (amended for Monkey's learning style, of course), finding lots of fun math activities to do, checking off every science standard just by answering the "Why, Mommy?" questions that fill my days, and letting them do their own thing for anything one might classify as fine arts and physical education. The only real hole in my planning/record keeping binder was history, which I hadn't even given much thought to yet. So . . . Daddy and I have been giving it thought, and here's the plan!
My personal experience is that history class was painfully boring and involved a lot of day dreaming, doodling, and memorizing the pertinent facts the night before a test. Thanks to my parents enthusiastically taking my siblings and I to historic locations, museums, living history venues, and reenactments and passing on a love of reading that included historical fiction, I discovered that history itself was a fascinating topic. So, with the freedom of homeschooling, we've decided to introduce them to the topic, not the textbooks. Daddy and I did some research into world history timelines and came up with fifteen historic periods that we think would be important and/or interesting for our girls' elementary education. This list, of course, is subject to change and will certainly be added to--at the moment it doesn't include anything more recent than World War II, for example. (Please note the obvious: This plan is significantly bigger than a kindergarten history class. We anticipate spending a couple/few of months-ish per era and moving on whenever I deem we've "covered it" for their current level of understanding. Periods will be revisited throughout their elementary education.)
- Ancient Mesopotamia
- Imperial China
- Ancient Egypt
- Ancient Rome
- Ancient Greece
- Vikings
- Middle Ages
- Aztec, Inca & Maya
- Native North Americans
- The Renaissance, Reformation & Great Explorers
- Colonial America/American Revolution
- American Westward Expansion & Pioneers
- Industrial Revolution
- American Civil War
- World War I & II
Rather than choosing a formal history curriculum, we decided to look for real books specific to each period. As our starting point, we found the DK Eyewitness books--big, beautifully illustrated volumes that cover the basics of most of the periods (We're still looking for similar resources for a few eras). We'll expand our study into each era by reading biographies, literature from the period and historical fiction (sponsored by online lists of recommended living books and the local public library), watching movies and documentaries (thank you, Netflix and Hulu), finding resources and games online (for example, the History Channel has lots of clips organized by historic period and BBC Kids has great games and activities available online), visiting museums and reenactments, making crafts, playing games, dressing up, acting out events and characters, etc. I anticipate projects like building the Great Wall of China in the living room and creating our own version of the Medieval illuminated manuscripts. There are so many options that don't involve sitting at a desk with a dry textbook!
How to begin? My mind was tangling with the questions--do we get into this chronologically? start close to home with American history and expand geographically? et cetera, et cetera--when Daddy pointed out that, really, the knowledge that's going to stick with them is the information they're actually interested in. Why not let them pick what we study first? Brilliant! So, the plan is to pick out fewer than half a dozen periods, spread out their reference books on the floor, and give the girls a chance to look them over and pick one. Then we run with it until we run out of steam, and I let them choose the next one. Ideally, I'll acquire a timeline (a book or a wall chart) that will help us place whatever period we're currently studying in the bigger picture of history.
Right now, we're eagerly awaiting the arrival of our DK Eyewitness books while I search for additional resources, pin things online (what did homeschoolers do before Pinterest?!), and add my own ideas for activities to note cards I've started for each time period. Have a great idea for a craft, activity, or book? Add a comment or send me an email!
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