I'll have to disagree with some folks here in regards to the article from MP.
Having read it, I don't think they are saying "Let the child decide what he wants to learn about" (child-centered). I think they are suggesting YOU as the parent take into account the way that children tend to learn (remember, they run a VERY successful, very rigorously academic school) and use that to your advantage. Understanding and using knowledge about a child's learning stages is not being wimpy, it can be very wise.:001_smile:
Personally, I had recently come to the very same conclusions with my oldest (a soon-to-be-eight-year-old) and when I read that article, it was an "a-ha!" moment for me. Between all of our American holidays and all the talk of elections and such this year, my kids have shown a natural interest in America and American history becomes very natural to teach, both through books and conversation. My daughter also loves the Little House books and another poster pointed out earlier, it would certainly be a shame to not get around to reading those now because I was too busy trying to fill her head with stories of the ancients.
We have been "studying" (to us at this stage that simply means reading about) the ancient Egyptians as we just recently went through Exodus. My children were in interested in Egypt because of the fact that they had something to relate it to that they are familiar with (the exodus) and a real person's story to relate it too (Moses).
All this to say, like other posters said, the early elementary years are not that crucial in regards to history. For example, if you read Dorothy Sayers, she talks about going through all of western history 2 times (TWTM says 3 times). For some of us the 3x may be overkill (Dorothy Sayers also lays out the grammar stage as grades 1-6, not 1-4 as in TWTM). Dorothy Sayers is not the be-all, end-all resource for classical education, but then again neither is TWTM.
Since we know our children better than anyone, we should feel free to consider how they learn and adapt our methods.