History experts: help me!

[daijobu]

I am not an inspirational teacher when it comes to history.  We have been slogging through History of US for what seems like ages with my now dd13 and dd11.  Read a chapter, short discussion, do the worksheet, lather, rinse, repeat.  

 

Problem is, it looks like in a few months we'll be done, and I don't know what else to do.  In my fantasy world, I would let the kids explore history, any time period, any location they want, but they aren't exactly history lovers themselves.  (I take credit for that.)

 

Does anyone have ideas form some sort of child-led history for middle schoolers?  I'd like to incorporate writing (also not my strength, but I have a tutor for that).  Or maybe not necessarily child led, but something fun.  Something clean and easy.  Something.

[Farrar]

What's your goals with history? What other history have they covered? Are there aspects of history that they do like or might like - such as history of science or mythology and legends from history or reading historical fiction or art history or...?

 

I used to teach history so I kind of love it. With my own kids, we covered history from the beginning to the present with a year out for focusing on the US. Now, for the logic stage, we're about to go interest led. I felt more comfortable doing it knowing that - even if they don't remember all the details (not even close) - they have had some exposure to most everything and have some concept of what they might find interesting. Not that that's an absolute prerequisite, just that I see its benefit for us.

 

I'm not planning to worry about what we cover or not. However if I wanted history to stay a subject, but wanted it to be child led, I would probably just ask them to pick a topic and then make a routine for it. They pick a topic for each month and then once a week they have to read one biography and one book, watch one video, and do one written narration. At the end of the month, they have to do a project. You could have a project picker, where they pick among different types of projects - a piece of art, a pretend newspaper front page from the time period, a cooked meal, a research paper, an imaginary catalog for the people of the time, a powerpoint, a website about it...  whatever projects you like. If you're focusing on writing, you could make them writing intensive. If you want to make them light and easy, you could do that. You could let them do the same thing each time or make it so they have to always choose something different or make it so they have to alternate between a project they would like to repeat and a new one so if they want to cook a meal for every project, they could only do it every other time.

[RootAnn]

Creek Edge History Task Cards? 

Project Passport by Homeschool in the Woods?

Hands & Hearts History Kits?

Do a geography study -- just letting them study one continent per month - stack the countries app, using Sheppards Software site, copying maps, looking up stuff, whatever...

[KrissiK]

I hated history until I startd reading biographies. People are always interesting. There are a lot of good biographies about anyone and everyone in history. However, I would suggest studying a certain time period systematically, rather than just pick random biographies.

[Pen]

Incorporate DVDs.

[daijobu]

Thank you!  This is a good start to my planning.  

[kalphs]

I concur with what Farrar posted above.
Have you considered doing SOTW for older students as outlined in the WTM? 
Another option is Beautiful Feet Books, which is a literature based history study.  :001_smile:

[kiana]

what about the Classical Historian? They've got ancient and medieval civilizations for middle school, and it's inquiry-based.

 

(note, I haven't used it myself, but it's gotten decent reviews on this board and elsewhere)

[Pen]

Since you liked my last comment, I'll add a bit more.

 

Also, I'd start with DVDs that go into some area of history that fits interests they may already have such as perhaps science, and let an area of interest be the basis for an exploration into other history. For example, my ds learned about how technology was important to the Civil War (telegraph, railroads, balloons, weaponry--he found a book about this at the library)--it was not my primary interest area, but it got his attention at least initially more than social issues might have done. The Connections films by James Burke can be good for this.

 

Sometimes also having something to tie history into, even if it is fictional can help, for example, the book And Ladies of the Club (for adults, but was okay for my ds12--the more mature parts went over his head, I think) covered a long span post Civil War, as do the Little House books, especially if you also use the Rose years books. With Ladies of the Club, we ended up with a technology question related to how a character could have been selling tractors before the days of cars, and also some related to medical advances since several characters were doctors. At the same time, you get things like Rose Wilder meeting Eugene Debs, or all sorts of things about elections, and other events in Ladies of the Club. These were a great help for parts of US History. 

 

We also saw things like 500 Nations DVDs about Native Americans, and various others that were not as memorable, but all added in to a middle school level knowledge.

[EndOfOrdinary]

Netflix has lots of movies to stream.  Last year I went and made a list for science, history, and literature.  He got to watch a movie each Friday and shifted through the lists.  It might be a good way for them to have a more narrow field to choose from, but still be interest led.  The rest of the week they could seek out information about each video topic and have to present a short "report" to the family before the next movie.