What has history looked like in your homeschool

[Elizabeth86]

With my first 2 sons, we are doing veritas self paced history. They love it and ask for it, we have all learned lots. My 2nd set of children, the girls, the oldest is in K this year. I know we won’t do history for a while now, just thinking ahead and trying to get a feel for what is out there. I know I don’t plan on doing VP again. 

What has history looked like in your homeschool for k-8. 

[HomeAgain]

Current kid:

Kindergarten - no history.  Exposure to stories, myths, fables, and current cultures around the world, while learning where we lived.

1st-3rd: we used SOTW, but it was very project heavy.  I would set up an activity or mapwork and tell the story that went along with it so that the hands and active listening were engaged. I brought in literature in year 3 that was U.S. centered to go along with what was going on elsewhere in the world.

4th: Modern world.  SOTW is very heavy and dense here, so we did a split year.  Up through 1911, it was U.S. focused.  When we did the Titanic in 1912, it was the perfect opportunity to start twining in world history again, coming into WWI, then the Great Depression from world and U.S. povs, then WWII.  By the 1950s there was a track for political history (world) and American (civil rights).

5th: back to ancients with a focus on using primary sources in new ways.  We did investigations with Marion Brady, History's Mysteries, and Reading Like a Historian.  It was more of a 'detective' based year.  Our spine became Human Odyssey, which ds likes a LOT, and Outrageous Women of _____, which is an old series that focuses on women in different time periods/areas.

6th: this is now: More fluid.  I don't have a ton of time, so ds reads a lot of historical fiction, ambles off on side jaunts, and plans out units with me for things he wants to know more about (like Da Vinci and Shakespeare right now)

 

Older kid:

K-1: public school

2nd-5th: SOTW, very project based. We used a lot of the pdf of the student pages in 5th. There were a LOT of field trips.  So many.

6th-8th: a step further, but not much.  We changed to Creek Edge Press for their task cards and developing independence.  The one year we did Learning Adventures, an integrated program of literature and language arts into the history and beefed it up with Jackdaws.

[Miss Tick]

The summer before 1 was prehistory

1-4 was SotW

2-4 we ran a lighter US history track using various resources.

The summer before 5 we did some prehistory again.

5-8 K12 Human Odyssey broken down to match the SotW sections I was doing with ydd so that we could do timeline together every 5th chapter for review.

6-8 the lighter US history track used the Critical Thinking US history Detective books.

 

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

K: DIY World Continents & Cultures 

1st: DIY Prehistory, History Odyssey Ancients

2nd: History Quest Middle Times

3rd: History Quest Middle Times Cont’d

(we are here)

4th: History Odyssey Early Modern

5th: History Odyssey Modern 

6th: History Odyssey Ancients Level 2

7th: History Odyssey Middle Ages Level 2 

8th: History Odyssey Early Modern Level 2

9th: History Odyssey Modern Level 2

10th: World Geography or HO Ancients 3

11th: US History or HO Middle Ages 3

12th: Gov & Econ or US History + Gov & Econ 

K-2nd mostly involved listening to spine & picture book read-alouds, finding important locations on maps & globes, arts & crafts, hands-on projects, & verbally connecting big ideas (where people settle, the rise & fall of civilizations, impact of natural disasters) from one period in time to another. These years included Usborne World History (UEWH), SOTW, & History Pockets. 

For 3rd we’ve kept UEWH & the hands-on projects, dialed back on picture books / arts / crafts, & cut out SOTW / History Pockets. We added note-taking from the spine text because DS was just not retaining from HQ the way he had with HO. It is much more dense.

In 4th/5th we’ll return to HO, but keep the writing going with paragraph-writing  assignments. This will add SOTW & History Pockets back in. I may or may not begin assigning independent chapter book readings at this level. 

6th-10th will involve shifting to more independent completion of spine text readings, assigned chapter books, & essay-writing. 

The final two years will ensure that all graduation requirements are met, with content potentially tailored to AP exam material. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Shoes+Ships+SealingWax

[freesia]

Fun--a looking back exercise.  I'll begin with ds1

K- Sonlight K with some Konos units

1-Sonlight B

2-Sonlight C

3-Sonlight D

4-Sonlight E--dd started grade 1 I chose easy readers to go along with the history oldest was doing

5-Sonlight F Eastern Hemisphere- dd and ds2 studied the countries at their level

6- We switched to Tapestry of Grace as I'd been adding in hands-on activities and our bff's were doing it and we could have discussions. This year we did Ancients. From now on we studied the same period.  For the youngers I would use Sonlight books in place of some of the Tapestry selections.  I often used Story of the World for the youngers with other books. For American history, I often used the Hakim series through eighth grade.  Those resources are listed and scheduled in TOG. I kind of mixed and matched. ( Also, in case it's of interest, I ended up doing 5 in a row for my K's and reading my favorite read alouds from Sonlight and others.  My youngest took a long time to become interested in history so, while I started SOTW with her in first to keep her with the others, I ended up doing very, very light history with her until around 5th grade.  She wasn't interested and she didn't remember anything, so it felt better to read her good books and keep history really light.  I mean she was SERIOUSLY not interested.  She is really bright, grew up the youngest in an always homeschooling family, with a mother who majored in American history, lives on the East Coast, in house where at the end of the street is a house where the British met to plan one of the Revolutionary battles and at age 11 said--Oh! America used to be British! That's what the Revolutionary war was about! I credit Hamilton for it finally all clicking! So have courage mamas. LOL)

7-Tapestry year 2-Medieval/Renaissance

8-Tapestry year 3-1800s

Ds 1 year 9/dd year 6 Tapestry year 4,

Then we have just kept cycling through the Tapestry years using Sonlight and TOG resources to the present day.  My high schoolers have done 1-4 years of TOG (but you didn't ask about them.)  My youngest is grade 7 doing TOG 3 right now and after a break of a couple of years we are once again having discussions with the bff family.  Some years we've had a larger discussion group with multiple families, a few years we didn't have discussion together and now we are back at it again.  The plan is to do 4 next year. 

[wendyroo]

We did a year of reading about stars, dinosaurs and prehistory when my oldest two were 3 and 5. (And obviously read about a whole lot of other "history" and talked about holidays and other stuff.)

Then we started reading through SOTW when my kiddos were 6, 4, 2 and newborn. We took 5 years to get through the series, adding in chapters from The Complete Book of United States History as they fit in chronologically.

When my oldest was in middle school, he started reading through The Human Odyssey. I continued to read history aloud to everyone together, but rather than rereading SOTW, I switched to the Oxford University Press series. We did ancients when my kiddos were 11, 9, 7 and 5. Now we are working on Medieval. Once we make it through OUP, then I will switch to reading The Story of Us (the concise version) aloud.

In high school, for my oldest, I am planning on Farrar's GPS curriculum.

[Brittany1116]

Hmmm. He did a few years Abeka in early elementary, then we moved to geography and cultures for a bit, followed by nearly 2 years American history focus, then first 2 volumes of MOH, and now back to American next year with CLE because he asked. Child in question is grade 5/6 currently. Unsure of my exact plans for the little one.

[Ting Tang]

Last year was our first year homeschooling.  My Kinder kid used Abeka, and at that level, it was light geography/culture/history.  My 2nd grader did a trimester of US history, and my 3rd grader did American History as told through mini biographies.  

This year we switched to Memoria Press for the older two.  My now 1st grader doesn't have an official history curriculum.  My 3rd and 4th graders are doing Christian Studies and Greek Myths (historical culture?).  I also bought the recommended American History living books and accompanying guides.  We have fallen behind on those.  I can't say my 3rd grader has gotten much out of history this year since he's still at that learning to read phase (we are regrouping).  And since we have so many more little subjects, my 4th grader only got through one of his American History books.  I don't know. I am not happy with this year at all.

IF I homeschool them all next year, I will be doing a lot of soul searching as to our choices with everything.  

[8filltheheart]

Different things for different kids.  I typically create units around whatever we want to study.  We have done units on knights and castles, pirates, fairy tales around the world, etc. I have done a study using Kon Tiki For Young People and Mutiny on the Bounty to tie into a study on Australia and Oceania. We have also done history units tied to literature like British history and WW2 in conjunction with Chronicles of Narnia.  One thing we have never done is cyclical history.  At some pt in elementary, we spend a yr reading through a stack of Landmark books for American history.

[Lucy the Valiant]

Mostly parties. We pick a theme, and then the kids each think of something they'd like to do related to that time period / theme - food, games, activities like simple crafts or instruments (or weapons, within reason), music, maybe dance, show and tell, and (nearly always) a Special Guest. We work on our preparations / read up / plan things out, and then have the party to celebrate. Then pick a new time period (or just move forward in time). 

Special favorite memories include Erik the Viking (a firewood log) that we made a (cardboard) long-ship for (with extremely-carefully-researched shield designs) and had Very Serious Funeral Fire & Watery Send-Off for, complete with music and feasting. We also enjoyed burning down London (SOTW activity book idea, I think), throwing a homecoming party for Odysseus (again, games from SOTW activity book + local friend who had traveled widely who brought SLIDES of Greece & the Mediterranean), an ancient Egyptian "Fashion Show."

Also field trips (as often and as far as we can afford), Really Good Documentaries, more historical fiction than is probably rational, and a decent pile of narrative non-fiction, too (Story of the World, etc.). 

We also spent a few years mailing "Flat Rangers" to several of the far-away National Parks, and then getting WAY SO EXCITED when their info came back (in super-huge manila envelopes sometimes from the "Department of the Interior" which may or may not have driven a sweet nosy neighbor lady CRAZY when it got mis-delivered to her house hahahaha!). 

We did try a few different "curricula" over the years (because all our friends were doing it), but we never got past Chapter 2 in any of them.

[Clarita]

My kindergartener has really liked the Notgrass Star Spangled Story. It's textbook-y with lots of pictures. I just read and look at the pictures with him doing a unit a week. I look at the hands-on activity the book has for suggestions on what fun thing we can do, or I've come up with stuff myself. Our family needs some sort of jumping off point, just coming up with topics doesn't work for us. 

[Melissa in Australia]

SOTW second time round with twins. I read the chapter while they re meant to do the colouring page. I ask the questions they answer orally, they then do a narration that I write done for them and they copy. we do the mapwork. we may do a craft activity . I sometimes get the respite worker to help them with one of the activities. but I have to have everything prepared and the twins already instructed in what to do as the respite worker seems to have no creativity in her at all. I read a book every day of the week for morning narration  that fits in with the history lesson of that week.  As the twins are permanently stuck in grade 1 level I can see us going through the whole series again  in the future.

I have gone through these books a total of 5 times .

 

for my older children we did SOTW for 4 years, then moved on to logic History which was using Kingfisher World History, Usborne Encyclopedia of World history  plus reading list from TWTM a 4 year cycle. For the next stage we tried a few different things . my favorite was Spielvogels Western Civ plus TWTM reading list

[Elizabeth86]

10 hours ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

Mostly parties. We pick a theme, and then the kids each think of something they'd like to do related to that time period / theme - food, games, activities like simple crafts or instruments (or weapons, within reason), music, maybe dance, show and tell, and (nearly always) a Special Guest. We work on our preparations / read up / plan things out, and then have the party to celebrate. Then pick a new time period (or just move forward in time). 

Special favorite memories include Erik the Viking (a firewood log) that we made a (cardboard) long-ship for (with extremely-carefully-researched shield designs) and had Very Serious Funeral Fire & Watery Send-Off for, complete with music and feasting. We also enjoyed burning down London (SOTW activity book idea, I think), throwing a homecoming party for Odysseus (again, games from SOTW activity book + local friend who had traveled widely who brought SLIDES of Greece & the Mediterranean), an ancient Egyptian "Fashion Show."

Also field trips (as often and as far as we can afford), Really Good Documentaries, more historical fiction than is probably rational, and a decent pile of narrative non-fiction, too (Story of the World, etc.). 

We also spent a few years mailing "Flat Rangers" to several of the far-away National Parks, and then getting WAY SO EXCITED when their info came back (in super-huge manila envelopes sometimes from the "Department of the Interior" which may or may not have driven a sweet nosy neighbor lady CRAZY when it got mis-delivered to her house hahahaha!). 

We did try a few different "curricula" over the years (because all our friends were doing it), but we never got past Chapter 2 in any of them.

Flat Rangers!! I love it!! Any official way you have to go about this ?

[MeaganS]

We've been fairly informal. We listen to SOTW audiobooks in the car. We've been through them several times over the years. My kids have also watched Liberty's Kids all the way through several times and Carmen Sandiego (Also in the car. We apparently do a lot of history in the car). We did a year of CC Timeline focus where we regularly went through the timeline. Daily, for years, my kids have had "15 minute reading" which is essentially them choosing books from a pile of mostly non-fiction library books to read. A lot of history has been read there. We travel a lot and complete several Jr. Rangers a year, so there's a fair amount of history we've included there. They have listened to audiobooks nightly since they were toddlers, and many of them are historical fiction or books written long ago.

This year I have a few of my kids working the The Story of US. I'm using it primarily as a source for writing assignments.

Despite being very informal about it, I feel like my kids have an excellent grasp on Elementary-Middle School level history. They've retained a lot and make a lot of connections. I think they are in a good place to transition to more analytical history as they get older.

[Lucy the Valiant]

12 hours ago, Elizabeth86 said:

Flat Rangers!! I love it!! Any official way you have to go about this ?

We found one on the Fort Sumter site (I think?), and I coached the letters pretty heavily and required excellent penmanship and letter skills (introduction, specific requests, easy way for the rangers to reply, how I would share the info they sent back). 

The NPS rangers knocked it out of the park, I tell ya! (Occasionally a flat ranger didn't come home, so we just made a new one in that case.)

[2_girls_mommy]

K-8 looks like history as described in The Well Trained Mind.  That is volumes 1-4 of SOTW in grades 1-4.  In 5th we added the Kingfisher History encyclopedia as the main reading, and used some chapters of SOTW as readalouds, added a lot more readalouds from longer nonfiction books from each time periods and major events, diaries and journals, continued memorywork chants with each cycle including art cards from Memoria Press, did SOTW projects from the Activity guides, even when we weren't reading from the book in middle school, added a map coloring book, outlining, and did the full history notebook for summaries on different topics.  We used an old blog called the Classical House of Learning Literature for their lit readings in middle school to go along with the time periods vs just reading the books from the SOTW activity guides as we did in elementary school.  And we read from the Tiner Science books to go along with history from Memoria Press.  For the modern history year in 4th and 8th grade we did state history and American history with it, for what I call our heavy history years.  We did field trips and kept a separate state history notebook.  We did more of American History the 8th grade year going deeper into Am. than we did in the 4th grade year and used some more original sources. 

[historically accurate]

Hmmm, let's see if I can remember: 

Oldest - K - 1st: Five in a Row and unit studies, 2-5: SotW, 6-7: Human Odyssey, 8-9: Build Your Library, 10: Funda Funda, 11-12: community college

Middle - K-3rd: Five in a Row, 4th: homemade unit studies (rotated a science-y one, a history one, and a novel study (with science/history/etc added in) for the year), 5-6: Human Odyssey, 7-10: Build Your Library

Youngest - K-2nd: Five in a Row, 3rd: homemade unit studies, 4-5: SotW, 6-9: Build Your Library (tagalong mostly with middle - broke them apart for a couple of years, and they're back together)

Edited February 2, 2022 by historically accurate

[Slache]

I read our spine over lunch and we do related work about twice a week. Each kid has age appropriate additional reading.

Kindy was homemade cultural geography, 1st was Star Spangled Story by Notgrass, 2nd-5th was Story of the World with Activity Guide and Timeframe. Next up is more Notgrass.