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Home School History CurriculumHome School History Curriculum: 1) Stay on top of current events.
Then stop by the Newsmax store to buy books that relate to the news of the day.
2) Prepare for the Geography Bee - Great products that help with your home school history curriculum: These maps and globes introduce and reinforce geography in an entertaining way: Fly and Discover Teaching Globe by Toys to Grow On, Magic World Map, and the U.S. Map Puzzle. The Geography Bee will help 4th through 7th graders prepare for the National Geographic challenge. World Physical Geography, Unit 1: Welcome to the Wonderful World of Geography Series (for grades 6 and up) is a great unit with lots of colorful maps, photos and interesting facts.
The Hello U.S.A., From Sea to Shining Sea, and America the Beautiful series, all available at Amazon, have books on every state for the elementary grades. Using the
State History on CD-ROM
for your 7th – 12th grader with multi-media questions, activities, tests, and more will make your state study meaningful and fun.
4) Pack your vacations, summer camps, and field trips with history. Patrick Henry College in Virginia offers awesome “Teen Leadership Camps.” Several of the camps are history related and usually involve a field trip to nearby Washington D.C.
Here is a picture of Sean the year he attended the Constitutional Law camp taught by PHC founder Michael Farris. Farris is also the founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association. He is a wonderful home school advocate. He and his wife have written many books on the subject which you can find by clicking on either Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
Seek fascinating field trip destinations in your area. This year we visited Connor Prarie in Indiana (about 1 ½ hours drive from where we live). We learned about the Lenape Indians (ate their food, visited their village, threw a tomahawk) at this authentic living history museum.
Wallbuilders is an organization dedicated to restoring the moral foundations America was built upon. They have many wonderful videos and books. I highly recommend the following home school history curriculum books, all available at Christian Book Distributors: What in the World's Going on Here? and What in the World's Going on Here? Volume 2 Audiobooks on cassettes and Ancient Civilizations and the Bible, Revised, 2 Volumes are both by Diana Waring, a trusted home school speaker and writer. Your Story Hour Volume 6 and Your Story Hour Volume 7 Audiobooks on cassettes are dramatic presentations of famous events in history. Off to Plymouth Rock by Dandi Daley Mackall is available at Amazon. There are so many historical fiction titles that you can weave into your curriculum. Buy one at ChristianBook.com or FamilyChristian.com.
We had been using Abeka on dvd since first grade for Sarah. In the 7th grade we decided a change was in order. She was getting a little bored with the video format. She's an avid reader. And, she needed a history curriculum that would engage her. So, Sonlight's literature-based curriculum seemed like the perfect match. I've written much more about Sonlight curriculum as a whole on our home school literature curriculum page. Please check it out. Here, I wanted to let you know how much this program has helped my daughter in History. The main History book, The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer is related more like a novel than a textbook. There is also supplemental reading in The Usborne internet-linked Encyclopedia of World History which is captivating because of all the fun pictures on each page. And, the readers and read-aloud books go along with the time periods being studied in the History curriculum. There is a great deal of Geography reinforcement with Sonlight as well. Sarah loves to sit on the floor with her laminated world map and markers and find the various countries that she has been reading about. The wonderfully complete study guides that come with the curriculum detail the locations to identify. Sarah also enjoys putting the historical figures she reads about into her timeline book which additionally serves as a memory device. As she looks back through the timeline book, it helps her to remember the time periods she has studied. Before you make a decision about Sonlight, however, be sure to read my complete review on our
home school literature curriculum page.
8) Have fun with your home school history curriculum!
Dramatize events in history. (See photos below.) Books like "Pioneer Days: Discover the past with fun projects, games, activities, and recipes" (American Kids in History Series) can help you plan a history project your children will always remember.
Be sure to check the free samples of home school history curriculum available here.
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