I very loosely follow a classical method for teaching my kids. This is mostly applicable for me in how I do history and corresponding literature picks. For 1st-4th grade, then again in 5th-8th grade, we have progressed from ancient times, to the middle ages, to the early modern age, and finally to the modern age.
History is also one of the subjects that I teach to all of my kids at once. I have different expectations and work loads for them based on their age, but they all listen to me read. If they don’t get their ancient history the first time, they still have two more go’s at it! 🙂
The first time we went through, we used The Story of the World series by Susan Wise Bauer when my oldest was in 1st grade. I bought each book, along with the accompanying book for each year. The activity book gave options for activities that we could do to accompany our lessons and make them more hands on. We chose to do some and skipped others. There are student worksheets, maps, coloring sheets, and lists of books to read for each age level.
My kids and I especially liked the first few years of this curriculum. Those especially read more like stories and were more engaging for my younger ones. The modern age book became a bit heavier for my 2nd and 4th graders at the time. Though the author claims to be a Christian, her history is not overtly “Christian.” She states history as it is without really interpreting it in writing from a Christian perspective.
The second time we went through history (5th-8th grade for my oldest; the rest are each 2 years younger than each other), we chose to go through The Mystery of History curriculum. Because this is what we have most recently done, I will probably have more to say about this curriculum. We have really enjoyed this. The author, Linda Lacour Hobar, incorporates Scripture and the gospel message throughout all her texts, and she incorporates biblical history into her ancient history text as well.
The newest editions of her texts are hardcover with numerous color illustrations. Each one has an accompanying companion guide that you can purchase with suggested activities for different-aged students, review work, mapping exercises, etc. I also purchased the super supplemental collection in pdf format for each year. This included challenge review cards, coloring pages, various notebook pages for taking notes (depending on the style of notes your student prefers), and a folderbook.
Usually my youngest (currently 2nd and 4th grade) will color while they listen to me read. My oldest (6th and 8th grade) take notes using the notebook pages. Each week has a pre-test just to see what the kids know (really short) and then a cumulative post-test (varying in format from quiz, to game, to crossword puzzle). There is a big, quarterly worksheet for the kids to do and then 2 semester exams.
I love reading the Mystery of History, and it is especially engaging for my oldest. The chapters, however, can be a bit long and less engaging for my younger kids. I don’t require them to take any of the quizzes or tests, just to listen and then draw or play quietly while they do their best to listen.
As we will be completing Modern History for the second time this year (for my oldest at least), and as my oldest is entering high school this next year, I will have to modify things a bit for the next year. My plan is to at least begin again Story of the World. My youngest are mostly in view here. I think they will enjoy and benefit from the shorter, story-like lessons. I’ve also purchased a review questions pdf and test pdf for my daughter (rising 7th grader) to make the curriculum work for her as well.
My oldest (rising 9th grader) will be using Susan Wise Bauer’s History of the Ancient World. I also purchased the accompanying study and teaching guide, as well as the map supplement. I plan on his being more independent this year, tying in his literature reading into his ancient history studies, and incorporating his literature/history into some writing assignment. That’s the tentative plan, anyway! 😉
As I mentioned above and in other posts, we heavily tie our history into our literature, especially as the kids grow older. Their writing programs (especially Writing with Skill) also teach how to analyze and write about literature. I am
personally not really into literature programs (even though I’m a huge reader—and always have been—I actually disliked book reports and a lot of my literature classes in school and college. Here’s an interesting link if you’d like to hear more about that kind of thing from another homeschooling mom: https://readaloudrevival.com/196/ ). We talk a lot about books in and “out” of school, and I think that is really helpful for helping them think about what they’re reading and analyze it informally.
This is what we’ve done so far, and it has worked and been enjoyable overall for everyone. Perhaps I will update this post once we’ve completed another round of Story of the World for my girls and Ancient History for my son in high school.
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Stonehenge Image by Zdeněk Tobiáš from Pixabay