History

Back to homeschooling stuff. ;) Today, the subject is history. I like history. It's always been one of my favorites. Here's what we've used with the boys...

Story of the World. This is one of the few curriculums that just worked for us right off the bat. I've stuck with it since we started (have taken a few breaks now and then, but have always used this as our primary history program). What I love about it is that the chapters are a nice, manageable size...and that they cover history chronologically. Covering history "in order" just makes so very much sense to me. Seems infinitely more reasonable than spending the elementary years just focusing on the US and then waiting until high school to cover everything else.

This curriculum is designed as a simple and fun introduction to history for young children. It's presented in four volumes, starting with ancient times and working up to modern. "Ideally" you cover one text a year starting in first grade. Each text has roughly 40 chapters (so easily doable in just one chapter a week)...narratives that cover history without being too dry, often using stories (from that period, featuring kids from that period, or highlighting a figure from that period). If you also buy the activity book, you get a review of the chapter, additional reading material recommendations, and various activities (like art projects and games). 

We've just started on book 3. History is one of the subjects I do with all the boys together. I plan to go back over the same material once we finish book 4. That's part of the "plan" behind the curriculum. They figure that we should introduce it all at a young age and then revisit it a time or two to really help it sink in. Makes sense, eh? I figure that the timeline will be about right for Micah and anticipate going into more depth (and off on more tangents, lol) with the other two.

Book of Time. I haven't actually started this yet, but am very excited about it. I found these Book of Time books and just purchased one for each boy. They appear very sturdy and nicely put together (and this was easier than creating one myself, which was my next plan). I plan to start having the boys add notes as we cover things in history (and any other subject!). I've read about people doing this all the way through high school and having kids treasure this resource that can grow with them during that entire time.

Books. Aside from the great recommended reading list included with Story of the World, I always love finding great history books to read with the boys. Some of our favorites right now are:

• books by David Macaulay (we particularly like the building line of books...City, Castle, Cathedral, etc....for my very detail-oriented boys, these are great at really painting a picture of what life was like during that time period)
• Magic Tree House books (these are little chapter books about two kids who time travel to different points in history...not the most challenging material, but a fun springboard for discussion...plus they have great little research guides on many different topics that correlate with their books)
• the You Wouldn't Want To Be... series (a bunch of non-fiction picture books loaded with facts about different time periods...fun!)

That's pretty much it for history right now. Any resources you've come across that you'd like to share?