One of my favorite subjects for homeschool is history. I organized our history curriculum for grades 1-12, using specific textbooks, timelines, videos, and activities. We had great success — meaning my kids learned and loved history. And I finally love history after enduring years of history taught by football coaches in high school.
History for homeschool, Grades 1 – 12
I followed the advice from Susan Wise Bauer. We studied world history over four years and then repeated it the next four years until, by the third time around, our study became more detailed.
History for Homeschool Grades 1-4:
Text: Â Story of the World. Four books cover world history. You use one book in one year and then move to the next one in the series the following year. When we first started with the plan from Susan Wise Bauer, (which she talks about in her book, The Well Trained Mind) she had just started writing these history books, so we had to use other sources in the beginning.
Now, you can use her books, in volumes 1-4: Story of the World
. At first, I read the chapters to my son when he was young, and he would do the activity page that correlated with the chapter. There is also a test for each chapter. CDs are also available if your child prefers to listen, or on days you do not want to read — reinforce while driving around. We used them as well. These books are easy to read and great read-aloud (links to my affiliate account with Amazon)
:
Story of the World, Volume One
: Ancient Times
Story of the World, Volume Two
: The Middle Ages
Story of the World, Volume Three
: Early Modern Times
Story of the World, Volume Four
: The Modern Age
Be sure to get the Activity Book that goes with each volume.
Story of the World
Activity Book 1
Story of the World
Activity Book 2
Story of the World
Activity Book 3
Story of the World
Activity Book 4
So for one year of study, you will need the book and the activity book. That’s it. Susan Wise Bauer has written these books with a belief in God, but she does not present any denominational information. Once you are out of ancient history, there is no mention of figures such as Abraham or Noah. I loved these books because they are not your typical Christian Homeschool Books. I prefer to have my history textbooks not include the teachings of any specific religious point-of-view. She does this quite well and still includes Biblical history.
You can also purchase these books at her site: Well Trained Mind.
History for Homeschool Grades 5-8:
Repeat the above books, but the kids can do the reading themselves, and you can choose more difficult activities.
TimeLine
Start a timeline as well. We used a large roll of paper and ran it down the wall. We added events and people as we read history. It covered history from the beginning to the current day, adding my kid’s birthdays on the timeline as well. That way they get an understanding of the past and present. We saved old history books that were not written well but had photos or pictures that my kids could cut out and paste on the timeline.
I also recommend maps and globes. We included geography in our study of history. One year we used Abeka World Geography Map Studies.
History for Homeschool grades 9 – 12:
History of the Renaissance World
Audible.com offers these books for download so you can listen as well as read or instead of reading.
Timeline Books:
The time chart History of the World: Over 6000 Years of World History Unfolded
National Geographic Concise History of the World: An Illustrated Time Line
The Ultimate Timeline of World History: With 20 Lavish Fold-Out Timelines
