How to Plan Homeschool History + Free Chart

Are you thinking about how to approach homeschool history? Particularly if you are just starting out, it can seem like there are too many choices. Should you start with American history, or go chronologically? Should you buy a structured program or build your own, based off your child’s interests?

My guest post at SEA Homeschoolers Blog breaks down how to make decisions about homeschool history. I also share my planning process along the way.

My overall process for planning out history curriculum

Here are the general steps to follow in planning out homeschool history:

• Choose a method for organizing history study.
• Decide how much time you will devote to your history study.
• Choose a curriculum or set of resources.
• Plan out how you will implement and shape the program to meet your family’s needs.
• Try it out, and adjust as you go along.

Part of what makes history overwhelming (but fascinating and worthwhile) is that there is so much of it! And more accumulating every day! How do you make it manageable? Is it possible to “cover everything”? Should that even be the goal?

The classical approach

Every homeschooling family approaches history in the way that works best for them. I am using the classical approach, which organizes the study of history by time period. This ensures that we are moving systematically and logically through topics. Rather than jumping around as many schools do, we’ll be going in order. The classical approach reserves plenty of room to explore ancient civilizations and other cultures.

At first, I was skeptical that young children could study history at all. In most schools, students don’t learn much history until 4th grade. And usually it’s state history, not world history. Many American schools don’t tackle much non-American history, EVER. Or if they do, it’s in a disjointed, haphazard fashion.

What convinced me that my child could handle history? His love of the Magic Tree House series. Each book profiles a time period or specific historical event. The kids meet famous historical figures, get a little taste of life in other time periods, then get safely home. My only complaint was the way the books jumped around.

So, I realized that what I wanted was this fun, interactive approach to homeschool history – just in order! And that’s what a good classical curriculum does!

Read the article here.

If you’d just like the planning chart, click the image below!