HISTORY This is such a vital subject of study for the cultivating of an understanding of our world and, in my experience at least, it was absolutely dry as toast and despairingly forgettable in my public school education. Homeschooling my own children has given me the opportunity to do it differently for my brood.
If you follow this blog you know we ascribe to the Robinson Curriculum (RC) and it focuses on the three R's: reading, writing, and arithmetic. It does include history books in the reading list but not a history curriculum per se. My state does require it (or Social Studies) as a subject beginning in Kindergarten if you can believe it. How to gently introduce the subject without disrupting the focus on the three R's?
The Good and The Beautiful History has been the perfect solution for our family. Here is why.
It comes with everything you need. No prep work necessary. Win!
It can be used with multiple ages and the notebooks accommodate different grade levels. Win!
It is fun and engaging with readers, a board game, dramatic recordings and a "text" book. My kids love it. Win!
The price is extremely reasonable for everything you receive and the fact that it can be used for multiple kids. Win!
The program covers a wide swath of cultures and times for a more comprehensive education of history. Win!
Mom enjoys it too! Winner winner chicken dinner!
How often to teach it? I have settled on one day a week. I want to keep the focus on the three R's and not have overly full schedules so we all have time for activities and decompression each day. I save it for our last day of the six day school week, which for us is Sunday after church and lunch.
This day works best for us as I plan the day to be a shorter school day. Sunday we take our vocab or spelling tests, turn in any final drafts of writing assignments and do math and reading although sometimes math is just a math game this day. Another perk of doing History on a Sunday is Dad is home and the kids love when he joins us so it might as well be for something fun and no stress. The subject doesn't feel like schoolwork, it's really enjoyable and when class is done it's done and there is nothing to hang over their heads with it like paper-writing or out of class reading. Just look forward to the next class!
The only thing I add is a library trip once a week or maybe every other week to pick up some books that go with the unit. When we covered Egypt there were tons of fun library books! I leave these books out all week so the kids can look through them at their leisure. Sometimes I read from them if they ask me. The library gives us an outing and also some experience with how to use the library and a familiarity with "researching." Speaking of books, I do own a DK History book that I leave out all the time as well and refer to at the end of each lesson to see if anything covered is also there.
All in all it added no extra work for me and I truly feel the kids are remembering and engaging with the material. I plan on going through all their History years. I believe this approach to history is gearing their minds to appreciate the subject and that it will add rich context to future studies.
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