How to Teach History
How to teach history with the Gentle Learning Co. reading plans, using Charlotte Mason's methods.
The Cycles
The Gentle Learning Co. cycles follow the Claritas Publishing cycles. Teaching history in chronological order, with a four-cycle approach, has always made sense to me. If you teach this way from kindergarten through twelfth grade, your child will be exposed to world history, in order, three times. Each time your child goes through a time period, their brain will make new connections with the information. It is really a beautiful method of teaching history!
The cycles cover the following time periods:
Cycle 1: Ancients: Creation to the Fall of Rome
Cycle 2: Middle Ages: Dark Ages to Explorers of the New World
Cycle 3: Early Modern Times: Dutch Revolt to The California Gold Rush
Cycle 4: The Modern Era: The Victorians through Recent Times
How to Teach History
History is my very favorite subject to teach in my homeschool! It is really very easy to teach. Simply:
Read a history passage aloud in a comfy location.
Pick one child (and rotate each time) and ask that child what he or she heard. (This is called Narration).
Look at maps together to discover the places you've just read about.
Write the events and the people you just learned about in a Book of Centuries, or, timeline book.
That's it! If you would like to schedule independent reading for your children, you may do that as well.
Sometimes my family will also look up Google Earth to see what the place looks like today. For example, we once looked up Milk Street in Boston, where Benjamin Franklin grew up, to see how it has changed over the years (a lot!).
If your children are particularly interested in something they have heard in the day's reading, explore it! Go to the library and pick up more books on the topic, or do a little research online.
Now you get to choose which history book(s) you will use this year! There are many books to choose from. I hope that you will not feel any stress because of this list, but empowered and equipped!
There are a few things to consider as you choose your history books:
Do you want to read your history books cover-to-cover, over the whole year, or do you want to read selections that line up with the history in the memory work? I have scheduled both of these options for several books. All of the following books have been scheduled cover-to-cover. The books that have also been scheduled to line up with the Claritas Publishing Memory Work are labeled "Lined Up with Memory Work." This means there are two ways to read this book.
Is a Christian worldview imperative to you? Then look for books with the label: "Christian Worldview." Some of the books below are not written by believers and are void of any mention of God and may contain ideas that do not line up with God's Word.
Is it important to you to read about what was happening in other countries besides America? There are so many great books about the founding of America, the thirteen colonies, the American Revolution, and all of the founding topics. It is more difficult to find books that contain information about other places in the world. If you believe it is important to read about world history alongside American history, look for this label: "Includes World History."
Who will be reading this book? Will you be reading aloud, or will you hand the book to your child to read? I suggest doing some of each, but you get to decide this for your homeschool and for the season you are in. Look at the "Forms" suggested under each book, both for reading aloud and for independent reading. (You may also want to see Additional Literature: Titles that Line Up with the History Cycle for a literature-based approach to history).
Are you on a tight budget? Some of the history books are available for free online. Look for the books labeled: "Project Gutenberg" and. "LibriVox Audio" and read or hear great history for free!
Is an audio version of the book important to you? Look for the label "Audible Audio" and "Audio CD" and also "LibriVox Audio."
When you go to purchase your books, I recommend trying to find new or used copies on Exodus Books, which is a small, Christian-owned business. I find many of my books on Exodus. Title links are to Amazon for reference, but I prefer to support smaller businesses first. Most links are affiliate links and I make a small percentage off of any purchases made, at no extra cost to you.
Using History to Teach Language Arts
You may wish to use history to teach language arts to your children, as well. This is how:
Penmanship, Spelling and Grammar
Choose a sentence from your history book and write or type it out for your child to see.
Have the child copy the sentence in their best handwriting onto lined paper.
For older children, choose more than one sentence or an entire paragraph. This is called Copy Work.
Spelling, Grammar
Choose a sentence from your history book with no more than three words that might be difficult for your child.
Have your child stare at the sentence for a minute or so. Ask your child to form the words in his mind, and to focus on the words he does not know.
Hide the sentence and hand your child a whiteboard and a pen.
Read the sentence aloud and have your child write what he hears.
If your child spells a word incorrectly, erase it right away and write it correctly so that the correct spelling is what sticks in his mind.
If your child struggles with this sentence, try an easier sentence the next day, or work with the same sentence again until he grasps the words.
This is called Dictation.
Click on the images below to see the cycles: