Homeschooling History

Our homeschool history curriculum is enjoyable and interesting.

Are you scratching your head to remember key dates, events and people in history? Are you worried that the gaps in your own learning will hold you back from homeschooling history successfully? Here at My Homeschool we smile when we hear so many parents say:

I didn’t realise I liked history so much! Why didn’t I learn this at school?

Living Books Bring Our Homeschool History Curriculum Alive

Don’t start teaching history in your homeschool by drilling your child with facts and figures and demanding they memorise key dates. Instead, fill them with wonder and share the myriad of stories that create our world history. From ancient worlds and ancient times, through the Middle Ages and relishing the stories of medieval times, to the rich and opulent Renaissance times, then through modern world history up to the current day, you can teach your children history in a way that is engaging and memorable.

With Living Books forming a key component of the My Homeschool graded courses, you can rest assured that your child will learn all aspects of world history with our structured curriculum. These are books that your family will treasure and they will make history come alive for your children.

Virtual Museum Visits

Within the My Homeschool graded courses our youngest scholars trace their own family history while also discovering key objects in history through the ages held by the world’s most prestigious museums. Between Grades 2 and 6 your child will receive a solid foundation for understanding and learning history by completing a chronological study into world history. In our high school courses, the students spiral through this chronology once more, delving once more into the wonders of the ancient world, this time going through each era of history in more detail and with age-appropriate books. By the time they complete their modern history in-depth studies in their final year of high school with My Homeschool, they will have an enviable comprehension of world history and would have enjoyed every moment of it.

Alongside these carefully chosen books, your student will create timelines and move onto forming their own Book of Centuries, a key notebook kept by students following the Charlotte Mason method.  In addition, their history learning experience is enriched by ensuring they have a sound knowledge of the geography of places throughout the centuries and aspects of culture, including the fine arts, music, technology and food.

They will also learn about historians and archaeologists’ approach to the study of history, developing their own historical skills. Many of our graded courses include specific museum studies so you too can emulate the preference Charlotte Mason had for students learning from seeing actual artefacts to make history come alive. We cast aside dreary and boring historical texts in preference for guiding students to achieve core competencies in history, one thread of our Social Studies offerings. These are resources designed to stimulate your child to learn about history in a discerning way, identifying the many voices, identities and cultures that are represented within world history.

National and World History

We appreciate that many of our international families wish to include further history options in addition to the world and Australian history resources provided within the My Homeschool graded courses. This is easy to do with the extensive curated booklists offered exclusively to My Homeschool families. Through Living Books, museum exhibits, online resources, a Book of Centuries, maps, primary and secondary source materials, lesson plans and more, you will not only feel confident to teach history to your family but will also find it a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Show your child how they can learn about history through great books, museums, oral histories, photographs, speeches and letters, as well as written sources. They will see the various actions, motives, lifestyles, ideas and movements of people over time.

Teaching history is an awesome responsibility as often many students will learn little, if any history, following their homeschooling years. However, here at My Homeschool we are passionate about teaching history well and we are happy to support you to do that too in your homeschool. Our courses offer a disciplined process of inquiry into the past that help to explain how past people, events, conflicts and achievements have shaped our modern world. They also identify contested versions of history within a nation and the value of different perspectives.

By using a strong history program you can guide your student to understand the continuum of human experiences and show them how history is all around us. You can also pave a strong foundation for a better understanding of civics and governance and help your child to see how some groups have fought for civil rights through the decades.

History is so much more than simply presenting facts and dates. It is presenting historical skills to students so they can understand for themselves how we do know about aspects of our past. It is about critical thinking and analysis, problem-solving, research, and further development of key literacy skills. It involves listening, careful reading and observation. Moreover, a strong history program is far from being dry and dull.  Rather, it is an invitation to your life-long learners to enjoy learning about history in your homeschool with enthusiasm.

Judeo Christian History

At My Homeschool we teach history of the Hebrews within the history period we are studying in world history. In Grade Two we parallel our Ancient history studies with the historical events in the Bible. We also include early church history in our Middle Ages. Modern history has many stories about Christian impact.

Asian History

In Year Seven and Year Eight we study the Ancient history of China, Korea and Japan. Our modern history curriculum in Grade Six, Year Nine and Year Ten explores Asian history and its impact on other nations.

Terracotta Warriors: Ancient History China

Homeschool History Curriculum Includes Literacy And Writing Lessons

New homeschoolers are often astounded at how many history writing lessons can be in a Charlotte Mason homeschool history curriculum. Mistakenly they assume we must be skimping on other important subjects in order to teach history.

“Why teach history like this? Isn’t history only a minor part of the curriculum?” they wonder.

Although what they don’t realise is that we are really using historical content as a part of our English/language arts curriculum.  This is what Charlotte Mason says about using historical narrations.

“Now this method I am advocating has this advantage; it multiplies time. Each school period is quadrupled in time value and we find we get through a surprising amount of history in a surprising way, in about the same time most schools only afford no more than a skeleton of English history.” A Philosophy of Education p.171