Homeschool 101: History…What do I teach?

I asked you answered…several friends have been hounding me for how I teach social studies and what I use. In their defense, they’ve had to hound me because I’ve been super lax in getting back to them. I am SO the type of person who will write an email or type out a text and then save it as a draft instead of sending it.

There are so many topics under the umbrella of social studies/history. You can be extremely focused and learn about one part of history, such as deciding to only learn about the Civil War for an entire year. You could only learn about early civilizations such as early Middle-Eastern Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Harappan Civilization. Or another early civilization topic is Middle and Southern America with the Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs. Then there is always the Inuits in Alaska and Northern Canada and how they made their trek over the Baring Strait.

The topic you choose for your children could be solely on government. You could not only dive deeper into the United States Government, but also other countries. You could learn the differences and similarities in Capitalism, Socialism, Communism. You could learn about the fathers of each of these types of governments. You could scale down and learn about your state’s government, for example, did you know that 49 states all have a bicameral legislature? That means they have a state senate and a state house of representatives, or two separate branches or chambers. But there is one state that is unicameral, Nebraska.

There really isn’t a limit on what or how you teach your children social studies. There are a plethora of programs out there that can give you a ready made outline. Or you could fly by the seat of your pants and make your own outline.

We use an online program as our base for schooling, Time4Learning. This is our second year with it, and so far I like the layout and my boys enjoy the way the curriculum is taught. So far we’ve completed 2nd, 3rd, part of 4th, 6th, and part of 7th grades through this program. Last year I had the boys do their social studies program. It was early civilizations. YoYo learned about the Inuits and Vikings through to Columbus’ arrival and the early on developments of American civilization. Bean and Keegs too learned about early civilizations, but they were priamrily focused on Middle-Eastern civilizations.

However, I remembered growing up, that I learned state history in 4th grade, middle school, and then again in high school. I was fortunate enough to be a military kid and lived in different states throughout my adolescents, so I learned many state histories. This year, I chose to forgo Time4Learning’s social studies program in favor of hunting down a state curriculum for Nevada.

It took a little while to research and find a program I would be comfortable with. I finally settled on a curriculum by Splash!. I first found their state curriculum when I began googling Nevada State History. I particularly like it not only because it is a digital download, but I can read through the packet and decide what I want to print off and what I want to skip.

Splash! has a curriculum for every state, as well as significant moments in history throughout the world. I am planning on teaching other state curriculum when we are finished with Nevada’s. The twins were born in Colorado, my parents live in Idaho, my in-laws live in Nebraska. We can explore so many other states.

I am definitely not proficient in other curriculums, I found a video that I felt was very informative concerning other curriculums that I know are rather popular among the homeschool community. This mom attempts to chat about 10 various types of curriculum without adding in her bias opinion.

As part of our history education, I will make sure we do various local field trips to historical sites. We will spend a day at Hoover Dam, or learn about Fremont Street and its history and then go spend having lunch and walking around. We spent a day at the Valley of Fire as well. When you are doing state history, it is extremely easy to add in visits to places to aid in your education for your children.

What curriculum for history do you use? Do you have a favorite one? Have you tried a variety and still haven’t found what you are looking for? What is your major struggle with finding a curriculum you are comfortable with?

Hope y’all are having an amazing week. Stay safe, and hug your loved ones.