We may not be doing school time this year but that doesn’t mean we’re not enjoying learning history.

Here’s how we do it. It’s not much different from the way most homeschoolers do history. The key point for me is that my kids choose whether or not to participate in each activity we do.

History – How I prepare

Researching history resources and activities is one of my favourite pastimes. My aim is not to create perfect lesson plans. I don’t want to end up with something I’m so attached to that I can’t scrap it in favour of where the children’s interest leads us.

I save what I find in Evernote so that I can easily pull up everything relating to the topic when we need it.

1. The Story of the World

I pre-read a chapter of The Story of the World, which we’ve used as our spine since we began homeschooling. We’re now two-thirds through volume 2 (the Middle Ages).

2. Other books

I read about the topic in the Usborne Encyclopaedia of World History and do a library search for other books to strew.

3. Online research

* Google search for “hands-on activities” relating to the topic

* Google Images search for pictures of people, places, art, artefacts, architecture etc

* You Tube – our favourite videos include Crash Course World History and Horrible Histories

* Evernote & Pinterest – for resources I’ve bookmarked in the past

* Brainpop

4. Geography

Studying world history is the perfect way to show children how the world links up.

* I flag relevant pages in our World Atlas

* or print a map using Wonder Maps

* or I find a historical map online – e.g. I needed a map this week showing the Kievan Rus

* Google Maps and Google Earth – good for seeing where places are in relation to each other (and us), what they’re like today, and even “visiting” historical landmarks

* Geography Through Art – this book is full of mini-project ideas. It’s black and white so I usually browse it and then find examples of the projects online

5. Collating resources

I save what I find to Evernote. One advantage of digital filing is that if we don’t use something now, I can easily find it next year {or in three years’ time}.

6. Printables

I print any materials I want the children to see close-up, and store them in a clear document wallet in our everyday homeschool materials crate.

History – What we do together

Reading Aloud from SOTW

When we have a free fifteen minutes, I ask the kids if they’d like to hear a chapter of The Story of the World.

We’re a family of multi-taskers so I’m happy with the children doing other things as they listen. Ideally this means something hands-on like play dough or drawing. In practice it might mean J(8) playing Minecraft. I’m okay with that. His comments as I read and throughout the days afterwards let me know me he’s taken in what he’s heard.

Activities

Depending how much time we have and what else the children have planned, we either do an activity straight after I read from SOTW, or in the next few days.

We almost always chat informally about the topic throughout the week. This helps me gauge their interest in any activities I have in mind, and gives me ideas for other learning tangents.

Our activities usually inter-relate with other subjects, especially geography, art, science and maths.

We watch videos when we can fit them in throughout the week.

We might make notes on our Timeline Builder app.

Strewing

C(9) will read almost any library book I leave on the table. J(8) looks at the pictures. This is one of the reasons I like the Usborne Encylopedia of World History, which I leave open on our topic.

When do we leave a topic?

We stay with each topic until we’ve learned everything we want to know. Sometimes spin-off projects continue while we move onto a new chapter of The Story of the World. Other times we get halfway into a project and decide we’ve done as much as we want to. There are schedules and no rules. Only enjoyable learning.

Check out our history curriculum 2013-14 to see some of our unschooling history activities.

Coming soon: our activities relating to medieval Russia.

To see how the other Homeschool Help ladies teach history, visit:

Hammock Tracks – Finding Your Way as you Explore History

Highhill Homeschool – History with Activities at Highhill Education

One Magnificent Obsession – A Glance at How we do History

Every Bed of Roses – Teaching History Revisited

Barefoot Hippie Girl – Historically Speaking: A Barefoot Hippie Plan for Studying 1600-1800

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This post is linked to:

History and Geography Meme #91