Question by Melissa C: Home school Moms: What do you use to teach World History?
This is for HOMESCHOOL MOMS or a student who really likes their curriculum. Please don’t answer if you are not one on these.
We are currently using Lifepacs loosely (more as a guide actually). It just is a bit stale and I wanted to see what other moms are using.
Best answer:
Answer by Vicky L
I’m fairly loose when it comes to teaching World History to my son. I just go to the pubic library and check out books on whatever subject we’re studying about — i.e. The Roman Empire, The Middle Ages, etc. I couple that with the Encyclopedia Brittanica and we spend about a week or so on each particular subject.
What do you think? Answer below!
im a student but i teach my self. i use Calvert it comes with the curriculum its not very good.
Our kids are still young 3rd grade but last year with Sonlight we used Story of the World and Usborne World History. We really loved useing them.
We just get books (buy and borrow) and access web resources on whatever we’re doing a project on at the time. No formal curriculum.
Mellissa,
My son does not actually like any curriculum so you will have to accept what I like as an answer. (smile)
We have several text books from public school.
All of those are interesting to me but the one that is easiest for me to teach from is the Abeka. We found the set (Student book, teacher books) at a yard sale.
Since my son does not find history interesting, we use alot of video and audio. We keep thinking that something will get his interests. He did like the 300 movie and it is a refreshing for me when he recognizes something and connects it to the movie.
I enjoy the Annenberg Media website. There is a history professor who looks like Harvey Korman (of Carol Burnett fame) that really does a great presentation using lots of pictures. These online videos are free.
Uncle Josh’s book of Maps is wonderful. I would use the maps along with stories about or from different lands. We loved the Miller series, so on year we read “Missionary Stories and the Millers”. We did a map project of each land mentioned in one of the stories. One year we read the writings of David Livingston and followed his missionary adventures throughout southern Africa. One year we read Holling’s books and followed maps of the US related to the stories. There were many years of many books that I would choose to study parts of the world.
We also played “where in the world is carmen sandiego” and we had mapping the world by heart. My children didn’t really like the last product, but some love it.
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Sorry I just reread the question and realized you want history not geography.
For history, I like Creation to Canaan from Rod/Staff along with Useborne World History book. For highschoolers you would want Streams of Civilization.
Well there are two curriculums that I really like, one is Story of the World. It is great for younger kids:
http://www.peacehillpress.com
The other is Mystery of History, which is great for any age, because it gives ideas for activities and research projects for kids ranging from Kindergarten all the way up to 12 grade level. For younger kids you read out loud to them and give them the easy “crafty” projects, the older ones read the text themselves and do a lot of research papers and things like that. Unfortunately, not all the volumes of Mystery of History have been released yet, so you can’t use it all the way through yet.
A Beka is also good, I am planning to use that with my High Schooler next year, if Mystery of History was finished, I would use it, but its not so….
EDIT
Mystery of History:
http://www.themysteryofhistory.com
A Beka
http://www.abeka.com/AbekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=57223
I use TRISMS along with Hands of a Child lapbooks. The reading and research guide of TRISMS, as well as the hands-on aspect of lapbooking, makes it really easy and fun. My science/math whiz really enjoys history now!
Before TRISMS, for the past couple of years (3rd-5th grade) we’ve used just the HOAC lapbooks and the library list they recommend. We occasionally do some other projects, and we do keep a notebook timeline. I’ve been really impressed with what he’s retained.
Hope that helps!
We use a mix of books – library, some public school books we got at a thrift store, Streams of Civilization and other books we got from curriculum fairs, just whatever happens to catch my kids’ attentions and hold them. Also, we rent educational films from netflix … my kids love our fun school Fridays where they watch educational videos, work on the computer and from various books they enjoy to learn about things that interest them.
Abeka has also been a standard in our book collection – as well as getting books that were used a good 100 years ago in actual school houses. They are great ways to teach “living history”.
Blessings
I tried the Life pacs and threw them out. My kids found them to be brain numbing and I found flaws in them.
What I found really helpful is to unschool history. We started innocently just by reading good literature. Stories about people and situations around the world throughout the ages. Then we cross referenced them with the encyclopedia.
We watch a lot of documentary television and biographies of famous people. We research everything we encounter. We read the news every morning off the computer and ask: “Who are those people and why are they doing that?” We have traveled down many roads and learned a lot. I also try to make it as relevant as I can by showing my kids how history effects the world today.
I don’t grade this subject or expect any work from it. I believe that to be a good citizen of the world we have to know not only our own past but those of our neighbors. School can suck the life out of history. It’s not memorizing names, dates and facts. It’s understanding the world we live in.