So how do I teach relaxed homeschooling history?
I don’t.
Honestly.
It’s rather ironic since my Elementary Education degree came with a Social Studies major and I love history. But so far I’ve done almost no history teaching because Caroline has been taking those classes at our homeschool co-op.
We’re blessed with a really good Christian co-op. Caroline has been taking two classes there a semester since Kindergarten and she loves it. The vast majority of her classes have been history and geography related. She had a class about America, a World History class, Geography through Literature, and a couple of other literature classes that also incorporated history and geography.
So with co-op handling most of the teaching in this area, I’ve focused on providing other learning opportunities.
Relaxed Homeschooling History Activities
As I wrote in Geography Made Simple with Maps and a Globe, Caroline has U.S. and world map placemats and a globe
She enjoys playing learning games on the Kindle, especially Stack the States
I have many informative flashcards that I’ve picked up here and there. Caroline likes to lay them all over the floor and study them. We have the U.S. Presidents, U.S. Landmarks, World Landmarks, etc.
We have geography-based puzzles and activities that she picks up and plays with at times.
We’ve read many books about historical figures. Some are books I have from teaching and many others are from the library.
When something comes up in conversation, we look up all kinds of things online. We’ve watched videos on YouTube about various topics including the Titanic.
We take field trips such as in the picture when we visited the historic farm at the Frederik Meijer Gardens.
Eventually we’ll move to a more structured approach of history, but for now we’re all learning and having fun!
This is part of my Relaxed Homeschooling in the Early Elementary Years series.
Read the Introduction to the series here.
This is also part of the iHN January Hopscotch. Check out all the fun series here!
We also used this approach in our early years of homeschooling. My kids remember what they learned and developed a love of history.
Hi Lisa,
It’s great to hear how this worked for you and your children. One of my goals with Caroline is to not turn her off by expecting too much too soon. While I do want to challenge her in appropriate ways, I also don’t want to frustrate her. It’s a balancing act, isn’t it? 🙂