How to Teach History
History is a complex subject with many perspectives. It requires a lot of study and research. Many historians focus on a specific era and study and research it.
I got my bachelor’s in history and taught it for 6.5 years before getting married. I loved it. I did not always teach it well, but I loved it.
Teaching history as a homeschool mom became a different ballgame. It is not as simple, and many of the curriculums were missing chunks of history.
So, in the past three years, I’ve been working on how to teach a well-rounded history with an open mind.
1. Living Textbook: This was difficult for me initially because no textbook is perfect. You will always have to fill in with other books. My favorite is The Story of the World because it is written lively and goes through all world history.
2. Living Books: I don’t believe living books should be the spine of your history program. But I think it should fill in the gaps the living text leaves. After reading about a specific historical era, go to the library and have your child check out books related to the era. Allow them to check out as many books as they please. This will give them a more complete understanding of the era.
3. Art & Music: Part of understanding history is looking at the art of the time and listening to the music. We are going through the Middle Ages, and my children enjoy listening to the variety of cultural music the world offers.
4. Field Trips: Visit museums wherever you live. Visiting museums is a way of making history come alive. Children can see how different our lives are from those of the past. You learn a lot more by going to museums. Ghost Tours are awesome, too, because you learn very unique history.
5. Worldview: It is so essential to teach worldview when teaching history. Worldview affects morality, and how one culture sees right and wrong may be different from another culture.
After a lesson, I use my history notebooks to write down the narration and include any extra documents, quotes, or maps that help make the lesson complete and, of course, discuss it.
How do you teach history?