History Alive!

I truly enjoy history. In fact, it was one of my favorite subjects in school. However, for the first year of homeschool, history seemed to be one of "those" subjects I had a hard time getting into with my kids.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, we use Winter Promise's "American Story 1". We look at the info texts together, do the family reading, and the kiddos have their own readers that go along with our theme for the week. It can be a little time consuming, but as long as we stay on schedule, we're fine.

Even though there are many activities included in this package, I've found that one has to have regular access to a copy machine to do them. Fortunately for us, I've been allowed to use our church's copy machine as long as I provide my own paper. I don't do all the activities, either. I've found supplemental materials we enjoy more.

As I mentioned in a curriculum post, I've acquired a DVD about American History. We also use Netflix downloaded through our Wii to watch "Liberty's Kids" and several documentaries from the History Channel.

I also found "History Pockets" to fit well into our study. Yes, there is more copying for Mom to do, but the kids really love the activities and time lines. I highly recommend this product for history. There are many books available, including ancient history, Native Americans, and even Literature Pockets.

History has come alive for my kiddos! We read the facts together, I read a chaper from a scheduled book, they read an age-appropriate story, and we do hands-on activites that correlate with what we're studying. Finally, an episode from a DVD or download brings it all together.

It is a lot of extra work, but it's fun. I'm such a workbook/study guide person, though. I may continue with this for the elementary grades, but for middle school, I'll probably use BJU.