History gives us so many places and people and stories to explore. I could homeschool for the next 50 years and still find different roads to travel with new information to discover along the way. Information that’s interesting, terrible, amazing, profound, touching, intriguing, and quirky… and all of it true!
I love history and especially enjoy that aspect of homeschooling, in part because I don’t remember learning much history at all from kindergarten through college. Seriously, I’m amazed that it was all so unmemorable.
The problem with teaching history is there’s just so darn much of it. How can you cover thousands of years and remotely do it justice? So many courses and curriculum seek to cover it all and have a difficult time delving deeply into the details that make it real and memorable.
I think it helps to approach history in two ways:
- Present the big picture.
- Pause frequently to focus on the details that interest your students.
Of course, we need a sense of the big picture. We need to know about early civilization, the rise and fall of major empires, and the general path that our world has taken to get where we are today. But, we also need to do some deep focused historical study to grasp the richness of the past.
A program called National History Day has given us two of the ways we dig deeper into history each year:
An Annual Project: My kids have been participating in National History Day (NHD) since 2014 when I ran across it. With the NHD program, students pick a topic and create a project within the context of the annual theme. This can be a research paper, website, documentary, exhibit, or performance. There’s a huge emphasis on quality research, distinguishing between primary and secondary sources, and addressing the short and long term impacts of the person or event they have chosen. Participating in this has not only given my kids a better understanding of history; it has provided an excellent foundation for college prep in writing research papers.
An Annual Play: Our ‘unofficial’ NHD project each year is a play inspired by the National History Day program. This play is unique to our homeschool group. Each of the participating students picks a historical figure of their choice to portray and I write a play that brings the characters together in the context of that year’s NHD theme.
The general idea is that the characters have all time traveled to meet and solve issues related to the theme. I primarily rely on historical facts, but use a little creative license to make it flow and have fun with it. The kids come up with the props and set design and also do individual speeches to share more about the historical figure they’ve chosen. We push through it in 7 – 8 weeks of just once a week rehearsals and end up with a solid production that’s educational and entertaining. It’s a great blend of learning and fun.
As you explore history with your kids, I encourage you to help them look beyond the big picture and do focused study in areas that interest them. I highly recommend National History Day as a tool for this – it’s an excellent program open to all students, including homeschoolers.
