SIMPLE HISTORY CLASS

My favorite subject to teach my kids is probably history.  I didn’t realize how much I loved history until I started teaching my kids. We love to read a lot of great books and do fun activities.  We make great projects to solidify what we’ve learned and we sometimes even make food to go with what we’re learning. 

The hardest part about all this fun, is finding time to do it.  All these activities take time and its hard to fit in what you want to do with them.  Here’s a few tips on how to keep your history class really exciting without stressing over the when or how part.

  • Monday through Thursday, pack in the majority of your school.  Do most of the reading and teaching for history…the part of history with less of a supply list.  Then make Fridays Project Day.  Just plan one history activity per week that might take more time and effort and do that on Friday.  They can use what they’ve learned through the week to help them to know why they are doing a particular project.

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  • Make your own little co-op with another family.  Get together once a month or every other Friday and do fun activities to go with what you’re studying.  With two of you to gather supplies and ideas, it might seem less stressful, especially if you’re not a crafty person.

  • Use audiobooks.  Find great literature that goes with the time period you’re studying and get the audiobook.  It’s the same as listening to you read, but it might give your voice a break!

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  • Buy an activity kit.  There’s several on the market that are great.  They come with what you need to create some great hands-on history projects and the gathering is all done for you.
      • We used THIS hieroglyphics kit when we studied Ancient Egypt a couple years ago.  My kids loved this.
      • I found an Art in History kit that looks like a lot of fun.  If you’re studying Ancient Egypt, it might be worth a look.
      • I am planning on purchasing this Viking Treasure Chest for our unit on Vikings next month.  These treasure chests are really fun.
      • My boys would love to build this trebuchette kit! I might surprise them with it on a day I need to get something done and I need them to have their hands occupied 🙂
      • We used this FloraCraft Styrofoam kit to create our Coliseum.  It was a really fun project and these blocks can be used for lots of different projects.

  • Have a hands-on week at the end of  a unit or time period that you’re studying.  Plan an activity per day and have a fun week of solidifying everything you’ve learned together.

  • If you have too many books and too little time, put them in a basket and while you’re busy with other things, have your kids sit down for an hour a day and read them.  Or have your oldest read to the younger ones.  You can be working on dinner and they’ll still be doing history together!
 I love adding in all the extras for history, but sometimes it just gets to crazy to fit it in–or else I just don’t know when we’ll get it all done.  I admit, since I love history so much I usually plan way more than we can get to.  You might have the same problem, but hopefully these tips will help you keep it simple and do more of what you want to in your history class.
 
 
 
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This post is part of a 31-day series on simplifying our homes and schools. 
To read from the beginning of this series, click here:
 
https://www.aliciahutchinson.com/p/home-school-simplified.html
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4 Comments

  1. I really need to think about a project day. It's hard to do it all along with regular lessons. I love the look of the coliseum kit. We are studying Italy right now and that would be perfect.

  2. i probably would do more projects if i dedicated one day to them. they are so hard for me to fit in and have the motivation for when we do them in addition to regular school. great idea!!!

  3. The projects are definitely our favorite part, and almost impossible to fit in during a regular day. Love the ida od making Fridays "project day"!

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