Homeschool Snapshot : History

"Don't let schooling interfere with your education."
- Mark Twain

Now, Mr. Twain and I don't exactly see eye to eye on a good many things, but I'm with him on that quote of his about education...

Last year our history curriculum just wasn't a good fit for us.  It became another thing on the schooling check-list, and nobody was very excited about doing it.

So this year I decided to take the leap and have a go at literature based learning for history. Here's the Pros and Cons I've found so far...
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Literature Based Pros:

• Freedom to explore a subject for as long as you like.  I love this!
• We can take field trips without my feeling like I have to cram our other history lessons to get everything done for the year.
• Reading.  We love reading.
• You can put books on hold and have them waiting for you when you walk into the library.
• Very affordable when you make use of the library.

Literature Based Cons:

• Finding age-appropriate books can be a challenge (that's why Read for the Heart is helpful!)
• You have to plan.  If you aren't a planner, you will need a list like the ones Ambleside provides.  
• If you are required to have tests, you will need to create them.  (This might not matter, depending on where you live!)

Resources:

• Read for the Heart is really helpful with finding books, and so is Ambleside Online.  
• The older kids are collecting their history adventures in their History Journals.
• My beginning writers use the Junior History Journal.  
• The boys are each keeping a  Book of Centuries. ​​ It was really cool watching one of my boys make the time connection between the Florida pioneers and L.M. Montgomery.  These were real people, with real lives.  Real stories.

Overall, it has been a change for the better, and I think history is finally beginning to come alive around here!