Hello! I hope this is O.K. to share. I am actually a History professor. I have a channel as well I created for all my students. Many homeschool families have used my lectures as well as a free resource. I would love to get some feedback if you think it is something more homeschoolers can use. :)
I truthfully cannot thank you enough for your videos. EVERYTIME I feel self doubt and worry about homeschooling, you truly bring me so much inspiration and peace and clarity that I was needing to feel better about homeschooling. Thanks so much for all your time and quality videos!
I love incorporating living books in our homeschool. It's one of the best ways to bring it to life. We also like to listen to music from that time period (if it's available) and try to interpret the lyrics and why they might be significant for that time. For example, we might study Glenn Miller and his music during WWII. We might even watch the Glenn Miller story where Jimmy Stewart played Glenn Miller. Jimmy Stewart served during the war as well so his portrayal of Miller is extremely moving.
I love the dover book idea!!!! I remember coloring while i was read old testament stories! I still remember the stories and the pages we colored. Big ThankU
Your videos continue to be such an encouragement to me! There are so many options out there, but you have a calm about you that seems to simplify it so well. God is using you in mighty ways!
You're the definition of ecclectic! I would love to one day get to the point where I don't depend on my box curriculum but I'm just not there yet. Thank you for your videos!!
You have truly been an inspiration to me over the last 6 months!!!! THANK YOU!!! Not sure I’d have stuck with homeschooling if it wasn’t for you! Just started home schooling since covid, but I am amazed at how similar we are in our methods and books we like, etc. ! Any tips on how you handle behavior/ getting them focused and finish their work, Etc? I cannot seem to find time to fit in all their core work as well as the unit studies! We end up finishing at like 4:30/5:00 with a break in the middle of the day. I think with a better lesson checklist/behavior/chore system, we’d be much better!! What do you do? I have 2 boys (8 and 10) and an almost 6 year old girl. We live in WA, and I’m guessing you do too?
Oh, mama, getting them to focus is a struggle here too. I’d ask what you consider to be the core subjects and wonder if perhaps you are trying to fit too many things in? I try to have as many of the kids subjects be as independent led as possible so I can rotate between kids for subjects they need help with. I talk in this video about how we organize our days and what the kids do each day. th-cam.com/video/s65D2rWFj5U/w-d-xo.html
My favorite history resources are History Quest, Story of the World (we do the audio while coloring the History Hop travel logs from History Quest), Usborne books, A Child’s History of the World, LIBRARY BOOKS, Magic Treehouse series, wipe off maps, and Unit studies from Homeschool Share that we turn into “lap book” lift the flap pages of our Book of Centuries 3 ring binders… I think I’m way too eclectic because we spend a really long time on each topic and run out of time!!
I absolutely have enjoyed finding our channel. I love this series. I am curious. Do you think you will keep the same mindset and interest led learning for High School? I am entering that phase.
Glad to hear that! We go as long as we’re interested or until I feel like we’ve covered what I wanted them to learn about. Yes, we do go back and go over the eras again on different levels as they get older! 😃
Oh, thank you for sharing. I love the idea of SCM history but didn't feel it was... full enough, for a lack of better words, for my children's love of history. I will definitely be looking at it with a new perspective. 🥰
Love this approach! We started TGTB Year 1, but my kids didn't love the format...and neither did I, tbh. And I LOVE history! I want it to be fascinating, not boring and dreadful. So I will try being less structured and more exploratory with it. Sounds perfect to me! And where did you find the Book of the Centuries? Looks like you may have made your own? If so, what did you include in it?
Yes, it’s just a black page journal. I just wrote each century on the top of each page but then the last few centuries, I split into 50 years for each double page spread since we study more of modern history than ancient, so I wanted more space to add in dates/info.
I loved this video! I had a really quick question for you about the short reports… do you/your kids take notes while your reading to be able to complete those reports (especially your older sons report) or are they simply writing all that information from memory. I’m thinking about doing this with my oldest but writing is not a strong skill of his and I’m not sure he be able to do a full page. Anyway just wondering about how you guys went about that 😊. Thanks again for the great videos I really love them all.
I don’t have them take notes, but that’s a great idea! 💡 They usually either write from memory or refer back to the books we read when they write. I allow the kids to write how much I feel like they are able to do, knowing their capabilities. It doesn’t have to be a full page. My younger boys generally write a paragraph or two. ☺️
Love this. Curious though how you find documentaries or TH-cam or prime videos that are age appropriate and in the category you are studying. I have problems just finding the resources I want.
I’m not always able to find something. We definitely don’t do it for every lesson, but there’s usually something I can find for major historical events. I usually just do a search and then preview things that look like they might be ok.
Great video, we really enjoyed watching it. How long does it take you to plan each unit? And how long do you usually take to complete an unit? Thanks so much
Honestly, I don’t spend a ton of time planning. I’m much more of a go with the flow and go down rabbit trails kind of person. I have done units in the past for 6 week time blocks, but often, it’s just kind of until we start to get burnt out on the topic or I feel like we’ve covered it sufficiently. I’ve got a video here about how I’ve planned units in the past. th-cam.com/video/HXWmDsKpINI/w-d-xo.html
This is our second year homeschooling and I am starting to plan for my daughter’s first year of high school next year…I’m loving your approach for history…do you feel like it can be enough for High School as well? Of course, it all depends on how deep, etc. we would go. I love your videos, thanks for sharing!
Absolutely! I would just make sure you are following your state’s requirements for transcripts in case there is a certain amount of time or certain topics that you’d need to cover. But you could certainly build extra independent reading books and research papers to make it more age appropriate for older kids! That’s what I’m planning to do when my kids are HS ages. ☺️
I kind of bounce around and do what we are interested in. I personally think a good plan is to start with American History but it’s also good to rotate between the two instead of just going chronically so the kids don’t get burnt out on the ancients. 🥴
My kids are 13, 10, 9 and 5. I started teaching history from the very beginning because I love it! We don’t do history every day though. We often cycle through doing a history unit and then a science one. ☺️
I really wish there was more out there! We’ve watched a lot of history channel stuff on TH-cam for my older kids and we enjoyed some of the Nat Geo shows on Disney+. There’s a kids cartoon called Liberty’s Kids on YT that we watched when we studied the American Revolution. We also love the Torchlighters series about Christian missionaries and can often find one that takes place where or when the time period we’re studying happened.
How far in advance do you research the 'extras', such as documentary, library books, etc. I feel like I'm too scattered and need to be organized with planning.
In my perfect world, I would spend some time on the weekend and look ahead to what I want to cover for the upcoming week. I'm honestly not super organized with it though and often just allow rabbit trails to happen and we go where the interests of the day lead or how the conversation goes, and we will dig deeper into that topic.
We do history as part of our morning time that we do all together 4 days per week. We often rotate units between history and science so we aren’t doing history every day all year. Here’s a video about how we organize our normal days. ☺️ th-cam.com/video/qaOqxhFuE0c/w-d-xo.html
Puzzles, games, coloring books/pages, Seterra site is good for mapwork (print and stick in wipeable sleeve or laminate...use wet erase, not dry, as dry can stain), flashcards, etc. Some of our family's favorites: GeoToys brand Trend Enterprises brand Draw the World series Race Across the USA game Guess in 10 games Professor Noggin games Passport to the USA book Etc. Make it fun. You'll be surprised how quickly they catch on. Oh, and don't forget the power of random books and videos!
Nope! Never have. The only thing that’s graded in our house is math. I am involved in all their subjects and we have lots of discussion so I can gauge what they have learned by what they narrate back to me verbally or write about the topic.
Your videos continue to be such an encouragement to me! There are so many options out there, but you have a calm about you that seems to simplify it so well. God is using you in mighty ways!
Do you have any favorite history resources you can share?
Hello! I hope this is O.K. to share. I am actually a History professor. I have a channel as well I created for all my students. Many homeschool families have used my lectures as well as a free resource. I would love to get some feedback if you think it is something more homeschoolers can use. :)
I truthfully cannot thank you enough for your videos. EVERYTIME I feel self doubt and worry about homeschooling, you truly bring me so much inspiration and peace and clarity that I was needing to feel better about homeschooling. Thanks so much for all your time and quality videos!
🥹🥰 Aww, thank you so much for the sweet comment! It’s truly my pleasure! ❤️
I really like the Book of Centuries idea. I'll have to I corporate that!
I love incorporating living books in our homeschool. It's one of the best ways to bring it to life. We also like to listen to music from that time period (if it's available) and try to interpret the lyrics and why they might be significant for that time. For example, we might study Glenn Miller and his music during WWII. We might even watch the Glenn Miller story where Jimmy Stewart played Glenn Miller. Jimmy Stewart served during the war as well so his portrayal of Miller is extremely moving.
Love that! What a great idea!!
I love the dover book idea!!!! I remember coloring while i was read old testament stories! I still remember the stories and the pages we colored.
Big ThankU
Great memories!
You are my favorite homeschooling youtuber! Thank you!
Wow, thank you! 🥰
Your videos continue to be such an encouragement to me! There are so many options out there, but you have a calm about you that seems to simplify it so well. God is using you in mighty ways!
Thanks so much! God is good!
You're the definition of ecclectic! I would love to one day get to the point where I don't depend on my box curriculum but I'm just not there yet. Thank you for your videos!!
I used boxed curriculum when I first started too. The longer you do this, the more comfortable you become with doing more things on your own! 😉
I love you so much!!! You make me cry a lot! Good cry. You give me hope! Thank you for your channel!
These resources are awesome! My son will LOVE them!!!
You have truly been an inspiration to me over the last 6 months!!!! THANK YOU!!! Not sure I’d have stuck with homeschooling if it wasn’t for you! Just started home schooling since covid, but I am amazed at how similar we are in our methods and books we like, etc. ! Any tips on how you handle behavior/ getting them focused and finish their work,
Etc? I cannot seem to find time to fit in all their core work as well as the unit studies! We end up finishing at like 4:30/5:00 with a break in the middle of the day. I think with a better lesson checklist/behavior/chore system, we’d be much better!! What do you do? I have 2 boys (8 and 10) and an almost 6 year old girl. We live in WA, and I’m guessing you do too?
Oh, mama, getting them to focus is a struggle here too. I’d ask what you consider to be the core subjects and wonder if perhaps you are trying to fit too many things in? I try to have as many of the kids subjects be as independent led as possible so I can rotate between kids for subjects they need help with.
I talk in this video about how we organize our days and what the kids do each day. th-cam.com/video/s65D2rWFj5U/w-d-xo.html
History is my absolute favourite thing to teach - we do unit studies and project based learning combined. So, so much fun!
Totally agree!
We do history this way as well! Just finished Corrie ten boom from Christian heroes. My boys loved it.
Her story is amazing!! Have you read The Hiding Place? SO good!
My favorite history resources are History Quest, Story of the World (we do the audio while coloring the History Hop travel logs from History Quest), Usborne books, A Child’s History of the World, LIBRARY BOOKS, Magic Treehouse series, wipe off maps, and Unit studies from Homeschool Share that we turn into “lap book” lift the flap pages of our Book of Centuries 3 ring binders… I think I’m way too eclectic because we spend a really long time on each topic and run out of time!!
Great resources! Thanks for sharing! ❤️
I absolutely have enjoyed finding our channel. I love this series. I am curious. Do you think you will keep the same mindset and interest led learning for High School? I am entering that phase.
That's the plan! I'm still working out how all that will come together with creating transcripts though...
We do hints of history because I can't decide what history curriculum I want to use so many great choices but kids range from 1st to 4th grade.
Wow this was so helpful! How long do these history units last? Do you repeat them every so often as the children grow and need to learn more?
Glad to hear that! We go as long as we’re interested or until I feel like we’ve covered what I wanted them to learn about. Yes, we do go back and go over the eras again on different levels as they get older! 😃
I really enjoyed this video and looking forward to the next 1!
Oh, thank you for sharing. I love the idea of SCM history but didn't feel it was... full enough, for a lack of better words, for my children's love of history. I will definitely be looking at it with a new perspective. 🥰
This was so helpful! Thank you!!
Love this approach! We started TGTB Year 1, but my kids didn't love the format...and neither did I, tbh. And I LOVE history! I want it to be fascinating, not boring and dreadful. So I will try being less structured and more exploratory with it. Sounds perfect to me!
And where did you find the Book of the Centuries? Looks like you may have made your own? If so, what did you include in it?
Yes, it’s just a black page journal. I just wrote each century on the top of each page but then the last few centuries, I split into 50 years for each double page spread since we study more of modern history than ancient, so I wanted more space to add in dates/info.
Oh wow!!! This is what I’m planning to do next year so this helps a ton. Thank you so much for making this video. Subscribed!! 🥰
So glad you enjoyed the video! Blessings!
EXCELLENT
I loved this video! I had a really quick question for you about the short reports… do you/your kids take notes while your reading to be able to complete those reports (especially your older sons report) or are they simply writing all that information from memory. I’m thinking about doing this with my oldest but writing is not a strong skill of his and I’m not sure he be able to do a full page. Anyway just wondering about how you guys went about that 😊. Thanks again for the great videos I really love them all.
I don’t have them take notes, but that’s a great idea! 💡 They usually either write from memory or refer back to the books we read when they write. I allow the kids to write how much I feel like they are able to do, knowing their capabilities. It doesn’t have to be a full page. My younger boys generally write a paragraph or two. ☺️
Love this. Curious though how you find documentaries or TH-cam or prime videos that are age appropriate and in the category you are studying. I have problems just finding the resources I want.
I’m not always able to find something. We definitely don’t do it for every lesson, but there’s usually something I can find for major historical events. I usually just do a search and then preview things that look like they might be ok.
Great video, we really enjoyed watching it. How long does it take you to plan each unit? And how long do you usually take to complete an unit? Thanks so much
Honestly, I don’t spend a ton of time planning. I’m much more of a go with the flow and go down rabbit trails kind of person. I have done units in the past for 6 week time blocks, but often, it’s just kind of until we start to get burnt out on the topic or I feel like we’ve covered it sufficiently. I’ve got a video here about how I’ve planned units in the past. th-cam.com/video/HXWmDsKpINI/w-d-xo.html
Did you start with modern times? We’re looking to start with ancient times from SCM- have you used this? Thanks!
Yes, that’s the only one we’ve used. I haven’t friend the ancient times ones. Best wishes!
This is our second year homeschooling and I am starting to plan for my daughter’s first year of high school next year…I’m loving your approach for history…do you feel like it can be enough for High School as well? Of course, it all depends on how deep, etc. we would go. I love your videos, thanks for sharing!
Absolutely! I would just make sure you are following your state’s requirements for transcripts in case there is a certain amount of time or certain topics that you’d need to cover. But you could certainly build extra independent reading books and research papers to make it more age appropriate for older kids! That’s what I’m planning to do when my kids are HS ages. ☺️
Thank you!! That’s what I needed to hear. It’s what I want, just needed a push!!
This was great 🤗, also do you start with Ancient History or American History?
I kind of bounce around and do what we are interested in. I personally think a good plan is to start with American History but it’s also good to rotate between the two instead of just going chronically so the kids don’t get burnt out on the ancients. 🥴
Thank you for this serie.
You’re so welcome!
How old are your kids?? When did you start teaching history??
My kids are 13, 10, 9 and 5. I started teaching history from the very beginning because I love it! We don’t do history every day though. We often cycle through doing a history unit and then a science one. ☺️
@@TheEclecticHomeschooler thank u!!
Did you start with American history or ancient history?
Thank you for this!! What are your favorite sites, pages or channels for history videos?
I really wish there was more out there! We’ve watched a lot of history channel stuff on TH-cam for my older kids and we enjoyed some of the Nat Geo shows on Disney+. There’s a kids cartoon called Liberty’s Kids on YT that we watched when we studied the American Revolution. We also love the Torchlighters series about Christian missionaries and can often find one that takes place where or when the time period we’re studying happened.
How far in advance do you research the 'extras', such as documentary, library books, etc. I feel like I'm too scattered and need to be organized with planning.
In my perfect world, I would spend some time on the weekend and look ahead to what I want to cover for the upcoming week. I'm honestly not super organized with it though and often just allow rabbit trails to happen and we go where the interests of the day lead or how the conversation goes, and we will dig deeper into that topic.
@@TheEclecticHomeschooler sounds like me. I enjoy the rabbit trails too, but would like to have some structure to our day
When do you fit history into your homeschool days?? Weeks?
We do history as part of our morning time that we do all together 4 days per week. We often rotate units between history and science so we aren’t doing history every day all year. Here’s a video about how we organize our normal days. ☺️ th-cam.com/video/qaOqxhFuE0c/w-d-xo.html
@@TheEclecticHomeschooler thank u!!
Any tips for learning US Geography without taking 5 days a week for a year?
Puzzles, games, coloring books/pages, Seterra site is good for mapwork (print and stick in wipeable sleeve or laminate...use wet erase, not dry, as dry can stain), flashcards, etc.
Some of our family's favorites:
GeoToys brand
Trend Enterprises brand
Draw the World series
Race Across the USA game
Guess in 10 games
Professor Noggin games
Passport to the USA book
Etc.
Make it fun. You'll be surprised how quickly they catch on.
Oh, and don't forget the power of random books and videos!
Where did you get the book of centuries notebooks?
Whoops! I forgot to add that one to the description! Here you go: History Timeline Notebook: amzn.to/3jSGTdW
Do you give test and report cards?
Nope! Never have. The only thing that’s graded in our house is math. I am involved in all their subjects and we have lots of discussion so I can gauge what they have learned by what they narrate back to me verbally or write about the topic.
Thank you for getting back to me, it was very helpful.
Your videos continue to be such an encouragement to me! There are so many options out there, but you have a calm about you that seems to simplify it so well. God is using you in mighty ways!
God is good! ❤️