Need to teach history to students in multiple grade levels but want to stay sane in the process? How about teaching history on a budget with resources that can be used again? Want a history plan that is not mom-intensive, but just grab and go? Then check out the simplest history plan for homeschooling multiple kids in K-8.
My posts contain affiliate links.
I love looking back at how we homeschooled five kids in years past! This post was originally written in 2017, so I’ll add some updated thoughts at the end. But I think it will be helpful for those of you in the middle of homeschooling lots of various ages. Here’s how we used the simplest history plan for our K-8 homeschool.
Our Homeschool History Background
We started homeschooling when our oldest started kindergarten. That year or the next we began a gentle approach to history using the Mystery of History curriculum. We have been through all four MOH texts now, finishing last school year with the Modern Era. Now that my oldest has been through two complete chronological history cycles, we have spun him off into his own high school studies. That leaves me with 8th, 7th and 4th graders (plus a cute little 4 year old). We are starting with Ancient history again this year, and for my fourth grader, this is the first time to cover these topics since kindergarten.
There have been years when our history consisted of reading the entire MOH text, doing one or more activities, and completing multiple maps, timelines, and worksheets.
This year I decided to take a minimalist approach. Maybe it’s not exactly minimalist by most people’s definition, but for me, it definitely is.
After using the MOH curriculum faithfully for so many years, it was a bit hard for me to step back and simplify our history this year. But it is working brilliantly. The kids love it. Mom loves it. My sanity loves it.
But will my kids miss something if I use a simple plan?
Listen to this wonderful perspective from Michael Farris of HSLDA. Published in The Home School Court Report (1st Quarter 2017), he said:
Michael Farris, The Home School Court Report (1st Quarter 2017)I think that the best curriculum advice I could give to parents is, there are two aspects of home education that need to be mastered in K through 12: language and numbers. Those are the tools of learning. You need to master words, and you need to master numbers. Everything else is exposure. You’re not going to master American history. You’re not going to master world history. You’re not going to master science, you’re not going to master foreign language or anything else in the K-12 sequence. You’re going to give your kids exposure. Exposure is good, and exposure to a broad range of things is good. But you don’t have to master all this stuff. As long as people understand this, they can avoid a lot of sleepless nights about some of the details.
That is so wise! And it really takes the pressure off that we like to heap on our parental shoulders.
So, here is our approach this year to a simpler history with multiple grades.
Resources for Simple History Plan K-8
Of course, you can choose your own spine and additional resources. This is what worked for us.
- Classical Conversations Timeline Cards
- Classical Conversations Timeline Song
- The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
- The Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World
- Mapping the World with Art
A Typical Day with a Simple History Plan
In a “normal week” (whatever that is!), we can usually hit history two or three times. I like to gather the three boys after lunch while everyone is around the table.
Here’s how it looks:
Grab the next Timeline Card. Play the Timeline Song up to that point (or the entire verse that card is in). I have the Timeline Song as an mp3 on my iPod, and I just play it via our bluetooth speaker. (I contacted Classical Conversations to find out where you can purchase an mp3 of this song, and it’s not available right now. But you can try this. At time of posting, this CD was on sale for $5)
Next, the boys fill in their personal timelines that they keep in a 3-ring binder. They add the date, the title of the lesson, and then draw pictures or symbols to represent the main points of the topic/person.
I read the back of the Timeline Card. We check out additional information in the History Encyclopedia and Ancient World book.
If there is a related drawing lesson in Mapping the World, we do it. This adds geography very naturally into its historical context. The kids are more likely to remember the geography and the story related to it when we do it together. The Mapping the World book has three sections, but we are only using the map drawing exercises for now. By the time we are finished with our mapping exercises this year, the kids should be able to draw a map of the world by memory! I’ll keep you posted on how this works for us. I also love this way of teaching geography, because the kids are doing the grunt work and the brain work associated with geography by learning how to draw these maps, rather than simply coloring a pre-made map worksheet. I hope this adds to their long-term retention of geographic knowledge.
What We Don’t Do
We don’t do worksheets related to history. I also don’t test the kids. Again, back to the wise words from Michael Farris at the beginning, my goal with history from kindergarten through middle school is exposure and enjoyment, not mastery.
The Benefits of a Simple History K-8 Homeschool Plan
Here are some of the benefits of using a more simplified plan to teach all my K-8 kids together for history:
- comprehensive & chronological world history overview
- budget friendly (about $82 total for any number of children)
- reusable another year or cycle
- multiple ages and grades combined
- virtually no prep; no lesson planning
- story based and hands-on (map drawing, timelines) rather than worksheets, textbooks and tests
- kid-intensive rather than mom-intensive
Each family needs to find their groove and run with it, no matter what the family down the street is doing! Too often we compare and heap on the mom-guilt. If your history curriculum is too burdensome in this season, give yourself permission to go minimalist. Allow yourselves to enjoy learning again. I’m so glad we made the switch this year.
What’s your favorite history curriculum? Share below.
Updated Thoughts on Simplest History Plan for K-8 Homeschool
Wow! It’s so fun to see where we’ve been through the years. I’m now rereading this post in 2024 and I only have two kids left in homeschool, as the oldest three have graduated. As my teens spun off into their high school studies, this K-8 multi-leveled history plan didn’t survive indefinitely. It’s just the reality that your homeschool will go through seasons. It worked while it needed to work and then we moved on to other plans, based on the ages of our kids at the time.
But I still think this is an excellent way to cover history chronologically for many years in your homeschool with multiple ages. Not only will your kids be more engaged in their learning than if you made them fill out reams of worksheets, but you can cover history will everyone together – so it’s more fun and efficient!
Plus, a chronological study of history is always best, in my opinion as a former history teacher 🙂 It always bothered me that public school and private school dropped kids into history with the Pilgrims or the Fourth of July and never explained how we got here. So, as a homeschool mom, I made it my mission to give my kids a chronological exposure to history.
Through the years, we’ve tried different resources and structured our history studies differently, as I said, depending on our current homeschool season. I’ll link to some of our other favorite history curriculum below.
Other History K-8 Homeschool Resources
Back in our first few years of homeschooling, our Mystery of History timeline was a favorite!
Here are some other history resources we’ve used in the K-8 years, along with unit studies plus notebooking.
Simplest History Plan for K-8 Homeschool – listen to episode 276
Want a simple yet engaging way to cover history with multiple ages together? If you’re homeschooling kids in K-8 and want a simple plan, this is it.
Here’s episode 276 of the Homeschool with Moxie Podcast.
