What is history? It's an orderly and systematic study of human activities in the past. What happened? Whom did it affect? What were the results? How is it relevant to our lives today? What does the Bible say about it?

Don't Know Much About History

What kind of history education did you receive? I hope it was better than mine. I have certainly learned more history since I began home schooling than I ever learned in school. (And enjoyed it more, too!)

When I was in school, we learned history straight out of textbooks. I honestly don't remember a single history activity or field trip, except for one trip to the UN in fifth grade.

However, I hope my kids will remember much of what we've covered in history because I've made an effort to make it memorable. I've used a variety of quality resources, hands-on projects, field trips and I've included plenty of discussion time.

More than Just the United States

Before I dig into the hands-on part, I need to address one history issue. I don't remember studying anything outside of American history until my world history class in high school. American history is important but does it warrant being taught year in and year out at the expense of learning about the rest of the world?

I'm surprised at how often I hear people say that they only teach American history when their kids are much older. They seem to think that other time periods and places are concepts too difficult to grasp. That's like only teaching the New Testament because the Old Testament is too hard. I would encourage you to start at the beginning and teach chronologically.

Why Hands-On?