History as Core Subject...

History can be the student’s most favorite subject when it is made to come alive and be interesting. Yet, when history relies solely on the memorization of dates, names and places, it can seem remote and unconnected to the student and be their least favorite subject. When we first started home schooling, my fifth-grade daughter asked, “When was Moses and Lincoln?”

“That is a very good question,” I replied, as I had no real answer except that they were both from the past. As I am a visual learner, I need to write, draw or graph information in order for me to “see” it. So my response to my daughter Stephanie’s question was, “Let’s put up a timeline and we will see when they lived.”

After a continual process over the years of biblical figures, saints, explorers, inventors, musicians, kings and queens, scientists, and everyone we studied appearing on our timeline, it amazed me how well our children could recall from the figures placed there what they remembered of our previous studies.

Then, following Dominique Wetzel’s comment, “Marcia, I want your timeline” continued...  history - overview.pdf