~Charlotte Mason on History~

Much that has been said about the teaching of geography applies equally to that of history.

The fatal mistake is in the notion that he must learn 'outlines,' or a baby edition of the whole history of England, or of Rome, just as he must cover the geography of all the world. Let him, on the contrary, linger pleasantly over the history of a single man, a short period, until he thinks the thoughts of that man, is at home in the ways of that period. Though he is reading and thinking of the lifetime of a single man, he is really getting intimately acquainted with the history of a whole nation for a whole age.

The children of educated parents are able to understand history written with literary power, and are not attracted by the twaddle of reading-made-easy little history books.

 What they want is graphic details concerning events and persons upon which imagination goes to work; and opinions tend to form themselves by slow degrees as knowledge grows.

It is not at all easy to choose the right history books for children. Mere summaries of facts must, as we have seen, be eschewed; and we must be equally careful to avoid generalizations.

History books.

I feel a tremendous weight on my shoulders when it comes to choosing history books for my children. I mean this is the study of Providence. This is God's plan as it has been unfolding for all of time. The responsibility to accurately portray it and see His hand working throughout history is tremendous. I feel it all the more since I chose a history curriculum with my oldest, a very popular one in fact, and when I revisited it five years later, after recommending it to a friend and having had my iron sharpened by hers realized just how trivial  and often inaccurate it portrayed the events of the Bible, often making them seem no less silly than tales of Egyptian gods. I tried to persevere, using it as a guideline and editing as best I could, but in the end my disgust was so thorough that I abandoned it altogether and have set out on my own.

My plan is to work chronologically through history taking as long as possible, lingering on subjects that interest us most, but with the general goal of each child making it through each time period twice with more mature and in-depth material being covered when they are older.

This was our first year following that plan. We began "in the beginning." I found a lovely resource that has helped me to use the Bible to thoroughly cover the entire Old Testament called The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History. It covers sections of the Old Testament in lessons that simply consist of questions.

The focus is on understanding God's providential action and intervention through history, guiding the destiny of the children of Israel. Like the Famous Men series (with titles on Egypt, Greece, Rome, Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reformation) which follows it, this history unit is built around a series of biographies. We have not attempted to write a Famous Men of the Old Testament book, since one already exists, and we don't presume to suppose that we could improve upon it (the Bible!).  -The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History

To give you an idea of what we supplemented that book with, here is my personal list & the notes of the books I used this year.

{Genesis until Egypt}

For the early grades-
The Holy Bible 
Reese Chronological Bible
The Student Bible Atlas by Tim Dowley
Genesis: Finding Our Roots by Ruth Beechick
The Story of the Ancient World by Christine Miller (This is NOT The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer)
A is For Adam by Ken Ham
D is For Dinosaur by Ken Ham
Your Story Hour: The Bible Comes Alive Album One audio dramas
The True Story of Noah’s Ark by Tom Dooley (speculative; a somewhat hidden image of angels directing the animals to the ark)
In the Days of Noah by Gloria Canin (highly speculative, but very engaging)
Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible by Paul Taylor
Dinosaurs by Design by Duane T. Gish
Life in the Great Ice Age by Michael & Beverly Oard
Tower of Babel by Gloria Clanin (extra-biblical, speculative, perhaps based more on tradition, review first)

Dover Coloring Books such as Life in Ancient Egypt, (remove/block nudity)

For the later grades-

(Although I do ask that Jared sit in on our "history class" with the early grades so that he might contribute something to the conversation that he is learning in his independent study.)

The Genesis Record by Henry Morris

Annals of the World by James Ussher

Answers Book 1, 2, & 3 by Ken Ham
The Fossil Book by Gary Parker
The Bible Comes Alive Volume 1 by Clifford Wilson
Unveiling the Kings of Israel
Early Civilization
History of the World: BC (audio lectures)
History Through the Ages Timeline

Let them get the spirit of history into them by reading, at least, one old Chronicle written by a man who saw and knew something of what he wrote about, and did not get it as second-hand. These old books are easier and pleasanter reading than most modern works on history, because the writers know little of the 'dignity of history'

They are just the right thing for the children whose eager souls want to get at the living people behind the words of the history book, caring nothing at all about progress, or statutes, or about anything but the persons, for whose action history is, to the child's mind, no more than a convenient stage. A child who has been carried through a single old chronicler in this way has a better foundation for an historical training than if he knew all the dates and names and facts that ever were crammed for examination.

Let's comfort ourselves with this dear mothers who have to submit to standardized testing for our state... Facts simply aren't a measure of true knowledge and mastery of a subject. Let's teach history in such a way that it becomes beautiful and beneficial so that our children may learn not mere names and dates but how the Lord has worked throughout time.

Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series