Final Analysis Friday: Repeating History

I’ve had a niggling sensation in my head for a while that I wasn’t really happy with most of the history programs for homeschoolers. I never could put my finger on what I felt was wrong, so I finally decided that it was me (as a former history teacher) being too close to the subject at hand.

About six weeks ago, a couple of things happened that helped me clarify my thoughts on history and how I wanted us to study history in our homeschool.

Event #1: I stumbled upon a discussion about the book Why Don’t Students Like School. The book is not written for homeschoolers, but for public school teachers, however, the subject matter was fascinating to me so I quickly picked up a copy. Imagine my surprise when I’m reading this book about how repetition and memorization are keys for children to succeed and enjoy school. Probably the thing that struck me the most was how little importance a child’s preferred learning style (auditory, visual, kinesthetic) impacts their ability to learn!

Event #2: A member on The Well-Trained Mind Forums (great resource even if you are not a classical homeschooler!) shared her history plans which utilizes a history spine (one world history and one American history) that is read each year, then she chooses what topics to dig into that year. She covers both world and American every year.

Both of these things allowed me to see what I don’t like about most history approaches. I don’t like that you only cycle back around to certain historical events once every three, four, five, or six years depending upon which approach you choose. After reading Why Don’t Students Like School, I realize the value of having children hear and repeat information consistently so that it is imprinted on their brain. I don’t expect my kids to remember every. single. thing, but I do want them to have a ready recall of the general order in which historical events took place.

I also didn’t like that American history is only touched on in certain years of the history cycle. Since our family does reside in the United States, I think that learning the history of our country should be studied every year in some aspect. So next year, we are leaving our beloved Heart of Dakota (which I still love and recommend), but it will definitely be my back up plan if my genius plan totally falls through!

Since I am a planner, I decided to lay out the history books I want to read through as read alouds for the next few years. I haven’t planned beyond that because I’m not sure what I want to do once Monkey gets in first grade which is when I would start history with him.

My future plans as of right now are:


World History Overview: Story of the World Volumes 1-3 skipping any chapters pertaining to American history

American History Overview: The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History


World History Overview: Builders of the Old World and Our Island Story

American History Overview: Makers of the Americas


World History Overview: M.B. Synge's The Story of the World series skipping any chapters about American history.

American History Overview: A Child's First Book of American History by Earl Schenck Miers


World History Overview: A Little History of the World

American History Overview: Mara Pratt’s four-volume American history series

At this point I’m not sure how I’m going to work our history spines. Do I want to go back to the beginning of the spines I used since Monkey will be listening or do I want to continue to ramp up the listening level of the spines to hang with Chipette? Not sure on this one.

Logistically the way it will work is that the first half of our school year will be a world history book to read aloud and roughly the last half of our school year will be will be an American history book to read aloud. Every day I will read a chapter out of one of spines during Morning Meeting to the girls. 

Over the coming weeks I’ll share more specifically what our plans are for history, science, and our full-blown attempt at Charlotte Mason next year. I’ll really looking forward to starting our new school year and seeing how my grand experiment turns out.

Keeping history on repeat for the next few years in the tree house,



  1. Thank you for sharing this!

    I've been considering how to somehow teach both World and American histories. It just doesn't sit well with me to do all of the cycles. I love your plan and look forward to seeing how well it works. And to seeing how CM works in your house - I'm using a lot of her methods, and so far so good!

    1. Thanks! I'm hoping it works as well in real life as it does on paper.

  2. Chelli
    Very thought provoking, will be thinking about this whilst I plan in the next couple of weeks. If you don't mind me sharing a tip that worked for me, I found switching from world history to Australian history too much for my children, they like to dig deep. So we spend one term (10 weeks) on Australian history a year and the other three on world history.

    1. I thought of that and I might do that. It was definitely an option I considered. We will see how it all shakes down in actual practice. Thanks for stopping by!

  3. OOh, I am very intrigued! If you don't mind sharing, why did you decide to do separate topics for your girls to study in-depth instead of having them on the same things, just at different levels? Mine are 3 years apart and I'm trying to wrap my mind around how I want to do things once they are both "doing school". Also, We have the Mara Pratt American History Stories on CD read by Jim Hodges and my son and I love them! I highly recommend them, if you don't already own a copy of the books. we love listening in the car and I have put them on the ipod, too, so he can listen to that to give me some "free" time to work with my 3 year old. can't wait to hear more about how your adventures go with this!!

    1. My girls are three grades apart. I've yet to find the right balance for them of making it difficult enough for my oldest without making it too difficult for my younger daughter. Plus, they each love having their own things to share with Daddy at the end of the day. No talking over each other. :)

  4. Just so I make sure I understand your plan. Do you plan to teach the entire history of the world and the US every year? And just study certain eras/events in more depth? I haven't decided what to do for history this year yet. I'm eager to hear how this works out for you.

    1. Not teach the entire history, just read through an overview book. Not really discussing anything but for exposure. The next year I'd do the same but with a different book. More exposure.
      The other part of your comment is correct. I would choose certain time periods in both world and American history to focus on each year for in-depth study.
      Hopefully that makes sense!

  5. This sounds like an interesting approach and I would love to hear more about how you are implementing it. We currently use and LOVE HOD, but I know that next year we will be doing a full year of World Geography, Cultures and Missions, and still praying for the years after.

    Happy Homeschooling!