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What are the Homeschool Content Subjects?
Now that we’ve covered The Basics of choosing your homeschool curriculum and the Skills Subjects, we get to move on to the fun stuff. The homeschool content subjects are some of my favorites to choose every year. I really enjoy history, geography and science and feel like these subjects are a little more flexible in how they are taught than the skills subjects. If I were to rank homeschool subjects by importance, skills subjects would come first, followed by content subjects.
While skills subjects must be learned in sequence and one new skill builds upon another, content is more about exposure to a subject in order to broaden your child’s view. Content subjects also provide our kids the opportunity to make connections with the world around them.
Social Studies
For K-2nd or 3rd grade, social studies is usually taught in place of history. It’s easier for young kids to learn about their community and the immediate world around them than the bigger picture of the whole world. Social studies usually incorporate basic geography along with topics like community helpers, citizenship, relationships between families and communities, and some basic history.
You can teach social studies several different ways. Content subjects don’t have to be structured and formal. Picture books are a great way to teach social studies to young kids. Using a morning basket and rotating through books that cover these topics is a perfect way to get in good read aloud time while covering content.
Geography
As a family, we love to travel so my kids have a natural interest in geography. We have used formal geography curriculum, but prefer to incorporate geography into other subjects. When we read about certain animals in science, we look at our world map to see where they live. While learning about events in history, we track them on a map. When we travel to different locations, we look on the map to see where we’re going.
If you want to do an in depth study of cultural geography, I recommend doing it in place of history for a year. Sonlight has a great cultural geography year, and there are others as well (I’m most familiar with the Sonlight core). We have also done Around the World with Picture Books from Beautiful Feet Books and we loved it! I still have that curriculum because I couldn’t stand to part with it. Simply Charlotte Mason also has a wonderful geography program if you want to study one region at a time. We usually skipped the map drills but really enjoyed the recommended books.
History
I love history and I pick new resources every year. This is a subject that no matter how much you teach your kids, there is always going to be more to learn. Since content subjects are more flexible than skills subjects, there are many ways to teach history. I dare say there is no wrong way to teach history.
Literature Based History
This is my favorite method to teach history. I am a big believer in reading great books to my kids, so I love being able to cover history through great read alouds. Historical fiction is one of the best ways I’ve found to make history engaging. History through literature is a wonderful way to inspire your kids’ and your own education.
Most Charlotte Mason style curriculum will teach history through literature. In the past we have really enjoyed Beautiful Feet Books early American Primary. Sonlight also does a great job with history through literature.
Textbook History
Textbook history is what most people coming from a public school background are used to. This usually involves reading a small excerpt about a historical event and doing a worksheet or answering some questions. While there is no wrong way to teach history, I will say that text books aren’t the most engaging. Some textbooks are better than others though. I used Abeka for part of my elementary history, and I do like their texts. Masterbooks also has a history series that looks interesting.
Textbooks are convenient, they usually don’t require a lot of planning, and sometimes you just need a get ‘er done approach. If using a textbook fits your child’s learning style, then by all means, get a text book. I do recommend adding in some historical literature to enhance the textbook study.
Chronological History
Chronological history is usually synonymous with Classical Education, but any educational style can incorporate chronological history. As the name suggests, chronological history starts at the beginning and moves, you guessed it, chronologically through world events. What I love about the idea of teaching history this way is that all world events line up. It’s not compartmentalized into biblical history, world history, and American history. Events are taught side by side as they happen. There are several chronological history programs out there, but I haven’t looked at any of them extensively so I’m not going to make any suggestions here.
History Timelines
History Timelines are a great way to enhance any history study. You don’t have to teach history chronologically in order to utilize a timeline. While I like chronological history, it is not flexible enough for me. Using a timeline gives me the best of both worlds. I have the flexibility to teach whichever period of history I want, but we still have a visual and can see how the events happened in sequence. The boys each have their own timeline notebook and we add to it as we go. We have also used wall timelines which were great when they were younger as it kept a visual of all of the events they were learning in one place. I highly recommend using a timeline no matter how you decide to study history.
Science
Science is one of those subjects that can cause wars in the homeschool world. This is the one subject where your worldview will probably be the forefront of choosing a curriculum. There are many schools of thought on the right way to teach origin of the earth, and that’s just amongst Christian homeschoolers. Whatever your worldview, you will be able to find a curriculum that matches. If you are like me and never gave much thought to how to teach science beyond creation, then buckle up, you’re in for a ride as you research curriculum. I encourage you to read websites and statements of faith to choose one that lines up with your beliefs. There are even science curriculums that stick to a more neutral worldview, if that’s what you prefer.
There are many ways to teach science, and prior to highschool, there is a lot of flexibility in how to teach. I even know someone who doesn’t do any formal science with their kids until seventh grade. My kids prefer to learn through living books, hands on experiments, and nature study. There are also some great textbooks if you prefer that method.
I won’t break science down as much as I did with history, because it would be redundant. You can do literature based, textbook, and there is even a chronological science curriculum. Whichever method you choose, enjoy and don’t over think it. If you want to raise science lovers, make this a fun topic of study.
That’s all for the content subjects. Stay tuned for the next post in this series where we’ll talk about electives, or dessert subjects.
Action Items
Here are your homeschool content subjects action items:
- Choose whichever history curriculum looks interesting to you
- Set up a wall timeline or notebook
- Start a good historical fiction booklist
- Choose a science curriculum based on your worldview
- Don’t over think these subjects