This is my favorite part of the STAR cycles: history is taught chronologically, over four years! And then, once you’ve covered every year of His Story and learning about the people and places He created, you get to start over. Only, your kids will be a little older, and maybe you’ll read different books, and dig a little deeper into a different subject. Keep a timeline book and draw maps and solidify all of these ideas in your kids’ minds!

There are several options for living history books scheduled in the STAR reading plans. There are two options for most books: read them cover-to-cover, or simply read the chapters that line up perfectly with the week’s memory work. This is really a choose-your-own-adventure curriculum.

History

This is my favorite part of the four STAR cycles: history is taught chronologically, over four years! And then, once you’ve covered every year of His Story and learning about the people and places He created, you get to start over. Only, your kids will be a little older, and maybe you’ll read different books, and dig a little deeper into a different subject. Keep a timeline book and draw maps and solidify all of these ideas in your kids’ minds!

There are several options for living history books scheduled in the STAR reading plans. There are two options for most books: read them cover-to-cover, or simply read the chapters that line up perfectly with the week’s memory work. This is really a choose-your-own-adventure curriculum.

The Cycles

The STAR cycles follow the Claritas Publishing cycles. Teaching history in chronological order, with a four-cycle approach, has always made sense to me. If you teach this way from kindergarten through twelfth grade, your child will be exposed to world history, in order, three times. Each time your child goes through a time period, their brain will make new connections with the information. It is really a beautiful method of teaching history!

The cycles cover the following time periods:

Cycle 1: Ancients: Creation to the Fall of Rome

Cycle 2: Middle Ages: Dark Ages to Explorers of the New World

Cycle 3: Early Modern Times: Dutch Revolt to The California Gold Rush

Cycle 4: The Modern Era: The Victorians through Recent Times 

• Cycle 1 History Form 1b+
• Cycle 1 History Form 1a+
• Cycle 1 History Form 2+
• Cycle 1 History Form 3+
• Cycle 1 History Form 4+
• Cycle 1 History Form 5+
• Cycle 2 History Form 1b+
• Cycle 2 History Form 1a+
• Cycle 2 History Form 2+
• Cycle 2 History Form 3+
• Cycle 2 History Forms 4+
• Cycle 2 History Form 5+
• Cycle 3 History Form 1b+
• Cycle 3 History Form 1a+
• Cycle 3 History Form 2+
• Cycle 3 History Form 3+
• Cycle 3 History Form 4+
• Cycle 4 History Form 1b+
• Cycle 4 History Form 1a+
• Cycle 4 History Form 2+
• Cycle 4 History Form 3+
• Cycle 4 History Form 4+

History Books By Subject

The history books included on the pages above are history “spines”–or, books that you will use for the entire school year. I personally like using at least one spine for a couple of reasons:

• It’s cheaper to purchase one thick book than buying picture books or chapter books for every history topic I want to cover in the school year.
• Our school days go smoother when I know exactly which book I am opening up and reading from.
• There is something really special about getting through a whole history book by the end of the year.
• I enjoy the breadth of subjects covered in a single book that goes through a time period of history.

All of that said, there is also a benefit in having some picture books and chapter books that line up perfectly with the subjects we are currently reading about. These are perfect for independent reading for children. Some families will gather a stack of various history books that line up with the current cycle and place them in a basket in the family room. These are the books that the children can grab from and read during free or scheduled reading time.

If you’re really organized, you can also find many of these books in public or private libraries, so that you don’t face any extra cost in the pursuit of learning deeper knowledge about the cycle’s history topics.

The following pages are a major work in progress. If you have ideas for books, please tell me! I would love to have tons of lists of books about every event in history! (Side note: there are SO many books about American and European accomplishments–like the Revolutionary War, and about the British monarchy, for example–but hardly any books about other parts of the world. If you want to write children’s books about lesser-known historic events, please do–and tell me!)

These pages are a work in progress:

• History Books by Subject

History: Biographies

In addition to the history spines and the history-books-by-subject, I’ve created some Biography pages on this site. These are also a work in progress. The lists of people were not divided by time periods. If I did that, the majority of the people with books written about them would fall under Cycles 3 and 4 because of the years the people lived. There would be hardly any biographies for Cycles 1 and 2. For example, our family really enjoys the YWAM Heroes of the Faith books, but all of those books were written about people in relatively modern times. Since I want children reading about lots of different people, and not just during two cycles, I decided that I needed a different way to divide up these biographies. I divided the names up based on the following ideas:

• Anthologies
• Geography
• Claritas Publishing Memory Work

About Biographies

Coming Soon

 

 

How to Teach History

History is my very favorite subject to teach in my homeschool! It is really very easy to teach. Simply:

1. Read a history passage aloud in a comfy location.
2. Pick one child (and rotate each time) and ask that child what he or she heard. (This is called Narration).
3. Look at maps together to discover the places you’ve just read about.
4. Write the events and the people you just learned about in a Book of Centuries, or, timeline book.

That’s it! If you would like to schedule independent reading for your children, you may do that as well.

Sometimes my family will also look up Google Earth to see what the place looks like today. For example, we once looked up Milk Street in Boston, where Benjamin Franklin grew up, to see how it has changed over the years (a lot!).

If your children are particularly interested in something they have heard in the day’s reading, explore it! Go to the library and pick up more books on the topic, or do a little research online

Now you get to choose which history book(s) you will use this year! There are many books to choose from. I hope that you will not feel any stress because of this list, but empowered and equipped!

There are a few things to consider as you choose your history books:

1. Do you want to read your history books cover-to-cover, over the whole year, or do you want to read selections that line up with the history in the memory work? I have scheduled both of these options for several books. All of the following books have been scheduled cover-to-cover. The books that have also been scheduled to line up with the Claritas Publishing Memory Work are labeled “Lined Up with Memory Work.” This means there are two ways to read this book.
2. Is a Christian worldview imperative to you? Then look for books with the label: “Christian Worldview.” Some of the books below are not written by believers and are void of any mention of God and may contain ideas that do not line up with God’s Word.
3. Is it important to you to read about what was happening in other countries besides America? There are so many great books about the founding of America, the thirteen colonies, the American Revolution, and all of the founding topics. It is more difficult to find books that contain information about other places in the world. If you believe it is important to read about world history alongside American history, look for this label: “Includes World History.”
4. Who will be reading this book? Will you be reading aloud, or will you hand the book to your child to read? I suggest doing some of each, but you get to decide this for your homeschool and for the season you are in. Look at the “Forms” suggested under each book, both for reading aloud and for independent reading. (You may also want to see Additional Literature: Titles that Line Up with the History Cycle for a literature-based approach to history).
5. Are you on a tight budget? Some of the history books are available for free online. Look for the books labeled: “Project Gutenberg” and. “LibriVox Audio” and read or hear great history for free!
6. Is an audio version of the book important to you? Look for the label “Audible Audio” and “Audio CD” and also “LibriVox Audio.”

When you go to purchase your books, I recommend trying to find new or used copies on Exodus Books, which is a small, Christian-owned business. I find many of my books on Exodus. Title links are to Amazon for reference, but I prefer to support smaller businesses first. Most links are affiliate links and I make a small percentage off of any purchases made, at no extra cost to you.