Getting Started, Homeschooling

How to Approach Topical Subjects (History, Science, Literature, Geography)

Posted on by Rachael Alsbury

Aside from math and language arts, let’s talk about the other subjects you’ll likely be teaching in your homeschool: history, science, geography, and literature.

The topical subject are bodies of knowledge and don’t follow a linear, sequential pattern. Through a child’s school years, topical subjects move from idea to idea and these ideas are not necessarily done in consecutive order!

Science

Science is taught by going from general ideas to granular ones.  In the early elementary years, children will be introduced to general ideas like observation or the scientific method. As they approach high school the topics become more granular, for example studying the parts of a cell in a biology class.  The early years of science starts with the big picture and slowly zooms in over time.

A lot of homeschool science in the early years starts with nature study. The big goal is not to memorize the parts of a bee for college exams in ten years, it’s to teach the child how to make observations and be curious about the world.

You can see this even when you look up elementry Common Core standards for science.  The standards are focused on very general and subjective ideas like critical thinking, asking questions, and exploration.

History and Geography

As for history and geography, conventional school takes a “social studies” approach by starting with what the child knows first: self, family and community–then moving outward to state, country, and the rest of the world.  Early elementary will involve general concepts like “being a good citizen” and “understanding the difference between then and now.”

In high school, students will zoom in and study more specific pieces in-depth, like U.S. government or world civilizations.

In many homeschool circles, history is taught chronologically in “cycles” rather than a social studies approach.  This is done in models like Classical, Montessori and Waldorf where students start at the beginning with ancient history and move forward to modern history.

In most educational models, students learn about historical events, people groups, and time frames that had influence over the current culture.  So you can see this is pretty subjective!

Some people might try to tell you that you have to start at a certain place in history–you don’t.  You can start wherever you want, and if you are using the “cycles” method you know you’ll be covering each cycle at some point.  Reading widely from both fiction and nonfiction books will cover a lot of history.

Since history is tied to geographic areas you’ll naturally be doing geography at the same time! We have had success with complete interest-led learning and more traditional methods like studying history in cycles.

Literature

Most homeschooling families are voracious readers so we don’t tend to get as worried about the topic of literature, but just to give you some more perspective, literature is just as subjective. In conventional school, students begin with a skill-based approach by learning to ask and answer questions. Then, they move to “harder” topics such as comparing and contrasting. Probably things you are already doing by reading books to your kids.

In school, literature is usually taught with excerpts of books in a textbook anthology rather than whole books.  Stories are broken up into their mechanical parts for systematic analysis. Later on in high school, students read foundational works of literature that have had influence over culture.

Most homeschoolers take a whole book approach to literature rather than a skills-based one because it’s simple to do and tends to be more engaging.  When you’re teaching your child from whole books, you’re already ahead in vocabulary, background knowledge, complex sentence structures and critical thinking.

What Next?

If you read widely or have a basic homeschool curriculum, you are not likely to miss anything that the conventionally schooled kids are doing in topical subjects.  In fact, you are probably going to be doing more.

Have a lot of fun with this! Get a curriculum you are excited about or follow your child’s interests.  Don’t worry about age and “levels” so much here. If your child wants to start with WWII books from the library, it’s okay do that.  Whatever they would enjoy learning is age-appropriate.

Want to know more?

Go here for the post about math

Go here for the post about starting ages and grade levels

Go here for the post about phonics and reading comprehension.

For candid thoughts on faith, motherhood and homeschooling, subscribe to my Substack newsletter!

Rachael Alsbury

NorCal | Mom x 4 | Writer, photographer, homemaker, homeschooler

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