Now, let’s jump into the actual curriculum!
When you first open the book, you’ll see a table of contents and required resources list. There is also a supply list.
The resource list is the books you’ll need to complete this curriculum. They are mostly literature books. Go to this post and you’ll find my list of how you can get some of these for free.
Pandia Press uses the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia as it’s spine or textbook. I highly recommend getting this. You will not be able to do the curriculum without it.
If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a very engaging encyclopedia of sorts. It has bright pictures, not walls of text and all of my kids have been happy with this book.
They put a lot of information in a small amount of space, making it accessible to kids who may not like to read, but also it helps them from getting overwhelmed. Usually they only look at 2 pages or so, which is also nice.
There are 99 lessons in the curriculum, perfect for getting it done in a school year. A school year is typically 180 days, so you could do history only a few times each week and still finish this easily.
Or you could do it daily, get done early and finish with something else.
If you do year round school like we do, you could just pick up where you left off after your breaks and it won’t be a burden to keep up.
I also like having smaller number of lessons, as it allows for life to happen. Often, life gets in the way of homeschool, whether it’s a new baby, a death in the family, a financial crisis or other life event.
These times cause us to put the books away and focus on family, rightly so. However, the stress of getting “behind” can causes panic, too. But with this homeschool history curriculum, you could take off 81 days of school and not be behind in history! I think that’s wonderful!
Other than the literature books and the spine, everything else is included.
The front section of the book has the lessons, there is a middle section with primary resources and other extra readings, such as poems, paintings and speeches.
The next section is all of the maps you will need for the map work and the final section has the worksheets you will need. These include charts, graphic organizers, and such.
I opted for the print at home version, so I just use my tab stickers to organize the sections, making it easy to find everything quickly.