Teaching History in the Hybrid School

As a Charlotte Mason enthusiast, I am a big fan of living books. Living books are delightfully written and set the reader up for a relationship with the people and places and events of the story. History and literature are stories, and when presented as such, feed the ideas that nurture an understanding of humanity and culture.

In the hybrid model, this type of reading can be split between home and school with few problems by having books read at school and books read at home. This allows freedom at home and prevents some of the troubles that can come with the expectation that reading be done at home in order to stay on pace at school. This, of course, is not necessary, but it is simpler! One method that works well is to have a few history books for each class set in a particular time period. Biographies, historical fiction, or well-written nonfiction is read by the teacher for several weeks or months (with younger kids, short books can be finished in a day or two). At home, a ‘spine’ history that is written chronologically and follows the same time period often works very well. A few more books at home, and a well-rounded history course is complete. In a Mason school, reading would be narrated. In other methodologies, tests or quizzes or other assessments and exercises can be used.