Charlotte Mason Streams of History: A Middle and High School Homeschool Plan
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Welcome to A Mother’s Thinking Love: Living Ideas, Lovingly Shared! Years ago, as a new Charlotte Mason inspired homeschool mom, I was very excited about teaching history. I was also incredibly intimidated by the idea of teaching thousands of years of people, places, and events. In this post, I’ll share our general history plan for middle and high school. Join me as I break down a five year plan in: Charlotte Mason Streams of History: A Middle and High School Homeschool Plan.
Why “Streams of History?
Until I dove into Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education, I had never heard of teaching more than one stream of history in a single school year. If you aren’t familiar with the concept of streams of history, Simply Charlotte Mason defines the term this way: “For those of you who may not be familiar with that term, streams, in an educational context, it is how we describe the practice of offering more than one focus in a particular subject during the school year.” My initial reaction was that students would be very confused by this method. Wouldn’t they get the events, dates, and people mixed up? Despite my trepidation, I continued my research and, eventually, attempted to put this idea into practice.
The Benefit of Streams of History
What we have found in our home is that, instead of leading to chaos and confusion, teaching multiple streams of history brings joy and variety. We wake up ready to dive into the feast of ideas set before us. Variety is the spice of life! It turns out, we were far from the first people to discover this truth, as similar sayings have been found dating back to the 400s BC. As for confusing dates, events, and people, as time went on, I came to realize this was not an issue in the first place. Time is an abstract concept for children. This will become more concrete as children grow, but it need not keep them from diving into this generous feast!
A Charlotte Mason Streams of History Five Year Plan for Middle and High School Homeschool

We hold to the idea of grade levels very loosely, so I chose to label this as a five year plan for middle and high school. Over the last three years, we have read through the following history streams: some modern, ancient world, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and some of the Middle Ages. We have about five years of homeschooling left, so I mapped out our plans based on that information.
The American/British and World history streams will cover the same time period. The Ancient stream will not. Each year will have three, 12-week terms. I will link a few book ideas here, but I plan to share more specifics on each year in the future.
American/British | World | Ancient | |
First Year | Term 1: 55BC-1485 AD *The majority of the time will be spent on the Middle Ages, as we have a bit left to cover from this year. Terms 2 & 3: 1485-1600 AD | Term 1: *Finish up Middle Ages Terms 2 & 3: 1485-1600 AD | Ancient World, Greece & Rome using only Plutarch, Shakespeare, & the Bible. *This will be a lighter Ancient history year for us, although it looks like a lot here. |
Second Year | 1600s-1700s AD | 1600s-1700s AD | Ancient World Ancient Greece |
Third Year | 1700s-1800s AD | 1700s-1800s AD | Ancient Greece Ancient Rome |
Fourth Year | 1800s-1900s AD | 1800s-1900s AD | Middle Ages |
Fifth Year | 1900s-2000s AD | 1900s-2000s AD | Renaissance & Reformation |
I hope you have enjoyed: Charlotte Mason Streams of History: A Middle and High School Homeschool Plan. You do not need to replicate this exact plan in your own home. Let this post serve as an inspiration as you make your own plans. How do you plan which time periods to study each year in your homeschool? Comment below to share your ideas!