Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

One of the constant challenges for all educators is making connections between the disciplines. Today on Home School Heartbeat, HSLDA president Mike Smith talks with Wanda Gibert about how to integrate African-American history throughout a homeschooler’s curriculum.

Mike Smith:
Wanda, your curriculum, Telling the Whole Story: African Americans in History, says it’s designed to incorporate with any major subject in a homeschool curriculum. What do you mean by “incorporate,” and how do you make that happen? With history, it’s easy, but what about other subjects?

Wanda Gibert:
“Incorporate” simply means “integration.” Mike, this might sound a bit surprising, but I didn’t teach African-American history as a separate subject to my children. I interwove it into whatever we were studying. For example, if you’re studying prose in literature, study the life and poetry of Phillis Wheatley, who was the first African-American published poet. You could use her poems for copy work or dictation exercises, or even short narrations. For geography, we studied Matthew Henson, the African-American explorer, and charted his journey to the North Pole. For government, the life of Robert Smalls, who was a former slave, but he became one of the first African-American legislators in 1875.

Mike:
Wanda, that’s really helpful advice. Thank you for being with us again today! And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.