I don’t think you can ever read enough history. It is so full of fascinating stories of choices and decisions, morality and corruption.
In general, kids who reach the age of 11 or 12 are ready to begin putting pieces together. The time for rote memorization and factiods is over. It is time to focus on how events and personalities and plain old human nature work to shape western civilization across all disciplines and throughout recorded history.
The more of these stories we read and discuss in our little homeschool, the more my kids notice repeating themes. Choices leaders make based on their situations and level of adherence to the moral structure fundamental to western society that lead to repeated results. Only the names and places and time changes.
My children are beginning, through these stories, to see a clear segregation of choice: those which lead to good and those which cause decline and downfall.
In spite of how much human history is recorded in the Bible, these additional historical stories we read provide examples that emphasize the point: a good and morally-grounded person has a much better chance at influencing the world around them in a positive way. And all the examples we run into, that interestingly can be sorted neatly into only a few categories of mistakes, provide a library which my children can draw from in the future.
And so I look forward to the next history chapter, or current event, or fable we read tomorrow so that my children can hear the story repeat again.
