A first step in teaching history should start with the process of understanding centuries.
While reading to the kids from our history book, I came across the term “18th century,” so I asked the kids to which years that was referring. My son responded correctly almost immediately, but my oldest daughter just gave me a puzzled and confused look.
Suddenly aware that the direction of our lessons needed to take a small detour, I closed the history book, grabbed my handy-dandy white board and marker, and proceeded to draw a time line on the board so I could explain centuries to my daughter. It took only about 10 minutes of explanation and verbal drill, but she finally grasped the concept.
And with that information fresh in my mind (and looking for a good excuse not to wash the dishes), I was inspired to write up a learning worksheet about centuries.
So if your homeschooling materials don’t include a good explanation of centuries for your kids, or if you’ve struggled with how to explain it, this two-page printable should help. The first page explains how centuries are defined, and the second page has two sections of written drills where the student is required to write the equivalent century or years for the given information.