Teaching history is an exciting opportunity to spark curiosity and imagination. Through engaging storytelling about historical figures, events, and cultures, children can develop a love for learning and discover how the past shapes their present. Simple activities, such as reading living books, role-playing famous events, or creating timelines, can make learning about history fun and interactive. This approach helps learners connect with the material personally and encourages them to ask questions about the world around them.

Furthermore, learning history allows young children to explore their own identities and understand diverse perspectives. By introducing them to various cultures, traditions, and experiences, they can develop empathy and appreciation for differences. 

Homeschooling provides the flexibility to focus on specific topics that interest them, whether it’s ancient civilizations, significant inventions, or important leaders. This tailored learning experience not only makes history relatable and enjoyable but also builds critical thinking skills, helping young learners become informed citizens who understand the importance of the past in shaping their future.

Here are some principles I have integrated into my homeschool over the years, including how I teach history and some of my favorite curricula.

In this blog post: 

• How I teach history
• Favorite homeschool curriculum
• Other history resources

How I teach history

In our homeschool, we learn about history both by studying history as a subject and diving into historical topics we encounter in literature and other studies. If my children are interested in a historical event or figure, I love to let them spend extra time learning about it. This could be by reading more books about the topic, researching online, or writing and illustrating their notebook pages. 

Related: Notebooking in Your Homeschool: Why and How?

I especially enjoy learning about history through living books, whether it is a firsthand account of an event or learning through an exciting story. I love how stories can bring a subject to life with details and emotions that make it easier to understand and relate to the event.

There are other ways to learn history as well. You can consider the historical period in which a piece of art was created as you study a piece of art, or you can make a handicraft that mimics something done in a certain period of history. You can visit a museum or a historical site and learn about the history of your area. There are many ways to bring history alive for children and let the learning unfold.

After we have read several books about a subject, we often turn to timelining and notebooking to document our learning.

Each of my children has a timeline notebook they add to as we learn about different times and figures in history. The History Timeline Notebook is a great resource for documenting historical events and figures over many years. The book includes a blank, dated timeline where children can plot historical events as they learn. Over time this helps teach correlations and show connections between different time periods, events, and figures in history.

Related: Incorporating Geography and Cultures in Your Homeschool [Free World Map PDF]

Then, my children illustrate and write a few sentences or paragraphs on a notebook page, depending on their learning level. Through timelining and notebooking, my children are creating a collection of historical findings they can return to over time.

Related: Holiday Homeschooling: Adding Holiday Curriculum to the Mix and 10 Ideas for Learning Opportunities through Holiday Activities

Favorite Homeschool Curriculum

These are some of my favorite history curricula I have used over the years. 

• Adventures in U.S. History (My Father’s World) explores U.S. History and patriotic symbols from a Christian perspective. Learn through stories, hands-on activities, a timeline, and a student-created history notebook. The curriculum includes U.S. geography, the Bible, science, art, music, and more.
• History of Science Pack 4-6 (Beautiful Feet Books) teaches through biographies of scientists including Archimedes, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, George Washington Carver, Einstein, and more, paired with hands-on science experiments.
• Early American History 4-6 Pack (Beautiful Feet Books) studies the foundations of civil and religious liberty unique to the United States. Students will celebrate the rich mosaic of people who helped found and developed the United States.
• Medieval History 5-8 Pack (Beautiful Feet Books) is an in-depth study covering Medieval Africa, China, and the Renaissance. 
• Ancient History 5-8 Pack (Beautiful Feet Books) covers the innovations in ancient civilization, such as the creation of the written word, the invention of the wheel, and the rise of ziggurats and pyramids.
• Modern America and World 6-8 Pack (Beautiful Feet Books) covers the Civil War, Reconstruction, the turn of the century, both World Wars, Civil Rights, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and contemporary America, plus other historical events such as the Dust Bowl, the suffrage movement, and 9/11.

Favorite historical book series

• Step into another time in history with the “If You…” series. Through these books, children experience life in different historical periods. These stories help explain how the world was different and what was important in each time period.
• Picture Book Biographies profile famous people who changed the world. These books mix colorful, kid-friendly illustrations with a combination of facts and personality to introduce children to history through biographies of presidents, heroes, inventors, explorers, and adventurers. These are great for first- and second-graders.
• The Childhood of Famous Americans series explores events that helped shape the lives of famous historical figures, including John F. Kennedy, Susan B. Anthony, Martha Washington, and more.
• Landmark Books is a historical series for kids that tells a narrative for famous historical periods and figures such as Christopher Columbus, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and more.
• Hero Tales is an illustrated storybook that presents the true-life stories of fifteen key Christian heroes. Each hero is profiled in a short biography and three educational yet exciting and thought-provoking anecdotes from his or her life.

Other history resources

Treehouse Book Club

Treehouse Book Club is a way to dive into living literature in your homeschool. Each month, read a book together and connect the story’s themes to science, nature, geography, history, and language arts as they come up. These selections share stories of adventure, coming-of-age, and courage as they take place in different historical periods.

Join Treehouse Book Club here.

A Treasured Thanksgiving

A Treasured Thanksgiving is an invitation to study the historical Thanksgiving story in a hands-on way. Through Scripture, poetry, art studies, picture books, projects, baking, geography, and narration, your family will spend two weeks connecting and focusing on the meaning of the holiday. Dive deep into themes like the Pilgrim’s voyage to America, the Wampanoag people, the First Encounters, the First Thanksgiving, and the relationship between the Pilgrims and Native Americans in the first year. Featuring a robust book list of picture books and chapter books, this study will provide resources for the whole family.

Related: Introducing A Treasured Thanksgiving

A Connected Christmas: Around the World 

Celebrate Christ’s birth and connect hearts to the truth of Jesus while experiencing how Christmas is celebrated across the globe with A Connected Christmas: Around the World. Give your children a way to travel the world as you explore the Christmas season in different languages, climates, and cultures. Experience the unique traditions of countries around the globe through festive carols, stories, poetry, fine art, baking, and handcrafts.

Related: Introducing A Connected Christmas: Around the World

World Watch News

World Watch News is a daily video that showcases the news in 10 minutes each weekday. I love giving my children access to current events so they can learn about the world, but I also love that the network delivers the news with Biblical discernment. The reporting covers sciences, world news, economics, government, and more.

How do you study history in your homeschool? Let me know in the comments below.