The Best Secular Homeschool History Curriculum

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History is without a doubt our favorite subject after math, and I have spent weeks looking for a homeschool history curriculum that we can use.

We are secular homeschoolers so I didn’t want a Christian curriculum, but I really struggled to find a homeschool history curriculum that would work. But I wanted to share with you what we found, and what we have decided to do.

We have decided to study history with no curriculum. This at first made me really nervous, as we both definitely work better with structure. But we have made it work. I would just like to add that we are only at grade 6, next year for grade 7 we will be using a more formal homeschool history curriculum (probably Pandia Press, as discussed later.)

If you enjoy playing games in your homeschool we have put together our top 20 history board games for you to enjoy.

I think you are also going to enjoy our top 10 homeschool history books.

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Best history curriculum for homeschoolers

These homeschool history curriculums are all we have found that are secular. We have used History Odyssey and are currently using Beautiful Feet, the others have been recommended by other secular homeschoolers.

The problem is, most homeschool history curriculums are religious. So if you are secular homeschoolers and want a full history curriculum you will have to choose from these options.

• History Quest – Elementary History Curriculum
• History Odyssey – Middle School & Highschool History this is now what we are using (see our review of history odyssey here)
• Beautiful Feet history through literature (check out our Beautiful Feet Books American History review)
• Curiosity Chronicles
• Moving Beyond the Page
• Blossom & Root: A River of Voices – US History Curriculum

See the best homeschool curriculum for high school history.

Free Homeschool History Curriculum

If I am ever looking for even more history resources, I will check out these amazing free homeschool curriculum resources.

• Khan Academy
• Smithsonian History Explorers
• Free periods in English literature timeline printable
• OER Project
• American History Games
• Teaching the Peoples History
• 60 Seconds Histories – if you want quick 60 seconds videos this is a great resource, now completely free on Youtube
• Remembrance Day – I have put together lots of free resources to help you teach about WWI.
• Bonfire Night Activities – Learn all about Guy Fawkes and how he tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament
• Martin Luther King activities for kids – if you are looking for ways to study the great man in your homeschool check out our favorite resources.
• Greek Gods Family Tree and coloring pages
• Greek mythology word scramble and Greek mythology word search

Best homeschool history books to supplement the curriculum

These are the best homeschool history books we have used, or currently use in our homeschool.

We love books, but we’re not big fans of the Kindle, I wish we were it would save us a fortune.

All of these books could be borrowed from the library, so you don’t need to splurge if you don’t want to!

We tend to use two key books to assist us with the timeline, and then we supplement with other books, workbooks, online resources, and youtube.

I’m showing my age a little with the Looking At History book! I used this when I was at school over 30 years ago. So apart from that book, you can find all the others on Amazon.

The two books we use as our homeschool history curriculum are The Big Fat Notebook For History and the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. But as you can see above we have lots of history books!

• Timelines of Everything
• Horrible History Books
• History the Past as you’ve never seen it before
• 100 things to know about history
• Histories Mysteries
• A Short History of the World
• Mysteries in History
• Beowulf
• The Usborne History of Britain
• This is a Horrible Coloring Book
• American History A Visual Encyclopedia
• Castle
• Kings & Queens

The best history workbooks

We love using workbooks in our homeschool, I think you either love them or hate them!

But I find that they are an easy way to use for a checkup of understanding.

I found there were not many (although many more if you are in the UK)!

We have only used the 180 Days of Social Studies and it ties in really well with our two workbooks. Although it also covers other subjects, we have only been focussing on the history lessons, and we really love it.

We have recently come across Evan Moor too (yes I know, we are fairly new to America!!), and they have lots of history workbooks too. We haven’t used them yet, but as soon as we have finished the 180 days of social studies we will be ordering them.

Check them out Evan Moor for grades K-6.

Youtube History Documentaries

• Crash Course is hands down our favorite youtube channel for homeschool. They have playlists on World History, US History, European History, and everything in between. In fact, we watch a lot of Crash Course for science too!
• Horrible Histories this show is hilarious, and we have been watching for many years. In fact, we have seen these shows at the theatre too.
• History Channel of course, this goes without saying.

If I can’t find the lesson I need on those three channels I just search on Youtube for the particular resource I need. However, in two years, I haven’t needed anything else! But check out all of our favorite kid’s educational videos on Youtube if you need more ideas.

History Live Online Classes

We absolutely love Outschool in our homeschool, as he gets to talk and communicate both with the teacher and his peers.

Outschool has a number of classes on history, so I highly recommend you have a look. Take your first Outschool class today, you won’t regret it.

Curiosity Stream

This is relatively new to us, we only got Curiosity Stream a couple of months, but we are hooked! It is not only a channel for history, it has awesome science documentaries plus lots more.

You can watch curiosity stream on your computer or iPad, and even download the app on your TV, and at only $20 per year, it is well worth it. Check out how we use Curiosity Stream in our homeschool here.

Please let me know in the comments what you use as a homeschool history curriculum, I would love to know.

Last Updated on 21 November 2022 by homeschoolof1