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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 couldn’t find anything that would work for us.
So 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.
** Disclosure – there may be affiliate links in this post**
Table of Contents
Homeschool History Books for Kids
We love books, we’re not big fans of the Kindle, I wish we were it would save us a fortune. But 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 the history “curriculum” are The Big Fat Notebook For History and the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia.
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.
- 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!
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, iPad, and even download the app on your TV, and at only $20 per year, it is well worth it.
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. Now 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.
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 having a look. If you follow my link you will get $20 off your first class, so it is well worth checking out.
Free Homeschool History Curriculum
If I am ever looking for even more in our history learning, I will check out these amazing free online resources.
- Khan Academy
- Smithsonian History Explorers
- OER Project
- American History Games
- Teaching the Peoples History
- 60 Seconds Histories – if you want quick 60 seconds videos this is a great resource, they offer a 2 week free trial.
Homeschool History Curriculum
If I haven’t convinced you to homeschool history with no curriculum, these are the curriculums we have come across. They all look great, but not what we were looking for.
- History Quest – Elementary History Curriculum
- History Odyssey – Middle School & Highschool History
- School House Teachers – History curriculum for all grades. When you subscribe you get access to EVERY SUBJECT!
- Curiosity Chronicles
- Moving Beyond the Page
- Blossom & Root: A River of Voices – US History Curriculum
If you are looking for more secular homeschooling curriculum check out my recent post.
Please let me know in the comments how you homeschool history, I would love to know.
Last Updated on 21 July 2021 by homeschoolof1
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