History is one of my favorite homeschool subjects. It was not always so - as a homeschool student, I didn’t hate history, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it either. The curriculum we used when I was a student was thorough, but a little dry, and the real joy of history came to me more through experiences. We went on field trips to historic reenactments of pioneer times, we went to museums and historical sites on vacations, and I enjoyed reading historical fiction. My mom provided a wide range of history-related experiences for us, which made it all more real to me.
But I came to love history the most when my dad explained different historical events to me - the big picture of what happened, what these events and people meant, why they were important. There are cultural contexts and political atmospheres and real-life impacts of history that textbooks have a hard time conveying, and my dad gave all that to me when he told me the story of some historical event. He made me love history.
Because of those experiences of mine with dry history curriculum and real experiences and stories, I really wanted to take care not to suck the joy out of history for my kids. When I choose history curriculum, I try to make sure the text is written in an engaging way, and I re-tell certain aspects of history to my kids to help them understand the significance, as my dad did for me.
The three history curricula we’ve tried have been Beautiful Feet Books (Early American History primary set, K-1st grade), Master Books (America’s Story, 3-6th grade), and Notgrass History (Star-Spangled Story, 1-3rd grade), and Generations Providential History For Children collection (Taking Asia For Jesus, 3-5th grade). We also briefly used Story Of The World with our co-op, and I have opinions about it, but we didn’t use it long enough for me to write about it here.
Beautiful Feet Books
I initially was drawn to Beautiful Feet Books because it used living books to teach history, through picture books and chapter books. I got their Primary American History set about seven years ago, and we have very much enjoyed alot of the books that came with that set.
However, I am not confident in recommending them at this time, at least not for their Early American History set. The last time I looked at their website they had released a 2nd edition of the primary curriculum and changed many of the read-aloud books (there were some great ones that have been removed), de-emphasizing the founding fathers and emphasizing more minor historical figures, and including at least one controversial pick about Christopher Columbus.
My personal thoughts on teaching historical controversies (like Columbus) are this: my kids will be introduced to the Christopher Columbus controversy at some point, but I don’t think 1st grade is an appropriate time to do it. Kids at that age need heroes, and I think they need to be presented with the good and admirable aspects of history so they have some grounding before things are muddied up for them. If you don’t want to present Columbus as a hero to your kids, that’s fine, but no need to drag them into darker aspects of history at such a young age.
For that reason, I am more hesitant to recommend Beautiful Feet Books these days. I still look at their site for potential read-aloud ideas, but I do a little more research on the titles first.
Our Star-Spangled Story is the history curriculum I chose for my 2nd grader last year, as kind of a transition history curriculum from historical picture books to more of a textbook style. We unfortunately did not get very far into it because I tried to do too many history curricula at once last year, but we probably got one lesson done a week. What I enjoyed most about Notgrass was the way they included more obscure, but still interesting historical details, while still presenting the big picture and covering all the big historical names and events as well. The curriculum also comes with a great timeline book, and a book of songs from each period in American history, and my kids loved hearing the stories behind the songs! On top of that, each unit includes a fun and easy craft project, and my kids loved it when we did those! I am planning on using this more proactively this upcoming year with my 3rd grader and 1st grader, and I think we are going to really enjoy it!
Our main history curriculum starting in 3rd or 4th grade is the America’s Story series from Master Books. There are three levels covering America’s Story, and then the curriculum goes on to The World’s Story from there (we haven’t use World’s Story yet). I love this curriculum! The text is written in an engaging way (think “living book” style), and each chapter comes with a variety of worksheets with short answer questions, a drawing activity, vocabulary words, and map practice. Students are also encouraged to create a prayer book, praying for different aspects of the country that may relate to what they learned in history that week. There are also timeline pages included in the student’s book.
It’s alot of activities to choose from, so we often don’t get to them all. Usually my kids read the week’s chapter on Monday and/or Tuesday, and then do at least one worksheet each day the rest of the week, and ideally adding a note to their historical timeline (although we did fall behind on the timeline, I’ll be honest). I think alot of information is sticking for them because it’s presented in such an interesting way. My oldest will be starting on America’s Story 3 this year, and my 4th grader will be starting on America’s Story 2 (I started her on it a year early because she was so anxious to learn more). My 4th grader does get more out of it when I read the chapters aloud to her, and she enjoys history more when I am there to add my two cents. My 6th grader is old enough to do most of the work himself, and I just check over everything when he is done and talk about it with him.
Generations Providential History For Children
A really fun addition that we did as a family this year was Taking Asia For Jesus from Generations. This curriculum series is an overview of world history and geography, but it focuses specifically on Christian history and missions efforts in different areas of the world. We read so many inspiring missionary stories this year because of this curriculum! The end of each chapter also prompts us to pray for the country we just learned about, and it was so sweet to hear each of my kids praying for the people of different countries to come to know the Lord. There is a student workbook with additional geography and writing activities, but this year we just read the book aloud together and enjoyed the stories. I thought it was a great and gentle way to introduce a big-picture view of the what God is doing in the whole world through history. My oldest specifically said this was his favorite subject last year! We will try Taking Africa For Jesus this fall, and I bought the PDF of the student workbook this time so my older kids can get a little more geography practice.
My main goals for history (at these ages, it will shift as they grow) is that my kids will get a big-picture view of different historical periods, have a general knowledge of important names and events in American history and Christian history, have some experiences that will bring those things to life for them, be able to recognize how God is working through the flow of history. And finally, overall to just enjoy history! I hope we are well on our way to that.
Thank you for sharing your experience with Notgrass History. We hope you have a great year!
Thanks for sharing! You make an interesting point about children "needing heroes." I've been interested in Sonlight's Heroes & Happenings, but don't have a way to purchase it. For MasterBooks, it says it's Charlotte Mason style, but looks like textbooks? I'm checking it out. We haven't tried Story of the World yet, but enjoy Child's History of the World. Some people say it is dry, but it has somewhat of an engaging storytelling style. I much prefer it for read-aloud compared to Usborne encyclopedias, though those are fun to look at and have on hand.
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