Summary: 3 FRUGAL resources and curriculum for homeschooling elementary American history. #homeschoolelementary #homeschoolhistory This post may included affiliate links to products that we love and have used or would use in our own homeschool. Please see my disclosure policy.
Are you looking for resources to teach American History to your kids?
At BJ's Homeschool, we used a combination of living literature, hands-on projects, and short history lessons to study about our country's history. We had three favorite resources to help us do just that...
Today, I would like to share our 3 favorite homeschool elementary history curriculum and resources that we loved.
1. "History and Me" - a creative workbook with hands-on activities
2. the Little House on the Prairie series, with craft books
3. US History 5 - from Oak Meadow homeschool publishers
We began our studies, with the book "History and Me", when my daughter was in 3rd grade..
1. History and Me
History and Me, by Education.com offers a great way to introduce US History to your kids, and it is frugally priced at less than $8.00. Through this book, your kids are introduced to US history by learning about the people in it.
History and Me is divided into four sections:
1. She's so Cool - Women in History
2. American Heroes
3. Presidential Potpurri - Famous Presidents
4. Tracing your Roots - an introduction to studying family history
The first section includes short biographies of famous women in our history, and also gives practice in reading comprehension skills, and learning about biographies.
The second section includes short lessons on Alexander Hamilton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr. and many more. I like how it uses word scrambles to help with retention in this section.
In the third section about our Presidents, your kids are introduced to historical time lines, with cut and paste activities used to make them.
The last section involves interviewing family members, to begin to map out your family's history.
After studying the lessons in History and Me, we moved on to focus on the pioneer days, with the series of novels -- "The Little House on the Prairie" that is so popular, and so wonderful.
My friend Meredith also offers more fun audio based history resources here at Pop the Popcorn - Learn about the American Revolution.
While reading them, we enjoyed My Little House Crafts Book , and had lots of hands-on fun with their craft ideas.
Gerdine B. also offers many related activities here - under Pinterest Activities, as does in her blog, the Proverbs 31 Woman ----- with her Little House in the Big Woods Activities.
Then when my daughter was in 5th grade, we were ready to cover U.S. history in more depth, and found a wonderful course, from Oak Meadow Homeschool Publications.
3. US History 5 by Oak Meadow
This was a complete course that my daughter loved, with charming lessons full of interesting facts, giving a good solid overview of our country's history.
These were coordinated with lots of hands-on projects and fun to read living literature books as well.
Oak Meadow offers courses in English, Social Studies, Math, and Science for grades K - 12. They can be purchased as a bundle or, from 4th grade on, just one course at a time.
They are all hands-on, project oriented courses, and we loved using them for English and History, starting in 4th grade.
These US History lessons included information that young children would want to know, such as family life, toys and children's clothing, along with the important historical facts of US History.
The Living Literature books included:
-The Story of Harriet Tubman
- Ben and Me
- Sarah Mortan's Day
- Christopher Columbus
- and four more.
And I loved how it encouraged my daughter's critical thinking!
My friend, Meredith offers 20th Century History Resources that Your Family will Love.
My friend, Amy offers more resources on Early American History you might like to read about, too.
For more quality and frugal ideas for elementary curriculum:
My friend from 7 Sisters Homeschool also offers an extensive list of quality Elementary Curriculum Resources here - Favorite Homeschool Curriculum for Elementary Grades.
Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,
Betsy
Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled from preK through high school. She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind. She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting.
Thank you for sharing on Top-Notch Tuesday! These are great resources and we look forward to using some of them :)
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Thanks, Simply Knowledge Homeschool, and enjoy your day!
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