History is where we uncover lessons that help us shape our future and provide inspiration so we can envision and work toward a better world. That’s why understanding this subject is so important for kiddos of all ages.
As a homeschooling parent, you may ask yourself, “How do I give my kid a meaningful and engaging history education at home?”
With so many homeschool history curriculum options available, choosing the right option for your kiddo can be tricky.
So, let’s go through the best homeschool history curriculum options and helpful resources. We also explore another alternative that brings history to life at home with bina.
To make the choice a little easier, take a look at 7 popular homeschool curricula that other homeschooling families have found helpful:
Story of the World takes you and your kiddo on a chronological journey through major events, people, and cultures from ancient times to today.
There are four volumes written in a conversational tone by Susan Wise Bauer. Presenting history as a natural and engaging story helps children remember historical facts more easily.
There’s an activity book with hands-on activities like map work and coloring, plus an optional test book to measure progress. The Story of the World is mostly secular, but it does have some biblical stories.
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Beautiful Feet Books uses living books to teach history and geography. Children get to experience the past through the eyes of people who were actually there or through written tales that make you feel like you’re there.
The programs are thoughtfully organized by different times in history or parts of the world, like exploring ancient history or regional histories.
You'll often find a themed pack, including the living books, a teacher's guide, and timelines. While some of the programs gently weave in a biblical worldview, some options take a more secular approach.
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Notgrass History aims to bridge the gap between textbook learning and more immersive unit study. It does this by providing engaging narrative lessons alongside primary source documents, creative writing, and hands-on activities.
The curriculum takes your child through historical periods in chronological order. It's written from a Christian perspective, incorporating Bible study and discussions about faith.
There’s a narrative textbook, primary source documents, and activities to help your child understand the historical context and make connections with what they're learning.
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History unfolds through captivating tales and immersive experiences with History Quest. Through its imaginative ‘History Hops’, kids can picture themselves in time-travel scenarios to connect with the past.
This curriculum covers periods chronologically across different volumes. There's a big emphasis on hands-on projects, crafts, and activities to make learning active and fun. The resources include a narrative chapter book, a study guide, and an audiobook to listen to.
It takes a strictly secular approach to history, providing a view of history that is inclusive for everyone.
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For a history journey that's entirely online, look to The Nomadic Professor. Through engaging videos filmed on-site by Dr. William Jackson, this program encourages your kiddo to explore the past with a thoughtful and critical eye.
It focuses on helping kids think like a proper historian. They'll learn how to look closely at stories and information from the time (primary sources) and what other historians have said (secondary sources).
You'll find a mix of video lessons, text-based lessons, real historical documents, and little quizzes. The approach is secular and aims to be unbiased in how it presents the past.
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The Peaceful Press is designed for kiddos aged 5 to 12 years old and provides history lessons via two curricula: The Kind Kingdom for European history, and The Precious People for World history. Their approach is focused on building both motor and STEM skills via hands-on projects, but also communication skills via reading and writing.
To foster the love of reading, this curriculum provides, in their own words, a “feast of literature”, making it a great fit for kiddos who are voracious readers.
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Based on the Charlotte Mason principles of education, A Gentle Feast provides kiddos from grades 1 to 12 with history education and more. Their program is split into forms instead of grades and includes structured lessons, printables, and narration support.
This literature-based curriculum focuses on teaching multiple kiddos using the same books, even at different ages. There’s also an emphasis on outdoor exploration and heart-to-heart conversations with your child about big ideas.
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A little extra something beyond the main curriculum can make homeschooling history a deeper and richer experience.
Imagine stepping into real documents and images from the past. Websites like the Library of Congress, National Archives, Europeana, and The British Library offer amazing collections of original letters, photos, and recordings.
Your young historian can see history firsthand and pore over the papers that shaped events from long ago.
Stories and true tales of inspiring historical figures can make history feel so real. Reading about the lives and experiences of people from different times can help children understand their motivations and the world they lived in.
Series like Who Was...? and Little People, Big Dreams share the captivating lives of individuals who left their mark on the world. Magic Tree House is an option for young readers — this series whisks your kiddo away with stories that blend real historical events and settings.
Seeing and hearing history can make abstract concepts much clearer and more memorable. For a fun and fast-paced overview, check out animations from Crash Course History and Extra History.
Oversimplified provides a more lighthearted and often humorous approach to complex historical events. Podcasts like History of Rome and Dan Carlin's Hardcore History offer immersive audio-learning experiences.
You’ve picked a curriculum, now what? Here’s how to make the experience of learning history better for your kiddos.
Here are some of the wonderful ways history can be brought to life at home:
If you’re already a homeschool parent, you probably know how important it is to allocate and balance time for multiple subjects.
It’s one thing to choose the perfect history curriculum, and another to understand the time commitment required to bring it to life each week. You'll also need to consider lesson length and frequency, as every child learns at a different pace and has a different attention span.
To establish a suitable homeschool schedule and best manage your time, start by setting your priorities and expectations. You can begin with year-long and weekly planning, then plan around your kiddo’s energy patterns. Remember to schedule intentional breaks, and don’t be afraid to adjust your schedule as you go.
Traditional schooling has grade-level standards and standardized tests to measure the progress of students. But with homeschooling, there aren’t exactly external benchmarks. This can make it challenging for parents to know if their child is on track.
If your kiddo plans to return to traditional schooling or take standardized tests in the future, incorporating some familiar styles of assessments into your learning can be helpful for their transition.
Look up your local laws to learn about which standardized tests (if any) are required in your jurisdiction.
Learning at bina is all about precision education. Students are divided into micro-learning groups where they explore the world through thematic biomes. This immersive approach allows history to unfold naturally within a broader context, making connections to how people lived, what they discovered, and the challenges they faced in different environments.
Our small class sizes allow for plenty of individual attention. This means your kiddo can thrive in a learning environment that sees and supports their unique learning style and needs.
To help your kiddo learn history at home, use storytelling instead of approaching the subject as simple facts. You can implement hands-on activities and projects to keep your child engaged, as well as try game-based learning. Finally, try to connect moments in history to your kiddo’s life to help them get those “aha” moments.
The best homeschool curriculum will depend on several personal factors, including your budget, your level of involvement, and your kiddo’s long-term goals. For parents who prefer to have someone else do the teaching while they focus on the parenting, bina helps kiddos learn history through real context within small classroom sizes.
To choose the best history curriculum for your child, consider your goals, capacity for involvement, local resources (such as museums and libraries), and your kiddo’s specific history needs (American, world, etc). Choose a curriculum that best fits everything you’ve listed.
