On this page: Links to curriculum, reviews, books lists, movie lists, games, crafts, tapes, original documents, more. Scan down below grade level ideas for lots of incredible extras.

Why study history?

• To learn from lives well-lived and lives poorly lived.
• To learn from decisions wisely made and decisions foolishly made.
• To gain a better understanding of human nature and our fellow human beings.
• To inspire ourselves and our children with stories of adventure, accomplishment, courage and charity.
• To broaden our minds and experience, to immunize ourselves against the small-mindedness of provincialism.
• Because it makes all subjects so much more interesting and fun!

Now, how much of the above will you glean from a textbook? Not much.

So where will you get it? From biographies, stories, historical fiction, diaries and journals, letters, speeches, debates, even documents (like the Declaration of Independence) -- and, as your children get older, from real historians.

Nevertheless, textbooks are good resources. They provide a framework from which to branch out, a broad overview so you'll get the big picture, and of course, a timeline to help you gain perspective and connectivity. What they fail to provide is the lessons of history that they simply do not have the time to cover - that's where you'll want to branch out into the "real world" of history with some of the resources mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Take a look at these resources to help get you going.

Elementary Grades

You may wish to use texts at these grade levels (a few options are listed below), but this is the perfect time to turn your children into history lovers by way of biography and historical fiction. Once they love it, high school texts and more grown-up history will have greater appeal to them, and they'll have thousands of hooks in their brains to hang their higher learning on.

First, some textbooks and study guides, then skip down and take a look at the rich resources listed under History Outside the Textbooks

BJU Heritage Studies Grades 1-6 Student and Teacher Editions available

Study History Through Literature with Beautiful Feet Study guides and recommended books. Buy study guides alone or packs that include recommended books, tapes, timeline materials, etc. Also check out their page that recommends a study sequence. Note: We chose the two pages on this site that seemed the most useful places to begin.

29 History Resources Reviewed by parents

Dozens of History Resource Reviews by author Cathy Duffy

Middle & High School

Grades 7-12. Streams of Civilization. This site recommends resources and offers schedules for using them, as well as ideas, printable forms, and much more. Great timeline ideas and forms, too. Lists of supplemental reading. Note: There's a lot on this site, which makes it look a little overwhelming at first, but it's pretty well-organized and an excellent resource.

BJU Heritage Studies Grades 7-12 US and World History, Student and Teacher editions available.

Study History Through Literature with Beautiful Feet Study guides and recommended books. Buy study guides alone or packs that include recommended books, tapes, timeline materials, etc. Also check out their page that recommends a study sequence. Note: We chose the two pages on this site that seemed the most useful places to begin.

29 History Resources Reviewed by Parents

Dozens of History Resource Reviews by author Cathy Duffy

HISTORY OUTSIDE THE TEXTBOOKS

Fiction and Non-Fiction History Books
Movies, Tapes, Documents, Crafts, Games, More

Note: There are hundreds of great books and many historical movies out there to enhance your studies, but not all of them are appropriate for all children or families, even if they're listed on Christian, religious or library web sites. Do your homework before choosing books.

Check out books before using them:

Ask friends and other home schoolers what books they found appropriate.

Look up books on Amazon.com and read over reviews, paying special attention to the negative ones where parents are likely to have listed objections to content.

Skim through copies at the library (it won't do much good to ask librarians about suitability, as most of them take a more public school approach).

Check out movies before watching them:

The Dove Foundation Family Approved Movies. You'll find older movies here, as well as all the newest ones. Good breakdown of reasons for ratings. Worldview explanations. We disagree with some of their approved choices, and they occasionally miss some blatant stuff in a movie, but if you read the details of their decisions, this is one of the more useful sites for determining the suitability of a movie. Tip for searching: This site has a persnickety search engine. You'll often do better searching with just one word of a movie title.

Kids in Mind. Detailed explanations of potentially objectionable material. For full access to data base, subscription is required.

Check historical accuracy of movies:

Book: History Goes to the Movies : A Viewer's Guide to the Best (and Some of the Worst) Historical Films Ever Made by Joseph H. Roquemore. 350 movies analyzed. 150 historical events covered by movies. Read Review by Ben M. Wolk.

Find great books & movies:

Paula's Archives: Literature to Supplement History
Hundreds of books divided into time periods and sometimes regions. Fiction and

A Book in Time
Another extensive book list to support your history studies. This one has short descriptions of many of the books and links to Amazon incase you want to go ahead and buy a copy (or maybe read the reviews). Well-organized by era. General age levels provided.

Childhood of Famous Americans series. A comprehensive list at HomeschoolChristian.com. Suitable for young to middle level readers. You'll have to look for them used or in libraries.

Landmark Books. A comprehensive list at HomeschoolChristian.com. You'll have to look for them used or at libraries, but it's worth the search. Great for middle level readers.
 

List of Historical fiction recommendations for elementary to early middle school. Well-organized. Canton Public Library.

Reading Your Way Through History. Arranged by century. Catholic worldview.

Documents, Crafts, Games, More

An Incredible US History Resource! In chronological order, find historical documents, original sources of information, inaugural addresses, lyrics, treaties, biographies of presidents and first ladies, and much more. Dating from pre-colonial days to present. An excellent research tool from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Bluestocking Press. Great resource! Printed replicas of historical documents (Declaration, Constitution, old Wanted posters, much more), crafts, writing tools, historical American flags, books on economics and government, Uncle Eric books, more!

Educational Board Games. Dozens of great historical board and card games!

Dover Historical Coloring Books Educational coloring for all ages.