Teaching U.S. History to kids can seem hard at first. A lot of questions might come up! What are they ready for? Home in depth do we go with this? How do we make it fun? My kids are now 10, 8, and 6. With each of them I love to teach history through stories! I also supplement with videos and activities. We do a lot of gameschooling and play-based learning! So, I am excited to try out some of the history board games out there, now that my oldest is just about ready for them! With U.S. History, I might teach my 6 year old what the president does, where the White House is, and why we celebrate Independence Day. Then, I might teach my 8 year old a little bit more and talk about some other people and important events. My oldest however, I’ve been watching and waiting, monitoring emotional maturity. I feel like he’s ready to dive a little deeper. Below are some of the great resources that my 10 year old has begun diving into!
Keep in mind, I read or watch everything before I share it with my kids. It’s important to me that I know what they are being exposed to, what they are learning, and am able to try to anticipate what kinds of questions they might have. I also want to have some discussion points planned for them as well.
Teaching Through Stories!
Teaching through stories is an age old method for teaching, especially for history! Children learn best through play. Whatever you do, however you teach, make it fun! Make it engaging and they will learn so much! We found a bunch of books that we liked, some of those are the Who Was and What Was books. These are historically accurate books told in a story format. Check some of them out below:
What is The Declaration of Independence?
When researching how to teach U.S. History for kids I also stumbled onto some great books at our local library! I think my oldest kiddo’s favorite was this one, “American Revolution: A Continental History, 1750-1804.” For the past few years our primary curriculum has been The Good and The Beautiful. They have a really great U.S. History Curriculum! It’s taught in a gentle and wholesome way, with honesty and grace. It’s fun, engaging, and led to our rabbit trail that we are currently on with the American Revolution for my 10 year old. We are particularly enjoying their book, “Mystery on Constitution Island.” It’s follows the Bailey family on a treasure hunt left behind by their great-grandfather. On this exciting journey they face many challenges and have to solve them as a family. Along the way they learn about some of the most important people and events in early U.S. History.
Videos for Teaching U.S. History for Kids
When searching for resources to make teaching U.S. History to my oldest fun and something that he could have some context for, I came across this YouTube List! Check it out! My hope is that some or all of these will be helpful to you! I also loved that when I stumbled onto this list, it included resources we already use! Some of those from this list included Homeschool Pop, Liberty Kids, and Free School! I have no connection to whoever put this together, I am grateful for it though!
Teaching U.S. History Through Games!
We try to incorporate play-based learning and gameschooling as much as possible! Not everything is a game around here, but a lot of what we do is! Here are some games that have been recommended by other homeschool mamas. For now, we do trivia games that I create, or we put out a bunch of library books and play a game I call, Go and Find. We spread out all of the books on the floor and the kids get to explore, follow rabbit trails and then report back with at least one thing they have learned, felt excited about, or found interesting! We look forward to trying the games below out soon!
U.S.A. Constitution Activity Book
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