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americancivilwar

15 EASY History Ideas for Homeschooled Kids Who Don’t Like School

May 4, 2020 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

As a history lover I find dates meaningless; I totally sympathize with home educators and kids alike who hate anything school-ish, but I especially feel your pain when learning history. With these 15 history ideas for homeschooled kids who don’t like school, I know you’ll find one or two fun things you can use.

The first tool I use to bring history to life are (1) lapbooks.

I’m not the craft lover. However, I found a way to use lapbooks for my kids which benefited them and brought history to life.

15 EASY History Ideas for Homeschooled Kids Who Don’t Like School

Using lapbooks as a way to feed a kid’s passions and adding enrichment has been one of the best ways I’ve taught my kids.

I came close to giving up lapbooks because I over worked it. We almost went from lapbook lovers to lapbook haters. Read how I fought back and made lapbooks suit our purpose. My tips are here at Beware of the 3 C’s of Lapbooking. Don’t make my mistakes for beginner lapbookers.

Also, I have more than 30 history lapbooks here on my site.

Click on UNIT STUDIES on my site for the drop down menu where I divided the lapbooks by time period.

Another way to teach your kids is to do what kids naturally like which is to read (2) stories or to be read to.

15 History Ideas for Homeschooled Kids

You can present history stories in at least two ways.

First, you can use laid out history curriculum like Story of the World which has a reader and hands-on activities to go along with each period of history.

We loved this series.

Second, use a living book or story book.

Look at these series of books.

  • The who was/what was books. There are over a 150 books or topics to choose from.

  • Also, the American Girl Historical Characters series is historical fiction. The series is a fun way to make history meaningful.
  • Another series kids love is the Horrible History books which has British humor. The books are full of jokes about history.

Your kids will love learning about the smelly parts to history. Horrible History also has a YouTube channel which I listed below.

  • You Wouldn’t Want to Be is another fun series we are trying too.

Homeschool History Field Trips

Additionally, history just doesn’t come from stories, but it’s learned through (3) field trips.

If your kid is turned off to books because he learned from boring books, then take field trips in person and take virtual field trips.

Taking a trip through a cemetery brings enough mystery into learning history for the day.

Walking through the house of a pioneer family or visiting a one-room schoolhouse gives your child a picture of what life was back in the day. A tiny spark of love for the past can be ignited from a fun field trip.

Look at my post 22 Awesome Homeschool History Field Trips for ideas of places to visit and look below at a few ideas for virtual field trips:

  • Buckingham Palace
  • Mount Vernon
  • Ellis Island
  • The Great Wall of China
  • The White House

Too, a (4) geography twist makes a wonderful slant on history.

We used the Ancient Empires to learn about continents and not only did we learn about countries we found interesting, but we learned their history while having fun with a group of other homeschooling families.

 In our co-op each family chose a country, created a pizza box display, came in costumed dress for the country they represented, and made a delicious recipe to share with others.

Look here at my post Amazing Hands-on History Activities for 14 Ancient Empires (free notebook cover too) to see how we used it.

Make your co-op as big or as small as you want. However, some kids do quite well learning with others about subjects which they consider boring.

Homeschool History Curriculum

Another study of history and science with a geography angle using living books is one by Beautiful Feet. Your kids will love the science slant.

There are no shortages of FANTASTIC ways to cover history through geography by focusing on a country.

Case of Adventure is another one we loved.

Destination Scotland - CASE OF ADVENTURE

What I like about Case of Adventure is being able to focus deep on just one country through a story and lapbooking and notebooking type of activities.

Case of Adventure - Country-Themed Kids Activity Books

Another interactive way to learn history is to (5) look real close at your own circle of family and friends.

Use what you already have at your disposal. Most people, even acquaintances, love to help educate kids.

Interview people who are from other countries or who lived through certain periods of history. It can be your parents, grandparents, or extended family member or even a friend who is well-traveled.

My kids interviewed my mom who grew up picking cotton and farming; they interviewed a close family friend of ours from Africa. The friend of ours from Africa cooked my kids soup from her country and showed them handmade objects in her house from her native country.

Speaking of connections, another friend of ours was an international flight attendant. I got creative again. There is no harm in asking.

We ask her to take pictures of each country she visited and pick up a few mementos. She was happy to oblige and told us it gave her something to do on the layover. We gave her a few dollars to spend.

She couldn’t bring back a lot from different countries since her suitcases were small, but candy and key chains make great mementos to study about from other countries.

We still have our kimonos from Japan. The items from Japan were some of the ones my kids really loved. Mementos gave my kids something to hold and look at which cemented cultural awareness and love of people and history.

Homeschool History Unit Studies

Did I mention the pictures she took of the local people, food, and costumes made for a fantastic study? We couldn’t wait for her to get back from each flight.

  • Japanese fan
  • Chopsticks
  • Japanese kimono
  • Cool keychains

Another slant I took with my kids which they really loved was to look at a period of history through a (6) real person or (7) event/place which piqued my boys’ interest.

Feed and fan a history love for your kids by basing your teaching on your kids interests.

An example of how I did this was our Wyatt Earp unit study for a history character and the FBI for an agency or interesting place to learn about.

Choosing a character or event/place has a helpful side benefit. Your topics and time period are considerably narrowed. Your child and you have a starting point for learning history.

Look at Free American History Lapbook – The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp.

Narrowing your focus only to the time period of your history character and learning where he lived and traveled, what was life like during his lifetime, and significant events in his life ties history to a real person. It’s a life study.

This same outline of how to teach history focusing on a person applies to a place. The FBI unit study topic was narrowed down to when it came to existence and events during modern times.

Homeschool History Media and YouTube

In addition, (8) media and/or YouTube channels can revive the love for learning history.

Look at a few of these.

  • The Horrible History YouTube channel.
  • The Simple History channel is another fun site.
  • If you have Prime Video then Drive Thru History is another option for an older learner.
  • Timeline – World History Documentaries is another channel for older learners. From the site: “We’ll be exploring the mysteries of ancient Egypt, shedding light on the dark ages of medieval Europe and examining the First and Second World Wars.”
  • Liberty Kids on YouTube is another big hit for fun history.
  • The Armchair Historian another great twist on history. From the site: “The Armchair Historian is a history channel specializing in animated military history.” Pretty cool.
  • Crash Course. Click on the playlists.
  • American the Story of US is also on Prime Video or DVD and excellent for older learners.

Studying (9) art history is another unique way to study history.

If you have an art lover or even a kid who loves to draw, they’ll tolerate history with a focus on culture.

Art is the way persons or cultures of the past express emotions about day to day life whether it’s appeasing their gods or crafting items for everyday use. It’s a great angle to teaching history.

Look at Art History Kids.

Homeschool History Tips

Look at these other unusual approaches to teaching history. (10, 11,12,13,14)

  • Study women in history.
  • Cooking time period recipes. Look at these historic recipes.
  • Study fashion through the ages of history. Look at my post Bring History To Life With Historical Costumes: Fun, Fashion and Unforgettable.
  • Learn history though a movie like Star Wars to learn about battle tactics and apply to modern day.
  • Learn fictional history from a novel like Lord of the Rings. Learn about Middle Earth and bring history alive through fiction. The Lord of the Rings has it own geography, history, languages, and legends.

Finally, the last fun way to make history fun for the kid who is most challenging to teach is to use (15) history games. You can learn so much from board games and they don’t have to cost a lot.

Look at these 13 Free and Fun BEST Printable History Board Game. Also, check out the ones at Homeschool in the Woods.

Recap 15 History Activities

Look at these ideas in a nutshell for you:

  • Lapbooks
  • Stories
  • Fieldtrips
  • Add a geography twist
  • Look to family and friends
  • Look at history through a historical person
  • Learn history through an event
  • Watch videos/use media
  • Learn history through art
  • Study women in history
  • Learn history through cooking
  • Learn history through fashion
  • Lean history through a movie
  • Learn history through a novel
  • Learn history through a game
15 EASY History Ideas for Homeschooled Kids Who Don’t Like School

You’ll love these other resources I have:

  • How to Create a Creditworthy American History Course (& resources)
  • 7 Unique Ways to Supplement U.S. History for High School
  • 4 Shortcuts to Teach Hands-on American History in Half the Time
  • How to Teach History in 14 Lessons (From Daunting to Doable)
  • 10 Early American History Events that Happened in Fall for Homeschool Middle or High School
  • Start the Homeschool Year Off Right: 5 History Ideas for the First Week
  • Medieval Homeschool History – 4 Surefire Ways to Beat a Boring Study

What do you think? These 15 unusual homeschool history ideas should at least get a nod or two yay from even the most stubborn learner.

Hugs and love ya,

2 CommentsFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, Teach Homeschool History Tagged With: american history, americancivilwar, early American history, hands on history, history, history resources, historycostumes, historyspine, homeschool, homeschoolhistory, medieval homeschool history, middle ages history, modern history, movies, secularhistory

The Unrivaled Guide to Civil War Activities for Kids

April 20, 2015 | 15 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Civil War Activities for Kids

This unrivaled guide to civil war activities for kids begins with a personal story of my family.

It is a romantic and sad story told down through a few generations to us the grandchildren.

During the American Civil War, as my great grandfather fought for the Confederacy he left his close and dear dying friend to make a daring trip back home to my great grandmother to let her know that her husband had died in war.

Not only did he comfort my great grandmother in the years to follow, but he married her and had more children.

If he had not married her, my grandmother would not have been born.  You can see a picture of my great grandfather in our huge unit study and free lapbook that we did.

Not only are we still talking a century and half later about the American Civil war, but we are intrigued by it.

So today I am sharing the unrivaled guide to Civil War activities for kids because hands-on history is the best way to make it personal to our children.

The Unrivaled Guide to American Civil War Activities for Kids! CLICK HERE!

Civil War Food, Recipes, and Ideas

Make fresh butter and hardtack.
Authentic Civil War Gingerbread Recipe
Civil War Cornbread

Mason-Dixon Civil War Recipes. Recipes from both sides of the war.
What Did the Civil War Soldiers Eat?
Another Easy Hard Tack Recipe.
Cooking During the Civil War. Food substitution, food storage and recipes.
Civil War Recipes. Cabbage Stew, Sausage and Apples and Confederate Shortbread and more.

American Civil War Story Recipes.
Pumpkin Bread, Peas Pudding, Biscuits and more.
Lincoln’s Corn Cakes a/k/a Hoe Cakes

Civil War Coloring Pages

Abraham Lincoln
A Soldier’s Life in the Civil War
Over 20 coloring pages here: Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, and etc. Be sure to click BACK and Go to Next Page to get all of them.
Super Coloring: Various coloring pages.
Best Coloring Pages for Kids. More variety.

Abraham Lincoln Theme and Civil War

Abraham Lincoln Mask
Paper printable Abraham Lincoln
President’s log cabin with pretzels and graham crackers
Make a Lincoln timeline
Another Lincoln log cabin craft

Free Printable Lincoln timeline
And another printable cut and paste Lincoln Timeline
Abraham Lincoln Unit Study
Make a Lincoln Mobile
Make a Lincoln Top Hat

Make an Honest Abe Mask
Write a letter to President Lincoln (inspired by an actual letter by an 8 year old)
Battle at Fort Sumter
First Battle of Bull Run
HL Hunley (Civil War era sub)

Comparing Texts with Early writers
Civil War and Slavery Unit Study
Learn About the Civil War

Underground Railroad and Civil War

Printable underground railroad quilt code game
Free Harriet Tubman Timeline
DIY Constellation Tubes – Follow the Drinking Gourd
YouTube Music & Son – Follow the Drinking Gourd

Underground Railroad Primary Resources
Constellation Sewing Cards
Make Underground Railroad Lanterns
Create an Underground Railroad Paper Quilt

Prepare your bag for the journey

Toys and Games During the American Civil War

Make corn husk doll
Make a Thaumatrope, also called “Wonder Turners”.
Civil War Handkerchief Dolls
Let’s Get Hooping – 4 Historical Games
How to Make an Old Fashion Slingshot

Make Stilts
Make a Dancing Button
Make Wooden Dice
Look here at Homestead Toys for many more games that were played during the Civil War period. Many of these things can easily be made at home.

American Civil War Crafts

Whittling
How To Make An Easy Ink pot & Quill Pen with Berry Ink
Make a time period drum
Canteen Paper Plate

Civil War Diorama
Make a Jigsaw Puzzle of the States
Kids Activities at Antietam Battlefield

Make a Wanted Poster about John Wilkes Booth
Make Candles
Do Morse Code with a Flashlight

Civil War Lapbooks, Minibooks and Notebooking

Not everything is free on all the pages, but I am listing these lapbooks here because they help to stir the creative juice for things you may want to put in your lapbook or printables to make.

Civil War Lapbook – Homeschool Share
Civil War Lapbook and Notebooking Pages – Jimmie’s Collage
Civil War Lapbook – Hebrews 1:10
Civil War Lapbook – Teacher Mom
Civil War Lapbook Binder – Home is Cool 101

American Civil War Slavery – from Practical Pages. Notebooking Page with two minibooks

Slavery in America Notebooking Page
The Underground Railroad Notebooking Page

Free Reading and Discussion Guides About the War Between the States

Institute of American History – Upper grades. Civil War 150 Readers. Download reading and discussion guides that include: a selection of primary documents drawn from the four-volume series The Civil War: Told by Those Who Lived It, published by The Library of America, with introductions by eminent scholars and discussion questions.
Mary Pope Osborne’s – Magic Tree House No. 21 – Civil War on Sunday and No. 47. Abe Lincoln at Last. Click on book to get free lesson plans and guides.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Reading Guide

Civil War Read Primary Resources and Letters of the Time

Civil War Love Letters
Read the Gettysburg Address
Letter from Civil War Soldier –
Songs of the Civil War – 18 page pdf download
More Civil War Music

Economic Affect of Civil War

5 Economic Lessons Learned from American History

Civil War Time Period Clothing and Fashion

Make a Hoop Petticoat with Pattern
Make Lady’s Shoes with Pattern
How to Turn a Modern Straw Hat into a Daytime Period Hat
Make Cockades
Make a Simple Chemise

Do a quick and simple 1860s Hairstyle
Make a Woman’s Fan
Make a Zouave Fez

Free Printables Civil War

Civil War Crossword Puzzle
More Civil War Crossword Puzzles
Mr. Nussbaum Civil War Activities and Printables.
12 Important People of the Civil War Printable Cards

Civil War Interactive – Media, Audio, Video

Civil War Soldier
The Underground Railroad – Escape from Slavery (With Free Teacher’s Guide, Activities and Resources)
Mission U.S. – Treasure trove. It’s 1848 and Lucy King is enslaved in Kentucky. Will she escape? Look at the Educator’s Section for Overview, Background, Activities and Resources for several free helpful downloads.
The Dred Scot Decision. Nice simple and short video explaining the Dred Scot decision to help explain one of the causes of the Civil War.

B & O Railroad Museum –  The War Came by Train. The Civil War was the first major conflict where railroads played a prominent role, and the B&O was the major line that straddled a divided country.
American Civil War Video for Social Studies
Fun With History – Many videos nicely done on a variety of subjects from the Clara Barton story, Naval Activity During the Civil War, Matthew Brady Civil War Photographer to Civil War Songs.
Movies on Netflix – Ken Burns: The Civil War, Death and the Civil War, Gettysburg, Mystery Files: Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, Secret Weapon of the Confederacy, CSA: Confederate States of America and Ken Burns: The Address

American Civil War Educator Guides and Lesson Plans

The Union Dissolved 88 page .pdf Teacher’s Guide – Nice!
Civil War 150 Educator’s Guide 17 page .pdf
Transcript Guide Death and the Civil War 41 page .pdf . Click on Menu for the drop down.
Ready to Go Lesson Plans National Museum of Civil War Medicine. Ambulances, Civil War Hospital, Triage and Amputation Lesson Plans.

Teacher’s Guide Civil War Medicine 8 page .pdf
Teacher’s Guide Lincoln the Constitution and the Civil War. 26 page .pdf Nice!
Civil War Curriculum for Elementary, Middle School and High School
Dantes Prep The Civil War & Reconstruction – High School Advanced
The Life of a Civil War Soldier Teacher’s Prep Guide – 24 page .pdf

To Kill and Heal Weapons and Medicine of the Civil War Teacher’s Guide. 48 page .pdf. Super helpful.

I hope you find something in this round up that will spark a love of this time period in your children.

How about you?

Do you have a personal family connection to the American Civil War or like my grandmother use to call it, The War Between the States?

The Unrivaled Guide to Civil War Activities for Kids @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Did you check out my other Ultimate Guides?

  • The Ultimate Guide to Brave Explorers (Great and Small)
  • Ultimate Guide to Learning Activities in a Jar or Bottle
  • Lewis and Clark Expedition – The Ultimate Guide 
  • The Ultimate Guide to Poetry for Multiple Ages (For the Intimidated)
  • The Ultimate Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the Amazon Rain Forest
  • The Ultimate Guide for New Homeschoolers

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15 CommentsFiled Under: Hands-On Activities Tagged With: americancivilwar, hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, history

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