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secularhistory

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

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

September 15, 2015 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have the newest lapbook, which is the American history lapbook, learning about The Old West through the life of Wyatt Earp finished.

Free American History Lapbook. History through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusWe finished out lapbook and unit study and really soaked up life during the time period Wyatt Earp lived, which was the late 1800s to early 1900s.

Life in the 1800s and 1900s through the Life of Wyatt Earp

Too, I have the rest of the minibooks to share with you.

After doing the notebooking pages, it was time we focused some on the art of that time period. Frederic Remington was an American painter and sculptor who specialized in depictions of the Old American West, especially during the time period Wyatt Earp lived.

American History Lapbook – Keeping It Fun

So we read about him and studied a few pieces of his art. I have a few of his paintings below on the art cards to add some fun and appreciation for art period of that time. American History Period Art Late 1800 Early 1900s 1 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus -1 There is just enough room on each card to write down the title of the painting and the date.

There are enough of his paintings and work free online that it’s worth taking some time to look through them to understand the changing time of American through his art.

And then also because Tiny wrote about life during the 1800s and 1900s in the notebooking pages and wanted to include those on this lapbook as minibooks, I created some covers to go on the outside of the notebooking pages after they have been folded to add to the lapbook.

Be sure to look at this post at how to turn a worksheet into a fun minibook.American History Period Art Late 1800 Early 1900s 2 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

American History Period Art Late 1800 Early 1900s and Covers @ Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

By the way, Tiny glued all the minibooks on there  and forgot to include the minibook he did on Tomstone, but you can include that one if you want to.

Here are the other posts for Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Unit Study.

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and The Cowboys Minibooks
Hands-on Activity: Making Soap and Desert Minibook
Life in the 1800s and Life in the 1900s Notebooking Pages
Hands-on Activity: Board Game – Learning American History
Art Cards Minibooks
Hands-on Activities: Make Butter and Hardtack
Gunfight at the OK Corral minibook

Hope you savored this unit study as much as we did.

Hugs and love ya,

 

6 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, History Based, Lapbooks Tagged With: american history, hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, historyspine, homeschoolhistory, lapbook, secularhistory

Free Printable History Board Game – American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp

September 7, 2015 | 13 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Instead of writing about so many events in American history, which can be boring if you are not focusing on some action packed event, I created a free history board game when learning about events through the life of Wyatt Earp.

Free Printable History Board Game

Of course, when I can’t find exactly what I want, I make it for you and me.

Learning American History Game through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusLike I mentioned before in another post, Wyatt Earp has been the perfect American history character to focus on when I needed quite a few events to introduce to Tiny or at least make him aware of them.

Hands-on History

From The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper to The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe to music, from the American Civil War to the First World War, from art to the idea of Manifest Destiny, Earp’s life spanned so many key events in American History. We have literally been overwhelmed with so many rabbit trails we wanted to take. So just to be sure Tiny has a good introduction to a lot of them, I created the board game along with playing cards. So as your child plays the game, they are introduced to some events on the board game and others on the playing cards. Game Cards - Pieces - American History through the life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus If your child lands on the star, then take one of the playing cards, follow the instructions and return it to the deck. If he lands on a yellow space, just follow the instructions. This is a fun way to introduce a wide range of things that Wyatt Earp would have probably learned about during his lifetime. Playing American History Board Game @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus Though he has already graduated, Mr. Awesome is still sweet enough to play with Tiny.

Just don’t do like us. Tiny got so excited that they printed the game off on regular paper instead of card stock paper.

Too, like my French Revolution free printable history board game, I made the game really big, BUT you can print it out on regular size paper or print it poster size (4 separate pages under your print settings). We printed it on 4 pages this time.

Download the printable board game here.

Download the playing cards here.

Here are some of the resources we used too in this unit study.

Here are the other posts for Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Unit Study.

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and The Cowboys Minibooks
Hands-on Activity: Making Soap and Desert Minibook
Life in the 1800s and Life in the 1900s Notebooking Pages
Hands-on Activity: Board Game – Learning American History
Art Cards Minibooks
Hands-on Activities: Make Butter and Hardtack
Gunfight at the OK Corral minibook

Hugs and love ya,

13 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, Hands-On Activities, History Based, History Resources Tagged With: early American history, hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, historyspine, secularhistory

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks – American History

September 6, 2015 | 5 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and The Cowboys free minibook to put on the lapbook that we are doing for the American history unit study through the life of Wyatt Earp.

American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Free Lapbook

Since we are learning about the events surrounding the life of Wyatt Earp and Tiny wrote about the events at the O.K. Corral in another minibook, we chose to do a minibook to write about Wyatt Earp specifically.

Too, we added Doc Holliday because of their friendship and then also the gunfight was the result of cattle rustling by The Cowboys.

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and The Cowboys free minibooks for an American History Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusThere is enough free information on the internet and the books that we have that this is an easy independent research project for Tiny.

So your child can write a few facts about the life of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and then ask your child,”What was Wyatt Earp’s beef with The Cowboys?” (pun intended, corny I know but Tiny liked it)

I am just about ready to start showing you too where we put the minibooks, but have a few more minibooks coming as we finish this unit study.

The minibooks today are for the right or left flap of your lapbook. Research, cut out, fold in half and glue to the right or left flap.

Download here Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and The Cowboys Minibooks @ Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Here are some of the resources we are using:

Here are the other posts for Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Unit Study.

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and The Cowboys Minibooks
Hands-on Activity: Making Soap and Desert Minibook
Life in the 1800s and Life in the 1900s Notebooking Pages
Hands-on Activity: Board Game – Learning American History
Art Cards Minibooks
Hands-on Activities: Make Butter and Hardtack
Gunfight at the OK Corral minibook

Hugs and love ya,

5 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, History Based, Lapbook Tagged With: early American history, hands on history, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, history resources, homeschoolhistory, lapbook, secularhistory

American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp – Free Notebooking Pages

August 15, 2015 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I thought I could keep doing our American History Unit Study through the Life of Wyatt Earp that we started more than a month ago. I planned on it, but it didn’t happen.

American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp

What was I thinking?

I had my first son move back to the states, a graduation party for Mr. Awesome 2015 and a trip back to the states. And I still thought I was going to keep on homeschooling Tiny? Insane!

I tout all the time about not being super mom and to slow down for life changing moments in homeschooling, but I still tried to go on as normal. What is normal anyway?

I’m back to reality and am ready to kick off our school year soon.

Because our unit study is a focus on key events from modern American history, I prepared two notebooking pages that Tiny will be using this next week to go along with the minibooks he has already done.

American History Notebooking pages - Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusThough we had read about the life of Wyatt Earp in our history magazine, I guess it really wasn’t until we honed in on the year he was born, which was 1829 and when he died, which was 1929 that I realized what amazing events he must have witnessed.

The frontier was still wild and untamed while he was a boy.

Conflicts between the US Army and Native Americans were going on until the end of the 1800s.

He was a teenager when the American Civil War started and probably knew first hand the tragedy of all the lives lost.

Notebooking Pages - American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus 1

Then the beginning of the 1900s ushered in the opening of the Panama Canal and the US going to war again, but now, it was a much more global war –  World War I.

Wonder what he thought as the US forged ahead into the modern world?

Notebooking Pages - American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus 2

Tiny will be doing some research on his own since the events I have on the notebooking pages are significant key events and there is plenty of information both in our encyclopedia and online for him to read.

I am not looking for him to write a research paper with the pages, but I am looking for him to imagine, wonder and step back into time to see events possibly through the eyes of Wyatt Earp.

Both notebooking pages have 4 key historical events on them.

Have your child research the event, write in the date and then add a few facts about that key event.

On the right margin of each page is a box where they can write about life during the 1800s and life during the 1900s, which will help them to focus about something that draws them in about this time in history.

I am finding this unit study to be quite helpful to help Tiny learn about sweeping events in modern American history and still learn about a person in history that captures his attention. Win-win.

Download Free Notebooking Pages Here.

Here are the other posts for Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Unit Study.

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and The Cowboys Minibooks
Hands-on Activity: Making Soap and Desert Minibook
Life in the 1800s and Life in the 1900s Notebooking Pages
Hands-on Activity: Board Game – Learning American History
Art Cards Minibooks
Hands-on Activities: Make Butter and Hardtack
Gunfight at the OK Corral minibook

Hugs and love ya,

4 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, Geography, Geography Based, History Based Tagged With: american history, hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, historyspine, homeschoolhistory, secularhistory

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