What We Use to teach History in Our Homeschool

Recently a question popped up on our local homeschool group's yahoo group that asked about teaching history. I get asked this question all the time. So I thought I'd post it here in case it might help anyone.

We teach history with minimal textbooks, preferring to read "real" books and good historical fiction instead. Warning, mommy brag coming up: Seems to have worked well as I am constantly amazed at how much my older girls have retained that comes out in obscure conversations.

This is a list of those resources and books we've found helpful. Keep in mind we'ved gathered these resources over 16 years homeschooling and didn't acquire them all at once.

The text books that I do like are by Edward Eggleston such as _A History of the United States and Its People_ and _A First Book in American History_ (no teacher text required, and great questions at the end of each chapter).

I also like the very affordable texts put out by Christian Liberty Press (http://ebiz.netopia.com/clpress/).

For your benefit you may want to obtain the two book series _Streams of Civilization_ (sold by CLP and others) but definitely a high school text as they are good basic and thorough books to have around for reference.

We use lots of Landmark Books (http://www.readingwell.com/landmark.html) and there are some teacher's aides available for them, but you don't really need that. Just read them.

Cornerstones of Freedom are also good books we've used. Here's a list of them http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/COF.htm.

Veritas Press has some neat resources such as these 5 homeschool kits (activity book, flashcards and tapes/cds now), where we've been able to suit the needs of all our different learning styles (visual, auditory and kinesthetic). http://www.design-your-homeschool.com/Home-School-Curriculum-Veritas-Press.html The Old Schoolhouse magazine has a review of them here http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Homeschool_Reviews/reviews.php?rid=936. They are expensive, so if you know your child's learning style you may want to focus on that portion of the kit as they are sold separately.

Genevieve Foster has some great read alouds. Her books are listed here http://www.bfbooks.com/s.nl/it.A/id.431/.f?sc=2&category=4. Beautiful Feet has some interesting kits for historical study.

Then there's Charles Coffin, his books are great read-alouds, too. Little Bear Wheeler carries some of them here http://mantleministries.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MM&Category_Code=CC

Diana Waring is an exciting speaker and she'll be at the conference this year! Yea! http://www.dianawaring.com/ She has a unit study approach, but just listening to her tapes/cds will encourage you and equip you to make history learning fun and exciting even if you don't do unit studies.

Our most used resource is Christine Miller's _All Through the Ages_. When she first put this resource out it was found by rubber band and hole punched for you to put into a notebook. Updated and now bound, this dog-earred thing has accompanied us to the library countless times and also to many a used book sale. You can find it here http://www.nothingnewpress.com/index.shtml

FYI: Christine Miller was the original publisher/owner/writer of Homeschooling Today before she sold it to the McDonalds. It is a very different magazine today. When Christine was publishing it, it was my favorite homeschooling magazine.

All Through the Ages is a resource that has compiled booklists from 26 sources such as Answers in Genesis, Beautiful Feet, and Sonlight. The lists are separated chronologically (as well as by subject) according to historical date and then further separated into appropriate levels of age/grade level and even further separated into overview of the era, specific events of the era, biographies, historical fiction, literature and culture. This updated version has timelines, and some historical backgrounds and information. If you could only buy one resource to do history, this would be my suggestion since it contains so much useful information.

Lastly, these games have been fun for learning history: Bethump'd With History (http://eclectichomeschool.org/store/store_review.asp?revid=621), The All American Trivia Board Game (http://www.outsetmedia.com/uswebpages/usgamespages/usamericantrivia.htm) and there is a junior level at the same site, Oval Office, the Race to be President (http://www.educationallearninggames.com/oval-office-board-game.asp -- looks like they discontinued making it but I think it's available in a computer version now).

Enjoy learning right along with your children.