The Best Way to Study American History in Your Homeschool
After 15 years of homeschooling, I’ve discovered the best way to study the subject of American History. In this post you’ll find a strategic tool you can use to make history memorable and interesting for your kids.
How to Teach American History in Your Homeschool
What is the biggest secret to unlock the curiosity in your children when it comes to American History? The power of story.
We are all naturally curious creatures, always looking to answer the major questions in life:
- Who?
- What?
- When?
- Where?
- Why?
- How?
As a student in public school using traditional textbooks, I found that the answers they provided revolved around the first four questions: who, what, when, and where.
That’s fine as far as it goes, but it’s lacking in the best motivators for caring about what you learn: why and how?
When you add in the why and how, suddenly you have the power of story working for you. Dry facts become living, breathing people who had motivations for the events that happened to shape our country. American History becomes an exciting story, rather than a list of events without meaning behind them.
That perspective changes everything! That’s when history goes beyond learning about important dates that are quickly forgotten after the textbooks are closed and the tests are taken.
So how do you accomplish that as you study American History?
With living books, also known as a literature-based approach to history.
As homeschoolers, we aren’t tied to traditional textbooks. We are free to use living books to learn about past events. These kind of living books evoke the senses, making history real and relatable. They’re written by people who actually lived through the events, or by those who have a great passion for telling those stories of the past.
We’re currently using History / Bible / Literature D: Intro to American History, Year 1 of 2, from Sonlight. It includes everything we need for a thorough study of American History from the Native Americans before the Pilgrims to the mid-1800s.
The read-aloud selections are rich and varied. This approach to learning with great literature allows children the opportunity to experience history through the eyes of others rather than just our own limited perspectives. It not only teaches historical facts, it builds character and empathy.
Through the power of story, we learn about the sacrifices made, the battles won and lost, and how each event led to another to culminate in our lives today.
In the huge collection of living books we received as part of Sonlight American History, there are both read-alouds that we do together as a family and readers that my girls do on their own. Many (most?) of the books are Newbery Award winners or nominees. This particular level is ideal for ages 9-12 (grades 4-7).
What homeschool family doesn’t want to receive a big box of books like this? It was like Christmas for us when it arrived!
While we love to read in our family, there were books in this set that we hadn’t read before or even heard of. I love that about Sonlight — it expands our home library and our awareness of great books while introducing us to new thoughts.
For instance, Alamo All-Stars is written as a graphic novel (comic book style), which is not something I would ordinarily pick up for my girls. However, they really enjoyed looking through the pictures and maps included, as well as the biographies in the book. It brought the events of the Alamo to life for them in a different way.
Another secret to making the learning stick is to add in hands-on projects. Sonlight American History includes a timeline along with the self-stick timeline figures from Home School in the Woods and a spiralbound book to put them in. Everything you need to complete a timeline to draw the connections between what your children are learning with the actual dates is included in this set.
Why We Chose Sonlight American History
Sonlight takes the guesswork out of a literature-based approach to American History. They include everything you need for a full 36 weeks of learning.
In addition to the history books, it also includes Bible study. I appreciate being able to make the connections between the why and how of historical events and what we believe through faith. History / Bible / Literature D: Intro to American History, Year 1 of 2 includes American Indian Prayer Guide, The Discoverer’s Bible for Early Readers, and Sing the Word: Great in Counsel and Mighty in Deed CD for Bible verse memorization.
The Sonlight Instructor’s Guide makes it easy for homeschool moms to provide a feast of learning ideas for their children. Everything is designed to easily open and go with a 4-day per week schedule.
They even offer a Love to Learn Love to Teach 1-year guarantee, which is amazing and unique if you ask me. They stand behind their curriculum and offer support by phone, as well.
Every Sonlight History / Bible / Literature program is always 15% off retail, so you’re saving money on these great books, too!
If you want to unlock the power of story and bring history to life in your homeschool with a literature-based approach, I highly recommend History / Bible / Literature D: Intro to American History, Year 1 of 2 from Sonlight.
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