I am in the process of preparing for our daughter’s upcoming academic year. For us, that begins in April – a totally arbitrary date that corresponds to when we relocated to Florida. We are planning on switching to American history from world history this year.
We have covered world history in previous years using Susan Wise Bauer’s The Story of the World series and activity books. I think these are excellent resources for world history for very young children when supplemented with top-notch children’s literature. While she does address American history in the series, it absolutely is not a quality substitute for studying American history (and your state history!) in depth.
I have had reservations about recommending SWB for other reasons every time I mention what we use to homeschooling friends. Frankly, she went so deep into social media mob identity politics on her pages that I couldn’t stand following her anymore. You don’t find much of that in SOTW – perhaps because identity politics is such a new fad, and she hadn’t discovered it yet – but I would hesitate to buy a revised copy of Well-Trained Mind (her homeschooling companion book) or any new version of SOTW, if they ever get around to issuing new editions. Just my two cents.
After reading about what a disinformation campaign the New York Times 1619 Project – which is being directed at K-12 education programs – has become, I am making an extra effort to research the backgrounds and potential agendas of any author I include in our homeschooling curriculum. Fortunately, most revisionist history children’s authors love to write about their political agendas on Twitter. (What a time to be alive.) It’s not that I only want to supply our daughter with resources I “agree” with – to me, contrarian perspectives are an opportunity to discuss why we believe what we believe. But I do want content that is accurate and based on primary sources.
A History of US (Oxford University Press)
Oxford University Press has published a children’s series for American history by Joy Hakim called A History of US that is excellent. It’s a relatively pricey set, as far as children’s books go, but it is quite exhaustive and written in language that children can easily process. I was surprised to learn that Oxford is getting into children’s books, but I’ll take it.
I think to use this as a bona fide history spine, you’d need to read small chunks and devote two academic years to it. Maybe do American history through Reconstruction one year and then work until present-day in the next year. Kind like a college course, but drawn out for children.
Folk Songs
One of my goals for the new year is to work more songs into our homeschooling routine (folks songs, hymns, and so on). I have been searching and searching for collections of American folks songs from the colonial period to the early 20th century with lyrics. You’d be amazed at how difficult that is. If you do searches for books and audio of folk songs, most of the time you are going to get hippies singing about smoking weed instead of When Johnny Comes Marching Home.
My mother sent us Wee Sing America, which has a lot of great songs and the lyrics so children can follow along. This is great for very young children. I’m luckily at the point where our daughter is young enough to enjoy a silly chorus of children but intellectually advanced enough to appreciate a serious consideration of historical events. The authors have some other collections of folk music and Bible songs, which we will probably buy too.
If anyone knows of some good, traditional folk music collections, please send them my way. Wee Sing doesn’t have some songs I wanted to include, like Oh Shenandoah, but I can probably find nice versions on YouTube.
One series of children’s books I have found that I love are the “If You Lived…” series. These books focus on the details of everyday life during certain periods and among certain groups of people:
If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
If You Lived in Colonial Times
If You Lived in Williamsburg in Colonial Days
If You Grew Up With George Washington
If You Lived at the Time of the American Revolution
If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution
If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon
If You Were a Pioneer on the Prairie
If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War
If You Lived When There Was Slavery in America
If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad
If You Lived With the Iroquois
If You Lived With the Cherokee
If You Lived With the Indians of the Northeast Coast
If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln
If You Lived When Women Won Their Rights
If Your Name Was Changed on Ellis Island
If You Lived at the Time of MLK
If You Lived at the Time of the Great San Francisco Earthquake
Some books with projects for kids in them:
Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself
Colonial Kids and Activity Guide to Life in the New World
History Pockets – Explorers of North America
History Pockets – Colonial America
History Pockets – The American Revolution
History Pockets – The Civil War
Great history picture books:
A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution
Thomas Jefferson: A Picture Book Biography
Duel! Burr and Hamilton’s Deadly War of Words
A Pioneer Sampler: The Daily Life of a Pioneer Family in 1840
Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
Samuel Morse and the Telegraph
Wanted Dead or Alive: The True Story of Harriet Tubman
Walking the Road to Freedom: A Story about Sojourner Truth
A Man for All Seasons: The Life of George Washington Carver
More than Anything Else (About Booker T. Washington)
Duel of the Ironclads: The Monitor vs Virginia
Drummer Boy: Marching to the Civil War
Coming to America: The Story of Immigration
Children of the Great Depression
Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp
Six Days in October: The Stock Market Crash of 1929: A Wall Street Journal Book for Children
World War I for Kids: A History with 21 Activities
World War II for Kids: A History with 21 Activities
Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11
Ken Burns Documentaries and Other Movies
I have also been thinking about using Ken Burns’ documentaries in our lessons, though I am going to have to re-watch some of them with a kid’s eye first (for mature content):
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
Johnny Tremain (Disney)
A More Perfect Union: America Becomes a Nation
American Experience: The Pilgrims
American Experience: Murder of a President
Lincoln and Lee at Antietam (the single bloodiest day in American history)
The Indomitable Teddy Roosevelt
Westinghouse: The Life and Times of an American Icon
Florida History
For any Florida homeschoolers out there, the State of Florida has a ton of resources for kids:
A list of books on Florida history to check out
Days of Sunshine 
Hello,
I recently discovered your blog via Instapundit, and as someone who works in higher education (in California no less), I cannot tell you how encouraging it is to hear from parents like you who are providing their children with a quality education. You mention in the post above that you are looking for a book of songs for your child, and I highly recommend a series of books published at the beginning of the 20th century under the title(s) of “The Children’s Library: _______ Every Child Should Know”. The series is made up of individual collections including: Songs, Poems, Stories, Heroines, Heros, Myths, etc . . . My grandfather had what I believe was the complete set, and in fact it was from my parents reading to us from the book of Myths that my love of reading was born. Here is a link to one of the series (on Myths) that is currently available on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Childrens-Library-MYTHS-1912-Every-Child-Should-Know-Series-H-W-Mabie-NICE-/254202160865?nav=SEARCH
They appear to be difficult to find, but if you are able to locate them, I strongly recommend them. Another classic book I am sure your daughter will adore is Wild Animals I have Known, by Earnest Thomas Seaton. This is a collection of stories written from the animal’s point of view relating the joys and hardships of their lives. While there is a degree of sentimentality common to the children’s literature of the period, he does not shy away from relating the hard realities of life. Here is a link on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Animals-Have-Known-Drawings/dp/B000GTAYG0/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=animals+i+have+known&qid=1577983413&sr=8-4
Please let me know if you have any questions.
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Thank you so much! This is exactly what I am looking for!
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