Instead of just memorizing lists of names and dates for the sake of a test, students learning history with a homeschool curriculum instead experience it as a living, breathing story that connects to their own lives. By connecting art, literature, and science to a historical timeline, parents help their children learn about how the past influences the present as they develop critical thinking skills.
Below, you’ll learn about homeschool history curricula, including what they include, types of curricula, topics covered, and more.
What Is a Homeschool History Curriculum?
Instead of the traditional, often disconnected “social studies” covered in traditional schools, a homeschool history curriculum can provide a structured set of resources for studying history in depth. Homeschool families have the freedom to dive deep into areas of history that interest them most and immerse themselves in what they’re studying through field trips and hands-on activities.
Its main objectives include helping kids:
- Understand events over long periods of time and identify cause and effect.
- Gain empathy for people from different time periods and cultures.
- Develop literacy and critical thinking skills by analyzing primary sources and examining bias.
- Prepare to become responsible citizens who understand how the past shapes the present.
What history instruction can include
The foundation of a homeschool history curriculum involves chronology and context. By learning history chronologically, students are able to understand how one event affects another (Bauer and Wise 445). Instead of using textbooks written by publishers, many parents use a “spine,” which is a central narrative text that reads like a novel, and they supplement this with biographies, historical fiction, and primary sources, like the actual maps, diaries, and letters of real people.
To make history come alive, homeschool parents often use varied audio and visual materials. Documentary films, history podcasts, and educational YouTube videos can help kids better understand what they’ve read. Interactive timelines that ask students to add names and events help kids understand cause and effect. These timelines can be physical, using large paper on the floor or a wall and index cards, or digital. Also, using maps is key in helping students learn the related geography.
Quality history instruction gets students actively engaged in learning. By having students retell a story from history in their own words, they learn to articulate an understanding, not just memorize facts (Mason 231). Hands-on projects like building models, role-playing historical scenes, and cooking recipes from the past all help bring history to life. As students get older, their study of history develops key habits of mind, like identifying bias, analyzing change versus continuity over time, and making connections to present-day events.
How homeschool history instruction differs from in-school instruction
The main difference is between “social studies,” which is taught in school, and “history,” which is taught as the human story and is usually the focus in homeschooling. Homeschool families have the freedom to dive deep into areas of history that interest them most and immerse themselves in what they’re studying through field trips and hands-on activities.
That distinction plays out in a few specific ways:
- Scope: Schools generally use a “survey” approach, which hits on the major highlights over time. With homeschool, parents can follow their child’s interests and do deep dives on some eras while moving quickly through others with a lesson plan personalized to their child’s understanding and interests.
- Resources: In school, a textbook usually guides the learning. At home, parents often use a “spine,” which is a book that tells history as a long story, and they supplement it with historical fiction and biographies.
- Integration: A traditional history class is a specific period from bell to bell, but when learning at home, history is often the “anchor” for a whole day of learning. For example, when studying the Renaissance, students can also act out a Shakespearean play, study Da Vinci’s anatomy drawings, and reproduce key art from the period.
- Online instruction: Many homeschool families use live or self-paced online classes to deepen history learning, especially for topics that benefit from discussion, primary sources, or expert-led instruction. Online history and social studies classes can complement parent-led learning by offering structured lessons, small-group interaction, and exposure to perspectives or time periods parents may not feel equipped to teach on their own.
- Assessment: In a school setting, students are often assessed on memorization of names and dates, often through multiple-choice tests. In homeschooling, students demonstrate their learning through creative projects and narration, which is telling the story of a historical period in their own words (Mason 233).
Are Homeschoolers Required to Complete History Credits or Classes?
The short answer is that it depends on your state. The federal government doesn’t set homeschool guidelines, but each state has its own required subjects.
Throughout most of the country, you are required to teach history or social studies in some way, but there is usually considerable flexibility in when and how you do this. Be aware that if your child plans to pursue higher education, colleges typically look for a transcript that includes three to four credits, specifically world history, U.S. history, and government/economics.
Types of Homeschool History Curricula
The diverse curricula available differ according to the educational philosophy that guides them.
Traditional
This curriculum looks a lot like what would be used in a regular school setting. It provides a structured survey of the historical period, focusing on facts and dates. Since it relies on textbooks, workbooks, and quizzes, minimal prep is needed for parents.
Classical, sometimes called trivium
This approach uses history as the “anchor” of the whole educational program at home. The learning is sequenced in three stages:
- Grammar: In this context, “grammar” means memorizing facts.
- Dialectic: This stage focuses on logic and reasoning. A
- Rhetoric: This stage involves making persuasive arguments.
Usually, a strict four-year chronological cycle is repeated three times as the child grows older: Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern (Bauer and Wise 15-18).
Charlotte Mason (literature-based)
This approach drops textbooks in favor of what are called “living books.” These are narratives of history written by people passionate about the subject. Students read biographies and historical fiction and are asked to read aloud and “narrate,” or tell the story of a time in their own words (Mason 228-231).
Unit studies (theme-based)
A unit study takes a single historical topic and integrates all other subjects around it. For instance, the historical “anchor” for a unit study might be the Oregon Trail, which will cover the motivations of the pioneers, the travel geography, and the impact on the native peoples.
Learners could also study math by budgeting for a wagon and provisions, and they can learn science by studying the physics of a wagon wheel and axle and plants of the prairie. They might even read Little House on the Prairie or primary sources from journals of real travelers (Bauer and Wise 30-31).
Online history programs
This approach uses live or recorded classes taught by instructors outside the home. Online history programs can function as a primary curriculum or as a supplement, especially when families want access to teachers with specialized knowledge or lived experience in a particular culture or historical period. For example, a student studying ancient civilizations might take an online course focused on primary sources or global perspectives while continuing parent-led reading and projects at home.
Topics Covered in Homeschool History Curricula
From age three through eighteen, the study of history covers fascinating topics that not only help learners think critically but also give them an opportunity to apply what they learn to their own lives today.
For preschoolers
The focus for the youngest learners is on developing a sense of time. They need to understand the vocabulary of time, like in the future, long ago, before, and after. They understand what the “past” is by creating a timeline of their personal history and family heritage (National Council for the Social Studies).
For elementary school students
Children at this age often benefit from a chronological approach, which helps them understand history as a long, unfolding story.
These are usually the central topics:
- Four-year chronological cycle: Between first and fourth grade, students usually cover Ancient Times, the Middle Ages, Early Modern Times, and the Modern Age.
- World history: Instead of learning only about the U.S., students learn about global history, including cultural geography and great figures from diverse backgrounds.
- State and local history: Children usually learn about their own state's history, including its original inhabitants, its founding, and the industries it relies on.
- Civics and symbols: Students learn about basic citizenship by studying the three branches of the U.S. government, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and national holidays.
For middle school students
At this age, students switch from the “what” of history to the “why.” Middle school history emphasizes:
- Logic and critical thinking: Kids learn cause and effect by studying how one event led to another. They are also asked to view the same event from different viewpoints and to analyze primary sources.
- Chronological cycle, round two: Many parents teaching at home restart the classical four-year cycle of time periods.
- World geography and global Issues: At this grade level, history transitions to “human geography,” which calls on students to identify areas of interdependence among nations and make connections between current events and their historical roots.
For high school students
Students at this age move beyond the “why” of history into learning how to join the historical conversation themselves.
Here, they make and defend their own arguments and examine biases, possibly through the third round of the chronological cycle. They also study topics that connect history to other fields, like psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economics.
What You Should Look for in a Homeschool History Curriculum
The right homeschool history curriculum for you and your child depends on several factors. These questions will help you figure out what's best for you.
- What educational philosophy do you prefer? If you want to focus on clear, factual timelines, then you’ll be interested in classical or traditional curricula. If you prefer an emphasis on you and your child reading stories together, then a literature-based curriculum will meet your needs. If you’re most interested in hands-on learning, then unit studies will fit the bill.
- How much time do you want to put into preparation? Literature-based and unit study curricula are teacher-intensive because they require a lot of project prep and reading aloud together. However, traditional textbooks or online programs offer students the opportunity to work independently, which can be ideal for older students or busy parents.
- How do you want to organize the study of history? Some programs teach history chronologically to focus on cause and effect. Others jump around to different time periods based on interesting themes, like “the history of flight” or “life-changing inventions.”
- Through which lens do you want your child to learn about history? Every history book has a perspective. You can find homeschool history curricula written from a religious perspective or from a secular viewpoint. Being aware of the lens a curriculum uses can help you choose materials that align with your family’s values and give your child clear context for how history is being presented.
How History Class Can Fit into Your Homeschool Day
No matter how you schedule it, a wonderful thing about homeschooling is that you can focus on mastery over minutes.
There are three practical ways that homeschool parents can teach history as part of their daily routine:
- Morning in-box: This is a popular method for families with multiple children. Regardless of age, the children gather at the start of the day and read a chapter from a historical novel or biography aloud while everyone eats breakfast or works on quiet activities.
- Time blocking: Instead of doing history every day, many parents dedicate a longer block of time once or twice each week. For instance, kids might spend Tuesday and Thursday afternoons finishing a reading, then doing a map activity, then watching a documentary, and then doing a related art activity.
- Schedule looping: If you are worried about appointments cutting into the learning when history class happens at a specific time, then create a rotation of subjects for your child that you work through at your own pace. When you finish the first subject’s lesson, move to the next one regardless of what day it is.
How to Plan a Homeschool History Curriculum
Don’t let the thought of teaching all of history from antiquity to the modern age intimidate you! By following these straightforward steps, your child will be engaging with the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and innovators of the Enlightenment in no time.
Step 1: Choose the scope
Decide what time period or geographic region you want to focus on. One option is a classical approach that uses the four-year chronological cycle we’ve noted previously. Another approach is through thematic unit studies, like revolutions or indigenous peoples. A third option, especially for younger kids, is a social expansion approach. Students begin learning about “my family and me,” then move to “my community,” “my state,” and then “my country.”
Step 2: Select your spine
The “spine” is the main resource your child reads to learn about history. It provides an ongoing structure and ensures you keep the story moving. Some story-based spines, like A Child’s History of the World and The Story of the World, read like a novel, not a textbook. But textbooks are another kind of “spine” and make it easy for parents to plan the important points to cover. Also, high-quality encyclopedias can be used in the same way (Bauer and Wise 268-270).
Step 3: Choose the “living books”
Find the primary sources, historical novels, and/or biographies you want your child to read in conjunction with the “spine” based on the time period (Mason 282-284).
Step 4: Choose engaging activities
History comes alive through hands-on activities. Have your child keep a timeline, either on paper or digitally, where they add drawings, stickers, or digital tags for events and people they learn about. Also, have them color maps and draw pictures that they narrate.
Of course, field trips to museums or historical landmarks are an excellent way to engage kids in their learning (MacAulay 92, 125-127).
Step 5: Create your daily schedule
Count the number of chapters in your “spine” to determine how many chapters you will cover per week during the year.
Then, develop a consistent rhythm in the activities you choose to do when. For instance, on Day 1, your child can read from the spine and color a map. On Day 2, they can read and discuss a few chapters from a historical novel. On Day 3, they might watch a documentary or do a related craft. And on Day 4, they can present a narrative summary of the history they’ve learned about so far. All throughout the process, have your child add key names and events to their timeline.
Popular Homeschool History Curricula
There are many resources available to homeschool parents that vary in educational philosophy and organizational methods.
Outschool’s online classical curricula and classes
Outschool offers a vast array of online classes designed specifically for learning history at home. Some classes provide the entire curriculum and meet weekly over the course of a full year. Another type of class is the multi-week unit study that focuses on a specific topic.
Outschool also provides one-on-one tutoring. Parents appreciate the variety of offerings, the ability to mix and match based on students’ interests, and the professional educators who teach the classes.
Traditional textbooks and workbooks
This approach requires the least amount of preparation for parents, since the books outline the key concepts and events. However, it doesn’t include historical fiction, primary sources, or hands-on activities.
Story-based spine
This approach is built around a narrative “spine” that reads like a long story. Parents then need to supplement with their own other materials and enrichment activities.
Literature-based “living books”
This method uses high-quality historical fiction and biographies as the core learning materials. An instructor’s manual is usually provided, and parents supplement with other activities.
Classical (Trivium)
Unlike the others, this approach is less about the resources used than the timing involved. It follows a strict four-year cycle that repeats three times during a child’s K-12 education. It usually involves a mix of encyclopedias and literature.
Frequently Asked Questions: Homeschool History Curricula
Of course, if you’re new to planning a homeschool history curriculum, you’ll most likely have several questions. Fortunately, we have answers!
How can you incorporate hands-on learning in homeschool history lessons?
History is one of the easiest subject areas for incorporating meaningful hands-on activities.
Consider these possibilities:
- Historical meals: A great way to learn about culture is through food (MacAulay 92).
- Role-playing: History comes alive when students take on the roles of key figures. For instance, they can act out discussions at the First Continental Congress or put on a “mock trial” of those involved in the Boston Tea Party. Keep a bin of generic clothing items handy that can be used for historical “dress up” (164)
- Creative construction: Students learn a great deal by building maps and models (Bauer and Wise 272).
- Living timelines: Have students add physical artifacts to a historical timeline on a wall or digital ones on a computer (270).
- “Strewing:” This is the process of leaving items around the house for kids to discover themselves. For instance, place a copy of a primary source, such as a letter or newspaper article, an image of a key figure, and a replica coin from the time throughout the house, and invite kids to explore (Dodd 114).
What’s the best age to start history lessons at home?
There’s no perfect age to start teaching history at home. There’s just the “perfect approach” based on your child’s developmental stage.
Kids aged three to six need to understand the concept of time and benefit from story-based learning through social expansion. Children ages six to ten need to develop a mental map of the world and understand a timeline of key events (Bauer and Wise 268). When kids reach ages ten to twelve, they move from learning “what” happened to “why.” Then, from twelve to eighteen, they learn cause and effect and relationships between cultures (445).
Removing the Mystery from History
With so many homeschool history curricula and resources available today, your child can do so much more than memorize names and dates. You can make history come alive for them by using “living books” and primary sources, planning hands-on activities, and asking them to identify cause and effect. Not only will they develop an understanding of time, geography, and culture, but they will also develop essential thinking skills.
Sources
American Historical Association. “History, Social Studies, and Schools.” Perspectives on History, 1 Sept. 2019, https://www.historians.org/resource/criteria-for-standards-in-history-social-studies-social-sciences/.
Bauer, Susan Wise and Jessie Wise. The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. 4th ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.
College Board. “High School Classes Colleges Look For.” BigFuture, 2024, https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/plan-for-college/stand-out-in-high-school/high-school-classes-colleges-look-for.
Dodd, Sandra. Sandra Dodd’s Big Book of Unschooling. 2nd ed., Lulu.com, 2017.
Mason, Charlotte. Home Education: Training and Educating Children under Nine. 1886. Tyndale House Publishers, 1989.
MacAulay, Susan Schaeffer. For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School. Revised ed., Crossway, 2009.
National Council for the Social Studies. “The Themes of Social Studies: Time, Continuity, and Change.” Social Studies.org, 2024, www.socialstudies.org/national-curriculum-standards-social-studies-chapter-2-themes-social-studies.
Ray, Brian D. “Homeschooling Methods and Styles.” National Home Education Research Institute, 2024, www.nheri.org/homeschooling-methods-and-styles/.
“Research Facts on Homeschooling.” National Home Education Research Institute, 2024, www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/.
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