When I was in school I absolutely loved history. After Language Arts/English, it was my favorite subject. When I started high school I was looking forward to American history so much that I took it a year early. Unfortunately, I had a terrible teacher who was more interested in her cheerleading and football playing students than us average Joes. It made me sad because I really wanted to love that class but she made it completely miserable.
Fast forward to homeschooling my own children and my own love for learning. I am teaching them history in a way that would have fascinated me growing up. I am using “Living Books”. I’m sure you’ve heard the term before but it simply means books that are based on truth. They are books that are actually about a specific person, place, or thing. It doesn’t have to be a biography but any book that is based on actual facts is considered a living book.
I had not considered using living books to teach history because I thought my children wouldn’t understand. I was highly mistaken. This year I began with a simple book called And Then What Happened, Paul Revere by Jean Fritz. It is a small book that we read in a couple of days during our history time. That sparked an interest in the Revolutionary War. So, I got several more books by Jean Fritz to read to my children.
So far, we’ve read five books and have studied Patrick Henry, Sam Adams, King George, George Washington, Paul Revere, Ben Franklin, and John Hancock. Next we will read about Benedict Arnold and the writing of the Constitution.
These little books take about ten minutes a day to read a few pages and it holds the interest of my children. They have asked many questions and we have had many great conversations. They have decided they want to read about the Civil War next. I can’t wait to find some amazing living books for that time period as well.
At this stage in our homeschool journey (4th grade, 3rd grade, and K), we don’t need a history curriculum that takes an hour to do. Simply reading good literature that is captivating to them is enough. It also sets them up to enjoy history later in high school when the requirements will be much more. I want them to have a love for learning any subject that may come up and reading to them while they are young is one way to give them that.
