How to Bring History Alive for Kids
When you’re reading history from a textbook it can become a snooze-fest for your kids. History doesn’t have to be dry and boring. You can make it come alive with great books and add in hands-on activities to accompany them.
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How to Bring History Alive for Kids
Create a Timeline
When you’re learning about a specific time period with different events, it can be hard to get a grasp of time. Add new people and important events to your timeline to help your child get a better sense of time to look at the overall picture.
Watch Documentaries
Whether cartoons or reenactments, my boys love documentaries particularly anything related to wars and weapons.
Add History Crafts
Get their hands dirty and have fun creating historical artifacts out of clay or play dough. Create your own Greek masks or pottery, art projects are a wonderful way to create things during various time periods.
Visit Local Historical Places
Depending on your location, you can bet there are some wonderful museums or historical sites that my be local to you. Take advantage of your location and see what kind of history you can pull of of your hometown. Take a trip? Take a look to see any attractions you may be able to visit as you travel to learn more about the history that is around you.
Read Living Books
Go beyond the textbooks and grab living books for your kids. Textbooks can be dry and boring for kids who have not yet developed a love for history. Living books show kids how people lived in a different time and helps them understand better when they can see a character living during different time periods and what problems they had to endure.
If you’re looking for living history books these picture books from Carole P. Roman, the If You Were Me and Lived In… series is a wonderful selection of history books for kids. These 5 books cover a variety of time periods but do a great job showing how life was during those time periods. My son who is more into science and only beginning to find a love for history really enjoyed these books. They are full of color and engaging. The books go over the daily life of a child, where they lived, what time of home, clothes they wore, chores or work they had to do. It also paints of picture of how they child would see the world around them as they discuss the customs and different classes of people at the time.
Carole P. Roman has published over 30 children’s books and has written several series of books. On top of the If You Were Me and Lived in…. history series, there is also a country series that looks at children in other cultures. My son really liked learning about children from around the world.
Disclosure: I partnered with Carole P Roman and I received Compensation as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.
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My youngest son wants to learn Italian and we have loved learning about the Renaissance period, so the book about Renaissance Italy sounds like it would be fun to read.
The Viking one or Greece would be cool.
They all look great. I would try the Vikings first.
Colonial America ?
One of the first civilizations we learned about was the Mayans. It would be so neat, when my grandkids start homeschooling, to share the Mayan Empire book with them when they learn about this interesting civilization.
Lisa Joy Starr
We would love a book on the ancients! We will be studying that time period next year 🙂
What a great way to kick off summer – before we all get next year’s main plans started too. Thanks!
We would love to have the book about the American West to use this coming year.
Lisa Joy Starr
The Ancient China book looks like fun!!
Lisa Joy Starr
As a History geek, all of them sound amazing but my kids would be all about Ancient Greece followed closely by the Mayan Empire.
I have a very reluctant learner and I believe that this series would make it fun for both of us !
Ancient Greece!
I would love to get the Mayan Empire book.
Ancient Mali Empire looks interesting.
I’d love the American West! It would line up with what I already have planned for next year. I love the country ones too, to give some personability to geography!