This year I was determined to teach the girls American History. I had plans to visit Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, and D.C. So, to match my already designated field trips, I needed an early American history curriculum. One problem – I couldn’t find one I liked. So what does one do in this situation? Well, make your own curriculum, of course!
Early #AmericanHistory #Curriculum Over 20 Free Resources & Printables #ihsnet #homeschool Click To Tweet
A Charlotte Mason Inspired Early American History Curriculum
We started with Simply Charlotte Mason’s Stories of America. I used this as our spine because it’s a living history book and the timeline fit what I wanted to teach this year. I also wanted to add in Liberty’s Kids
. The oldest and I used to watch these years ago, and we loved them. I knew the girls would like them, too. From there I pieced together everything I thought would be fun and interesting from the early explorers to the Revolutionary War. Most of what I used was either free or very reasonably priced and would work for elementary aged children. Here are the resources we used:
Early American History Curriculum Free Resources
Free resources are great! The bloggers who worked tirelessly to create these free early American history resources are to be applauded. They saved me a ton of time and money.
- Northmen Come to America
- Explorers Lapbook – Vikings
- Explorers Lapbook – Marco Polo and Prince Henry “The Navigator”
- Explorers Lapbook – Columbus, Vasco de Gama, Vespucci
- K-2 Columbus Unit
- Explorers Lapbook – Magellan and the Conquistadors
- Explorers Lapbook – Drake, Hudson & Cartier
- The First Thanksgiving Virtual Field Trips by Scholastic – there are many great resources here
- K-5 Thanksgiving Unit Study
- 17th Century Lapbook – Free when you sign up for A Journey Through Learning’s newsletter
- Ten Boys From History ebook
- Ten American Girls From History ebook
- American Girl (Historical) lapbooks
- Schoolhouse Rock America – please check all YouTube links before showing to children
- Battles of Lexington and Concord
- Revolutionary War Timeline
- Reader’s Theater: 13 Colonies-Life in a New England Colony
- Reader’s Theater: Tall Tale of Paul Bunyan
- Martin Luther King, Jr.: Create a Mini-Book
- Rosa Parks
- Presidents Day Mini-Unit
Early American History Curriculum Library Resources
Oh, how we love the library! These are some great resources you can find at the library.
Early American History Curriculum Purchased Resources
Sometimes, you need to purchase your curriculum. These are some of the best out there for early American history curriculum. We’ve tested them and they get our stamp of approval.
Would you like a printable lesson plan for our Early American History Studies? Check out the Chocolate Closet for the complete lesson plan.
Hi, I’m Dachelle. I’m a homeschooling mom of 3 in the South. I love chocolate and have been known to hide it from my children. I can often be found reading a good book (or even sometimes just an okay book) and enjoying a jar of Nutella — don’t judge. I blog, here, at HideTheChocolate.com when I’m not creating book clubs and making lists…lots and lots of lists (it’s an addiction). Learn more…
You are AWESOME, Dachelle! Thank you thank you for this great list. Just decided yesterday, when we toured an historic iron furnace/village, that we would do American history next year. Now I have lots of resources–hooray!
Thanks, Heather! I’m glad this will help. Currclick has some good sales throughout the summer, so if any of those interest you look for the sale.
Another great free resource is http://www.mission-us.org/ which has four games that go along with early American history. My eleven year old couldn’t wait for her lessons so she could play the game after.
Thanks for the info. I’ll check it out.
We’re doing U.S. history next year, so these will be particularly helpful to our family. Hopefully, many more readers at the #LMMLinkup will value the resources, too.
Glad they can help! 🙂
Thank for you compiling these resources. I can’t wait till I have some free time to look through them. Thank you.
You’re welcome. I hope they are useful to you.