Early American History Resources

This post is all about homeschool resources and curricula to study early American history.

History used to be such a pain to me. Through my homeschool journey, I’ve been so thankful to redeem my own education. History is one of those subjects that has really grown on me!

Finding engaging curriculum, passionately written stories, and researching great supplemental materials is something I find a lot of joy in. It feels like preparing a meal with all the fixings that you know you and your family will get to enjoy.

After researching, I love to share any fun finds that may help our homeschool community. In this blog post, I’ll detail what we’re using to study early American history in the 2023-2024 school year in case it is helpful to you!

This post is all about homeschool resources to study early American history.

Early American History Spine Curriculum

For our spine curriculum, we’ll be going through Early American History from Beautiful Feet Books. I have worked through the previous version of this guide with my oldest daughter as our very first Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum. It was the first time I read aloud A LOT, and introduced oral and written narrations.

[RELATED POST: All About Charlotte Mason Notebooking]

I’m excited to go through this study again, as they have since updated their book suggestions and included extra rabbit trails and hands on projects. I never aim to do everything suggested in this curriculum, but love having the options available.

Heroes of History Biographies

I am excited to bring in some historical biographies to go along with our study in early American history. YWAM Publishing has amazing true stories of Christian missionaries, but also of significant figures of history. Check out the Heroes of History collection that pairs very well with the Beautiful Feet Books guide. Here is what we chose:

• Captain John Smith
• William Bradford
• Daniel Boone
• Frederick Douglass
• Harriet Tubman
• Abraham Lincoln

Art History

We’ve been a long time fan of using this art history curriculum called Yellow Spot Sun. They have numerous family art courses that are affordable and usable for all of your children. I like that you can pair it with the period of history you’re studying. Aside from reinforcing what life was like in that time period, you also learn new art techniques through video at the same time.

In the past, we have used Architects of the Ancient World (with Ancient History), and Kingly Kingdoms (with Medieval History). Marrissa is such a great teacher via her video courses! This year, we’ll pair Drawing Americana with our early American study.

Drawing Americana is a 6 week course that we’ll use over 12 weeks. We typically draw (pun intended) her courses out, and take it slower. Within each week, students will:

• critique a piece of fine art
• have an art history lesson on an artist
• learn a new drawing skill
• create detailed sketches in your sketchbook (3 per week; 18 total)
• paint a masterpiece in the style of the artists (6 total)

[RELATED POST: 6 Favorite Homeschool Curriculum for Art]

Board Games

My kids will be thrilled to know we’ll play Ticket to Ride on some days just for fun. Another one I we recently tried was Trekking Through History. While it is not centered on only American history, it is fun for our family! We’re fans of the game Trekking the National Parks, which is created by the same company.

This post was all about the homeschool resources we’ll be using to study early American history.

Other Posts You May Like:

• 2023-2024 Homeschool Curriculum Picks
• 7 Things to Do Before Going Back to School
• What’s in My Homeschool Cart?