If you’ve been searching for a secular history curriculum for early elementary students, then welcome!
Free or cheap secular history lesson plans are few and far between in the homeschool world, as it’s often an expensive subject through publishers.
I set off on a quest to tweak a few books that I already own to create a basic, yet thorough, early elementary history curriculum for my children (grade 1 and grade 3). I’m sharing what I’ve made so far!
Secular History Curriculum (Early Elementary)
For these lessons, I’ve used 2 books that are very easy to find inexpensively, or even through the library. I’m using these babies, which I’m sure you recognize:
Please note that I am using the revised editions, not the original printing. I believe that they have just re-printed these books with a new cover, but as far as I can tell from published Table of Contents available online, the content itself is exactly the same.
Free Lesson Plans
I have divided the material into 64 lessons. This equals 2 lessons per week for 32 weeks. Obviously, this can be adjusted to fit the needs of each individual family.
The content could easily be stretched for daily study, or even doubled for once a week study. It’s really up to you!
I recommend this to be used with students from Kindergarten through 4th grade. Again, it could easily be customized to teach older or younger kids. Don’t be afraid to make it your own!
This is a skeleton. It’s the bare bones guide of what to read, when. Your students will learn some basic geography, and history from the Ice Ages through the Louisiana Purchase. By using both books together, your kids will get a ton of information, written directly to them as the students.
I’ve Got More In the Works!
I am currently working on a FREE resource which will include totally free online resources (games, websites, pictures, audio, video, etc) to bulk up each and every lesson. I’m also working on science, art, and music lesson plans using the same 2 books.
Want to stay up to date on my progress as it becomes live? Check out the “Free Lesson Plans” page from my menu at the top of this page, or just click below:
Christopher James says
Wow. Thanks! I’ve been looking for this curriculum for a while now.
Christopher James recently posted…The Tao of Badass