History Notebooks for Specific Time Periods

Do history textbooks bore your kids to death? How about immersing them into a specific time period by helping them imagine what life was like for children “back in the olden days” instead?

Let’s face it – not all kids love learning about history. I know I didn’t when I was in public school. It wasn’t until I started homeschooling did I learn much about it – and now I love it!

I am working hard to find ways to instill a love of history in my children. That’s where history notebooks come into play.

History notebooking is a great way to focus on a specific event or time period and then immerse your children in it as an experience. Using a good living book, you can actually transport back in time to understand the bigger picture of history for a specific time period or event.

We have created history-themed notebooking journals to go along with some great “experience” style picture books that help children really imagine what was life would have been like for THEM. 

Children experience things differently than adults and the knowledge they are craving is how life was different then versus now. They might be interested in what going to school was like, the chores that children had to do and their responsibilities, and what type of clothing people wore. That’s where living history books can make history exciting!

When I was a child I was obsessed with Little House on the Prairie. We went on a field trip when I was in elementary to a pioneer-themed destination. We all dressed up, me like Laura Ingalls – complete with two braids and an apron over a long dress. We made tin can lunch pails out of coffee cans and “attended” the one-room schoolhouse and used a slate board to write on. It was great and we all loved it!

You can make history come alive with these history notebooks and the recommended books from the  If You Lived… book series.

Using a combination of questions, coloring sheets, spaces to draw illustrations, comparison charts, and more, children will discover what life was like for children their age during these important times in history.

There is also some mapping, and in one of the units 13 biography pages.

You can use these notebooks as a stand-alone resource alongside a history curriculum or some good books, but they work best using the If You Lived… book series. Matter of fact, if you use the books WITH the notebook, you can find all the information for each page.

The If You Lived…  series are full-color books with lots of pictures and great information, all for around $7 each, but can be found at your local library most of the time.

Living in Colonial Times – A Notebooking Journey

Take your children on a notebooking adventure through the Colonial period with Living in Colonial Times – A Notebooking Journey. You will learn fun facts about what life was like and how things differed for children during this time in history.

Your children will have a blast learning about:

• What people looked like and how they dressed
• What types of food colonial people ate
• What school was like for Colonial children
• Colonial manners and rules specific to school and children
• What happened when people got sick
• Silly laws and rules during the Colonial period
• Laws during Colonial times and specific Sunday laws
• What family life was like
• What houses were like and where children slept
• Children’s chores and jobs for townsfolk
• and more!

Living During the Civil War – A Notebooking Journey

Children will embark on an adventure of imagining what life was like during the Civil War in the years of 1861 to 1865.

Your children will discover:

• What caused the Civil War
• How the Civil War started
• Why the Southern states wanted to leave the Union
• The differences in the Union and Confederate Armies
• What home life was like during the Civil War
• The differences between the North and the South
• What life was like for the soldiers
• What life was like for children
• What school was like during the Civil War
• Struggles that families went through during the Civil War

This unit also includes 13 biography notebooking pages for famous people during the Civil War, and more.

You might also enjoy this post:

17 Books About Colonial America Your Homeschoolers Will Love