FReegards!
there’s nothing better than wallbuilders.com David Barton. Incredible Christian historian
Check to see what our own Larry Schweikart has for younger kids. I know he has great materials for older ones. A Patriot’s History of the United State is required reading for older kids. Might be OK for the older one.
https://www.wildworldofhistory.com/
I don’t know how easy it is to find these days but PBS had a series called “Liberty’s Kids” that covered the American Revolution pretty well. It covered the British view, the American view, and the issue of slavery as well. Pretty fair and balanced with a commonsense view that Americans were right to want Independence from Britain and blacks were right to want Freedom from slavery but that life is a struggle and you never know if you will get what you deserve. Animated series I would think that age group might like it.
I taught high school American lit
I went to the home school store picked up a textbook from 1989
There were four one for each year
That’s a ton of American history pre revision
Classics
Tom Sawyer
Guck Finn
Willa cather
For my kids when they were young, all the Hollywood musicals. Once they get past a certain age esp boys forget it.
But movies are a good way to go. For exploring. Band of brothers very great. Skip episode 9. There’s porn
Last of the Mohegans
Westerns
Any chance of getting them interested in collecting coins? Lots of history involved in the quarters, of late.
Dave Stotts - fun, with humor and kid/teen level and I even learned things and I’m well passed kid years. It’s not super in depth but gives a good foundation.
https://drivethruhistory.com/series/american-history/
David Barton of Wallbuilders as another FRiend mentioned is good too, more detail and depth. I learned a lot about USA foundational history from both.
Rush Limbaugh has a series of kids’ history books.
When I was that age, I was hooked on “Schoolhouse Rock”. lol Anyway, have you checked out the “Bicentennial Minutes”? I got my son watching those (they’re on Youtube, like everything else) and he was enthralled.
I recently bought a used copy of a textbook we used when I was in elementary school in the 1960s. It is interesting to read history and social studies from a western-centric point of view as we did in the pre-Howard Zinn days. The discovery and colonization of America are portrayed as great events rather than “the rape of paradise”. You can also find old used copies of the American Heritage History of America which I loved as a kid back in the 60’s.
I had to do this for my son. It started when I had to clean up after the school text book said the pilgrims came to America to spread disease.
I’d say reading to children does wonders if you’re reading from primary sources. Using primary sources also teaches kids how to verify the narratives of their textbooks.
A primary source is the actual text of historical documents. An example from the pilgrims experience is that Governor Bradford of the Plymouth Colony wrote many letters. http://mayflowerhistory.com/primary-sources-and-books Sometime the best you can get is secondary sources, that’s better than narratives that quote other historians.
The same goes for other major events.
The site's .American History and World History pages contain dozens of links to textbooks, monographs, memoirs, diaries, etc. However, most of these date from the twentieth century or earlier, so they don't cover more recent history or include the latest historical scholarship. Nonetheless, they were written before the age of "political correctness," so you won't be getting a "woke" perspective, and their authors include noted historians such as Charles A. Beard, Francis Parkman and Theodore Roosevelt. Most of these books were written at the grade school to junior high levels.
The site also has resources for teachers, including books on how to teach, plan lessons, etc. under the heading Helps for Mom & Dad.
The only drawback to that site is that it does not seem to be all that well maintained, and some of the links are dead.
Rush Limbaugh has books on American history for kids.
Schoolhouse Rock videos, should still be on You Tube.
"Never did a nation invite destruction upon itself with the eagerness and the ignorance with which Britain has done" " their most humble petitions insultingly rejected; the most grievous laws passed to distress them in every quarter; an undeclared war let loose upon them, and Indians and negroes invited to the slaughter; who, after seeing their kinsmen murdered, their fellow citizens starved to death in prisons, and their houses and property destroyed and burned"
(PDF open in new window) https://thefederalistpapers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/The-American-Crisis-by-Thomas-Paine-.pdf
These series are apparently still in print, but they are fairly expensive when purchased new.
Visit Janine Turner’s “Constituting America” web site for all sorts of teaching and learning materials—all sound in their adherence to the Founders’ principles and ideas. Entertaining and truly great for kids’ (and their parents’) learning about our nation’s founding.
For reading, I’d suggest The Boxcar Children. If they were girls, I’d suggest Pollyanna and the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, but I don’t know how much boys would like that. I also loved Black Beauty when I was that age.
Yes, I have a suggestion for home teaching. I currently create audiobooks and put them online in the public domain.
https://librivox.org/reader/6080
I mainly cover the bad guys - progressives, but a few of note such as these below cover the American Revolution.
https://librivox.org/the-colored-patriots-of-the-american-revolution-by-william-cooper-nell/
https://librivox.org/the-columbian-orator-by-caleb-bingham-by-caleb-bingham/
(See entry #10)
https://librivox.org/short-nonfiction-collection-vol-021-by-various/