Dear Friends,
It can be challenging to find good, basic history and science textbooks for elementary-school-aged children, whether the kids are homeschooled or you’re just looking for something to nourish their interests outside of school hours.
To be clear, this isn’t code for “it’s hard to find textbooks that cater to my particular political tastes.” What I mean is that it can be hard to find textbooks that give good information in attractive, age-appropriate ways without overdoing the ideological spin.
If you are homeschooling, there are of course a million different curricular options out there, and yes, you will find some good ones! And what fits one family may not fit another.
But over time I have found an alternative to textbooks for textbook-like purposes. This alternative category of books is also one that is extremely attractive and motivating to a large majority of children.
Of course, for history, which is my academic specialty, I have thoughts about prioritizing imagination for this age group, which you can read here. (Spoiler alert: it involves crawling backwards through an escape chute in a pyramid. But not everybody has to do that part.) And I do also recommend these pretty balanced textbooks for Catholic kids.