TEACH YOUR CHILD SOCIAL STUDIES

You don't need a degree in education to find the resources and lessons to effectively teach your elementary school, middle school, or high school child social studies from home. With a little patience and preparation, your homeschooling efforts will pay off with a well-educated kiddo (and hopefully only a few gray hairs!)

When you home school, it is best to start with the foundation and build upward. Look for resources that address basic skills. Consider Mapping Lessons that cover key content while also teaching students how to examine and create maps to show what they know. This Mapping the World activity is a fun one I use in the first days of school to set my students up with that valuable foundation.

There are so many great resources online, but finding resources that are accurate, simple, and engaging can be overwhelming. Finding resources that offer consistency can also be a challenge.

This United States Primary Source Analysis Bundle can provide a comprehensive collection of American History documents and images for secondary students to analyze, practicing Social Studies skills while reviewing content.

Homeschooling and Distance Learning can be a great challenge if you don't have the right resources for your students. Instead of assigning textbook reading or endless online searches, let your kids have fun with engaging activities as they practice skills and learn key content in American History, Geography, and more!

Homeschooling with Task Cards

Task cards are a great way to meet your kids where they are. Task cards have many different uses and applications, including engaging hands-on learning, assessment, skills reinforcement (especially great for geography skills reinforcement!), practice, and content introduction.

This American Geography Task Card Set includes 200 cards that can be used as a scavenger hunt activity, mapping practice, research prompts, and fun, engaging games! Task Cards are great for making rotating centers (which get students UP and MOVING!). Task Cards also work well with groups and teams, so if your child has siblings or friends who they can Zoom, they can work in digital pairs!

Reinforce skills with a printed map so students can mark the places they discover as they learn. Or, use an online resource like Sheppard Software to practice states (or countries, regions, etc.) with a timer.

American History Resources

In addition to task cards, this History Headline News Activity is great for upper elementary students and can help pull kids from excessive current media engagement. This activity allows them to visit this day in a historical context and report on their findings. The fun and diverse topics will keep them wanting to learn more.

Also, homeschool students can engage with current events with a Current Events Timeline Activity. The skill of timelining is vital to reinforce the cause and effect of history, but is also a great way to let learner's hands participate in visual and content reinforcement.

Find more Social Studies resources for your homeschool classroom here.

Teaching for Non-Teachers

Though the information at hand may be overwhelming for parents who are not used to teaching, there is a wealth of information available to help you put on your teacher hat and take charge in your homeschool classroom.

Happy Homeschooling!