State History {How To Homeschool For Free}

Be sure to check out the other posts in the How To Homeschool For Free series too!

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Most states require home schools to teach their state’s history. One thing you can do to show progress in this requirement is to keep a journal or lapbook on hand that has projects and lessons you have done and add a page or lesson to it every once in awhile.

The list below has at least one link for each state. Some of the lessons are online, some are actual lesson plans to download, and some are just fun pages where kids can explore state history. In the cases where free online resources aren’t that plentiful (and some states really did not have much for free that I could find), I suggest you get a notebook or some kind of journal to print out anything you can find on the history topics you study. A journal is also easy to take on a road trip when you travel in the summer. My favorite time to do state history is on a road trip! Sometimes you can even find great resources at the first rest area as you enter a state. In 2008, we found a great welcome center in Oklahoma that gave us free posters and a whole lot of free lessons. Home schoolers have the fabulous advantage of  learning when it fits into real life! Gotta love it!

Resources for all 50 states

Apples4theTeacher

This has all 50 states with a general plan for covering all the topics in a state history unit study. If you don’t like the link for your state below, come back to this link and find your state. It seems fairly comprehensive, including reading lists.

Mr. Donn

Mr. Donn is a classroom teacher who shares his resources online.

Individual State Links

• Alabama

Alabama Department of Archives and History

• Alaska

Alaska Museum of Natural History

• Arizona

Arizona Memory Project

• Arkansas

Arkansas Education Dept.

Arkansas Historic Preservation Society

• California

Road to California

LearnCalifornia.org

• Colorado

History Colorado

Doing History/Keeping the Past Project

• Connecticut

Connecticut History Online

The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute

NOTE- You will need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page for the 2 units on Connecticut history.

• Delaware

Delaware.gov

Historical Society of Delaware

• Florida

Historical Society of Palm Beach County

Florida Kids

• Georgia

Old Governor’s Mansion

Georgia History

• Hawaii

Hawaii.gov

Hawaiian History

This page has multiple subjects on it. The history is the 3rd topic on the list.

• Idaho

Idaho.gov

Idaho’s Capitol for Kids

• Illinois

Wild Illinois History

Illinois History Teacher

This is online access to past issues of Illinois History Teacher magazine. It contains a “Connection with the Curriculum” section.

• Indiana

Indiana Magazine of History

Indiana Historical Society

• Iowa

State Historical Society of Iowa

• Kansas

Kansas Historical Society

Kansas History

• Kentucky

Kentucky Historical Society

• Louisiana

Louisiana – A State Unit Study

Louisiana History Project

• Maine

HOME- The Story of Maine

Maine Memory Network

• Maryland

Maryland History

• Massachusetts

Massachusetts Historical Society

• Michigan

Michigan Historical Museum

• Minnesota

Minnesota Historical Society

Minnesota History: A WebQuest

• Mississippi

Mississippi—A WebQuest

• Missouri

Finding Missouri Video Series

University of Missouri

• Montana

Montana: Stories of the Land

This is an online Textbook. The textbook is free but you need password for the answer key. I do not know if homeschool teachers can get the password. Please post a comment if you know any additional information.

Montana Kids

Montana Historical Society Student Guide

• Nebraska

Nebraska Studies- Historical Timeline

• Nevada

Nevada Culture and History

• New Hampshire

New Hampshire Historical Society

• New Jersey

New Jersey History for Kids –and the Teacher’s Guide for it

• New Mexico

The Atlas of Historic New Mexico

Explore NM history using maps.

New Mexico History Museum

• New York

New York Historical Society

• North Carolina

North Carolina… for kids!

• North Dakota

State Historical Society of North Dakota

• Ohio

Ohio History Central

• Oklahoma

Oklahoma Historical Society

• Oregon

Celebrating Oregon’s Heritage

• Pennsylvania

Explore Pennsylvania History

• Rhode Island

Rhode Island History

• South Carolina

Teaching US History in South Carolina

This is American History as it correlates to Carolina History.

• South Dakota

The Weekly South Dakotan

• Tennessee

Tennessee History for Kids

• Texas

Texas Beyond History

• Utah

Utah State History

• Vermont

Vermont History

• Virginia

Study Scrapbook of Virginia

• Washington

Washington History

• West Virginia

West Virginia History & Fun

• Wisconsin

Wisconsin Historical Society

• Wyoming

Wyoming.gov

Look for the link to the Student Packet.

Enjoy! and Please post in the comments any other helpful resources for State History!