When I shared our third grade homeschool curriculum picks, I mentioned that we would be using the American Girl series alongside our history textbook. At first I thought I would just have Emma read each character’s stories when we hit the corresponding time period. Easy enough, right?
Well, there’s SO much more available! I did a little bit of digging and found things like Welcome to Felicity’s World, a book that takes an in-depth look into the daily life and historical events from the Revolutionary War time period. They share things like home life, work, medicine, and play. You get a peek into the past.
Then I found cookbooks for several of the time periods. Then I found paper dolls and activity books, and color & craft books, and on and on and on. You can truly immerse yourself in each of the American Girls’ time periods. And THAT is what will make history come alive for our kids.
I just shared all of the resources that I found over on our sister site, Ohio Valley Homeschool. If you have an American Girl fan in your house, I would strongly encourage you to click here and see what all is available. Emma and I are both really excited about it, and I’m guessing you will be too!
What a genius idea! I remember I did learn probably more about history that I remembered by just reading the American Girl books than what I learned in school (and I was a good student), but this is a great way to help your daughter retain the information. I wish they would make the series a bit more appealing to both genders so I could propose using it in the public schools!
Someone needs to start an American Boy line! 🙂 I know that I’ve retained a lot about the culture of different time periods from reading historical fiction, so I’m hopeful that she will too.