Looking for some hands-on ways for kids to work on history, geography, government and more? There are so many great ways to work on these skills with kids besides boring lesson plans and textbooks.
Here are 50+ great ways for kids to learn social studies from fun, games and real life:
- Volunteer at a historic site
- Do living history
- Read historical fiction books
- Attend wacipis (pow wows) and other local Native American events
- Watch great shows like Liberty’s Kids, Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiago? and Wishbone
- Put maps up in the house
- Go to your state capital and talk to your legislators about issues that matter to you
- Make a timeline together to go around the ceiling of your rooms
- Watch TV shows with a time travel theme like Timeless
- Write tourism centers from other states and countries and ask them to send you visitor information
- Visit international grocery stores and shops
- Play games like The Scrambled States of America
- Bring home great library books about different times, countries and cultures
- Play Timeline games
- Print out free paper dolls from ancient history from around the world
- Play with globes
- Watch travel shows
- Talk to elders about life when they were young or historic events they lived through
- Visit local historical sites and museums
- Watch movies based on historic events like Hidden Figures, Harriet, Apollo 13, Newsies, and On the Basis of Sex
- Tour your local courthouse
- Chart your family tree and learn where your ancestors came from
- Do a postcard swap with families from around the US or the world
- Subscribe to kids’ magazines like National Geographic Kids, Honest History and Cobblestone
- Play apps like Stack the States
- Go with the family when voting and caucusing
- Read the local paper together and talk about what’s happening in your area and around the world
- Watch biographies of famous people
- Learn a foreign language
- Visit historic sites when traveling
- Watch election coverage
- Watch YouTube courses like Crash Course US history, world history, civics or geography
- Watch fun shows like Drunk History and How the States Got Their Shapes
- Have conversations with lots of people from lots of places
- Watch documentaries on history
- Use Google Earth to “visit” places around the world
- Use apps or pages that tell you what happened on this day in history
- Use fun, free geography game sites like Lizard Point
- Attend history-based events like Civil War Days, the Renaissance Festival and Pioneer Days
- Volunteer on the campaign of a local person running for office who you support
- Color in all the state license plates you see over the summer on car maps
- Attend cultural events in your area like international festivals
- Put a pin everywhere in a map that you’ve traveled together (or where loved ones live)
- Visit churches and temples of all denominations
- Watch fun videos that teach history through song parodies like History for Music Lovers
- Regularly cook foods from all around the world
- Use maps and atlases when you travel to new places
- Print out free historic coloring pages from sites like these.
- Talk about your history, your family’s history and what’s going on in the world together
- Travel
Of course, this is just a drop in the bucket! There are so many historic apps, games, websites, books, activities, etc. that it’s impossible to name them all.
What are your family’s favorite ways to learn social studies together?
