Secular Charlotte Mason: History & Geography

Below are secular (non-religious) history books and videos, (or otherwise void of strong religious bias) that have been recommended by fellow secular Charlotte Mason homeschoolers.

First, let me share the WONDERFUL suggestion I received from another secular CM’r: start with creation stories from around the world and evolution. So with that in mind, here’s books on those topics…

Creation,  Evolution, & PreHistory Resources:

• An Updated Booklist for Evolutionists
• In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World, by Virginia Hamilton and Barry Moser
• Evolution: The Story of How Life Developed on Earth, by Joanna Cole (illustrated by Aliki)
• Born With a Bang, Book One, The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story, by Jennifer Morgan
• From Lava to Life, Book Two, The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story, by Jennifer Morgan
• Mammals Who Morph, Book Three, The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story, by Jennifer Morgan
• Out of the Ark: Stories from the World’s Religions, by Anita Ganeri–there is a section with creation stories…cultures/countries covered: Australia, India (Hindu), Japan (Shinto), Christian, Polynesian Island of Nauru, Africa, Native American (Cheyenne), China, Incan
• The Rainbow Bridge, by Audrey Wood and Robert Florczak–BEAUTIFUL picture book! Native American (Chumash) creation story
• The Four Corners of the Sky: Creation Stories and COsmologies from Around the World, by Steve Zeitlin
• Indian Creation Stories, by Julia M. Seton
• The Greek News by Powell & Steele
• Greek Myths for Young Children (Usborne)
• Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld
• The Usborne Time Traveler
• Tut’s Mummy Lost & Found
• The Great Wall of China by Leonard Everett Fisher
• Aesop for Children by Milo Winter
• Pompeii: Buried Alive by Kunhardt SL2 (Easy Reader)
• The Trojan Horse by Little (Easy Reader)
• “Life Story” by Virginia Lee Burton
• “Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution” by Steve Jenkins; picture book
• “The Story of Life on Earth” by Nicholas Harris; another picture book.
• “The Story of Life on Earth” by Margaret Munro and Karen Reczuch; another picture book, a bit more advanced than the previous one, but still very good for very young scientists;
• “The Kingfisher Book of Evolution” by Stephen Webster; more of a logic stage book, but filled with lots of pictures; with more advanced books, we generally look at the pictures and read the accompanying captions (instead of the text). I used it to help answer the kids’ questions.
• “Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story” by Lisa Westburg Peters. Excellent, simple summary of evolutionary history, for the K-3^rd grade set.
• “Evolution, from the Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series
• “The Evolution Book” by Sara Stein
• “The Beginning: Voyages Through Time” by Peter Ackroyd; a DK book
• “The Best Book of Early People” by Margaret Hynes
• “One Small Blue Bead” by Byrd Baylor
• “The First Dog” by Jan Brett
• “Mik’s Mammoth” by Roy Gerrard
• “The Cave Painter of Lascaux” by Roberta Angeletti
• “Stanley” by Syd Hoff (An I Can Read book); not historically accurate but cute; ditto for “Cave Boy” by Cathy Dubowski
• “The Dawn of Life”, “A Cartoon History of the Earth” by Jacqui Bailey and Matthew Lilly (Kids Can Press), which includes four volumes: “The Birth of the Earth”, “The Dawn of Life,” and “The Day of the Dinosaurs”, “The Stick and Stone Age”
• “Right Here on this Spot” by Addy
• “Ugh” by Yorunks
• “Your Mother Was A Neanderthal” by Jon Scieszka
• “Little Grunt and The Big Egg” by Tomie dePaola
• “Sunset of the Sabertooth by Mary Pope Osborne (early chapter book, from the Magic Tree House series; some consider these twaddle…)
• “Quennu and the Cave Bear” by Marie Day
• “A is for Aarrgh!” by William J. Brooke
• “First Painter” by Kathryn Lasky
• “A First Book of Myths: Myths and legends for the very young from around the world” retold by Mary Hoffman
• “How the World Began: Creation in Myths and Legends” by Gilly Cameron-Cooper
• “Becoming Human” website
• Darwin/Museum of Natural History and also
• PBS “Evolution” and the educators’ resource section
• Voyages Through Time: In the Beginning (Voyages Through Time) by Peter Ackroyd
• any favorite dinosaur books you might find
• books by John Malam

U.S. History:

• A History of U.S. series, by Joy Hakim|
  (Be aware there are many criticisms of Joy’s work, here is an example…despite these criticisms, many homeschoolers still feel the positives outweigh the negatives in her books.)
• This Country of Ours, by H. E. Marshall
• Early American History Literature Guide, by Beautiful Feet Books
• Don’t Know Much About History, by Kenneth C. Davis
• People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.) by Howard Zinn
• The Radical Reader: A Documentary History of the American Radical Tradition by Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John McMillian
• PBS series “Freedom”–and there is a soundtrack
• The Making of America: The History of the United States from 1492 to the Present, by Robert D. Johnston
• Pocket History of the United States, by Henry Steele Commager & Allan Nevins
• The Growth of the American Republic, by Henry Steele Commager
• Genevieve Foster books (Augustus Caesar’s World, George Washington’s World, etc…)
• The First Book of American History by Henry Steele Commager
• Growth of the American Republic by Henry Steele Commager, Samuel Eliot Morison, and William E. Leuchtenberg
• The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History, by Jennifer Armstrong

World History:

• DVD Series: Journals Through History (There is an excellent 2 dvd set of Ancient China and of Ancient Egypt)
• Documentary: “Grass”–b/w silent documentary on a nomadic tribe in 1925
• Documentary: “People of the Wind”–excellent later documentary on the same nomadic people in the “Grass” documentary.
• Cartoon History of the Earth, by Jacqui Bailey and Matthew Lilly
• Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples
• Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford
• The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik Willem Van Loon (also other works by Van Loon including “America”, “Geography”, “Arts” and “Lives”)
• Our Island Story (also called “An Island Story”), by H. E. Marshall
• A Picturesque Tale of Progress (Complete 9 Volume Set), by Olive Beaupre Miller
• The Story of Religion, by Betsy and Giulio Maestro (other of their books are good too, I’m told)
• For Canada history: “Dear Canada” series and “Our Canadian Girl” series…also: Underground to Canada, by Barbara Smucker…The Last Safe House by Barbara Greenwood
• Rosemary Sutcliff books (fiction)
• Kingfisher World History Encyclopedia
• Picture That: Knights and Castles (Exploring History through Art series)
• The Egyptology Handbook: A Course in the Wonders of Egypt (Ologies), by Candlewick Press
• Genevieve Foster books (Augustus Caesar’s World, George Washington’s World, etc…)
• A Little History of the World, by E.H. Gombrich–read a review by a homeschooling mom here
• Voyages Through Time series by Peter Ackroyd
• African Kingdoms of the Past series, by Kenny Mann
• Stone Age Farmers Beside the Sea: Scotland’s Prehistoric Village of
  Skara Brae, by Caroline Arnold
• Young Oxford Book of Archaeology
• Books by Marc Aronson
• Scotland’s Story–published by Galore Park
• Kings & Things: A Light-Hearted Romp Through British History–published by Galore Park
• Schoolhouse Rock DVDs (history rock)
• The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller, by Carlo Ginzburg
• Past Worlds Atlas of Archaeology by Collin Renfrew
• Archimedes and the Door of Science (Living History Library) by Jeanne Bendick
• Missionary Travels in South Africa by David Livingstone–not necessarily secular, but a lot of info on Africa, mid 1850s–very dry, supplement with outside materials

General History Resources:

• History For Kids Website
• A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales
• Evan-Moor History Pockets

Historical Fiction:

• Henry Winterfeld books
• Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome, by Marissa Moss
• The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare
• Living History Library–historical fiction series
• “My America” series, for youngers and “Dear America” series for olders…
• Rosemary Sutcliff books
• Carolyn Meyer books

History Curriculum & Resource Books/Sites:

• Story of the World Series, by Susan Wise Bauer
• All Through the Ages: History Through Literature Guide, by Christine Marie Miller
• History Odyssey
• A Child’s History of the World, by Hillyer
• Little History of the World, by Sir Ernst Gombrich
• “Lift the Lid” and “Treasure Chest” kits
• History Scribe
• Living Learning Books
• Books to Supplement History–not a secular list, but includes a lot of secular materials…and also check out her page on movies to supplement history.
• Jim Weiss stories/books on cd

Book of Century/Timeline Resources:

• Timeline helps
• How to make a timeline easily!
• Timelines

Geography Resources:

• Wish You Were Here, by Kathleen Krull
• Paddle to the Sea, by Holling Clancy Holling
• Teaching Geography Through Art, by Sharon Jeffus and Richard Jeffus
• Geography Matters
• Map Essentials by National Geographic
• Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia
• Where on Earth: A Geografunny Guide to the Globe, by Paul Rosenthal
• The Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick
• A Child’s Geography of the World by V. M Hillyer
• 1857 Africa Map

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