Tennessee Living History Curriculum

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I am not a native Tennessean but always felt drawn to the state even when I was a kid growing up in Michigan.  My grandma loved watching Hee Haw and the Grand Ole Opry and was a huge Minnie Pearl fan!  My first trip to the state was in 1992 to East Tennessee and over several other trips I landed in the state for good at 17 years old in 1997 and moved to the Nashville area in 2002.  I feel very blessed to have landed here after graduating college and I LOVE raising my kids in this part of the state.  

As part of our homeschool curriculum, I taught a Tennessee history class and enjoyed several years of studying the history on my own! There are several public domain resources that I combined into a free guide that you can  download here.  

 Within the guide you will find a schedule of lessons that can guide you through learning about the history of our state.  Charlotte Mason lessons approach learning as a method, not a system so I am not detailing lesson plans of objectives, tests, questions, etc. that you might find in a typical school textbook.  The guidelines for using these resources are to put the information in your child's hands (or read the information to them) and allow them to narrate back to you (or if your child is Form 2 or above, have them complete information in a timeline book or commonplace book and give some written narrations.)

The resources in this free guide are:
Tennessee History Stories

In addition to these texts, I also found amazing physical copies of books to use as a resource!
 
 Other links:
 
My favorite is this Bernadine Bailey book! It is a series of living books about each state. This picture book has amazing illustrations and information about the three grand divisions!

Landmarks and More Landmarks of Tennessee by Alderson and McBride are a must have so you can read about the important historical landmarks before you plan your visit!


Wilma Dykman wrote a book about Tennessee that is a great resource for adults interested in learning more. And Tennessee Place Names by Larry Miller is also informative to know the history of a specific city or town! 


 

 

The best resource for learning about Tennessee History in my opinion is through resources on the Tennessee History For Kids website! The booklets available give a wonderful overview of the history and are engaging for elementary ages and up! I used the Long March to Tennessee and We Shall Overcome to cover all of Tennessee's history with my 4-6th grade students last year! You can read more about it here: http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/longmarchguide  

Don't miss some of the other great resources listed below!

 
If you'd like to watch a video, here's a live show and tell of some of the resources!
 


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