19 Best History Living Books for Elementary

Published by Yen on October 12, 2021October 12, 2021

We love how the Charlotte Mason method introduces living ideas to our children, even from a young age. These include the lives of historical figures, giving them the chance to experience life during different time periods and through different sets of eyes.

In our post on how to teach history the Charlotte Mason way, we discussed 7 key elements that comprise history lessons using her philosophy. These elements play into how we choose books to use for our children’s education.

In this post, we hope to share some of our favorite living books that you can use for teaching history for your elementary students.

Taking into account Miss Mason’s recommendation of “lingering” with a single person over a short time period, this list includes a few excellently-written biographies perfect for this age group. We also apply her principle of giving our students a chance to see different perspectives, and to use a more broad-strokes approach for the younger years. You can read about these principles in more detail in our post on Charlotte Mason history lessons.

History Spine Living Books for Elementary

Here are some of our top picks of history spines for lower elementary:

A Child’s History of the World by V.M. Hillyer – 91 chapters

A Child’s History of the World is a great overview of world history that still keeps true to Charlotte Mason’s recommendation of getting our children into the lives of a few people instead of spreading it too thin with too much info!

Suggestions on how to divide the book:

This book has 91 chapters, so suggested ways to divide it into lessons can be:

If you do 3 chapters per week, you will finish the book in 31 weeks, but this may be a little too much reading for early elementary;
If you do 2 chapters a week, after 36 weeks, you will have finished 72 chapters, with 19 chapters left for the following year.
If you do 1 chapter a week, you will finish the entire book in 2 and a half years.
You might want to go through the book over 2 or 3 years; in which case, you can just adjust the chapters to be read. For 2 years, you will read 45 chapters in the first year, divided over 36 weeks, or for 3 years, you can do 30 chapters per year, with 31 chapters in one of those years.

M.B. Synge’s The Story of the World Series

If you want a continuing set to use throughout the elementary years, M.B. Synge’s books are a good choice too. It opens with On the Shores of the Great Sea, and here are the books in a suggested order of reading. (The Charlotte Mason International Open-and-Go Curriculum on our Shop Page uses this series.)

If you choose to use this series all throughout, you will have enough material for the first five years of the elementary years, covering each book over one year. Because each book has between 43 to 54 chapters, you will probably do at least one lesson per week, with some weeks having two lessons.

Alternatively, you may opt to take it a bit slower, and do each book over two years, taking you all the way to Volume 3 by the end of fifth or sixth grade.

Vol 1. On the Shores of the Great Sea – 54 chapters

On the Shores of the Great Sea opens in ancient times, beginning with the history of the Jewish people from the time of Abraham. It goes on with engaging tales of Greek history, Carthage, the rise of the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great, all the way to the beginning of the Roman Empire.