Teaching kids about UK history/geography

[Star555]

What are your approaches to educating your kids about British history/geography if you are living abroad long term, especially in the US? Do you read/watch Horrible Histories with your kids? Buy them Usborne books about Roman Britain, Tudor Britain, Geography of Britain, etc.?

In the US where we live, primary school kids are practically not taught about any part of the world besides the US, and it is only in 7th/8th grad that they begin world history! (They seem to teach the US Revolutionary War and Civil War on repeat before then. Mentioning 1066 or Hadrian's wall will get you blank stares.)
Taking the kids to lots of historic sites around the UK on trips back home isn't always feasible (certainly not during the pandemic), given that we only get 2 weeks annual holiday in the US and most of it taken up by visiting relatives, and most places are closed or have reduced hours during the Christmas/New Year's holidays anyway.

The picture book version of Prisoners of Geography is the best book I’ve ever seen for giving children an overview of history and geography across the world. I also highly recommend A History of the World in 25 Cities.

On recommendation from my dad who was once a History teacher in the UK we bought a selection of old Usborne books when our son was about 7 or 8 - and he read all of them and became a huge history (uk and international) buff. He's now 15 and wants to study History at university, not in the US where we live, I might add!

DaisyDozyDee thank you for that recommendation - I'd never heard of pridoners of geography but it seems that is probably one of those "common knowledge" gaps on my part!

You will find that your DC will learn about some elements of British history in high school, especially in AP US History and AP European History, if your DC do those courses. British history obviously impinges on American history for a few hundred years, after which Britain was shrugged off and the importance of Britain to America diminished.

I am not sure why you find it surprising that American children tend to focus on American history, or that Hadrian's Wall isn't something Americans are aware of. Why would they do anything other than what they do? Do students in British schools learn much Irish history? French, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish history? Canadian history?

Judging from many, many threads here, I am tempted to include British history in my column of 'topics not taught' in British schools. Dipping into different eras, reigns, and aspects of history without any regard for continuity or chronology isn't great, frankly.

If your child is a solid reader, I would be tempted to buy some 'Atlas of World History' type books, which often feature maps, and implicitly remind readers that the world is a big place, and no single country is at its centre.

'A History of the World in 25 Cities', published by the British Museum, is a good introduction to the idea of history as a global thing too.

X-post wrt the 25 cities book.

My kids all went through US high schools and learnt a ton about world history - far more than I did in my UK school.

Horrible histories magazine series and books, cost a bomb though.

In addition to the resources mentioned by other posters:

A Street Through Time picture books

For upper primary a bit of historical fiction - not very educational in itself, necessarily, but drove a greater interest in different time periods (e.g Lady Grace mysteries, My Story fictional diaries series, Young Royals by C. Meyer, The Royal Diaries (Kathryn Lasky)).

A Child Through Time is a great book for lower primary. HH is great but really for the songs...

Where my child is in continental Europe it's embarrassing the amount of British history they study, though general history lessons and as part of studying the language, compulsory till 18. The whole lot, chronologically, through the ages. It's shameful that they know so so much more than the average British person/ student.

Im taking DS to London in October halfterm. I will do the same for dd when she is a bit older.