Honest History Review [and coupon code]: Wondering how to teach history homeschool? Whether you’re looking for history curriculum homeschool 2nd grade, morning basket book read alouds, or a learning at home supplement history for tweens, check out Honest History Magazine as a stand-alone home school unit study, history activities, or as a supplement for geography and history curricula to inspire learning from around the world! If you’re wondering how do you make history fun, this is it!
HONEST HISTORY REVIEW FOR TEACHING HOMESCHOOLING HISTORY
All opinions and recommendations for products and services are my own. I only recommend products and do reviews on things that I believe are a good fit for homeschool families, parents, and educators / teachers.
Before we get to our review of Honest History Magazine and our experience of using it for history lessons, let’s start with some history FAQs that people often ask…
How do you teach homeschool history?
Tips for Teaching History:
- Engaging history lessons
- Interesting history stories for kids
- Homeschool history games
- Creative history activities and hands-on learning
- Include DIY history crafts
- Keep history facts simple and short
- Inspire kids to learn more beyond the page
…and this is how it is learning with the Honest History Magazine! It’s like a guide to learning history curriculum!
What grade do you start history?
In conventional schools (like public school), kids as young as first grade start to incorporate social studies, which includes history. However, as a homeschooler, you can start history at any point your kids show an interest!
The Honest History kids history magazine is interesting for kids as young as age 6 when you’re working with them and also up to age 12+ if your kids are independently working on a history curriculum at home.
Should history be taught chronologically?
You may be wondering what order should I teach history. It is not necessary to teach history chronologically. You can easily use a visual timeline to help students understand where the historical eras fall in that time period in history.
(Be sure to check out our personal Honest History mag review below to see how we do this!)
What is Honest History Magazine?
The Honest History Magazine subscription is a quarterly history magazine for kids, described as an “adventure magazine for young historians.” The engaging publication allows kids to imagine and explore the past in creative ways and also acts as a resource for history lessons.
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Past issues of Honest History have included topics like:
- The Spirit of the Games covering the history of the Olympics
- A Secret Mission, covering spies throughout history
- The Race to Space
- War of the Currents, covering both Edison and Tesla
- A Pirate’s Tale, highlighting the notorious pirate, Cheng I Sao
- Journey Through the Jungle, covering Maya and Mesoamerica
- Portrait of India
- An Era of Exploration for the Renaissance period
- Into the Deep, including undersea exploration with Jacques Cousteau and others
- Story of an Empire covering the ancient Roman Empire
- The Swan King, exploring King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his castle, Neuschwanstein
Is Honest History a real magazine?
YES! Honesty History is a real magazine with a soft, velvet-touch cover, full of beautiful and engaging art and illustrations throughout each magazine, printed with eco-friendly ink and materials. The publication arrives quarterly and covers a different part of history and historical figures. However, with the subscription or purchase of extra magazines, you can use the Honest History app to access the magazines online, too.
What age is Honest History Magazine?
Honest History Magazine is written for kids ages 6-12. However, it can be for older kids also as a history resource, for short snippets on history, or even stand alone project based homeschool studies.
How much does Honest History cost?
Honest History Magazine can be purchased in two ways: subscription or individual magazine.
- The Honesty History Magazine is $69.99/year for four magazine issues (shipped free in the U.S. every 3 months). It renews annually until cancelled.
- Individual magazines are $17.95 each + shipping.
Is Honest History curriculum?
Honest History magazine is not a home school curriculum, but great for stand alone project-based topic learning filled with DIY projects and history learning. If you’re looking for teaching history without a curriculum, the Honest History Magazine is a an awesome option. We have Honest History Magazine used for homeschool history unit studies for a more literature-based history curriculum, where kids read about world history and complete engaging activities. It’s perfect for history for elementary homeschool!
Can you get a Honest History Magazine pdf?
There is no Honest History Magazine pdf available, but you can access purchased magazines online easily via the Honest History Magazine app. The Honest History app allows students to download a digital copy of the magazine on their smart device. Every physical magazine comes with the digital download version from the app.
Use HSSF as the Honest History Mag coupon code for 10% discount today!
Disclosure: I am an Honest History Magazine affiliate. However, we purchased the magazines and subscription independently and only became an affiliate after we realized how useful they were for a homeschool history curriculum addition.
Our HONEST Honest History Magazine Reviews for Homeschooling
If you’re wondering what is the best children’s magazine for history topics, Honest History Magazine ranks right up there for us. These are NOT your traditional history textbooks!
I was definitely impressed when we received our magazines (we signed up for a subscription and also bought some back issues on history topics that interested my daughter). I expected a glossy magazine, flimsy pages, and a few short stories and activities.
However, Honest History Magazine is NOT that. Physically, it is a high-quality, book-like magazine (sometimes up to 68 pages+), with thick pages.
The topics are interesting and not too long, so kids don’t get bored with reading long paragraphs of text.
The illustrations are beautiful and add interest to the historical topics.
There are also DIY activities that even my 13 year old has had fun completing.
Honest History Magazine vs Other History Books
An Honest History book is different from other homeschool history books we’ve used because Honest History really brings the time periods to life! The text is interesting (not like dry history textbooks!) and the beautiful illustrations help engage the learner in the historical time period.
Pros of Honest History Magazine:
- Engaging full-color pages filled with stories, illustrations and DIY activities keeps my kid interested (and even excited to read about history!).
- These history magazines for kids are over 30 pages and up (some have been almost 70 pages!) and are more like Honest History books than magazines.
- The age range is listed for 6-12, but I think you can use it for older. My daughter is 13 and thoroughly enjoys the history stories and activities.
- Honest History magazine cover a huge range of history so you can use it as an ancient history homeschool curriculum all the way up to more current historical periods.
- If you’re looking for a secular homeschool history curriculum, this is a great option!
- Although it’s not marketed as a geography for kids magazine, you get a lot of geography in the history magazines, too!
- I like that you can purchase an individual history magazine and try it out before signing up for the annual subscription.
- The topics are diverse and includes a vast array of history and culture from around the world.
- The Honest History app is a bonus because my daughter has access to the information on her phone or tablet even if she doesn’t have the magazine with her.
- I enjoy that some of the topics are lesser known parts of world history.
Cons of Honest History Magazine:
- Cost may seem pricey when you hear magazine; however, it really is more like a book packed full of art, interesting history text, and activities.
- It’s only a quarterly magazine. Because my daughter enjoys them so much, I would love to see a monthly subscription option at some point.
- If you’re using it for a homeschool history curriculum, it’s not linear and doesn’t progress through a historical timeline chronologically from one issue to the next. Although we don’t teach history chronologically, I understand that it might be an issue for some people. In those cases, use each Honest History mag as a stand-alone history unit study (which is what we’re doing) or individual history lessons.
- Although my 13 year old enjoys the current magazines, I wouldn’t mind to see a more advanced version with older level activities and research prompts to progress with her into high school.
We will definitely keep our subscription of Honest History and use them as history homeschooling unit studies!
Don’t forget! The Honest History promo code to get 10% OFF is HSSF!
Go to this link and input the Honest History discount code on checkout.