This is a super short blog tip for you - and a little video to explain a little more.
Remember when we were in public school? They didn't HAVE history in elementary school. It was called social studies.
SOCIAL.
STUDIES.
So your job was to study the social structures around you. We were just supposed to learn about relationships, culture, how nations worked - get the foundations, some basic stories of our nations history, and REALLY REALLY focus on holidays, lol!
As an example, these cards to the left are a high ranking result when you search for "SOCIAL STUDIES."
How did we learn this? Oh yes, there were textbooks to help the teacher do this, you know why - some about 8 years old. They HAD to do it that way, because we were all inside cinder block walls with 120 other students exactly the same age as us, and one middle aged woman who talked to us all day long under fluorescent lights. We were in an artificial social construct, so the actual living parts had to be explained to us - "Community Workers" and "Government Buildings" were all read about, and labeled and spelled out, literally, on make-believe maps, of, I kid you not, "Anytown, USA." There wasn't even a state location on the map.
Our exploration time was wondering if the same dandelions from yesterday during our 22 minute recess would be puffy flowers yet today, or if the fifth graders had already made wishes on them and blown them all off since they had recess before us.
So, here's the GREAT NEWS! Your kids are living in the ACTUAL social portion of life RIGHT NOW. You don't HAVE to have social studies, because you are living in it, discussing it, and experiencing it WITH them. They SEE the postal workers, the rash guys, the policemen, and have all the field trips and driving and errands. TAH DAH!
So - history? Don't start at the EARLIEST point. Start at the CLOSEST point: YOU!
Make a timeline, find your living, birth, work, places on the map.... You know what, just watch the 2 minute video.
These are the same points I made for an email reply via instagram, and thought it might be helpful enough to others, so I even uploaded it on my Youtube channel: