Elizabeth had some interest in Egyptians and the middle ages but not much else as far as history. We tried The Complete Book of U.S. History workbook by School Specialty (Sam’s Club special) but she didn’t want to do it. We tried a If You Lived In Colonial Times book but she never even finished reading it. Since we were still hoping to make unschooling work, we didn’t want to force her to work through the workbook.

Then I found Liberty’s Kids, the television show. The premise of the show is that the three kids are working on a newspaper for Benjamin Franklin. The kids report on different events of the American Revolution. The show is full of celebrity voices, the animation is excellent, and it is very captivating for an educational show.

It still airs daily in some markets. Some episodes are available on DVD, but a nice complete DVD set is due out in mid-October 2008.

What I did find though is the Liberty’s Kids computer game. I turned it over to Elizabeth and she played through the entire game over 2-3 days, then went back and did it all over again at least once. Without us even once asking her to do it. In the computer game, the player interviews historical figures and reports on events, even assembling the stories on the page.

There is a Liberty’s Kids website that has additional material and activities for students.

Five of the family photos are available on the PBS Nova website. Nova’s World in the Balance: The Population Paradox show covers some of the same material but is more concerned with population growth.

DK has a similar book, A Life Like Mine, which is completely focused on the daily life of kids around the world. Our daughter has also read that book repeatedly. One Amazon reviewer did warn that, since it’s produced with UNICEF, it does emphasize the importance of vaccinations and school, which wasn’t acceptable to her. That’s not much of a concern for us, but it is for some home schoolers.