Modern World History: A Family-Style History Program PDF

This is a pre-order! Currently available units from the Modern World History course will be added to your account immediately. As units are released monthly each one will be added to your account.

Course Overview

Modern World History is an activity-based program for students from age 6 to 18. It covers world history from about 1800 to the 21st century. The course books are for mentors to use as a scaffold and idea resource when planning reading, activities, discussions, and writing assignments. The course consists of nine units, one for each month of your school year. Each unit contains a library list of books to choose from followed by a series of lesson plans, which we call Exploration, to select among. The lessons include supply lists and step-by-step instructions for completing learning, activities, and discussions.

Learn more about how Layers of Learning works.

What’s In This PDF Set?

Modern World History includes nine individual month-long units including:

1. Industrial Revolution – From inventions including the spinning jenny through flight, to urbanization, and to labor struggles and capitalism.
2. Revolutionary Republics – The American and French Revolutions kicked off a spate of republican revolutions around the world and the overthrow of monarchies
3. 19th Century – Meiji Japan, Victorian Britain, European Wars, Marxism, and the Scramble for Africa
4. Early 20th Century – Latin American revolutions and wars, World War I, the rise of totalitarian dictatorships, and the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s
5. World War II – Naziism and the Holocaust, events of the European and Pacific theaters, and what was happening on the home front in countries around the world
6. Late 20th Century – The Cold War, revolutions and wars in East Asia, world powers in the middle east, and Latin American events
7. Decolonization – Indian independence, post-colonial Africa, and the fall of communism around the world
8. Human Rights – Defining human rights, women’s rights, racial equality, and economic rights
9. 21st Century – Terrorism, technology revolution, and the rise of globalism

A Layers of Learning History Lesson

Each Exploration in the units is written as a complete lesson plan. It will direct you to books to read, videos to watch, projects to craft, games to play, and discussions to have. The units are clear full of Explorations to choose from, and you won’t have time for them all. This is a pick-and-choose curriculum.

Besides the history lesson for the day, the units are lined with sidebars that direct you to discussions, books, famous people, interesting facts, writing ideas, and more.

You will also see a Library List at the beginning and a Show What You Know section at the end that will help you create assessments or tests based on your individual learning.

Reusable and for All Ages

These units books are for the mentor, not to hand to the student. They are supposed to be used repeatedly. Since this is a pick-and-choose curriculum, you do some of the explorations and save others for later on. If you follow the four-year cycle, you will progress through Ancient History, Middle Ages History, Colonial History, and Modern History over the course of four years. Then you will cycle back to Ancient History in the fifth year when your kids are older and learning at a higher level. In all, you may use this book three times with your child.

The Modern History units contain plenty of concepts for little kids and plenty to challenge high schoolers. Most lessons are meant to be taught to many ages, from 6-year-olds clear up to seniors in high school.  Each age group gets the same Exploration and principles, but they learn on the level they are ready for. Books from your library and video from the YouTube playlists customize the learning for each age.

Extra Resources

YouTube playlists and links to helpful websites are all assembled and ready for you to access on the Modern History Resources page.

If you are printing the PDF course, you may want a printable Modern History cover for your binder.

Printable Packs

Modern History also includes printables for every unit. These are worksheets or paper crafts for the students. The Printable Packs are available as a digital PDF download and come with your purchase on your receipt.

Also Sold As Individual PDFs

The Modern History course also comes as individual PDF units you can purchase one-by-one as you go. The individual PDFs are exactly the same content as the units that are included within the paperback or PDF Modern History book. It’s like buying the course chapter by chapter in a digital format.