10+ Low-Prep Resources to Study 9/11 in Your Homeschool

Keep it low-key & easy when you study September 11 in your homeschool with these resources for middle & high school.

Studying 9/11 with my kiddos has been a difficult thing. There’s so much emotion around it, even now. They know a lot about the whys & the lasting impacts from a world history perspective. They know that it led to our lives going from a typical suburban lifestyle to a military one. (20 years & newly retired.)

But that day? The days following? Beyond the basics, we haven’t really studied it. But with this being the 20th anniversary and US history/geography in our school year, I decided this was the year to tackle it.

I was mindful when I chose these 9/11 resources to choose ones that would work for most kids. None of these are inappropriate for younger-than-listed ages; they just aren’t as engaging for them. So if you have a variety of ages, that shouldn’t be a concern. (Preview first, of course!)

A word of note: I originally wrote this in 2021. I was excited to dig into it with my kiddos & prepared myself for the emotions and questions I anticipated. And then we studied it. I was surprised by how little emotion they felt about it — nary a big of indignation or tears.

Later, I was talking with a friend about it. She had the same experience with her kiddos. It dawned on us — to our kiddos, September 11 was as far removed as the Vietnam War was to us at their ages. Both of us had fathers who served in Vietnam, a legacy that deeply impacted our families. But it was history to us.

Maybe you’ve already figured this out. In subsequent years, it’s made the day (and studying it) easier for me. I can back off the emotions it invokes in me and just let my kids learn more (or not). My youngest, last year, spent the week prior reading & watching. My older son knows what happened, and how it changed our family and is content to leave it at that.

The day doesn’t have to be a big thing. Many people approach this day as if it just happened & expect the same of others. Others can’t, for whatever reason, give it that same heaviness. Whatever works for your family & your homeschool!

9/11 Resources for Elementary & Middle School

• Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story by Nora Raleigh Raskin
• 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy
• 5-Day (free) 9/11 Unit Study from Pandia Press (scroll to the bottom)
• Generation 9/11 on PBS
• Encountering 9/11 from Scholastic
• Lesson/activity ideas from the 9/11 Memorial & Museum

9/11 Resources for Middle & High School

These resources aren’t inappropriate for younger kids; they just aren’t designed to keep the attention of littles.

• Blindspot: The Road to 9/11 podcast (8 episodes)
• Teaching & Learning about 9/11 with the New York Times
• 9/11 & the Constitution lesson plans
• 102 Minutes that Changed America (The story of the day told via footage that individuals took. If you want one with a lot of details that narrate the day, this isn’t it. But it is less intense than others I’ve watched.)

• Watch an anniversary film & chat live with a staff member (virtually) courtesy of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
• Movies from The History Channel: 9/11: Inside Air Force One, 9/11: The Pentagon, 9/11: The Final Minutes of Flight 93 (free trial on Amazon Prime or History Channel’s website)
• The Reckoning: America & the World a Decade After 9/11 (a variety of news stories)
• Lesson/activity ideas from the 9/11 Memorial & Museum

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