30+ of the Best World War II Homeschool Resources

World War 2 resources are plentiful. But which ones are worth using? This list of ideas for middle & high school will enhance your study, especially for topics beyond D-Day & Pearl Harbor.

We adored Story of the World. ADORED it. (Still do, in fact. My kids are all teens now & we often reference it for a quick overview or refresher on a topic.)

One of my few homeschool regrets is taking so long to try it out because I heard some bad reviews. I don’t have many regrets, but that is one of them.

BUT.

(There’s always a but.)

Sometimes, we wanted to dive deeper into a topic than she does, particularly when we were studying American history. We did just that when we studied the Revolutionary War & the Civil War. When we studied World War 1, we did a long pause. My public schools mostly glanced right over the topic & I was excited to dig into it. And sometimes, I wanted to add more alternative views than what could possibly be included in a curriculum.

Pausing the regular book & diving into a topic for a few weeks has been our solution. We get to keep the curriculum we love AND benefit from diving into a topic. On a personal level, I enjoy them myself because it gives me a chance to learn quite a bit more than I already knew.

I divide up our in-depth units into general themes. We may stay on the same theme for a few days until everything is completed, or we may cycle through them so we are doing something new each day.

The themes I used for this unit study included:

So it begins (conditions that led us back into another world war)
War in Africa
London Blitz
Day-to-Day Life: On the American Homefront
Propaganda
And So It Ends (atomic bomb, peace treaties, Nuremberg Trials)

Creating a World War 2 Unit Study

Creating a homeschool unit study doesn’t have to be intimidating. We’re lucky to live in a time when we have so many free resources readily available. Creating a unit study that is customized to your own family’s interests is my favorite thing about them.

When I create a new unit, my first step is to decide how long we will do it. And then I add at least one more week on — it always takes us longer than I expected!
Next, I decide if we want to do brief overviews of several topics or a deep dive into just a couple of them. There isn’t a right answer; both serve their purpose. The first time we studied World War 2, I chose to do an overview. My kiddos were in 2nd-7th grade & had some knowledge, but we hadn’t studied it in a structured way. I wanted to lay a foundation of basic knowledge on which they could then add layers of knowledge.
Next up, narrow down your topics. For our first go-round, my themes were So It Begins (conditions that led us back into a world war), War in Africa, London Blitz, On the American Homefront, Propaganda, And So It Ends (atomic bomb, peace treaties, Nuremberg Trials).
Next, what weeks are you going to do it? What else is going on that week? How long will you do it each day? It’s really easy to make your unit study plans — and then realize they aren’t going to work for the time you have to do it!
Finally, it’s time to have fun. What kinds of resources are your favorite? We love videos, so I like to add those every day. I don’t enjoy reading out loud, so I schedule no more than 30 minutes of that. (We’re in the car quite a bit, so listening to audiobooks & podcasts is an option for us.) Does your family enjoy creating art? Are you science-minded? Keep all of that in mind as you start locating resources.

The Road to World War 2

The Century: Over the Edge (Covering 1936-1941 leading to our entrance into the war.)
What Happened to the Man Who Defied Hitler? (The story behind the man in the viral picture.)
1936 Olympics
The Nazi Olympics
Causes of World War 2
How Europe Went to War in 1939 (Europe’s Lead-up to the war.)
The Road to Pearl Harbor (Amazon Prime, 16 episodes, a bit dry, so we watched bits & pieces)

London Blitz

London Blitz Bomb Sites (Learn about the various bomb locations, some pictures included.)
BBC’s site for kids (A site for kids to play around & learn about WW2.)
BBC History’s The Blitz (interviews, articles, photos, videos)

RELATED: R esources for World War 1

Pearl Harbor & Japanese Internment Camps

Voices of Pearl Harbor (oral histories from those who were there )
Minidoka National Historic Site (We toured the website as well as used parts of the elementary & middle school lesson plans in the education section.)
An interactive map of the bombing, from Japan’s departure to the aftermath.
The Path to Pearl Harbor is one of the electronic field trips from the National World War II Museum

Navajo Code Talkers

The CIA has a fantastic overview about Navajo Code Talkers & The Unbreakable Code. You’ll find a dictionary, code names for plans & warships, and a ‘break the code’ challenge.
Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two is a must-read book. (The audiobook is fantastic.) My kiddos were 7-13 when we first listened to it. (My youngest has listened to it almost as many times as he has the Harry Potter books!)
Native Words, Native Warriors (An online exhibit from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, this is worth checking out. There’s so much to explore & a great opportunity for teens to do alone.)

Do you know….

how atomic bombs actually work?
why carrot cake was a popular treat during World War II?
the connection between World War II & modern-day skiing?

Get answers to these & more!

in just 10-15 minutes a day

get curious!

On the American Home Front

The first time we completed this unit, the American home front section was a surprising hit for all of us. I knew my daughter & I would love it, but I didn’t expect my boys to ask for more of it.

Did you know that the National Park Service pays homage to all of the Rosie the Riveters?! We had no idea! The Rosie the Riveter WWII Homefront National Historical Park is located near San Fransisco. And if that isn’t on your field trip list, check out their NPS site for all sorts of learning materials.

1940s House (Clips of the house taken from the TV series, which I wasn’t able to find.)
The Century: Homefront
Victory Garden Radio Announcement (short commercial highlighting gardens)
Victory Gardens (20-minute video made in the ’40s about victory gardens)
Food Rationing (in Britain)
Food Rationing (in the US)
Homefront propaganda posters
Rosie the Riveter National Historic Park
What to Wear to a Wartime Wedding (pictures)
1940s New Orleans (7:58)
Fighting for the Right to Fight: The African-American Experience is another video/classroom guide from the National WWII Museum.

Teaching about the Holocaust

Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, located in Jerusalem, has the largest collection of primary sources relating to the Holocaust. With almost 5,000,000 names recorded, they work to match stories & photos to each name. This website is THE resource you need to tell the story of the Holocaust.

While these guidelines from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum specifically address the difficulties with teaching children about concentration camps, I think they are fantastic guidelines for teaching about any difficult subject.

World War 2 Videos

US Holocaust National Museum YouTube channel
BBC History’s World War 2
The Century: Civilians at War
Red Tails (Story of the Tuskegee Airmen)

The Nuclear Bomb

The Bomb podcast (season 1 is about Leo Szilard; season 2 is the story of Klaus Fuchs)
Sadako & the Thousand Paper Cranes
Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon
The Manhattan Project: An Electronic (On-Demand) Field Trip from the National WWII Museum — video + activities/background

Beyond Europe: World War 2 in the Rest of the World

Other World War 2 Resources

Timeline cards depicting the major events of the Second World War
Various WW2 printables & lesson aids (search for WW2)

Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms
World War II Database (images, photos, locations, equipment, etc)
Albert Einsteins’s Miracle Year
Albert Einstein & the Age of Extremism

Museums & Historical Sites about the Second World War

Museum websites are one of my first stops when I’m searching for primary sources, activity ideas, virtual tours, lesson plans, etc. Their educational sections are often far more helpful than Google! I’ve also found eager help when I’ve reached out to educational coordinators for many museums.

Britain’s Imperial War Museums
The National WW II Museum
United States Air Force WW 2 Gallery
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Verzetsmuseum (Dutch Resistance Museum)
Museum of the Great Patriotic War
Royal Military Museum (Belgium)
Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site (video tour)

Books about World War 2

Teaching about horrific events, including World War 2, in an age-appropriate way is often a challenge. Can your youngest handle the same details that your oldest did? What images are too graphic? How do you teach the serious impact without overwhelming your kiddos?

While we’re a big documentary family, when it comes to young kids, I always introduced heavy topics via books. I liked to start with gentle books that were focused on the time period, skirted around the issue, or focused on the helpers. (For example, books like Twenty & Ten, The Grand Mosque of Paris, and Rosie the Riveter: The Legacy of an American Icon.)

World War 2 Chapter Books for Grades 4-6

What was Pearl Harbor?
Twenty & Ten (A sweet, short story of French children & Jewish children. The audiobook is well done.)
What was the bombing of Hiroshima?
Sadako & the Thousand Paper Cranes
Woeful Second World War by Horrible Histories (or the video version)

Historical Fiction for Middle Schoolers

The War That Saved My Life
The Winged Watchman
A Faraway Island
Green Glass Sea (Story of the Manhattan Project)
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Heroes: A Novel of Pearl Harbor

World War 2 Graphic Novels

Sophie Scholl: Daring Activist of World War II
They Called Us Enemy
The Courageous Six Triple Eight: The All-Black Female Battalion of World War II
Displacement
We Hereby Refuse

Memoirs & Biographies

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

World War 2 Non-fiction Books

The Plot to Kill Hitler (The story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer was an excellent read and prompted really good conversations. We listened to it, and the narrator was good.)
Guts & Glory: WW2
Elephant Run (This one takes place on the Western Front.)
Flags of our Fathers: Young People Edition
Battle 100 (Covers 100 battles that affected the world; we read the WW2 ones. This is a favorite book of my boys.)

Just for Teens

This Twitter account, RealTimeWWII, tweets the entire war as if it were happening in real-time — hour by hour, day by day, year by year. The level of research that has gone into it is incredible.