Wild World of History Honest Review | Homeschool High School History Curriculum
Inside: This Wild World of History review breaks down how this video-based homeschool history curriculum actually teaches high school history, from structure and workload to teaching style. You’ll see how the video-led lessons, readings, and assessments fit together and what kind of learners benefit most. I also share who this homeschool history curriculum works well for, and where it may feel limiting for families seeking a different approach.
Choosing a high school history curriculum often comes down to one central question: how is history actually taught? Many programs promise depth and critical thinking, but in practice feel fragmented, overloaded, or dependent on constant discussion and outside reading. Others cover the material so lightly that students finish the year without a clear sense of how events connect.
Wild World of History takes a very different approach. History is taught through structured, lecture-based instruction that treats the past as a connected story rather than a collection of isolated topics.
After reviewing the lessons and materials, it became clear that the course is intentionally scoped. History is taught thoroughly, but it stays within clear boundaries instead of expanding into something parents have to constantly manage or reshape. This balance is one of the program’s strongest features.
In this review, I’ll walk through how the curriculum is organized and the types of homeschool setups it tends to work best for. For families who want history presented as a coherent narrative with a defined point of view, this curriculum may be exactly what they’ve been looking for.
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About Wild World of History
Wild World of History is a video-based homeschool history curriculum designed primarily for high school students (grades 10 and up), though motivated younger students and adults may also find it engaging. It offers courses in U.S. History and World History, with materials structured to support both independent learners and parent-led instruction.
The program is built around recorded video lectures taught by professor Larry Schweikart, paired with student study guides, teacher materials, and assigned readings drawn from his published history books. Each course follows a consistent lesson structure that combines video instruction, scheduled reading, written response questions, and periodic tests to assess understanding.
The curriculum allows some flexibility in pacing, but each course is designed to span a full academic year, with later lessons often requiring more time due to heavier reading assignments.
A defining feature of the program is Schweikart’s use of storytelling. He often draws on lesser-known but influential events and ironic historical developments to explain motivations, political maneuvering, and long-term impact. Rather than asking students to infer meaning on their own, the course explains why events unfolded the way they did and why they mattered.
U.S. History Course
The U.S. History portion of Wild World of History is divided into two full courses (U.S. History 1 and 2) that together cover American history from early exploration through modern times. The course places a strong emphasis on political history, economic systems, and the development of American institutions, helping high schoolers understand not just what happened, but why it mattered.
Throughout the course, students explore foundational ideas such as common law, private property, constitutional government, and the free market economy, and how these concepts shaped American society over time. Major historical figures, movements, and turning points are presented within a clear chronological framework that highlights cause-and-effect relationships.
The U.S. History courses include:
- Video lectures explaining major events, movements, and historical figures
- Student study guides with written questions and prompts
- Teacher guides with pacing suggestions and discussion notes
- Regular tests, including document-based questions
The primary assigned reading comes from A Patriot’s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen.
Lessons are structured to reinforce understanding through repetition, with ideas introduced in the lecture and strengthened through reading and review. This approach works well for high schoolers who need a complete, well-organized history course without unnecessary complexity.
World History Course
The World History course covers modern world history since 1775. It also begins with an extended background overview (roughly 800–1800 A.D.) to introduce key ideas and developments that shaped the modern era.
Content is organized into two main parts that together span roughly a full academic year, making it suitable as a comprehensive high school world history course.
World History lessons focus on:
- Major global developments and turning points
- Political, economic, and cultural changes across regions
- The rise of modern nation-states
- Global conflicts and shifting world power structures
As with the U.S. History courses, students are guided to see how ideas such as governance, economic systems, and institutional development influenced different societies in different ways. While the course maintains a Western-centered narrative, events are consistently placed within a broader global context.
Assigned readings come from A Patriot’s History of the Modern World, Volume 1 and A Patriot’s History of the Modern World Volume 2).
The World History course follows the same overall structure as the U.S. History courses, combining video instruction, student and teacher guides, written work, and tests.
About the Author and His Perspective
Wild World of History is created and taught by Larry Schweikart, a former college history professor with decades of experience teaching at the university level. He is the co-author of A Patriot’s History of the United States and A Patriot’s History of the Modern World, which serve as the main reading texts for the U.S. History and World History courses in this program.
Schweikart is open about the perspective he brings to history. In his American History work, he presents a Christian and patriotic interpretation that supports the idea of American exceptionalism — the belief that the United States developed a political and cultural character distinct from the European societies its early settlers left behind. That same framework carries into the World History course, where global events are often discussed in relation to Western political development and the rise of modern institutions.
Across both courses, history is explained through ideas and systems rather than as a neutral collection of events. Political structures, economic models, and institutional development are central to how change is described. This shapes how lessons unfold and how kids are guided to understand cause and effect over time.
Christianity appears throughout the curriculum as a historical and cultural influence, particularly in discussions of law, governance, and social organization.
Because this perspective is consistent from start to finish, Wild World of History works best when it’s understood as a curriculum with a defined point of view. For families who value a clear narrative and an organized framework, that clarity can be reassuring. For others, it’s simply something to be aware of before choosing the course.
Teaching Style and Workload
Wild World of History follows a traditional, lecture-centered teaching model. Video lessons form the core of instruction, with Schweikart presenting history in a direct, narrative style. Lessons emphasize chronological order, cause-and-effect relationships, and big-picture explanations.
The course is built around repetition and reinforcement. Key ideas are introduced in the lecture, supported through reading, revisited in written work, and reviewed again through tests. This approach works well for students who benefit from structure and repeated exposure.
The recommended workload averages 3–4 hours per week, typically broken down into about one hour of video instruction and two to three hours of reading and written work.
Families can watch lectures in one sitting or split them across multiple days. The teacher guides offer pacing suggestions, but the schedule remains flexible enough to adjust for reading speed, attention span, or other academic priorities.
Overall, the workload is steady and predictable. Students are expected to read, write, and retain information, making this a better fit for learners who are comfortable with traditional academic expectations.
How the Courses Are Set Up
Each Wild World of History course follows a consistent lesson structure built around video instruction and coordinated written materials.
- Video lectures
Video lectures range from under 30 minutes to just over an hour and typically cover two to three topics, with natural breakpoints that make it easy to pause and spread lessons across multiple days. Many families watch them in one sitting, while others divide them across two or three days. The videos present the full lesson content. - Student study guides
Student guides average about 12 pages per lesson for American History and ten or fewer pages per lesson for World History, consisting primarily of written response and essay-style questions. - Teacher guides
Teacher materials mirror the student guides and add learning objectives, pacing suggestions, and test guidance, making the course easy to implement without additional planning. - Assigned reading
Lessons are mapped to specific chapters in the accompanying history books. Reading length varies by lesson but is clearly scheduled and coordinated with the videos and study questions. - Assessments
Courses include periodic tests, typically after several lessons. These combine multiple-choice questions with document-based or short essay prompts. Answer keys are provided.
Once families understand the format, the course is easy to follow week to week.
Strengths of Wild World of History
Clear and focused high school history
One of the biggest strengths of Wild World of History is how clearly everything is laid out. Each lesson follows the same format, so both parents and students know exactly what’s coming next. Videos, readings, written work, and tests are organized in a predictable way, which cuts down on planning time and mental overload. As a parent who never felt particularly confident with history, this alone makes a big difference for me.
The course isn’t overloaded with dates and minor events. Instead, it focuses on the most significant and influential moments. That selectiveness is incredibly helpful if you’re easily overwhelmed by traditional history textbooks packed with endless names and details. For me, this was a relief. It made the material feel manageable instead of intimidating.
Engaging delivery and connected history
Larry Schweikart teaches history as a continuous narrative instead of a long list of disconnected facts. Lessons focus on timelines, cause-and-effect relationships, and broader historical patterns. This approach makes it much easier to see how events connect and why they matter. History often feels confusing because it’s hard to hold the timeline in your head, and this course does a good job of clearing that up.
The lectures do have a college-style feel, but they’re far from dull. The professor is clearly passionate about history and presents the material in a lively, engaging way. Marc enjoyed the delivery and found it easy to stay focused, even though the format is more traditional.
The course includes formal assessments, document-based questions, and essay prompts, which is useful for building solid academic skills. At the same time, it’s much more straightforward to use than some history programs that require extensive discussion, extra reading, or heavy parent involvement. Everything you need is already there (aside from the two books suggested for reading), which makes the course efficient and accessible.
Strong visual support + timelines
One thing I personally appreciated is the way timelines are used throughout the lectures. For a visual learner like me, this matters a lot. Seeing events placed clearly in time while the professor explains them helps everything fall into place. History has always been one of the hardest subjects for me to teach because I never had a clear mental picture of how events fit together. The visual timeline solves that problem.
Another thing I really liked is that the full lesson is presented in video form. While there are assigned readings, you can understand a lot just from the lecture itself. The readings and written work reinforce what’s already been taught rather than introducing completely new material. For a ninth grader with a busy STEM-focused schedule, this balance works very well for us, especially since this year our focus is on geography and we use history in the background.
Students don’t just watch videos. They also read, write, and review. The supporting materials are there to strengthen understanding and check comprehension, not to bury students in extra work.
Overall, this is a history program that works especially well for parents who want clarity and structure, and for students who need a complete, well-organized course without history taking over their entire schedule.
How We’re Using Wild World of History
This year, we decided to make geography our main focus for social studies in 9th grade (see our 9th grade curriculum choices here), so we’re using Wild World of History in a more relaxed, unofficial way (we will not send tests to our school, Bridgeway Academy). Instead of treating it as a full, graded history course, we watch the lectures together and use them as a structured way to keep history present in our homeschool.
We mainly rely on the video lessons. We often pause them to talk through ideas, clarify timelines, or explore questions that come up naturally during the lecture. We don’t do much of the written work right now, but I regularly use the study guide prompts as oral discussion questions, which works well for us.
Finding a world history resource that is both easy to navigate and not overwhelming has been surprisingly difficult. Using Wild World of History this way has allowed us to stay connected to history without it competing with our main academic priorities. It’s been a practical way to keep history alive in our homeschool while we focus more deeply on another subject this year.
Who Wild World of History Works Well For
As a parent who never particularly loved history or felt confident teaching it, I can see the appeal of a curriculum like Wild World of History. Having the subject laid out clearly, with a consistent structure and a teacher explaining the material directly, removes a lot of the mental load.
This makes Wild World of History a strong option for parents who struggle with history themselves or who simply want a straightforward, open-and-go course. The video-based format helps take pressure off the parent, and the fact that everything is organized makes it easier to stay on track.
It also fits well for high school students who need a solid, complete history credit without the course becoming overwhelming or time-consuming. For families juggling multiple subjects or heavier academic priorities, that simplicity is a real advantage.
Where this curriculum may be less ideal is for students who want to analyze history deeply, compare multiple interpretations, and form their own conclusions in a more open-ended way. Students who are especially passionate about history or preparing for an AP-level course often benefit from programs that emphasize debate, historiography, and competing perspectives more heavily.
That said, for a regular high school history course, Wild World of History offers a practical, manageable approach. Compared to more complex history programs that demand extensive discussion, outside reading, or heavy parent involvement, this course is more straightforward and easier to use day to day.
Final Thoughts
Wild World of History is a good history curriculum that knows exactly what it wants to be. It offers a structured, video-based approach to history with a clear narrative and a predictable workload. For families who value an open-and-go setup, that alone can make teaching history feel far more manageable.
This program also works especially well for parents who don’t feel confident teaching history themselves and for students who need a complete high school history course without it becoming overwhelming. The lectures carry the core instruction, the supporting materials reinforce learning, and the overall design makes it easy to keep history present in your homeschool even during academically heavy years.
If you’re looking for a straightforward, well-organized history course that presents a cohesive narrative and respects your time as a parent, Wild World of History is a solid option to consider.
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