“It’s not morbid to talk about death. Most people don’t worry about death. They worry about a bad death.” ~ Terry Pratchett
I was a morbid kid who grew up into a morbid adult. I love horror movies, spooky books, and having philosophical discussions about death, so it wasn’t really a surprise that my youngest turned out to be a morbid kid. She loves to talk about death and watch horror movies. When she told me last year that history was boring, I thought it would be fun to put together a little unit to spice things up. That “little unit” turned into a full-year high school curriculum based on morbid topics like cannibalism, death, murder, and other weird history. I dubbed it Morbid Curiosities: The Dark Side of History and Science.
When I shared about it on my YouTube channel, I got a huge response from people asking me to publish it. I was very surprised because it was such a weird unit tailored to my morbid kid, and I didn’t think anyone else would be interested.
But after so many requests, I decided to go for it. Rather than write a full-year level, I thought I would publish it as unit studies. That way, if you feel like it would be too much to focus on for a whole year, you could dabble and just do one or two units.
So, what is Morbid Curiosities? It’s a set of high school-level unit studies that focus on history, science, and literature. Each unit includes a weekly and daily schedule, reading assignments, and activities based on a morbid topic. I want to reiterate that these units are not for every teen. They focus on the strange and unusual and sometimes disturbing. This is not for a sensitive teen!
But if you have a teen who is obsessed with horror or who enjoys long conversations about death, serial killers, and the ethics of cannibalism, well, you’ve come to the right place!