Early Colonial Crafts for our Homeschool Handcrafts for our US History We’ve just started our first history block of the year for US History. The block will cover early colonialization. To go along with this block, I’ve chosen a few early colonial skills needed to serve as our handcrafts. The first one is spinning fiber….
Category: History
Making Maple Candy
An Activity for our Native American History and Literature Study – The Anishinaabe Nation As part of our Anishinaabe study under our Native America History and Literature block we attempted making maple syrup candy. It was surprisingly simple and easy to make with only one ingredient – maple syrup. I wanted to use an Anishinaabe elder’s…
Some Favorite Books for Black History Month
I know I’m a little late to the ballgame, but I wanted to add to the wonderful collection of books that I am seeing for Black History Month. Not all of them are historical necessarily, but there are a couple that I just needed to add anyway. These are not affiliate links. I, Matthew Henson…
Industrial Revolution
We recently finished our block on the Industrial Revolution. This was such an interesting block in the time period, and innovations had a diversity of impacts on so many people – some good and some bad. I used The Industrial Revolution for Kids as a spine of sorts, reading from it on a regular basis….
A Time-Sequence Graph
When my son was in eighth grade, I compiled several resources to make a “How We Learn/How to Study” course in preparation for High School. It went over thinks like memory recall, reflection, interleaving, and notetaking. One aspect that we spent some time on were graphs and using them for study, understanding, and notetaking. In…
African Holocaust Block
Because the African Holocaust is a heavy one, I knew that I wanted to sandwich it in-between some ‘good stuff.’ I decided to do this by first exploring the continent of Africa and ending on the accomplishments and achievements of a few African-decent people. This block is a fifth grade history block. Before I continue…
Shakespeare Unit
This was a fabulous homeschool unit where everything just came together. There was a lot of interweaving of facts throughout the books and projects. Our Read Aloud books, The Shakespeare Stealer and Shakespeare’s Scribe, both describe events that we read about in our historical books – the coup attempt by the Earl of Essex, the…
Renaissance Unit
Renaissance art is some of my favorite art. I don’t know if it’s the depth of color or the intensity of the scenes, but I find it fascinating. The artists that created them are also fascinating. This has been one of our many history units this semester. And just in case you noticed that Shakespeare…
Explorers of the World History Unit
This year in history we have come to the dreaded “Age of Discovery,” which is a misnomer, because all these European explorers really “discovered” nothing at all. These places were already inhabited and well-established, sometimes with populations even greater than any in Europe at the time. A better name for this time period might be…
Peg Dolls Skin Tones Using Natural Dyes
Recently I was gifted several wooden peg dolls from Woodpecker Crafts. I had seen Hana with Pepper and Pine’s project of using natural dyes to color wooden peg dolls and was excited to try it. I’m hoping to incorporate these dolls in our Explorer’s Unit and upcoming homeschooling year when we focus on some of…
Games – Late Elementary
THIS IS A 4-PART BLOG SERIES ON GAMES. IT INCLUDES GAMES FOR PRESCHOOLERS, EARLY ELEMENTARY, LATER ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL. THIS POST CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS THAT WILL HELP YOU FIND THE GAME EASILY. These are my favorite games suitable for late elementary. I really like to have games that cover a range of…
Golden Age of Islam (Middle Ages) Resources and Activities
Ramadan Mubarak! Though we are not Muslim, we have several friends and followers that are. I am saddened that they have to celebrate their holy month in the middle of the Corona pandemic. In honor of the month of Ramadan I’ve compiled our resources and activities for the Golden Age of Islam Unit that we…
My Switch to Living History Books
“Well, this one country, they were mad at this other country, because of this dictator, you know.” This was my son’s response to my question about what he had just read in history. We discuss what he reads after he is finished to help work it into his memory and so I can judge…