Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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Tina Robertson

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Kids Studying the French and Indian War

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have rounded up 15 hands-on history ideas for middle school kids studying the French and Indian War of 1754 – 1763. Hands-on history not only sparks excitement for continuing to study a topic, but learning sticks because your child is doing and making a connection to the past. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school for more fun tips.

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Kids Studying the French and Indian War

Too, it is always my aim to continue to flesh out my unit studies and add more hands-on history activities as I find them.

Okay, I actually have more than 15 hands-on history ideas for studying about the French and Indian War.

This topic is not an easy one to teach at lower levels and most resources are at the high school level.

French and Indian War

However, I am tickled to share this free resource from the National Park Service which I came across after I completed our first study of the French and Indian War.

It has several downloads and you want to be sure and grab each unit because they are awesome.

french and indian war

Look at each download below. {Source Don Troiani, www.historicalprints.com}

Teacher Background

Unit 1: Who Were the People Involved?

Unit 2: What Were they fighting For?

Unit 3: How Did the Conflict Begin?

Unit 4: How did the War Progress?

Unit 5: How Did the Conflict End? What Were the Consequences?

Unit 6: How Did the French and Indian War Set the Stage for the American Revolution?

Unit 7: Biography Cards

Unit 8: Primary Documents and Artifacts

The ideas for these hands-on activities come from the background information on the free downloads.

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Middle School Kids

One and Two.
Bio Bingo – This free download at NPS has a Bingo game about key events and your student can create biography cards on major characters.

Three.
Nearly everyone in the army would carry flint and steel for starting fires. Check out how to make a flint & steel fire starter. (adult supervision)

Four.
Baskets were made by woman and had many uses. Check out how to make a coiled bowl.

Also, we love the hands-on ideas from Home School in the Woods.  Look at their American Revolution hands-on unit which covers the French & Indian War.

Five.
Europeans gave pipe tomahawks as gifts to Indian leaders. With adult supervision, this tomahawk could be made, by an older teen, but there is also an easy cardboard tomahawk . Great activity for a younger learner.

Six.
A compass was an important tool for navigating in North America. Check out my post – homemade compass.

Seven.
Learn about powder horns and create your own.

Eight.
Check out these French and Indian War images which can be used for a fun writing activity.

Nine.
How To Make An Easy Ink pot & Quill Pen with Berry Ink.

French and Indian War Kids Activities

Ten.
Make a tricorn hat.

Eleven.
 Learn how to make a beaver hat.

Twelve.
Make a leather pouch. Even though this link is a puzzle pouch, I like it because it has a template for the pouch.

Then here is an easier pouch for a younger child.

Thirteen.
Make an authentic turtle rattle and then there is another version on this same site for a younger child too.

Fourteen.
This is cool to build a fort fence at your house.

The Seven Years War Hands-on Ideas

Fifteen.
Create your own Iroquois wampum belt with string and beads.

And MORE fun things to bring this topic to life!
grab my free French and Indian War lapbook too.

French and Indian War Lapbook | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Also, prior to The French and Indian War, the Iroquois Confederacy was formed and tried to stay neutral for most of the war.

To flesh out a study on The French and Indian War, be sure to check out my Iroquois Confederacy Unit Study and Lapbook.

Have your student memorize some of the George Washington’s Rules of
Good Behavior close to 1746 , read the story of Mary Jemison who was captured by Indians amidst the war between the British and the French and read the speech of Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa tribe addressing a gathering of Ottawa, Huron, and Potawatomie Indians, May 5, 1763.

Here is a printable crossword puzzle on the French and Indian War. Click printable .pdf at the bottom. Be sure to the answer key too.

Make a bear claw necklace.

Look at this older site, the Fort at No. 4 for postcards to print for a writing exercise or to make it art, learn about colonial money, colonial tools, do an acrostic poem, and a map of the area.

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Kids Studying the French and Indian War

Hope this round up will help you to find some hands-on history activities for this time period and to keep it fun.

Also you’ll love these other hands-on history activities:

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Middle School Kids Studying The French and Indian War @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

What Do You Fear Most About Homeschooling?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

What do you fear most about homeschooling?  If we could see the list of others, whose list would be longer?

  • Fear that I won’t prepare my kids for the world outside of my home.
  • Fear that my extended family that is watching ever so close will inspect us at the end of the year to see if we failed.
  • Fear that I won’t guide my children to fulfill their God given talents to the best of their ability.
  • Fear of being a perfectionist on top of that being unorganized – is that possible?
  • Fear that I will miss some vital subject.
  • Fear that my children will get behind.
  • Fear that I am the only one that loses patience with my kids.
  • Fear that I am the only one where public school looks like the perfect solution on some days.

Does your list look similar?

What would make you more confident?

Knowing that you are not alone in your fears and knowing what worked and what did not work for others is encouraging.
However, there is one noteworthy step in my experience that stand outs among all others and that is goal setting.

What Do You Fear Most About Homeschooling @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Goals are not only essential but they are crucial.

Fears are normal in the beginning when homeschooling, but what is more important to remember is that you are now swimming upstream so to speak.  You are going against the norm and that requires hard work.

Goals energize us to stay focused on our family’s needs.

We will avoid just floating along, responding to the moment or jumping ship to adopt the newest trend in homeschooling when our goals are specific and measurable.

The second important thing to remember is that your journey will be unique.

This point is so important I want to say it again.

Though some of your experiences will mirror my experiences and other homeschoolers, they will not all be the same.

How to Make a Strong Start in Homeschooling

Bottom line is you have to be able to measure progress for your own unique journey and you need a way to do that.

Look at how setting goals reduces fears, gives you very specific ways to measure the progress of your unique family and fortifies you for each year.

  • We make progress based on our family’s need.
  • Instead of wasting time checking out all the latest trends in homeschooling, we are analyzing our own efforts and measuring progress within our own family.
  • We avoid boredom and a stagnant year because we are focused on whether we need to speed up our homeschooling journey or slow it down to meet our family’s need.
  • Homeschooling is more purposeful and inspirational because out time is focused on meeting goals instead of coasting along.

Though I have made some pretty pages for you to write your homeschool goals on, you can write them anywhere.

I tout it all the time and that is though goals may sound good in our mind, when we put them to paper they are concrete.

Don’t ever forget what brought you to homeschooling in the first place.

If our goals and reasons are not in plain sight each day we give in to fear.

As time passes, it happens to all us and that is we forget why we chose homeschooling as a superior education.  Those reasons quell any fears and keeps us plodding forward.

Like the subjects we teach our children, reminders are needed throughout the years when fears resurface.

Overcoming fears happens by not only arming yourself with homeschool knowledge but with goals.

When your goals are met each year, you don’t need the validation of others, either by testing or by family approval.

What are your fears about homeschooling? Where are your goals?

Hugs and love ya,

Tina 2015 Signature

Also, check out these other posts.

When You Feel Like a Homeschool Failure

When does homeschooling become “normal”?

 

Free History Copywork – A Roundup of History Resources

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Copywork is a valuable aid in teaching visual learners.

Too, because copywork can be part of a history unit study, I have rounded up some free history copywork pages.

Free History Copywork. A roundup of history resources you'll love. Click here to download the free copywork @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Free copywork is easy to find, but I wanted to round up just those focused on history so you can pair them with your history unit studies and with the free unit studies I have here.

History copywork does not exist as plentiful as just plain copywork, so I will be adding more freebies for history copywork to match my unit studies here.

Today, I have a copywork page on the poem, Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

You can read the whole poem on the link and then also look at sparknotes for an explanation of the poem if you want to do some more copywork.

Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Then here are the free ones I rounded up.

Theodore Roosevelt Copywork Pages from Jimmies Collage.

President Quotes Copywork Pages from Walking By the Way. {Click on picture to download.}

American History 1770-1880’s Copywork Pages from Lulu.

Famous quotes from World Leaders Copywork Pages from Practical Pages.

28 Principles of Liberty Cursive Copywork Pages from Notebooking Nook.

Leonardo Da Vinci Copywork Pagesfrom Harrington Harmonies.

American Revolution Copywork Pages from Harrington Harmonies.

Preamble to the Constitution Copywork Pages from Cynce’s Places.

George Washington’s Rules of Civility Copywork Pagesfrom Donna Young.

Winston Churchill Quote Copywork Page from Activity Village.

Shakespeare Quotes Copywork Pagesfrom Activity Village.

Martin Luther King Quotes Copywork Pages from 3 Boys and a Dog.

John F. Kennedy – Excerpt from Inaugural Address Copywork Pages from Blessed Beyond a Doubt.

Then here are my other two copywork pages I have done that are history related.

Greece Poetry by Robert Frost @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusCattle by Berta Hart Nance Collage

Download Greece poem here.         Download Cattle, a Texas Poem.

This will give us a running start but I will be adding more history copywork pages especially for Ancient history.

Hugs and love ya,

Also, grab:

Free Middle and High School Homeschool Language Arts

Homeschooled Kids Who Read – Pastime Pleasure or Professional Prerequisite?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

In the early years of homeschooling much of our time is focused on how to teach reading and rightly so.

Today, homeschooled kids who read for pastime pleasure or as a professional prerequisite is about giving you a bird’s eye view of reading.

Being in the homeschool reading trenches, it is important to glance up every now and again to hone our reading vision.

Look at some tips to remember on your reading adventure.

Make it your aim to associate reading with pleasure in the early years.

How do you do this? By not just teaching phonics and then stopping for the day.

I know your time is stretched thin when the kids are all little but one attention grabbing story can capture the attention of 3, 4 or more young children.

Too, another tip I did along this same lines was to start a chapter book or long book like Charlotte’s Web instead of reading just a short children’s book that could be read in one setting. 

Don’t worry about the higher vocabulary in chapter books.  Just explain the meaning and move on. 

I piqued their attention for the next chapter or the next time we sat down together. They didn’t want to miss what happened next in the story.

Environment matters too.

Try to move away from a stiff and formal atmosphere for reading.  Don’t do like I did with my son.  The minute he started rolling on the floor, I got onto him. 

Soon I realized there was a difference between moving and wrestling.  Too, when I asked him at 3 years old what we were reading about, he could still tell me in a few simple silly words.  He was listening.

I learned to relax by taking a lesson from my son who was relaxed while we read even though he was moving a bit.

Add in choral reading.

I never heard of choral reading before I homeschooled.

Shortly after reading about the benefits of it, I added it quickly to my reading schedule.

In teaching my boys to read, next to reading aloud, choral reading was by far the best teaching tip that spanned from beginner reader even to high school with my boys.

Homeschooled Kids Who Read Pastime Pleasure or Professional Prerequisite @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Choral reading is reading a short passage with your child at the same time.  The benefits are far from simple.

I had one son who equated reading with not breathing or at least it seemed that way. 

He read so fast without pauses because I had focused so much on getting up his reading speed that he wasn’t comprehending, much less enjoying anything we were reading.

When we started choral reading, he could see where I paused, where I put emphasis and how I took a longer pause at the period.

It wasn’t too long before his reading fluency changed and he could not only understand what we were reading, but his volume, diction and rate of reading improved quickly.

Since he is my Sociable Sam type of personality, it was always a fun time for us.  He liked the challenge of reading with me.

Homeschooled Kids Who Read  Lifelong

It was also a skill I practiced with my sons as they entered high school.

Though I had let my oldest two sons do choral reading together a few times, it ended up being competitive and one son would always feel like he was doing less. So that didn’t work in my circumstance.

You may have children that are spread apart enough in age that an older child could do it with a younger child and not make the younger one feel defeated.

Much later in the teen years and even into high school, it was a fail-safe practice because not only would my sons be reading for pleasure but understanding what they read in books would be the stepping stones to passing tests for any profession they chose as adults.

Create memory aids.

Visual person that I am, I knew that at least two of my sons were visual learners also.

In the beginning, I made story props so that each child could hold up the character or prop when he heard it in the story.

Using hands-on props helped me sons to remember certain parts to a story.

For older kids, letting them look at a timeline or visual fact card on the subject you are reading about is helpful.

Public reading aloud.

Public reading aloud infused my boys to take reading seriously and to see the value of it beyond pleasure. 

When reading for pleasure, it’s not really important to have to remember what you are reading.

When my sons took up public reading aloud, it is a form of reading that is done in the adult world or work place. 

Public speaking and public reading aloud helped my boys to prepare for the work force and equipped them with valuable study skills if they are pursuing college courses.

Homeschooled kids do not have to make a choice between a pastime pleasure or using their reading skills as prerequisite for a professional job.  They can have both.

Adding in a few of these tips to your reading schedule not only will make your child a better reader, but when he is an adult, he will be an avid learner.

Guess what? Things have become too serious around here.

To celebrate National Reading Month, we are going to PARTY!!!!

I LOVE giveaways and I am so excited for you about this giveaway.

I have joined a few of my fellow bloggers from iHN to give away a Kindle Fire HD 6 16 GB !  Oh yeah baby, it’s nice!

Would you like one FREE?

Just a few guidelines.

1. Open to U.S. residents only.

2. The giveaway is from 6:00 am EST Monday, March 16 until 6:00 am EST Friday, March 20.

 The winner will be announced on Saturday, March 21.

3. Follow the instructions closely on the Rafflecopter. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Scoot by and visit the other hosts and check out their tips about reading.

Starts at Eight: Children’s Books about the Library

The Heart of Michelle: 5 Ways to Encourage Reading in a Reluctant Reader

Our Journey Westward: 11 Tips for Raising Readers

Life’s Hidden Treasures: Family Favorites and a Kindle Fire Giveaway for National Reading Month

Hugs and love ya

Tina 2015 Signature

Look at some more helpful tips!

Teaching Homeschooled Boys How to Read – When to Panic!

Letting Go of the Homeschool Language Arts Stranglehold

What You’ve Got To Know About Teaching Reading Comprehension

 

Homeschooling A Trial Run?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

No matter what our knowledge of the homeschool world is when we begin, the thought of giving homeschooling a trial run crosses our mind during our journey.

I had a younger sister who was homeschooled and I knew quite a bit about the homeschooling world then, but I still thought I should be prepared to send my first son back to public school.


Homeschool Trials – A Sign of Weakness?

What if my son missed out on opportunities that only the public school could offer?

What if the public school teacher was more prepared than myself on a particular subject?

What would I do if we got to high school and I didn’t have a science lab?

What field trips would he miss out on?

What I have learned is that we can’t lead our lives, teach our children or fully enjoy the benefits of homeschooling based on “what ifs”.
We will either be insane, live in a state of constant panic and fear or we can choose now to intentionally homeschool.

Now, when I think about homeschooling being a trial run it’s like saying: “I’ll give my newborn a year. Because if I don’t have a great year, we’ll we just can’t keep him.”

That may sound like a way out there analogy but homeschooling half-heartedly was paralyzing and insane.

I think about all the preparation I made for nine months when I had my first born.


I thought everything would go perfect, along with our perfect crib, perfect schedule and perfect baby because well — I planned, right?

If I had judged my whole parenthood by the first year with my oldest son, I wouldn’t have had any more kids because very few of my expectations were met.

It was not rock-a-bye-baby with my first son.

The sleepless nights, constant calls to the doctor and worrying, the nights up pacing, rocking, digging for information to understand him was met by lots of hard work and on the job training.  It was much more time than I even imagined.

Homeschooling is very similar.

I homeschool to enjoy the freedom, to have better standards, to give more time, to tailor the curriculum, to give my children a better future, to give my sons a better foot hold in life, to build Godly character, to foster sibling relationships, to build a relationship with God, to capture my child’s heart, to make learning a delight for the child and on and on.

Homeschooling A Trial Run @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I was not giving that up.

Along the way, I figured out this would not happen if I kept looking back instead of looking forward.

After my momentary lapse of fear when I put my son back in school for less than a year and took him back out, I realized that ruling out public school as an option from the beginning was the only way I could whole heartedly homeschool.

Too, though in the beginning my fears were more about not being able to meet my sons’ academic needs, the turns and twists of life have proven more challenging than meeting the academic ones.

Extended sicknesses by family members, deaths in our extended family, change of employment, financial ups and downs, pregnancy, and moving have been challenges that have you second guessing your journey.

Breaking all ties with public school was the best thing I did for our family. Why?

Because meeting the challenges of life was done best without interference with the public school schedule.

Public school may seem like a blessed relief in the beginning, but relief can quickly turn to restraint after the initial phase has passed.

Year-end testing, homework in the evenings and giving up control of what your children will be learning and when, were not things that I wanted to add to an already stressful time.

I weathered all the personal challenges I mentioned above and my homeschool conviction was stronger because of it.

At the time when I was making trips back and forth to the ICU in the hospital to care for my husband, laying on the couch because I was so nauseated each day of my pregnancy that I couldn’t hardly move to take care of my other children and driving hours and hours back and forth from my house to my mother’s house to care for my very sick mother, I felt my sons were going to be so behind in their academics that public school would be a relief.

Academics – Perk of Homeschooling?

Tears followed and the feeling of defeat loomed.
What I have come to treasure, value and hold on to is that out of every one of life’s challenges, we raced ahead, caught up and even moved ahead at certain times.
Along through the years, I taught my sons about compassion, nurturing older ones and the value of precious life. What a blessing!

Here are my answers now to the above questions:

If I sent my children back to public school, it would be giving them less as I can offer more even when the road blocks of life happen.

Yes, I have gaps in my education and will make mistakes. Through the years, I have seen plenty of mistakes in textbooks though.

Many professionals will know more on subjects than me, but I am the parent I don’t have to know the subjects, my children do.

I can hire private tutors, use DVDs, have my sons take on line classes and use co-ops and not to mention learn right along with my kids and I did.

We still don’t have a science lab.

We have something better, a fully stocked kitchen that is the perfect science lab.

Field trips are not taken once a year or a few times in the early years and then almost non-existent in the older grades, which is the norm in public school.

I did better. We have taken monthly field trips for every year and the field trips are some of my boys best learning moments. The tales we have to tell you now.

I don’t view myself as a particularly courageous or brave person, but through each hurdle, I was fortified, fueled and empowered for the next challenge and unswerving in my determination to stick to homeschooling.

Keep looking forward to your end goals and don’t measure your whole homeschooling career in front of you by one or two years. It is worth every effort and sacrifice.

What about you? Have you chosen to intentionally homeschool NOW?

Don’t give in thinking the other path is easier, check out these posts:

Hugs and love ya,