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Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization

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

I loved doing a review of what every child needs to know about Western Civilization.

My obsession with wanting to teach history creatively stems from a quote I read by H.G. Wells.

“Narrow history teaching of our school days was mainly an uninspiring and partially forgotten list of national kings or presidents.“

Avoiding uninspiring lists and meeting the challenge of dodging inside-the-box history curriculum has not always been easy.

So I was happy to review What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press.

I will just tell you now that I won’t hide my obvious preference for this curriculum.

It fills a much needed niche in the homeschooling community, but it is so much more than a history curriculum. More on that in a minute.

What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press

I glanced through all the fascinating and detailed pictures.

The BrimWood press bundle I received included:

  • 1 Guide: What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization.
  • 1 Calendar Quest which is a historical narrative.
  • 1 Color the Western World.

I am especially giddy about this curriculum.

It is the first one that I have used that covers history in broad strokes.

How broad? Well, in just 12 – 14 lessons you cover 5,000 years of history.

Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press

I had to read that twice. I might add there are 2 more lessons, but one is an introduction and one is a review.

Details can be fascinating, but they can get in the way too.

Not all details are necessary to understanding and grasping the full picture. Sometimes it just does not matter. I think kids know that too.

Middle School Homeschool History

I have covered history through unit studies, through a four year cycle and through the eyes of individuals that lived in each time period, I couldn’t wait to get started using it.

This teaches a story of how the calendar came to us which is how What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization teaches. Clever.

As the fictional characters, Lindsie and Evan travel through time in a refrigerator box, Tiny eagerly tuned in,

Strangely enough Father Time always seems to be around to explain about how a seven day week came to us or how the constellations were located in the sky.

It didn’t hurt either that Mr. Awesome joined us for this review and read aloud to us. I highly recommend using your highschooler for a read aloud if you have one.

I am happy that my high school teen joined us for this review .

It allowed me to evaluate how extensive it was for him a high school teen.

Homeschool History

With the additional activities listed in the manual that include research, questions concerning worldview, introduction to the traits of each civilization and the contributions made by each civilization, I certainly think that a novice or highschooler could use the manual to discover them.

Too, if you have highschooler who is burned out on history, then using the manual can breathe life back into your day.

The wide scope that it covers keeps it so not intimidating.

As for the reader or Calendar Quest, it is written to an elementary age child. 

However, there were some characters along Lindsie and Evan’s trek that Mr. Awesome and I had obscurely heard of. Discovering those vague history characters was an unexpected benefit of Mr. Awesome reading to Tiny. 

Mr. Awesome claimed the reader was too young for him and it was, but then again, it is right on grade level like the publisher claims for using with a younger child. Tiny enjoyed the humor in the reader and I found a way for my older child to join us.

What I love about What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization.

Like I mentioned before, it is so much more than a history program. Listing both the history features that I loved and the other things, I don’t want to miss giving you any nifty detail.

  • I find the lesson plan layout very useful. You know my obsession with expecting a lot from a teacher’s manual and how some manuals are nothing more than an answer sheet. This is an excellent and well organized manual or guide with practical tips. You see exactly how to cover each lesson.
  • One more significant point about this manual is that it is BOTH teacher and student guide. You use it with ALL of your children. Thank you BrimWood Press for understanding that we are teaching multiple ages of children and that we try to avoid insanity by not using 3 or 4 different teacher’s manuals.
  • Use this one manual for multiple ages of children. By the way when I find a curriculum like this that I can use with multiple ages of children, I try to divide the price by the number of children using it so I can see what I am actually paying for each child per year. Then divide it again into half because it is both teacher manual and student manual to get a true cost. That is how I arrive at the value of a curriculum that I use with multiple children.

Teacher Manual Features

Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press
  • I’m not done yet with the manual because it is so comprehensive and I have to tell you about the layout. The first page of the lesson has a box called Teacher Preview and another one called Objectives. Oh YES – I am in organization bliss! Give me a purpose for the lesson and I have a direction for the day.
  • Here is another sweet bite on this program because you know I said it was so much more than a history program.  It has geography and a snip of language arts too. This especially feeds my desire to teach out of the box because I can include any subject I want to and apply those subjects when I teach about a topic. It’s more meaningful to include details when they are wanted.

Teaching Helps

  • The next part of the lesson is called History in a Nutshell. It includes information on the significant contributions of that time period along with instructions on coloring the stickers for the younger kids that are included in this curriculum. Information on filling out the 14 Hats of History which are the 14 periods you are striving to memorize is included in this section. Several lessons include helpful background information of that time period. You do not have to research extra information if you do not want to because it is included. This part appeals to me so that I can determine if those foundational pegs or key events are covered when teaching that time period. This part is the reason I see this manual being practical too for the first time history teacher or student who finds history boring and wants just the general sweeping ideas.
  • Between the stickers and Color the Western World coloring book there is plenty to choose from for both your younger and older children.

History in Broad Strokes

  • Key events that you add on the back of the cards and details that you fill in on the front of each card as you go along help to solidify the timeline of history. We followed along in each lesson plan as you are encouraged by the curriculum to try to put your hats in chronological order. By using both the front and back of the card, your kids come away with a fresh, unique and overall picture of history. Certainly, a doable goal to memorize all 14 time periods. This is a refreshing change from all the details that you may be teaching when using a four year history cycle curriculum.

I won’t be giving up my copy of What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization any time soon as I plan on using this for years to come.

It is a keeper in my home, and I plan on going over it again both as a standalone history curriculum and to use as a review tool.

My boys still need to see the flow of history and a way to tie it all together.

I tend to be organized overboard when it comes to details because we love history, but I restrained myself from delving into them like the curriculum suggested because it defeats the purpose of what I am trying to do.

Don’t pitch your slow moving curriculum, just use What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization when you want to take it up a notch.

Thank you BrimWood Press as I confess my absolute love and bias for a one of kind history program.

Where to Buy What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization and Product Facts at a Glance.

Product Name: What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization, Calendar Quest and Color the Western World.

Ages: 5th – 8th grade, but I see a practical use for highschoolers who struggle with history.

Type of Product:  Physical product.

What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization is an awesome homeschool history program covering history in broad strokes. You’ll love how quickly you can cover 5000 years of history in a few weeks. Check it out at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

You’ll love these other history helps:

How to Make an Easy Roman Helmet & Shield & A Set of Printable Wings

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

How to Make an Easy Roman Helmet & Shield and A Set of Printable Wings was easy to make. Also, look at my Ancient Rome Lapbook for Kids and Fun Hands-on Ideas for more fun.

It has never been a secret that I don’t sew and barely craft.

So when it came time to get Tiny ready for our year end co-op when studying Ancient Civilizations, I turned to cardboard and duct tape.

How to Make an Easy Roman Helmet & Shield & A Set of Printable Wings

Ancient Rome was a powerful civilization, and it influenced many things in our modern world.

And you’ll love how to make an easy Roman helmet doesn’t really take so long.

HOW TO MAKE AN EASY ROMAN HELMET

Supplies List

  • 2 Large pieces of cardboard. I got mine from Target when they were throwing the boxes away. I knew I wanted one piece tall enough to be a shield for Tiny.
  • Gold and red duct tape or your choice of colors.
  • Silver Sharpie
  • 1 piece of red cardstock
  • About 3 pieces of poster board. We chose red color.
  • 1 men’s extra large red t-shirt
  • Scissors, a hot glue gun and a sharp craft knife like x-acto
  • We already had brown summer sandals for footwear.
  • Of course, no kid this age will go without anything under the shirt, tee hee hee and they shouldn’t so a shorter pairs of shorts works.

Just in case all of this gets gibberish sounding and because you know I love a good old picture anytime to explain anything, I put one here for you.

Easy Peazy Roman Kids Costume How To

It was all easy to make but like anything it takes a bit of time to put it together.

HOW TO MAKE AN EASY ROMAN HELMET

This took me part of 2 days or one weekend to put this together along with some help from hubby.

Helmet. The helmet was 3 pieces of cardboard, some duct tape, and red cardstock.

One piece of cardstock I measured to go around the head or as a headband.

One to go over the top so the “feathers” can adhere to it and then the front part that was free drawn by hand and then colored with a silver sharpie.

It was glued on the headband.

Easy Roman Costume
Easy Roman Shield

Then I took the red cardstock and made a crease in the center and then cut it into strips but not cut all the way through.

Then glued it on the top of the cardboard piece of the helmet.

Easy Roman Shield
How to Make an Easy Peazy Roman Costume

Here is a side angle of it.

After you glue it on the top strip coming over the helmet, just work with the cut strips until you get them to stick up how you like.

KIDS ANCIENT ROME COSTUME WITH CARDBOARD

I cut some up thicker and others thinner to make it more rustic and real looking.

Easy Roman Shield

Tiny was pleased with it and we worked next on some “armor” for the shoulders and chest.

Shoulder & Chest Armor. This was quiet a bit easier. I just used soft poster board, duct tape and leather shoe strings. I laid the soft poster board across his shoulders, did an eyeball measure and taped it with duct tape.

It is two pieces after I cut a circle for his head and I taped the back side. I left the front open so he could slip it on.

Easy Roman Shield
Easy Roman Shield

 One view is of the top in the picture above and if you turn it over it didn’t look so hot on the underneath, but hey nobody sees that anyway. I just used more tape to hold it.

This was the very last piece put on so that I could put duct tape around the neck or the other side of the circle.

I used leather shoe strings around a piece of gold poster for his chest armor.

Shield. This didn’t take long either. The hardest part was cutting it. I thought about painting it but didn’t really want to mess with waiting for it to dry.

That was one option though. Instead we just covered it with red poster board and used duct tape to cover the edges.

Easy Roman Shield
Easy Roman Shield

I think I change my mind but maybe the hardest part was finding a good set of “wings” that were approved by Tiny.

MORE ANCIENT ROME HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES

He spent almost an hour on the internet looking for some. In the end I couldn’t find any that were free on line so I made some from our clipart.

You never know when you might need one set of wings, so download here printable wings.

Easy Roman Shield
Easy Roman Shield

Add a foil covered bowl to the center and we were done.

It was the back that took just a little longer because I made some cardboard  holders for him to put his arm through and one for him to hold.

So in all the back had 2 holders to keep up his shield.

Again I lifted the shield and measured about where he would hold it and made some cardboard “holders” and used duct tape to keep them in place.

Kids Roman Shield from Cardboard

After that hubby helped to make a sword “holder”  out of a left over piece of cardboard and a bracelet or two and we were done.

Helmet, shield, chest armor, shoulder armor and a sword holder. What more could a kid want for his Roman soldier costume? Try one!

Ancient Phoenicia MinibookModern Day Lebanon

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

The Phoenicians were famous seaman and founded colonies all over the Mediterranean Sea. When we studied the ancients this time, I tried to focus on making it matter by tying it to its modern day location which is Lebanon. 

Though the boys enjoyed reading about Beirut and understanding that Beirut is the capital of Lebanon, I think they enjoyed it a little more when we made the glass blowing connection. After we studied it last time, we focused on the Phoenicians craft of glass making.

Because I like to keep my units with some hands-on activities, I collected a few activities about Ancient Phoenicia at the bottom of this post.  That way we both have some resources when we review this again.

Phoenicians Ancient Civilization

Today, I also have the next minibook on Ancient Phoenicia. It is a tab book and I have a map included in this download that glues on the inside and a few facts too if you want to use them.

Ancient Civilization Lapbook

It is book 6 and it goes placed at the top right side.  We did revisit our glass blowing lapbook to make it somewhat hands-on.

Ancient Phoenicia Craft Roundup

I rounded up a few other hands-on ideas because it really makes learning about any topic a bit more lively. Even something simple is more memorable than a worksheet.

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Look at this fun boat made by the kids at Creekside Learning..They also made purple dye. Pic. Att: Satori Smiles) Over at Satori Smiles they used an expired bag of frozen blueberries to make the dye.

Glass Blowing Lapbook

My glass blowing lapbook ties in with this unit too. Click here to go there.

phoenician464
Lovelearnplay
Ancient Phoenicia MinibookModern Day Lebanon

The Phoenician alphabet. I could see making a code of some sort to make this more interactive.

The Artful Parent has some beautiful ideas for doing some glass activities that would make studying this topic take an art trail. Click here to go there.

Then some links we marked/found helpful.

I hope some of these ideas help to spark your creative ideas or add to enrich your study about the Ancient Phoenicians.

HOW TO GET THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS II LAPBOOK

Now, how to grab the freebie. It’s a subscriber freebie.

1) CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO SIGN UP ON MY EMAIL LIST & TO GET THIS FREEBIE.

2) Grab the freebie instantly.

3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

Review of Go Fish For Ancient Egypt by Birdcage Press

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

Benjamin Franklin said, “Games lubricate the mind and body.” I agree and so that is why I am so excited to tell you about the fun we have been having with Go Fish For Ancient Egypt  by Birdcage Press.

I am especially excited to use it because it tied in nicely with our Ancient Civilizations and Ancient Empires study.

I was delighted from the moment I opened the box not just because playing games makes learning come alive, but also because of the beautiful and appealing playing cards.

I was impressed too with the quality and durability of the cards because we plan on using these again.

The boxed set contains 36 color playing cards and a 34 page fact book. I wanted to let you know that the cards do cover the Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Egyptians. Everybody feels differently about how to explain pagan Gods and Goddesses of any ancient culture in their school.

I prefer to introduce them so that my sons are aware of how their beliefs affected the every day lives of the Ancient Egyptians.

However, introducing and actually studying and learning their beliefs are two different concepts.

Playing Go Fish For Ancient Egypt, I feel, is a way to quickly introduce topics that you don’t want to cover deeply in your everyday study of history or that you are not going to spend time learning about.

There are basically 6 cards in a set to cover 6 topics which are Gods, Goddesses, Symbols, Pharaohs, Mummies and Afterlife.

What I liked too about the cards besides the eye catching artwork and pictures is the tidbit of information at the bottom of each card.

You will find one or two sentences about the picture on the card and beneath those sentences are the answers for the other objects or persons found in that set.

For example, if you had the Ramses II card in your hand which is set 4 Pharaohs, then reading at the bottom it is easy to see that Akhenaten, Amenhotep II, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III and Tutankhamun are the other pharaohs listed in the set.

That is a clever way to teach repetition and aid in memory. Having fun or learning is hard to tell the difference in this game as it should be.

Another true gem about playing games and especially Go Fish is that it can be played by any age. Any age from K to adult knows the object of the game which is to find sets. For younger children who cannot read, the picture about Ancient Egypt is key to remembering which card his partner has.

For the older kids, they will not only recognize one of the topics but read the few sentences about it. It can’t get any easier to learn about history than that. Whether you are a history lover or abhor history, it is easy to be won over by this card game.

The 34 page fact book was a nice added feature to the card game. It is a small book jam packed with interesting tidbits about Ancient Egypt.

One part in the book we plan on doing next week is how to write like an Egyptian or should I say draw like an Egyptian.

It is just an added bonus to the game that is already fun, but gives a little more background on each theme. Mr. Awesome read it aloud to all of us and as he and Tiny were playing together.

I want to admit another prejudice of mine and that is many times I prefer physical games over digital games. I love all my techie devices and the boys do too. But physical games bring a spirit of camaraderie in our school day that you can’t really get when you connect to digital games. 

Most of us homeschool so that we engender sibling togetherness and games like Go Fish For Ancient Egypt make it easy to foster family time.

I always encourage any homeschooler, new or seasoned to not get out of balance by collecting only curriculums or workbooks and not adding in quality educational games.

We need to let go of the thinking that learning should not be fun or is not meaningful unless we are sitting at the desks pounding out a writing lesson. Break the cycle and add in quality games.

I can’t help but share a few other games from Birdcage Press because I am so over the top about all of their products.

They have games on art, wildlife & nature, air & space and history. I think my only complaint, appeal, plead would be add to more history games.

Of course as history lovers, the boys and I could never get enough of games like that, but I could imagine ones on the great empires like Ancient Greece and even modern U.S. history.

I have been swooning over what might be my next purchase: The Renaissance Art Game.

I encourage you before you make your final curriculum selections for next year to add in card games. They not only stir the heart and soul, but can be done by all ages as you learn valuable skills together.

Thank You Wenda O’Reilly and staff for a delightful educational product!

Product Name: Go Fish for Ancient Egypt. Card Game & Book Set

Website: Birdcage Press

Price: $10.95

Ages: 7+.

Type of Product: Physical Card Game – Museum Quality Cards

Customer Service: My cards arrived promptly as promised. Customer service was prompt and excellent.

Hugs and love ya,

All product information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.

 


 

FBI Unit Study:Federal Reserve Bank Field Trip & Free Resources

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

After calling the branch office of the FBI, yep I do things like that, to see if I could plan a field trip there, I decided to take their advice and plan a field trip to the Federal Reserve Bank instead. The FBI has a local outreach community and though it sounded nice to have a special agent come and talk to our group, the outreach coordinator felt it was more beneficial to see a federal entity in action. Also, because my focus was aimed toward my highschoolers this would add to their credit for economics.

I have to admit at first that visiting the Federal Reserve Bank hadn’t even crossed my mind and I wasn’t even sure it sounded so appealing. I would have to decide first where I stood on monetary policy before I could ask my teens.  Economics, beyond budgeting was not my favorite subject in school either.

However, this field trip did not disappoint and stacked up high against others we have taken. You see those gates in front of the eagle? Nobody can get in unless the security guard lets you in. Because we are talking literally about 9 billion dollars that could be sitting in the bank at one time, we had to pass security checks much like the ones at airport screenings.

Did I mention our seniors who just turned 18 enjoyed savoring their new found adulthood by show off their driver’s license for identification?

Too, we were told ahead of time that there was no photography in a lot of places because it is the actual operations of the money handling. I managed to get as many pictures as were allowed.

So we snapped a few pictures early morning in front of the secured building before we went inside to find out exactly what is the function of the Federal Reserve Bank.

The first floor had the money separating machines. We learned how money was shredded after it no longer was able to be read by machines and how other money was counted and stored on robot pallets. Then, we went upstairs to this room. By the way, did you know they use the term note and not dollars in the bank? It makes sense though to me because in my legal background, we use the terms promissory note to represent money.  I found that interesting but apparently my boys didn’t.  Whatever.

They were asking more questions like what is the bank’s greatest national security threat and did they have bullet proof glass. The boys apparently have seen too many movies and are thinking the bank is prepared for a “bank heist”.  They assured them that a bank heist was not on their list of threats but that their greatest threat is a terrorist attack. A blow to the bank would threaten the stability of the economy.

The room pictured above is used by consulates or other important heads of companies as they meet together to discuss their interest in either doing business in the area or if they are out of country, they may want to make connections here in the states. So the room serves as a place to work and collaborate.

I never knew that the Federal Reserve Bank did so much more than cover loans for banks.

Then we were taken to another large conference room where consulates and businessmen meet too. We all got to sit around the table and thankfully Tiny asked what the button was under the table as he thought about pushing it. It was a panic button. If it was pushed, security would be on us in few seconds. Did I mention this field trip is probably best for older kids?

We were shown a short film presentation on what the Federal Reserve Bank actually does because a  lot of us were still foggy about it. Did you know that the employees are not federal? It was set up by Congress in 1913 but the employees are bank employees even though it’s overseen by Congress. It is quasi-governmental and tax dollars do not pay for them. Instead, they return money to the treasury.

One cool thing the kids enjoyed learning is where their money traveled from. Looking at this bill above and the left is the alphabet letter and number of the Federal Reserve Bank that put it into operation. Try it with your kids. Take out some money and find out which branch it started out at and how think how did it get to you.

I bet not many people know who these folks are either but they make all the decisions for the economy, including setting interest rates here in the United States.

Lastly, we were given more free resources and packages than we could hardly carry out of the building. Guess what? You can order them for free too. (Click Classroom Resources and Order Form for the blank form) I am telling you, there are enough free resources here for your home or classroom that you could teach about economics, the federal government, monetary policy and threats to security that would keep you busy for weeks.

A nice surprise to round out our experience was when everybody received a tube of old shredded money.

We especially loved learning how to tell apart counterfeits or fakes from good money.  When they told us that the counterfeit money was sent to the Secret Service, the boys decided that may be another topic they have to read about. I wish I could have taken more photographs inside because it was such an enriching and rewarding field trip. Learning about the money operation and function of the Federal Reserve Bank that serves as a quasi-governmental agency was so much more than I knew.

Another idea for a field trip on this topic besides visiting any federal office is to visit the U.S. Bureau of Engraving & Printing. There are only 2  locations though in the United States. One is in Washington, D.C. and the other one is here in Texas in Forth Worth. It is a great place for a field trip if you are ever close.

Hugs and love ya,

 

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