History Resources

When we used Notgrass World History as our History Spine

June 10, 2014 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When we used Notgrass World History as our history spine in 9th grade for Mr. Senior 2013, I thought I knew what I wanted at the high school level.

Sharing what worked and what didn’t work for us about some of the history spines we have used so far will hopefully help you to make a better choice for your crew.

Too, I try very hard to be objective about the pros and cons about curriculum when telling you about them. It is of more benefit to tell you about what worked and didn’t work for us and why instead of telling you what I think is a con.

Everybody has different needs at certain times and what may be a con one year may be a blessing the next year.

When we started using Notgrass Exploring World History it was our first official year of high school. Because I knew that Mr. Senior 2013 and I share a common love of history, I thought the integrated written assignments in the history curriculum was a plus feature.

I liked the fact too that it was written in a story format, similar to what we liked about living books and how we had been covering history before. Too, the history spine valued Bible history which is another plus for us.

When Mr. Senior 2013 started using it, he found it very student friendly. It had a pick up and go style that he liked and he really needed very little input from me. This was a good thing for me because as you know when teaching younger children, you want curriculum that requires less teacher prep for your older kids.

The other thing that was a draw, for me anyway, was that it included excerpts from primary sources in a book available by Notgrass called In their Words. It contains original documents, poetry, stories and hymns, which are an important element to studying world history.

However, as with some curriculum you find that after starting it, it requires more work than you want to put into it.

I really didn’t feel like we could cover Bible at a pace that suited me because the whole curriculum felt like a Bible study, which I really didn’t need. Maybe too because I have been so use to adding our own Bible content for many years, I just felt like it was a bit forced.

In addition, at that time I didn’t know what extra reading was required of him because there really wasn’t a list anywhere. The reading was folded into each lesson so unless you used the hunt and peck method, it was hard to look ahead and prepare.

Before I posted this today though, I did take a quick glance at the new edition for 2014 and it looks like they updated their curriculum. A literature list for each unit is now listed in the curriculum.

Something else I realized after getting into was that we wanted a more comprehensive language arts program or at least writing program.

Although Mr. Senior 2013 enjoyed some of the ideas for the topics for writing, he felt like he needed something that was a bit more comprehensive in explaining the mechanics of writing.

It was hard to go from unit studies and living books that we loved in our Beautiful Feet literature to a textbook too.

I could see this program working for a student that maybe didn’t mind a textbook approach and wanted a good overview of history along with Bible study.

Though it wasn’t a keeper for us, I could see that it has real benefits if you use it the way it was intended to be used. Adding in all the quizzes, writing and reading, it was a rigorous and challenging course.

I hope this gives you a glimpse into our year of using Notgrass because there really is no one program that fits everybody.

Hugs and love ya,

Did you miss these posts?

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

History Makers Notebooking Pages – Famous Persons from Ancient to Modern – Set 2

How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History

8 Ways to Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically

Should Homeschool History Be Covered in Chronological Order?

3 Homeschool Co-op History Resources Worth Exploring

June 3, 2014 | 10 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

As the homeschool co-op group leaders, we would go to the park each year to begin planning our co-op for next year.

Sharing 3 homeschool co-op history resources worth exploring, I hope to pass on a few tips to ease planning and to help you think outside of the box.

It is easier in the beginning of your homeschool co-op to have ideas and many hands do make the work light. However, life marches on, kids grow up and seasons of change hit all homeschool families. That normally meant that on more than one occasion, we were caught short-handed if some families had to plan graduations, had illnesses, added another baby to their family and well you get the idea.

Having a few tricks up your sleeve helps your history co-op through a few rough patches, but it can also add a welcomed change when needed.

History Brought To Your Classroom Co-op

{Mountain Men Trunk Pic Attribution: National Park Service}

Traveling Trunks.

Traveling trunks have been a life saver on more than one occasion for us.

They are just what they say they are, which are trunks or mini-museums as I call them that come to your group. Chock-full of fun hands-on things like toys, books and magazines and objects from a time period or topic like beads or household items, our kids flipped over them. One trunk had an apron a pioneer girl would wear, a beaver pelt and things that a mountain man would use every day.

They can be the highlight of your history co-op or you can use them like we did, which was as a table display or station for the kids to visit and learn about.

Too, when you want a fun round up of things from a certain time period and not have to spend tons of money buying each item to only have to get rid of it later, they have been worth the cost.

I got our trunks from the National Park Service. They list what comes in each trunk at that website. Too, some sites have a free .pdf for you to use to teach and the trunks I got had teaching notes. Look at some of the choices of traveling trunks:

Frontier Classroom
Gold Miners
Heritage of the Southwest
Overlanders
Plains Indians
Steamboats A’ Comin’

These certainly are not all the topics available. A simple google search will also yield some wonderful results from other places for various themed trunks.

My first tip for arranging for a trunk to come to your home is to call the park or institution. I know, it sounds like a bit of trouble, but a friendly voice that explains who you are and what you do means more than an email that might otherwise leave out some details. People like to deal with real people that they can hear and have a friendly conversation with and ask questions to know that you will take care of what they will ship.

The most important tip is to reserve them way ahead. Public and private school teachers reserve these trunks months ahead of time. So NOW is the time to reserve it for next year. If your co-op meets during the summer you may not have much competition from public schools.

{Our kids playing with the toys that came in our Overlanders (Oregon Trail) Trunk.}

Second, be prepared to use your credit card. It never bothered me because I knew our group would reimburse me and it was an expense our group paid for.

Third, be sure somebody is in charge of it the whole time at the co-op because if something is broke, per the contract, you will probably have to reimburse them.

Finally, be sure you have arranged shipment back to them.

Even with all that, I would rent a traveling trunk in a heartbeat anytime for my group. Also, there are some resources that we’ve used through the years that have made teaching history to a group so much fun.

We love the products by Home School in the Woods.

Look here at our history co-op where we learned about 14 different empires and where we used the Ancient Empires Study Guide.

Like-Minded Folks From Your local community.

The next resource is pretty nifty and that is local people from your community who are history buffs. Where do you find them?

I found so many resources through our local chapter of the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution and here in the south we have Daughters of the Confederacy.

Veterans of war and retired history teachers many times are involved in doing reenactments and spend their spare time doing things they love.

Again, a little time on the phone calling a few people and I had more people calling me interested in what I was doing and wanting to offer their help. Sharing a love of history, some of these people have gone to great lengths to have accurate time period dress and to buff up their knowledge about a time period in history or about a person.

When we had our Early American co-op, I finally connected with this lady above, which was “George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington”. A retired public school history teacher, she had spent many years dedicated to learning about Mary Ball Washington. She brought her fishing pole and even baked the favorite cookies of George Washington to bring and share with our kids. Mary Ball Washington was not a person that we had made time to learn about in our history co-op and it was an unexpected treat. Through her story telling and love of this time period, she had brought this time period to life when she talked about “her son”.

Most folks who are educators are priceless and giving of their time. They share a common interest, which is the love of teaching children. Most have gone out of their way to help me when I explained what I was doing.

Even though “Mary Ball Washington” did not ask for any compensation, we presented her a thank you bag from our group, which had a gift certificate for gas and some nice smelling perfume and body lotion.

In addition, we also offered to feed her lunch. She was very pleased with how well-behaved our children were and not distracted by the little ones underfoot. But we all know, that is nothing new for our kids.

Take the co-op elsewhere.

Most of us visit museums for field trips and science classes, but sometimes we don’t know about all the educational programs they offer educators for history. Also, don’t assume that you have to be a public school or private school to take advantage of the educational programs they offer.

{Part of our class was inside as our kids learned about the chores of pioneer children. Then, we had another wonderful instructor outside as our children explored the “comforts” (chamber pot) of pioneer life.}

Some museums are very organized as far as instructions for the group and programs and very aware of homeschoolers in their area. Others, are still trying to understand how we don’t learn by segregating grade levels.

If you do delve into the programs, again, I encourage you to take time to make a phone call. There is just no substitute for the amount of information you get because most personnel enjoy talking about the programs offere for educators.

Another insider tip, if you have never been to this museum or do not know other homeschoolers who have listened to the program you are looking into, is to try to mix up the activities. Part of the time the kids can sit down and listen to the program and part of the time they need to move around or go outside. This works best for a mixed group.

A long-winded educator that is boring and doesn’t know it can be a huge turn off to co-op classes. And believe me they exist, and I have done my best to avoid them in our co-op classes.

Whether you are a small group and need help with adding some entertainment to your history co-op or you are a larger group and need a change, I hope your group can benefit from an idea or two here.

Look at these other tips:

Hugs and love ya,

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem For a Fun Unit Study

May 16, 2014 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I want to share some free copywork Cattle a Texas poem about our home. Talking with Tiny about our pending move to South America, I decided to find a poem about Texas so he understands that we are not going to forget it.

Excited as we are about the move, you can imagine the whole host of emotions the kids go through. Excited one day and then a bit of trepidation the next. So I turned that into a mini lesson and copywork about our home.

Free Copywork Cattle A Texas Poem

The Texas poem was written in 1932 by Berta Hart Nance called “Cattle”. Here is the whole thing that has such beautiful imagery and language.

CATTLE

By Berta Hart Nance

Other states were carved or born

Texas grew from hide and horn.

Other states are long and wide,

Texas is a shaggy hide.

Dripping blood and crumpled hair

Some fat giant flung it there,

Laid the head where valleys drain

Stretched its rump along the plain.

Other soil is full of stone

Texans plow up cattle bones.

Herds are buried on the trail

Underneath the powdered shale,

Herds that stiffened like the snow

Where the icy northers go.

Other states have built their halls

Humming tunes along the walls,

Texans watched the mortar stirred

While they kept the lowing herd.

Stamped on Texan wall and roof

Gleams the sharp and crescent hoof,

High above the hum and stir

Jingle bridle-rein and spur.

Other states were made or born

…Texas grew from hide and horn.

To go along with this poem, I thought I would teach Tiny how to make a simple Texas chili and you know spend a bit more time together.

Too, we have had some cold weather that is almost unheard of in May so that called for home made Texas chili. Well, I should say part home made. Any good Texan would make their beans from scratch, but canned beans are fine after we had a long day selling furniture in our house.

Easy Texas Homemade Chili

Here are some things we put in our chili:

1 to 1 1/2 pounds of sirloin meat. We are meat eaters. Love the stuff. This is a twist on our chili because we don’t use ground beef when we make it.
1 onion, 1 jalapeno if I have it, some bacon for flavoring which makes any chili come alive.
About 1 tablespoon of cumino, 2 or 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of chili powder, salt and pepper to taste.
4 or 5 cans of pinto beans, though we use home made when we have them.
1 can or 2 cans of Rotel Tomatoes, a bit of beef broth or beef bouillon.

Tiny and I share a love of cheese and a multiple assortment of delicious toppings over our chili when its cooked.

I like to add sour cream, tortilla strips, avocado and the best recipe for home made salsa by Pioneer Woman. I make that stuff by the bucket loads around here.

Trying to keep our school work light, this mix of homeschool lessons has been something I have not done before.

I am finding it very gratifying to plan so spur of the moment and school on the wild and free side. Sometimes you just a need a break from all the well laid out plans and sharing a bowl of hot Texas chili helps things too.

Download the free copywork here.

You’ll love these other resources too:

Hugs and love ya,

Bring History To Life With Historical Costumes: Fun, Fashion and Unforgettable

May 12, 2014 | 8 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Bringing history to life with historical costumes is about fun, fashion and making memories that are unforgettable. There is an element of stepping back in time and soaking up the time period that sometimes just reading about it can’t do.

(Warning: History Costume Picture Overload)

Too, if dressing up is just for young kids, then why do so many adults do it? Because it is fun! Besides fun though, dressing up or studying about the fashion or accessories of a time period is one way to spark a love of history that will last into adulthood.

I have many friends that are in historical reenactments and I have a new profound respect for them after I learned about the time they put into learning about a time period. My sister is one of those persons. Besides the fact I love her to pieces, we share kindred spirits over our fondness for history. I could count on her to bring a historically accurate costume or two and tell us about a time period we are studying about.

She use to be in a lot of American history time period reenactments.

(My sweet sis shares a love of history with me.)

She had more time then than she does now to reenact, but I remember the hours and hours of research she pored into finding out about every detail of that time period to be sure her costume was historically accurate.

When she and her family would camp out at the rendezvous (meet ups to reenact a history event) as they are called, they would only eat food from that time period prepared like they did and wear only clothes from that time period. They would stay in character the whole weekend. It truly was as if they stepped back in time.

The history books she collected and shared with me made me pine over wanting to join her. Instead of doing that though because I was already homeschooling, I did the next best thing and made sure I included history costumes for my boys as we have learned about each history period.

I can’t really sew anything but a straight line and have basic sewing skills, but a lot of things nowadays can be hot glued. Love that hot glue gun when you are crafty deficient in a hurry.

Sharing a few easy peazy tips today for a history costume, whether you hire it out to be hand made or use a handy hot glue gun, can make studying history go from boring to bustling.

{Our study of Ancient history by studying some of the Kings in the Bible.}

Material Matters

I have found that by looking both at Walmart and at JoAnn’s fabrics when they discount material, it kept the cost of making the costumes affordable.

In the picture above you can also see that when I found ~~cheap~~ inexpensive material and there was a lot of it, I used some of it on each kid instead of all of it with one kid. Unless one kid wanted all of it of course. This allowed me to use up a bolt or two of material that was discounted. {Notice the gold on each costume.}

Fringe came off an old curtain and the purple material on their costumes came from an old housecoat turned cape.

Things like beards are easy enough to find, batons decorated make great scepters for a king, cardboard paper is your friend for making crowns.

Key also to making historically accurate costumes is finding a picture your children like. The internet is full of ideas. That is part of the study of history too and they don’t realize that by studying and reading about the weapons, cooking and everyday life that you have just folded in an interactive history lesson.

In our group picture above, you can see that laundry baskets, makeup, sandals and brown flip flops make great accessories too for Pharaoh’s daughter, and we had a few Sarah and Abrahams in our group which used wigs, and material around the house.

When we studied about explorers, Westward Ho and Native Americans, I did find that at times it was a bit harder to find things for boys. The moms of girls in our group found things their girls would wear and that boys won’t tolerate, but I did have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Of course making our own leather Native American costumes and moccasins were a must on this unit. Tiny is wearing a shirt which is a chamois rag from the automotive section at Walmart, which are used for drying cars. A few leather strings with some beads and we are in business. For the older boys, I bought leather at Tandy Leather because I knew we would have several years out of wearing them. With a leather hole punch, and leather we hand sewed the costumes, mine included. Of course, my dear sister was the one spear heading this as we learned. I encourage you to have a highly crafty girlfriend or two around. Even some dads are great for ideas too.

Another trick I have learned is that a big man’s linen shirt works for a lot of time periods and works in the Westward Ho period too. Khaki jeans imitate that time period too. A few rugged looking accessories like some fake wolf skin, canteens and hats spice up the costume and are something that would be used in that time period.

When we studied the Renaissance period, I actually did hire a local lady to sew the costumes because this was a huge co-op for us. Even at that though, I still had to pick out all the period material.

We hired part of the actors from the local Renaissance Fest to come and reenact for us and the kids did some reenacting. Too, our kids acted out part of Romeo and Juliet as well as Robin Hood. So historically accurate period costumes were important.

Tiny was Robin Hood and I found that using grommets for his cape was cheaper than using what I found in the craft store. Again, linen shirts worked well for this time period, even for girls too.

In the picture above and right, Tiny’s life long friend was “King John” and he had his shirt sewn too. Part of history is also about the accessories. Cardboard is your friend I am telling you. Some cardboard, pieces of leather and jewels from the craft store and you have a sword worthy of carrying.

An easy cardboard balcony made the telling of Romeo and Juliet come alive by our older high school kids.

Kelley and I won’t easily forget our fun trips to the local Goodwill to pick up table decorations when studying about early American history. Have to love that place when preparing for our co-ops. We wanted to mimic for the kids what a colonial or early American history table might look like.

Planning ahead is key and taking advantage of seasonal sales too. So buy things this year for next year. For example, the black candles I got on sale after the Halloween stuff went on sale. We didn’t use the candles until later November. The tea pot and tea cups to act out the Boston Tea Party event were just pennies at the Goodwill and all the kids got to take their cups home.

Some plastic fruit brought after Thanksgiving clearance and inexpensive colored beans made our decorations pop.

One side point, you will see that not each year did I make my kids dress up. They had choices each year, though I did make it fun when they did.

More History Costume Ideas You’ll Love

I am not the only one that sees the value of history costumes. Look at some of these links by my fellow bloggers that love it as much as we do and grab some ideas for yourself too.

(Pics Attribution: Susan Evans)

You’ll love the ideas Susan has over on her blog for Bible Costumes in 5 minutes.

(Pics Attribution: Teaching Stars)

I love the ideas that Kristen over at Teaching Stars has for Egyptian female pharaoh Hatshepsut.

(Pics Attribution: Teaching Stars)

And she has some great ideas as Queen Eleanor strolls the grounds of one of her summer palaces.

History is Fashionable

And, I also love what Heather’s daughter has been doing over at Blog, She Wrote about history fashion.

(Pic. Attribution: Blog, She Wrote)

Along with an author study, she is studying about the fashion of a period too. Her daughter created her own pattern and introduced us to steam punk fashion. Like Heather notes, be sure you look over all fashion pictures and content. Sometimes, like anything else in this world, you want to be sure your daughter is looking at fashion pictures you approve of. Some things in fashion can be downright dicey.

(Pic. Attribution: Blog, She Wrote)

Be sure to check out this post too at her blog: Project: Steampunk Fashion Design & Drafting

(Pic. Attribution: Layered Soul)

You have to check out Stacey’s post at Layered Soul too. I agree, maybe her post should be Boys, Duct Tape and Weapons. She shares some fun and easy tips on the Greco Roman period for easy history costumes.

Pirates, scoundrels, kings, queens, thieves and Robin Hood are all part of the fun of making history memorable. Give life to the characters and events of the time by dressing up. There is an endless list of characters to study about and mimic and endless ways of making history come alive through fashion and accessories of any time period.

Your children won’t easily forget your history lessons!

Do you have links to share of your kids dressing up or studying about historical fashion?

Hugs and love ya,

Did you miss these posts about other things to make to bring history alive?

And also check out some fun resources! History Costumes & Fashion

50 Keep Me Homeschooling Activities During the Long Cold Winter Days

November 23, 2013 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have 50 winter activities for homeschooling. Grab more ideas on my page winter season unit study.

Hoping to have a few activities to pull of out my bag when the kids are bored and the days are long and cold, I rounded up some activities to keep us learning.

Some of them are easy and don’t take quite as long and others a little more involved.

We always keep back some chalk pastels too and our easy books for doing seasonal pastels.