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hands-on activities

Beware of the 3 C’s of Lapbooking

February 23, 2014 | 21 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Would you believe me if I told you after creating more than 30+ lapbooks with my children {I have lost track} that using lapbooks in our homeschool seemed like a turn off to us when we started homeschooling?

Today, using lapbooks as enrichment in our every day unit studies have kept them a delight and not overwhelming our day.  My journey did not start off that way. 

Beware of the 3 C's of Lapbooking

I made three basic mistakes when I initially folded in (corny pun I know) lapbooks into our day.

If you are the non-crafty person and have been avoiding creating a lapbook  with your kids, hopefully steering you clear of my mistakes will nudge you to try one or two.

I had to have an attitude adjustment first and I have to confess about it now.

  I knew that my kids were not the crafty loving (or so I thought) type of kids and I knew lapbooks were for those “other” homeschoolers.  You know the ones who pine to do crafts all day.

Interactive Tool or Time Waster Tool?

I just knew that lapbooks were more about crafts than conscientious and diligent learning. 

Because crafts are at the opposite end of my personality style or I should say as I understood crafts to be at the time, I missed out on several years of creating lapbooks with my older son.

Fast forward about five years after that thinking, my teaching methods were boring and blah. 

I knew worksheets didn’t take long for my children to do (I admit it, I was bad because that is all we did) and they took even less time for my children to forget about them.

Moving out of my comfort zone and wanting our homeschool journey to be a memorable one, I knew the hands-on element was missing in our every day learning. 

I wanted to capture that element of learning for my sons and gradually did more research on lapbooks.

Slowly, I started to see that the greatest benefit to my children about lapbooks is that they are a fantastic interactive learning tool. 

The interactive part to opening/closing the minibooks, turning the circle minibook and folding/unfolding to read information is much like— well— the learning that is done in museums.

Why did we prefer a day at the museum over doing a worksheet? 

Museums are a fun place to visit not because you look forward to doing a worksheet when you get there. 

Learning can be done informally and at your child’s pace while he presses buttons for information to light up, turns a wheel for more information, listens to the information and otherwise follows along to see the exhibits and read the information. 

Even adults still like this part of a museum. 

We never out grow a museum.

Beware of over Crafting!

Lapbooks are like a mini museum in a file folder.  Redefining my meaning of crafts, I first tried several months of crafts or I should say over crafting. 

I almost gave up because I tried to be something I was not and my boys weren’t having fun either.

When we would rather read something from a book than glue a bean on a paper, I knew I went too far the other way in trying to incorporate crafts.

Beware of Coloring!

That wasn’t the only mistake I made.  I remember when my sister who has all girls would meet up with us to school together when our kids were preschool.

Lapbooking Can Be for the Non Crafty Kid and Mom too!

Her girls would sit so patiently and sweetly as they couldn’t wait to color, doodle and create.  My boys ran from coloring and were outside using tree branches for swords on each other. 

Both my sister and I had a lot to learn as new teachers because we both thought the other family had something “wrong” with their kids.

Because I know boys learned differently and needed to strengthen their fine motor skills, I realized coloring was just one way to do it, not the only way.

As I created lapbooks, I understood the way my boys learned. 

For my sons the fun is not necessarily in coloring pictures so I added more and more pictures or clip art already colored to my lapbooks.

They could focus on learning the content, folding the books, and if they wanted to, they could do something crafty for the outside file folder flap. 

Still to this day, I add in color pictures and coloring pages so if the mood strikes they can choose either option or a combination of both. 

I didn’t restrain their creativity, but gave them options when they didn’t want to be.

Beware of Cutting!

I had already made two mistakes and this last mistake which was throwing a gazillion pages at my kids to cut actually did make us move away from lapbooking for a few months.  

In doing school, I had to remember I wasn’t teaching scissor skills necessarily.

minibooks - emphasize the writing and not the scissor cutting

There is nothing about cutting out minibooks that inspired my children to want to do another lapbook.  Quite the opposite, they wanted to run from it and I did too.

Realizing that I was not teaching my sons how to cut when we did lapbooks, I did a majority of the cutting for my sons in the early grades. 

What a breath of fresh air as we sat down to start the next lapbook because most of the pages were cut.

This is perfectly okay to do.  Just like any teacher would prepare flashcards or some other hands-on manipulative for her classroom, this was the part I did as a teacher for them.

 Even as they got older, I still help with cutting out the minibooks.

Focusing on my family, I redefined the meaning of crafts in our home.  Crafting now in my mind equates with hands-on and it can be virtually anything that your children enjoy doing. 

  It really is that easy and I had to understand that sometimes the house doesn’t always have to be a mess to enjoy them.

Today, my mind races with hands-on ideas, but I always weigh them against what my sons will really find delight doing and weigh the value of it against the concept I want them to learn.

Whether you have kids who desire to do crafts all day or run from them, you can still lapbook.  Adjusting lapbooking to work for your family is key to savoring them.

I certainly don’t consider myself a true lapbooker if there is such a thing.  Why?  Because the crafts, cutting and coloring are not reasons we weave them in our day.  While maintaining a hint of my classical roots while we do a fun hands-on easy lapbook, I have found a way to not miss out on something that brings learning alive for us.

It doesn’t have to be either or when you choose an approach to homeschooling, it just has to be good for your family.

Do you want to give lapbooks a try? Try one or two easy ones.

I have made it easy for you, I have divided  up my lapbooks by history time period or science topic.

Pssst..They are ALL free too!

Hugs and love ya,

21 CommentsFiled Under: How To - - -, Lapbook, Lapbooks Tagged With: hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, lapbook

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.

50 Keep Me Homeschooling Activities During the Long Cold Winter Days

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.

Whether you want art, some reading or hands-on ideas, you’ll love this roundup of 50 learning activities.

Types of Frost Minibook @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Winter Lapbook Cover @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Pluswhat are the winter months minibook @ Tiina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Grab these fun minibooks on my Winter Unit Study and free lapbook page.

Bird Video Art Course for All Ages

Winter Activities for All Ages

Besides the fun hands-on globe to make below, there are many crafts too.

12 side globe about Antarctica

Construct a 12 sided globe to display facts about Antarctica @ Crayola.Com

Design a winter landscape with long shadows @ Crayola.Com

CP439 

CP snow-mosaic-winter-craft-photo

Create a snowy self-portrait mosaic @ Family Fun Crafts.

Grab some free easy winter worksheets @ All Kids Network

CP winter-worksheet-handwriting-small

Snowman Pack Get your FREE activity bundle!

virtual snowman

Virtual Build a Snowman

  Have a snow date @ Martha Stewart

Have a Snow date 
 polkadotmasonjars

Do a glitter polka dot mason jar @ A Bubbly Life

Grab a free frosty blend sorting game @ Heather’s Heart.

CP Frosty Blend Fun
Homeschool Geography - DIY Lava Lamp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus-1

DIY Lava Lamp

Hands-on Learning Activities

Grab a Free Winter Ecology Teacher’s Guide Nice.

Glacier Winter Educator Guide @ Tinas Dynamic Homeschool PlusGlacier Winter Educator Guide 2 @ Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus
candy

Make candy crystals @ Science Sparks

 

In addition, add a fun unit study on the history of science with beautiful literature.

winter globes

Make a DIY ice globe lantern

50 Keep Me Homeschooling Activities During the Long Cold Winter Days

Make frozen watercolor ice cubes @ Learn Play Imagine

Frozen Watercolor Ice Art (1)-1

3 Fun Cocoa Winter Hands on Science Activities

Make toilet roll snowman using tiny sock for hats @ Red Ted Art

toilet roll snowman craft

 

 

Furthermore, winter is a great time to do art. Pair art with history in this fun study.

Chocolate-Snow-Balls

Make chocolate snowball cookies @ tasteofhome

DIY Handwarmers

 hand-warmer-

Also, learning music is fun to do this time of the year. I love all these choices for learning about music at home by this homeschool mom.

Just what we need for teaching multiple children.

cookie-envelopes

Printable Cookie Envelopes

Make DIY Snow Globes @ Refresh Renew

snow.globe1

 Milk tags

Milk Tag Snowman

Easy paper straw snowflakes @ Echoes of Laughter

 Paper Straw Snowflakes

CP pine-needle-instructions craft

Easy Pine Needle Craft @ Live Craft Eat

Make Pinecone Fire Starters

pine cone fire starter
Medieval Video Art Course Semester 1

Your kids will also love learning about Medieval History through art.

Crayon-Art

Crayon Art

Coffee Filter Snowflakes @ The Pink Couch

CP snowflakes coffee filters

Finally, add a movie and a book from another one of my favorite providers Literary Adventures for Kids.

https://www.literaryadventuresforkids.com/p/the-little-prince-online-book-club?affcode=168584_izgghx15
https://www.literaryadventuresforkids.com/p/there-are-rocks-in-my-socks-said-the-ox-to-the-fox-online-nature-book-club?affcode=168584_izgghx15
https://www.literaryadventuresforkids.com/p/the-rocket-that-flew-to-mars-online-nature-book-club?affcode=168584_izgghx15

Cp Making Snow Dough

Making Snow Dough

How to Explore Melting Ice

 make your own snow paint

Make Your Own Snow Paint @ One Little Project

Ice Sculptures @ Not Just Cute

CP Ice Sculptures

 gold-glitter-dipped-jars-diy

DIY Gold Dipped Jars

Snowman in a match box

 Snowman in a Match Box

snowmanpizza

Snowman Pizza. And you have supper made!

Make an iceberg

 Do an Iceberg Experiment

gemstonetitle

Create an indoor gemstone nature table

DIY Fingerless Gloves by Shop Ruby Jean @ The 36th Avenue

 DIY fingerless gloves

blue-nature-notebook-graphic

Grab some more free nature printables for your notebook @ Our Journey Westward

Winter Nature Scavenger Hunt Exploration & Printable @ Teach Beside Me

Winder Nature Scavenger Hunt Printable

Winter-Fun-Chalk-Pastel-Tutoriale

Winter Fun with Pastels

Make snow ice cream

make snow ice cream

diy_winter-wonderland-art

Family Handprints Winter Wonderland @  Lisa Leonard Blog

Make an ice sun catcher

ice sun catcher

family bingo printable

Family Bingo

Edible Winter Snowman

Edible Winter Snowman

Flowers Printable Lesson

When you are tired of winter, use this free educator’s guide about flowers & birds

DIY Winter Diorama @ Bloesem Kids

winter forest diy diorama DIY Winter Diorama @ Bloesem Kids

Long WinterLapbook by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Long Winter Lapbook/Little House Series @ Marine Corps Nomads

Do some Folk Art Lessons and here for lessons.

Four-Season-Landscapes-
mitten wreath

Mitten Wreath

       

Free Penguins Lapbook

Free Penguin Lapbook

Also, check out:

Free Unit Study: Inuit/Arctic

Winter Craft Ideas for Middle School

Winter Season Unit Study

 50 Keep Me Homeschooling Activities During the Long Cold Winter Days @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Hugs and enjoy,

Save

6 CommentsFiled Under: Free Homeschool Resources, Hands-On Activities, History Resources, Look Alive: Winter Homeschooling Ideas & Free Downloads Tagged With: hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, homeschoolinginwinter, middleschool

Free Machu Picchu Mini Book & Completed South America Lapbook

November 15, 2013 | 3 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I think  we have exhausted our reading about Machu Picchu for our South America unit study.

Free Machu Picchu Mini Book & Completed South America Lapbook

Free Machu Picchu Mini Book & Completed South America Lapbook

There was plenty of free information online for this subject and then with a little pinch of information from our geography textbook I got this year, we had enough to cover this topic lightly.

South America Machu Picchu

South America Lapbook

I think we have satisfied our appetite about South America for now and have our lapbook to go with it. 

Like all of my unit studies, we can visit them anytime we decide and add in more information.

I hope you enjoyed tagging along with us on this unit study. I will let you know soon what we have decided to scoot on to next.

South America Printable Minibooks

Also, look at these minibooks which come in the free South America lapbook 27 page download.

  • Animals of the Galapagos fan book which includes the Giant Tortoise, Lava Lizard, Marine Iguana, Green Turtle, Galapagos Penguins, Magnificent Frigate Bird, Blue-Footed Booby, and Blue-Banded Goby.
  • Comparing Mountain Climate Zones
  • Simon Bolivar Copywork
  • Map of South America to label and one labeled
  • Machu Picchu – Lost City of the Inca
  • Negrinho – A dessert from Brazil
  • How to Memorize the Countries of South America and Dependent
  • Map Flags to put on your salt dough map
  • 2 – The Galapagos Island layered book. One prefilled with facts and one blank to add your own information.
  • Vocabulary Pocket and Vocabulary Words

More South America Unit Study Resources

  • Appreciating the Culture of South America Through Dance
  • 6 South America Country Notebooking Pages
  • How to Memorize the Countries of South America & Mountain Climate Zones Minibooks
  • South America Unit Study– Colorful Free Printable Map
  • South America Geography Salt Dough Map + Printable Pennants
  • South America Unit Study resources

How to Get the Free South America Printable Lapbook

Now, how to grab the free lapbook. This is a subscriber freebie.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get this freebie.

 1) Sign up on my list.
 2) Grab the freebie now.
3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

Ocean Currents and The Galapagos1

3 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, Geography Based, Science Based Tagged With: hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, machpicchu

7 Easy Hands on Homeschooling Ideas When You’re Not the Bomb Mom

November 11, 2013 | 8 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I was a Nazi homeschooling momma prior to adding hands-on activities to our homeschool day. I will say it: I didn’t like hands-on activities. All I could think of was how time consuming they would be. And what could you possibly learn from doing them that you can’t just pick up and read in a book and understand faster or watch a video.

Hands On Learning For Hands Off Mom

My hallucination dream at the time the kids were small was to have a clean house, that is ALL at one time. You know what I mean. One day I had a clean commode, oh wow. Never mind the kitchen was a mess on the same day, but I was sure proud of that commode. Okay, you get the idea why a great big huge mess hand on ideas didn’t appeal to me.  I was too busy being clean organized. My mantra then: Get up, get started on your school work and I don’t want to hear about being behind.

My kids were afraid of me. I was afraid of myself.  Feeding my crazed notion was the fact that Mr. Senior 2013, like me, was a visual learner so he was fine with “reading” picture books as our great hands-on activity” for the day. There were many times he wanted to do more hands-on, but I failed to see the signals. Okay, no, I didn’t want to see the tell-tale signs because it meant straying off my well-laid out lesson plans and the Nazi momma in me couldn’t do that.

I added in Mr. Awesome to our school and right away, I had huge problems. Besides being overwhelmed because I was teaching more than one child now, he learned best — yep—by hands on.  Horrible mom that I was, I first blamed his “resistance” on him. He can’t sit still, he doesn’t want to learn, he has a bad attitude (oh uhmm let me see he is only 4 years old) and he is behind were all things that I uttered.

I came to the point where I even considered putting them both in public school. Yes, I went there. I was not the bomb mom.

At that lowest point in my homeschooling, I had to decide if I wanted to succeed and to start taking responsibility for it instead of doing what was comfortable for me. I realized that there was going to be no quick fix, but I could start small. Yes, I set out to be a risk taker.

Here are 3 simple tips to help you be a risk taker by bringing in more hands-on learning to your day.

  • The ideas do not have to be complicated. The emphasis is on “doing” and being together or fostering sibling bonds.  Children are content with a lot less than we realize.
  • Try to keep a supply of materials that you keep separate and already organized so that when you decide to do an activity, especially for science then you have a small stash. I use clear shoe boxes for my supplies. For example, I know that food coloring, baking soda and funnels are not going to be in my box because that is in the kitchen. I collect as I go and I do put pieces of sandpaper, magnets, corks, string, beads, beakers, droppers, magnifying glasses, tape, goggles, and baby food jars in there to name a few. It cuts down on the stress of rounding it up and allows us to be spontaneous if we want to.
  • Try to do one hands-on activity a week with all of your kids, NOT per child. When they get older, then they can start helping by rounding up the supplies like my sons did.

Controlled Creativity

Look at this easy list of things to do to bring in hands-on learning to your school. You can use these with a mix and match of ages. I listed hands-on activities that keeps the mess to less at your home when you don’t have the time and energy to keep your house clean.

Hands On Homeschooling Using Puzzles

(putting together a puzzle about the Amazon)

Puzzles girl! Yep, keep it easy. Old or young, not one of my sons complained when they put together a puzzle. Look here at GeoPuzzles too. When purchasing them just think about learning and keep age appropriate puzzles in your home when you need a break for hands-on. Love the mess on this one. (ha ha)

American Civil War Lapbook Notebook | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
American Civil War Lapbook Notebook 2| Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Do a lapbook/notebook TOGETHER as ONE family project. I know I have said it before, but lapbooks are an easy fun way to bring in hands on EVEN for older kids.  You know we do ours for enrichment and to break up our routine so we go slower on them.

Several times throughout  the year, we have created one family project.  The first time we studied the  American Civil War unit was an example of this. We did a combination of lapbooking and notebooking. Each of the boys contributed to it.

So instead of having 3 projects going on and being insane because I tripled the amount of work I had to help them finish, I managed just one and this kept it where we could enjoy it.

Eating An Afican Meal when Studying about Africa | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Eating An Afican Meal when Studying about Africa 2| Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Cook a meal together. One year when studying about Africa, we cooked a meal together AND a side benefit to this was supper was already done.

Sometimes the practical side of me wants to take over and I let it.  I think of the benefits of something hands-on to the family if we prepare food.

Think of home made bread, home made pizza when studying about Italy and baking pastries when studying about France.

Look at here Switzerland Homeschool Geography Unit Study (and Lapbook) where my son made bread.

Ancient Egypt Snake Game | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Egyptian Game

Play Educational Games together. This year when I couldn’t really find a game they liked or didn’t have one on studying Ancient Egypt, I created an Ancient Egyptian Game. Grab it if you want it too.

Again, I can create in my own time and use the game at the time that I need it or when they need a break for something hands on.

Rainforest Experiment Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus (2)

Instead of growing plants, use them to experiment with. Growing up my mother loved to work in the yard almost to a fault. I think it is therapeutic in a way for her. She constantly had us out there digging in dirt when I would have preferred to do something else.

Call me insane, but now I have no desire to grow a plant much less dig in dirt. My siblings all love it. I am the only one that cringes with agony when I think of digging in the dirt. So I use plants already grown, thank you, to do my science activities. Oh I planted a garden one year too and it was pure agony for me. But, I did it when the kids were little so they could learn about plants.

About the picture above, one year we were investigating if a bromeliad (pineapple) could actually hold water and then the boys did play in the dirt to see if they could grow another pineapple.  Another year too, I purchased a (one) tomato plant in a container when the boys were little. When it sprouted and we had tomatoes, they were enamored. I learned that I didn’t have to grow a garden for them to understand plants. A simple bean in a jar and a plant purchased works too.

Native American BeadWork Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Coffee Filter Book

Leather & Beadwork/Coffee Filter Book. Neither one of these projects are messy either. My sister is almost an expert at leather crafts so we did these pouches for our Native American unit.

But, you can buy leather craft kits already and have the kids put them together. Hobby Lobby has craft kits already put together. I love that place! So many hands on history things to choose from too.

Another easy thing is a coffee filter book. Yep those are coffee filters and we used some pastel chalk (get in some art) to create pictures on each page and then used shoe string with bead work to bind it. That’s it! Easy peasy but they loved it.

Drawing a Cell | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Let them “draw” those worksheets. When studying animal and plant cells, I think we probably could have yawned ourselves to sleep if we read about one more cell. Because I wanted my sons to take something away from our study, I allowed them to draw about the topic we were covering. Look ahead in your nice neat well laid out plans and see if there is something better understood by a simple, but fun drawing.

Sometimes I hear homeschoolers say that their kid learns better by just reading.  That has never been my experience. What I have seen though is apprehension or fear of hands-on activities from the parent.

They fear

  • the unknown;
  • the mess;
  • not knowing how to grade hands-on projects or not knowing how to measure progress and
  • it being a flop.

True, all those things may happen and they did to me. I had a rude awakening when some things I planned did not work. However, out of that failure came self-determination to try other things because I saw a tiny spark of the passion for learning in my boys.

There is something about doing hands-on that strengthens the skills of a child and stirs him to be intellectual.

Remember, hands-on activities can have humble beginnings and stay that way until you feel like homeschooling on the wild side. They do not have to be complicated or messy.  I still don’t feel like the bomb mom, but it won’t be because I wasn’t willing to take the risk.

Do you have any activities that you do that are simple, but pack a punch?

Look at these other must-reads:

  • 365 Days Hands-On Homeschool Activities – One for EVERY Day of the Year!
  • How to Grade Hands-on Homeschool Activities and Projects (Free Rubric for Grading)
  • 21 Hands-On Math Activities for Elementary and Middle School
  • Amazing Hands-on History Activities for 14 Ancient Empires (free notebook cover too)

Hugs and love ya,

8 CommentsFiled Under: Be an Exceptional Homeschool Teacher, Hands-On Activities, How To - - -, Teach/Which Subjects to Teach/Cover EVERYTHING Tagged With: hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling

8 Ways to Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically

November 2, 2013 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

My homeschool roots are in classical education because so many things just chimed true and made complete sense to me like covering history in chronological order when I first started homeschooling.  Too, my own education in high school mostly focused on American history with no real start in early civilizations or Bible. So when I answered part of Laura’s question on  Should Homeschool History Be Covered in Chronological Order, I just had to expand on it.

 

I know my family has reaped many benefits for following an organized cycle, whether a curriculum provider does that in 3 or 4 years.  On the other hand, after that history has to have life or you can lose interest in repeating the same story line.

History is an adventure to say the least because there are so many action packed stories and other side show events or people’s lives that are running parallel to each other that eventually you want to stray off that organized cycle to explore some of the sideshows.

 

Because children take in a lot more than we give them credit for at times, I don’t feel it confuses them but infuses them for a love of history when we take time to cover history in other ways.

Humdrum History

Before I list other ways to teach history, look below to understand how to maximize these other ways in your journey.

 

  • They work for families who have just taken their kids out of public or private school and are feeling overwhelmed and burned out.
  • They work for families too who have been homeschooling for a while and have hit the humdrum of history. Sometimes you just need a new bounce or spring to your history studies.
  • They work for families that savor history and want to cover it in more depth and for gifted learners who need more substance.
  • Some of the ways work for families who have special needs children who learn through different senses;
  • And depending on the resource, they work for families who have very young children and may not really get the benefit of understanding chronological ord 

    er or care how the Egyptians kept time before clocks were invented.

History Confusion or Infusion?

Look at the approaches below, all of which I have done at some time or another though  new curriculum has come along.

(Source: Beautiful Feet)

1. Teach History Through The Lives of Characters. Though this may seem like a literature approach because you are using great literature, it is not.  A literature approach uses many great books and focuses on many topics of a time period. Teaching history through the life of a person that lived in that time period focuses on events that affect your main character. It is more in line with taking a biography approach to history.

This is how we cover history presently. My very favorite set of books for older kids that we wallow in as much as we can are the books by Genevieve Foster by Beautiful Feet. These are keepers in my homeschool and ones we never tire of reading. When you learn that Daniel Boone was a little boy growing up at the same time as George Washington, then you appreciate the impac

 

t both made on American history.

For younger kids, it is very easy to find books or biographies on famous people like George Washington and for girls like Pocahontas. Another keeper for younger grades is the D’Aulaire collection by Beautiful Feet too.

The American Girl dolls are also a fun way to learn. I think about Native Americans with the Kaya doll. Look here at a Squidoo lens for crafting with dolls.

Make history meaningful by reading the lives of real people with lively literature.  Too, this way is one I feel is better to teach real young kids because they remem

 

ber people easier than understanding what time period they lived in. There is not a  lack of literature on most famous persons of history and enough to choose from for kindergarten to high school age.

 

 

Teaching American History Through Art CD | Main photo (Cover)

 

(Source: Rainbow Resource)

 

2. Teach History Through Art. In classical education, art and science are tied into the time period you are studying. However, art does not have to be studied that way. When history can be learned along with something else that your child loves, it makes it more meaningful. One curriculum that does this is Visual Manna.

Another example is Mapping the World With Art. Geography and history are inextricably linked as it should be and you learn while you watercolor or make maps.

(Source Joy Hakim)

3. Teach History Through Science. For science lovers who need to learn a bit of history through a science brain, Joy Hakim has a series called The Story of Science that we are going to try next. I have seen rave reviews and talked to homeschoolers who used it.  This is a secular source. Sometimes for me that is a good thing so I can add my own Bible content, but many times too it means they tout a no need to believe in God or an evolutionary belief which is contrary to what I want my children to learn. But as homeschoolers I don’t think any of us are not use to tweaking curriculum for our beliefs and worldview. So I will address our belief in creation and dependency on the Creator with my children. From what I have seen the story is so engaging that it is worth the time to tweak those parts. This is another way for us to sneak in some more science with history that we love. Since we haven’t read these yet, the jury is still out on this.

 

 

4. Teach History Through Drawing. Children have a natural disposition toward drawing and doodling. So encourage that. Some grow up to draw beautifully.  Mr. Senior 2013 was like this and I used Draw Write Now for him when he was younger.

 

(Source:Rainbow Resource)

Then also came along Draw and Write Through History which we have used too and love.

 

 

The History in Scribe is another fun way to learn about historical events and writing and drawing about them too. This can be used for a child that you expect a little more writing from. There are a lot of free notebooking pages, mine included, where ample space is left for visual diagrams. As you can see, you don’t even have to have a curriculum, just an imagination. For example, a child can draw the flora and fauna that Lewis and Clark saw along their expedition. Then a love for history beyond boring dates that makes me yawn too is revived. They also have a beautiful nature journal to keep as well.

Too, if you have a child delayed in motor skills or a reluctant writer, then drawing is a fun way to engage them, build motor skills AND teach history.

 

Let go of ALL that thinking that history has to be taught a certain way when you need to and trust your mommy gut on what is best for your child. They will not forget it as they grow older or what you taught them.

5. Teach History By Topic. Though this may sound like a unit study it really is not because the emphasis isn’t on covering all subjects like science, math, and art, etc.,  but it is more about understanding the people and culture from the earliest civilization to present day. Our geography quest we did on Turkey was an example of this.

 

Turkey%20Report%203%20August%202012 Mini Unit Study:Turkey + {10 Country Report Notebooking Pages}

 

Though we covered some other topics, the focus was still on the main topic which was to explore the changes ancient to modern on Istanbul, Turkey. We covered it in a few short weeks from the time it was Constantinople until present day. No  restraint on time periods, no control, no cycle 1 or 2, ju

 

st unequaled and sheer delight in reading and learning what my sons were fascinated with at the time.

famous figures of medieval times cathy diez-luckie famous figures of the civil war by cathy diez-luckie
american revolution activity book cathy diez luckie ancient history activity books cathy diez luckie

6.  Teach History Through No Ordinary Paper Dolls. Figures in Motion is geared toward younger children and could obviously be used to enrich your history too. But using something hands on and that is historically accurate, it will help your child to understand the characters of history and build a love of it too.  Give these to your younger children to hold, play with and imagine the time period as the older children tell the story of history.

 

Copy of Co-op with Chelly 020

 

(Viking ice cream boat made with vanilla ice cream in a rectangle box and icing in a can with skewers for the sail.)

7. Teach and Learn History With Others. And no, I don’t mean a co-op unless you have the energy to do one.  Keep it simple always and plan with just one other family that your children enjoy being around. That is kind of important. You still want to be friends afterwards so it helps if not only you and another homeschool mom are friends, but the  children are too.

Buddy up with just one other family keeps history something to look forward to each week or every other week. This allows you an off week to cover something you want to about the subject.

One year we studied history with another family and decided what topics to cover each time. No rhyme, no reason to the order of it, just whatever delighted our children to learn together. Too, we met every other week and it was just perfect for us.

 

Co-op with Chelly 024

 

We made ice cream Viking ships (of course had to eat it too) and exploded volcanoes when learning about Crete.Co-op with Chelly 010

 

8. Teach History By Watching Movies. Pop some popcorn and enjoy. Episodes of Liberty’s Kids can be found free on YouTube and there is a free series by John Green on YouTube too for American History.   Movies like Alexander the Great, The Nightmare in Jamestown about the first colony and Lewis and Clark Journey West to name a few can be viewed on Netflix. Be sure to watch with your kids because some of the documentaries give the vivid facts of history that are not so necessary for younger children.

 

There is also Drive Through History which is on DVDS. Sit back and be entertained by Dave Stotts as you visit places both ancient and modern.

There are so many more ways to teach history other than chronologically.

I know I have said it before too but I am still totally delighted with Brimwood Press because it covers history chronologically in 14 lessons or big huge chunks and not in cycles. Up until this time, again, we had no choices if we wanted to cover it chronologically and move faster. Now, I can use Brimwood Press at anytime or if we lose our way chronologically and still include one of these other ways. I have a choice always too of covering it chronologically in depth by using one of the other providers like I mentioned in my earlier post: Should Homeschool History Be Covered in Chronological Order?

 

Choices, lots of choices! Give me choices anytime. What about you? Have you found one that fits your needs right now or that you might want to scoot into later?

Hugs and you know I love ya,

8 Ways To Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically @ Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus

 

 

Leave a CommentFiled Under: How To - - -, Teach Homeschool History Tagged With: american history, early American history, hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, history resources, historyspine, homeschoolcurriculum, homeschoolhistory, middle ages history, secularhistory

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