• Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Activity, Change, Progress

  • HOME
  • How to
    • Preschool
    • Kindergarten
    • Middle School
    • High School
  • Planner
  • Lapbooks
    • Trioramas
    • History Games
  • Shop
  • GET STARTED NOW!
    • Learning Styles
  • 7 Step Planner
    • DIY Best Student Planner
    • Free & Easy DIY Home Management Binder
  • Unit Studies
    • Creation to Ancients
    • Middle Ages to Reform
    • Exploring to Revolution
    • World Wars to Today
    • Science
    • Free Art Curriculum Grades 1 – 8
  • Curriculum
    • More Unit Studies
    • Geography
    • Writing PreK to 12th
    • Geronimo Stilton
  • BootCamp
    • Resources
      • Dynamic Subscriber Freebies
      • Exclusive Subscribers Library
      • Ultimate Unit Study Planner

historyspine

How to Teach History in 14 Lessons (From Daunting to Doable)

January 13, 2017 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Teaching history in 14 lessons is doable. I was so excited to review this curriculum and use it. Also, look at my page Ancient Civilizations for my ideas!

It’s hard for me to believe that I could’ve born a child who loathed history, but I did.

Beginning to teach him the same way I had his older brother, my history hater pushed back.

And he let me know there is absolutely no reason to learn history.

Explaining that history is all about the present, that fascinating treasure troves can be unearthed when we tap into the minds of brilliant people of the past and learning from both triumphs and tragedies in history sounded eloquent to only me.

However, my history naysayer wasn’t budging from his mindset or attitude.

How to Teach History in 14 Lessons (from daunting to doable). Some kids don't want all the details. Click here to read how to keep it simple.

Two things had to change (for me) and one thing was not going to change.

One change was my expectations.

Second, I had to put aside curriculum, which taught too many details.

Teach History in 14 Lessons

But what absolutely couldn’t change or that I wouldn’t compromise on was giving him a solid foundation in history.

Like all subjects, a thorough, but basic foundation is necessary because every child deserves that.

Little did I know that back when I reviewed What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization that I would refer it to many years afterward.

And it would help my highschooler cement time periods.

Although it’s written for a middle grade student, it helped my teen with the Ancient periods.

You can look at what I wrote then about how I used What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press.

History in a Nutshell

Look at three things I learned since then.

ONE/ Teaching history in broad strokes makes it manageable for those who either get overwhelmed by the details or need to know immediately the value of learning history.

It didn’t mean that my son wasn’t interested at all in history.

He needed to see the practical value immediately instead of covering it for a year chronologically.

Even though my history hater has graduated, to this day he still wants people to get to the point of what they are saying instead of patiently listening to details or a story.

Are you sure this kid is mine? I always have time to dawdle over the details of any story and especially history.

Now that my history hater is grown though, I realize that is part of his personality. Not only do we need the detailed people, but we need people who see the big picture.

I learned that it’s not just history that he could hate.

But when he learned other things, he wanted them in a nutshell first.

TWO/ Forget the story or at least for the immediate time.

A story approach works for a lot of kids and it did for my other two boys, but such a detailed approach is not necessary to form the basic cornerstones of understanding history. Move on, it’s okay.

Learn Major History Periods First

When my son wanted to learn more about a famous person or event, then he would ask to. Otherwise, I moved on to the next topic.

THREE/ Let him choose which topics or activities he wants to do, if any.

Though a hands-on approach to history is always a favorite of mine and I feel it teaches way beyond books, I allowed my son the right to make choices in how he wanted to absorb the information.

Choices or options on subjects that I am not so crazy over (math) empowers me to take information in at my leisure. Kids are not any different.

When given the option, I learned that many times my son would do the hands-on activities I suggested because he is a hands-on learner.

Value of History Broad Strokes

What I liked the most about What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization is that it breathed life into our day.

When we wanted to cover one area of history without getting overwhelmed with every event or person in a time period, we were able to do this.

And the history hat cards, which have a famous person to remember in each time period honed in on valuable cornerstones to form a framework for history.

Look at the picture below so you can see the broad sweeping time periods covered. Such a huge help to teaching history. I put the civilizations so you can see how helpful they are.

Yes, history should really be this easy and streamlined.

Key broad stokes teach history without overwhelming kids. And history hats to remember key persons in each time period @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

And What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization  is a great help if you don’t feel adequate to teach history.

Remembering 14 points about Western Civilization is a lot less intimidating than covering one time period of history in depth.

Form a framework first with the broad strokes in history, then sketch in the details, people and events at your leisure.

Fast History Approach

The curriculum is for 5th to 8th grade.

But you can easily hand it to your high school teen. It will give him a framework.

If you have a history hater, don’t feel qualified to teach history or want to cover it in broad strokes, but not compromise on the significant big picture, you’ll love What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization .

Look at my original Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press, and these other ways to cover history, which are 10 ways to Hook Homeschooled Kids On History and 8 Ways to Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

How to Teach History in 14 Lessons to a History Hater @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

1 CommentFiled Under: Teach Homeschool History Tagged With: early American history, high school, history, history resources, historyspine, homeschool, medieval homeschool history, middleschool

Medieval History for Homeschool Middle School

July 12, 2016 | 17 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When I got our box of the Medieval History Pack history curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books, I almost passed out from excitement.  Also, look at my page homeschool middle school for more fun tips.

Medieval History for Homeschool Middle School using Beautiful Feet Books or history living books @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I was given free curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books and I was paid for my time. However, paid for my time does not mean paid off. All opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. When I do accept a review, it’s because I’m giddy to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here.


For just a moment as I opened up the box from Beautiful Feet Books, I had a flashback to my public school high school years when I learned about the Middle Ages from a history teacher who wasn’t a rule-follower.

My teacher planned a huge high school medieval feast to kick off our study and because I answered the most questions correctly about medieval history, I was crowned medieval queen. Complete with costumes and activities, I won’t ever forget the fun of learning about history in the older grades.

Memory making moments from my high school years stuck with me and hands-on history and living books became part of my must-haves for my homeschool.

Beautiful Feet Books has been part of my homeschooling journey for many years because it fits my criteria of how history should be covered in the middle and high school years.

When my first son, Mr. Senior 2013 was in Kindergarten, I used Early American History with him. Next as I folded into my day Mr. Awesome 2016 and Tiny, we used the Early American and World History and the Medieval History Sr. High levels.

You can read my article, When We Used Beautiful Feet Books as our History Spine to grab more tips about how I use Beautiful Feet Books.

Beautiful Feet Books Living Literature for Middle School Homeschool @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

However, because Tiny was young when I studied medieval history with my older two sons, I felt that Medieval History Pack was a better fit for us right now.

Living Literature Bringing Medieval History Alive

Look at some of the reasons why we love using the Medieval History Pack.

  • Living books should be a staple of any great course about history and we just can’t get our fill of them. Tiny started off reading The European World, Beowulf and then on to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. We always have trouble following the teacher’s guide because once you get hooked on a living book, you can’t put it down. It’s important to mention here that though I have used a lot of living history books in our study, I value the fact that Beautiful Feet Books spends time culling over the very best ones so that I don’t have to. Again, with this level, we were not disappointed.
  • If you have kids that are middle or high school level, I know you can relate to the struggle in keeping history entertaining and educational because so many programs want to move away from interactive activities to exclusive book learning. Making us choose to either prepare a child for rigorous history in the upper grades or making it entertaining seems to be two choices homeschool curriculum providers throw at us. I reject that mentality which is why many times I come back to Beautiful Feet Books. They show us we can and should have both when we homeschool our older kids.
Beautiful Feet Teacher's Guide @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
  • Also, the teacher’s guide gives me the freedom to incorporate living literature as a unit study because it is filled with teaching ideas, but it is not overly complicated. In other words, I don’t want to have to follow a schedule exactly, but just want a framework to work within.
  • However, if you run short on time the teacher’s guide has just enough guidance if you want it. For example, it has vocabulary words for the reading, ideas for hands-on activities, and of course geography and history helps.

How to Make Learning About Medieval Geography Stick

Medieval map work using living literature @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Another reason that we wanted to use Beautiful Feet Books was to incorporate geography in a hands-on way that sticks.

Don’t get me wrong. Computer programs and pre-labeled maps are super resources, but learning the nitty-gritty of geography happens when you can dive into it.

Middle Ages Map using Beautiful Feet Books @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Making a map of the medieval world as suggested in the teacher’s guide is what piqued our interest. Creating a hand-drawn map and taking time to label regions and cities helps Tiny to remember what Europe looked like back then.

We are off to a great start using his map and we can’t wait to add more to it as we will continue on with our study this year.

Does Teaching History Develop Essential Thinking Skills?

Beautiful Feet Books has never been about having to move fast with quick bites of history. I don’t want my sons rushed when it comes to understanding the ideals of the past because it affects the way people think today.

Too, let’s just face it. When it comes to medieval history, we not only want to dig deeper, but we want our kids to savor learning about knights, castles and jousting.

That takes time.

You’ll love these ideas for literature and hands-on ideas from Beautiful Feet Books.

Look at these other things I want you to know about.

  1. It is a 35 week program, which means it is a year long program. You just can’t rush the richness of the points learned in the literature.
  2. If you are looking for a day by day guide, this is not your program. If you want wiggle room to add your own spin to it but to have some ideas for each week, you’ll love the flexibility of the teacher’s guide. I added in our own science. Look at Medieval Chemistry and Homeschool History.
  3. With the book choices, it easily adaptable for high school. Look here at the suggested credits for high school.
  4. The teacher’s guide has answers and the definition of the vocabulary words in the back of the book. Did I mention it is in beautiful color?
  5. I did notice a few links that were not up to date, but I found them easily on the home page of the suggested link. Again, having the other links for extra reading is a huge benefit to helping Tiny understand this time period and I appreciate him being able to use his iPad along with reading the books.

I won’t hide my obvious bias and love toward Beautiful Feet Books because it has been around for a long time and there is a reason why. Simply, it works.

Learning about history should be action-packed and motivating. With a framework to work with for studying medieval history, you’ll love this curriculum.

You’ll want to see how I used one of the living books, The World of Columbus making 5 days of Free Printables for a unit study. Also, look at 8 Ways to Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically and Should Homeschool History Be Covered in Chronological Order?

What do you think, will this curriculum work for you?

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

17 CommentsFiled Under: Giveaways, History Resources, Middle School Homeschool, Product Review Tagged With: history, history resources, historyspine, homeschoolhistory, medieval homeschool history

Medieval Homeschool History – 4 Surefire Ways to Beat a Boring Study

May 8, 2016 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

We’re studying Medieval homeschool history and knights and castles make for a fascinating study of the medieval times. Also, look at my free 4 week Middle Ages Unit Study for more fun.

However, many other topics and vocabulary words can make it hard and well, flat out boring to study this time period.

Getting lost in the medieval world where definitions of words and topics are not things that you or your children hear and speak everyday can make you feel like you’re sinking when you start studying about them.

Medieval Homeschool History - 4 Surefire Ways to Beat a Boring Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Medieval Homeschool History

Today, I am sharing 4 surefire ways to beat a boring study.

They have worked for me when we studied this topic before and how I will be incorporating them again when we study medieval homeschool history next.

We are excited to move on to medieval history and we will be using Beautiful Feet because you know I love their books and how they give a framework to guide you in the study.

However, I also love Beautiful Feet because they fit my criteria needed to complete a meaty and fun history unit study.

4 Surefire Ways to Beat a Boring Study

Take a look at these 4 things to include when studying medieval history.

1. LIVING BOOKS.

Living books are a must-have to cover history eras, which may be hard or boring to explain.

Too, when studying history where there may be fewer primary resources, fictional history can stir a child to think about the “what if”.

Teaching facts and making a story relevant to current life is the advantage of living books. Mix in fictional history and your child’s curiosity is sparked.

I love the living books used in Beautiful Feet’s medieval history study because reading about King Arthur, Robin Hood and Beowulf draw my boys into thinking what it would be like to live back in those times.

That is the beginning to expanding on subjects that are important, like inventing the first printing press, which may or may not interest your children.

2. HANDS-ON HISTORY.

My second must-have or must-do when studying time periods that are difficult to understand is to add hands-on projects. Hands-on history hooks a kid on a topic they’ll remember on into adulthood.

They not only make a subject come to life, but motivate a kid to keep digging into deeper topics. Take a look at 10 Ways to Hook Homeschooled Kids On History.

3. VOCABULARY WORDS DEFINED.

Vocabulary words are normally better understood and defined when they are read in a book because it helps your kids to understand their relevance.

That is still important when studying the ancients or medieval, but because of how archaic the language can be, I find that defining vocabulary words separately too is absolutely necessary to making the meaning clear.

I don’t believe in a long drawn out process that takes away from whatever it is your kids are learning at the moment. Narration is a perfect tool to incorporate at this point.

Writing them down helps to reinforce them too so that your kids don’t get lost in the out of date language.

4. MAPPING AND GEOGRAPHY.

Lastly, geography is important to visualizing the medieval world.

Then, a connection can be made to the modern world.

Geographical boundaries and names can change, but land forms can stand the test of time for a much longer period.

When a child sees where events take place at, then maps become not just a boring paper with names to memorize, but a picture from that time period.

It’s easier to understand how the environment affected the way people thought and felt at that time.

Living books, hands-on history, out of date words defined and geography are four surefire ways to beat a boring study about medieval history.

You’ll love the literature lists put together by Beautiful Feet. They are my go to place for guides and literature.

I can’t wait to get started with our unit study.

What do you like to include in your study of medieval history?

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Also, look at how we used Beautiful Feet before in When We Used Beautiful Feet Books as our History Spine and also look at How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History.

 

2 CommentsFiled Under: History Resources, Middle School Homeschool, Teach Homeschool History Tagged With: history, history resources, historyspine, homeschoolgeography, homeschoolhistory, medieval homeschool history, middleschool

Free Printable History Board Game American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp

September 7, 2015 | 13 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have a free printable history board game. Also, look at Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp.

Instead of writing about so many events in American history, which can be boring if you are not focusing on some action packed event.

So, I created a free history board game when learning about events through the life of Wyatt Earp.

Free Printable History Board Game American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp

Of course, when I can’t find exactly what I want, I make it for you and me.

Like I mentioned before in another post, Wyatt Earp has been the perfect American history character to focus on when I needed quite a few events to introduce to Tiny or at least make him aware of them.

Hands-on History

From The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper to The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe to music, from the American Civil War to the First World War, from art to the idea of Manifest Destiny, Earp’s life spanned so many key events in American History.

Game Cards - Pieces - American History through the life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Playing American History Board Game @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

We have literally been overwhelmed with so many rabbit trails we wanted to take.

So just to be sure Tiny has a good introduction to a lot of them, I created the board game along with playing cards.

And as your child plays the game, they are introduced to some events on the board game and others on the playing cards.

If your child lands on the star, then take one of the playing cards, follow the instructions and return it to the deck. If he lands on a yellow space, just follow the instructions.

This is a fun way to introduce a wide range of things that Wyatt Earp would have probably learned about during his lifetime.

Though he has already graduated, Mr. Awesome is still sweet enough to play with Tiny.

Learning American History Game through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Just don’t do like us. Tiny got so excited that they printed the game off on regular paper instead of card stock paper.

Free Printable History Board Game

Too, like my French Revolution free printable history board game, I made the game really big, BUT you can print it out on regular size paper or print it poster size (4 separate pages under your print settings). We printed it on 4 pages this time.

Here are some of the resources we used too in this unit study.

MORE ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNING ABOUT WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOYS

  • Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp
  • Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp – Hands-on Activities
  • Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks – American History
  • Free Printable History Board Game – American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp
  • Free Notebooking Pages
  • Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Part 2
  • Gunfight at O.K. Corral – American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp

HOW TO GET THE FREE WYATT EARP LAPBOOK, NOTEBOOKING PAGES & BOARD GAME

Update: The lapbook is now complete. Download all the freebies below.

  • Art cards by Frederic Remington about Wyatt Earp
  • Cover pages for the outside of notebooking pages 1800s and 1900s. Look here how to fold ordinary worksheets to interactive minibooks.
  • 8 Features of the SW United States
  • The 4 Southwestern states
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1800s notebooking page
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1900s notebooking pages
  • Who was Wyatt Earp
  • Who were the Cowboys
  • Who Was Doc Holliday
  • Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Tombstone, Arizona – About Tombstone – Ed Schieffelin
  • Printable Game with Game Pieces – The Most Famous Shoot Out – Gunfight at O.K. Corral

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

13 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, Hands-On Activities, History Based, History Resources Tagged With: early American history, hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, historyspine, secularhistory

American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp – Free Notebooking Pages

August 15, 2015 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, our American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp that we started more than a month ago I continue with some free notebooking pages. Also, look at Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp.

I had my first son move back to the states, a graduation party for Mr. Awesome 2015 and a trip back to the states. And I still thought I was going to keep on homeschooling Tiny? Insane!

American History Notebooking pages - Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I tout all the time about not being super mom and to slow down for life changing moments in homeschooling, but I still tried to go on as normal. What is normal anyway?

I’m back to reality and am ready to kick off our school year soon.

Because our unit study is a focus on key events from modern American history, I prepared two notebooking pages that Tiny will be using this next week to go along with the minibooks he has already done.

ABOUT WYATT EARP

Though we had read about the life of Wyatt Earp in our history magazine, I guess it really wasn’t until we honed in on the year he was born, which was 1829 and when he died, which was 1929 that I realized what amazing events he must have witnessed.

The frontier was still wild and untamed while he was a boy.

Conflicts between the US Army and Native Americans were going on until the end of the 1800s.

He was a teenager when the American Civil War started and probably knew first hand the tragedy of all the lives lost.

Notebooking Pages - American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus 1

Then the beginning of the 1900s ushered in the opening of the Panama Canal and the US going to war again, but now, it was a much more global war –  World War I.

Wonder what he thought as the US forged ahead into the modern world?

Notebooking Pages - American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus 2

Tiny will be doing some research on his own since the events I have on the notebooking pages are significant key events and there is plenty of information both in our encyclopedia and online for him to read.

I am not looking for him to write a research paper with the pages, but I am looking for him to imagine, wonder and step back into time to see events possibly through the eyes of Wyatt Earp.

Both notebooking pages have 4 key historical events on them.

Have your child research the event, write in the date and then add a few facts about that key event.

On the right margin of each page is a box where they can write about life during the 1800s and life during the 1900s, which will help them to focus about something that draws them in about this time in history.

I am finding this unit study to be quite helpful to help Tiny learn about sweeping events in modern American history and still learn about a person in history that captures his attention. Win-win.

MORE ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNING ABOUT WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOYS

  • Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp
  • Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp – Hands-on Activities
  • Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks – American History
  • Free Printable History Board Game – American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp
  • Free Notebooking Pages
  • Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Part 2
  • Gunfight at O.K. Corral – American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp

HOW TO GET THE FREE WYATT EARP LAPBOOK, NOTEBOOKING PAGES & BOARD GAME

Update: The lapbook is now complete. Download all the freebies below.

  • Art cards by Frederic Remington about Wyatt Earp
  • Cover pages for the outside of notebooking pages 1800s and 1900s. Look here how to fold ordinary worksheets to interactive minibooks.
  • 8 Features of the SW United States
  • The 4 Southwestern states
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1800s notebooking page
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1900s notebooking pages
  • Who was Wyatt Earp
  • Who were the Cowboys
  • Who Was Doc Holliday
  • Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Tombstone, Arizona – About Tombstone – Ed Schieffelin
  • Printable Game with Game Pieces – The Most Famous Shoot Out – Gunfight at O.K. Corral

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

4 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, Geography, Geography Based, History Based Tagged With: american history, hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, historyspine, homeschoolhistory, secularhistory

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Privacy Policy | About Me | Reviews | Contact | Advertise

Categories

Archives

Tina Robertson is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright © 2025 · 5 TNT LLC · Log in · Privacy Policy