historyspine

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Part 2

May 28, 2015 | 3 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Continuing on with our learning American history, I have some hands-on history today. Also, look at Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp.

Hands-on history as we are learning American history through the life of Wyatt Earp, we did one more easy peazy activity for our unit study opening.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Part 2

We made soap.

Now I would have loved to have made one of these cutesy, full of fragrance, pink heart shaped soaps, but I have never been able to get one of my boys to make soap like that.

American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp

So I have to settle for the science of making home made soap, which is to make suds.

Too, this recipe calls for baking soda but baking soda is not plentiful here in Ecuador because they won’t sell it. It’s almost like it’s banned here in this country.

I had to substitute with baking powder.

We did learn some chemistry with this because we learned we can substitute baking powder for baking soda but you can’t substitute baking soda when you need baking powder.

Easy ingredients for making soap.

1/4 cup salad oil. I just used what I had.
1/4 quarter cup baking soda. We had to substitute with 3x the amount of baking soda.
Glass jar.

Add oil and soda to a pan and warm it on low heat and stir.

When it thickens, remove from heat and let it cool. Then add 1 tablespoon of mixture with 2 cups of hot tap water in the jar.

Shake until you see suds.

Though it may seem like simple science, it was good for Tiny to understand how the things we take for granted today like bubbles and suds just did not exist then.

Of course this would be even more meaningful if we had ashes, but then again reading about making soap in the olden days was a good reading assignment to do on his own.

Next, we were ready to start our unit study so I decided to use a history magazine as our spine.

As a side note, one of my very favorite history magazines, which was Learning through History that we used a lot on our unit studies, stopped printing issues.

I have most of the issues but after they stopped printing, I started receiving another subscription from History Magazine, though it wasn’t for kids.

HANDS-ON HISTORY FOR KIDS

I do have to look it over when we get it, but because the boys were getting older, I wanted something that wasn’t just bare bones history.

So for this unit study we are using one of the articles out of our history magazine about Wyatt Earp.

Also because it is for adults, it helps to nurture a love of history for kids who are advanced in reading too.

After he read from the magazine, I had a website that I wanted us to look at together because it is the direction we needed to go in, which is to add some science and a bit of geography.

Though Wyatt Earp is known for his famous gun fight at the OK Corral, he lived most of his life traveling and living in the desert and Southwest area as a lawman.

Features of the SW US - Wyatt Earp Unit Study @ Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Check out this website Wyatt Earp Desert Lawman, which talks about Earp living most of his life in the deserts of the Southwest.

Then, even though we are finished with our science book for the year, I love to use free resources I already have to build my unit studies.

So I knew that I had a free science magazine that talked about animals and ecosystems of the Southwest.

I shared that link with you too before, which is Free Science Magazines and the science magazine is Animals and Ecosystems of the Southwestern United States.

Be sure you download it because your child will need it to fill in the minibooks about the desert.

Features of the SW US - Wyatt Earp Unit Study minibook @ Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Features of the SW US - Wyatt Earp Unit Study Triple Fold Book @ Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus

One book is a minibook about the states that make up the Southwestern U.S. and the second book is a triple fold book.

On the triple fold book, your child lists 8 features of the Southwestern U.S.

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp. Learn about American Deserts @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Though hot temperatures and cacti come to mind, Tiny found that a few other things are characteristic of this area of the United States.

Having kicked off our unit study with some fun and easy hands-on ideas, he is ready to start doing a few printables to start building our lapbook.

MORE ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNING ABOUT WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOYS

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!

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 – Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

April 22, 2015 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

One reason I chose to use Ancient Egypt Passport Project from Home School in the Woods is because of the amount of hands-on history that it has. Also, look at my page Best Homeschool Unit Studies for more unit studies.

Today, I am sharing Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 because I want to be sure you to get see wayyy more pictures before I finish this study.

Ancient Egypt is a great civilization to study for Ancient History. Your kids will love this hands-on Ancient Egypt history study with many activities for multiple ages to choose from. CLICK HERE!

I know I am not using it like suggested meaning you pick and choose what you like to do. That would be too balanced for me.

I tend to be over board when it comes to history and we like sampling a little bit of it all. Don’t do like me.

We are trying to squeeze in every bit of the activities because we can’t wait to make the next activity and also I am visually obsessed so I wanted to be sure you get tons of pictures for this unit study.

Today, we played with paper dolls.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

Okay, don’t tell Tiny I said that because it was almost an outright mutiny when I showed him what we were going to do next.

Tiny was almost not going to do these fun Egyptian Figures, but it ended up being such a cool project I am glad we did them.

Homeschool History and Crafts Obsessed

Not only did we enjoy the coloring, but he enjoyed reading about what Egyptians, both adults and kids wore back then.

The coolest part is that after using an exacto knife on the paper figures, the clothing can be changed out by sticking tabs from the pieces into the holes or slits cut on the figures.

After a bit of time, he really got into changing out the pieces.

One thing that is so unique was that there were templates to use to cut out actual fabric that can be glued onto the figures.

I thought how fun it would be if you had a girl but that was Tiny’s limit.

He wasn’t going to make templates out of material.The finished looking project is a fun way to learn about time period clothing.

He was pleased with his finished product.

Not only is all the reading you need included with this unit study, which I like because you know the only books I can get here in Ecuador are in Spanish, but then the review of the material is illustrated in different ways like these pop out books.

We read about the social system in Ancient Egypt.

Then Tiny glued the text on each mini pop out book to show each level in the social system.

Let’s just face it, interacting with mini pop up books are certainly way more fun to handle and review material.

After he made the minibooks, I helped him glue them on the page showing he social pyramid.

Tell me which kid wouldn’t prefer to review material from a page like this instead of a worksheet?Then one more project I wanted to show you was the pocket made for souvenirs.

The pages are instructions for dressing up like an Egyptian boy or girl.There are more projects we are working on as we make our way through this hands-on unit study.

Have you ever tried any of the history unit studies from Home School in the Woods? Do you have any favorites?

Look at the other parts we did:

Hugs and love ya,

20 Awesome History Books for Kids

April 7, 2015 | 80 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Whether you’re looking for homeschool history books or just plain good ancient history books for your homeschool, I have 20 awesome history books for kids,

Too, you’ll find history books for every age.

And I have listed books for topics like castles, Greeks, Egypt, mummies, warriors, pyramids, inventions, the medieval world and time travelers.

These history books for kids can be used as a stand along spine which is a framework for your unit study or they can be used as supplements.

In addition, I love these series of books because some have additional activities for history.

History Books for Kids

History should not boring and so I look for books that have activities. You need reference books, but you also want ideas for all ages.

The books below on different eras of history are sticker books, about time travel and learning about Greek myths.

From preschool to young adult, these books give a diverse look at life in ancient times as well as some of the most important events.

Other History Books:

History Books for PreK – Kindergarten

1. Look Inside a Castle

Kids will follow a lord and lady as they go about their day in a medieval castle.

Children will learn all about castle life as they lift up over 60 different flaps to reveal facts about the medieval time period.

2. Mini Greek Myths for Children

These traditional Greek myths are retold so young children can understand and older children can read on their own.

This book is beautifully illustrated so that the whole family will enjoy reading it again and again.

3. Sticker Dressing Long Ago

What did Vikings, Pharaohs, and Japanese Samurai wear long ago?

Children will find out by dressing each character and reading about the facts that go with each.

Even after all the stickers are gone, children love reading about these historical people.

4. Ancient Egypt Jigsaw Book

Complete 6 easy jigsaws to reveal facts about life in ancient Egypt.

There are lots of things to seek and find which makes this book one of the most fun history books I’ve ever seen.

5. Look Inside Mummies and Pyramids

This lift and look books gives more details of how the Egyptians buried their dead and how the pyramids were made.

Kids love the flaps to lift and look inside the pyramids!

Elementary History Books

6. Living Long Ago

Details on everyday living in ancient times are revealed in this fun book.

Topics include clothing, homes, food, travel and more!

7. Sticker Dressing Warriors

Use over 200 stickers to dress warriors from the past. This book covers Mongols to Native American Chefs!

8. The Story of Inventions

This best selling books tell the stories behind the things we use everyday.

Children will be inspired to come up with their own inventions after reading this book.

9. Time Traveler

Follow a young boy as he travels back in time to 4 different civilizations.

This action-packed history book is just what kids who hate textbooks need to get interested in history.

10. Illustrated Stories from the Greek Myths

This collection of famous myths from Ancient Greece include: “The Horse”, “The Minotaur”, “Bellerophon and Pegasus”, “The Twelve Tasks of Heracles”, “Perseus and the Gorgon”, “The Odyssey”, even more myths and a guide to the gods.

Children will love the beautiful illustrations and introduction to Greek beliefs.

11. Ancient Egypt Sticker Book

This sticker book explores Egypt through ancient artifacts and monuments.

With over 120 stickers, this book is an awesome resource to have when studying ancient Egypt.

12. Ancient World

Lavish illustrations and detailed tid-bits help make this book intriguing for all children.

They’ll love learning about the rise and fall of major civilizations and the internet links featured will help them further explore the ancient world.

13. Medieval World

To find out all about the lives of knights, peasants, warriors, and more, this book is your ultimate resource.

It contains lots of internet sites with more resource for your children to learn about the history of the Medieval world.

14. Encyclopedia of World History

A 12000-year illustrated time chart, over 100 maps, clear descriptions of historical events and more make this book a must-have resource for any home library.

History Books for Young Adults

15. The World Wars

Based on true events, this book is perfect for reluctant readers and takes you on a thrilling journey through the lives of people who experienced the first & second world wars.
16. War Stories

Based on true events, this book is perfect for reluctant readers and takes you on a thrilling journey through the lives of people who experienced the first & second world wars.

17. Book of Castles

This book is for the castles buffs who want a detailed look inside castle life. With photographs, artworks, computer graphics, and internet references, you’ll get to see inside the world of castles like never before.

18. Greeks

Who were the Greeks and how did they come to dominate the Western world for centuries? Find out in this exciting book all about the Greeks!

19. Illustrated Guide to Greek Myths & Legends

This reference guide contains a detailed list of all the Greek gods, heroes, and monsters and their attributes. It is a great introduction to the myths and characters that make up Greek culture.

20. Romans

One of the most powerful empires that ever existed, their influence is still felt to this day.

They were pioneers of trade, engineering and government.

That’s why this book is great to have as a reference or to read a full chronicle of the Roman way of life.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study – Trip through Ancient History

April 2, 2015 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have a fun ancient Egypt unit study that I did in three posts. Also, look at my page Best Homeschool Unit Studies for more unit studies.

I am so tickled and excited about starting our Ancient Egypt Passport Project from Home School in the Woods that I can’t wait until the review to share all what we are doing.

We will be using this curriculum over the next month or so and you know I am so visual that I have to share a ton of pictures with you before I do a final review. I know you like pictures too.

Take a trip through history and discover cultures at another era of time with hands-on projects and activities that drive the lessons home in a fun way! You’ll love this Ancient Egypt Hands-on Homeschool Unit Study. CLICK HERE to get it!

One of the reasons I was so giddy to get my hands on this was because of all the activities and projects. We couldn’t wait to get started.

My initial thought on this is that it does require a good amount of time for set up. I have never been afraid of a bit of hard work in the beginning for a nice payoff in the long run.

Too, once we made the passport and luggage (so stinkin’ fun) we can use it for all the other project passport studies.

ANCIENT EGYPT ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

Fun And Easy Nile River Project Ideas To Spark Your Creativity

One thing I want to be sure you know when you start using this is to read carefully all the notes provided.

They are worth the time reading so that you don’t make mistakes in printing.

For example, I appreciated the very fine point of printing “actual size” and not shrinking the pages because the measurements will be off on all projects.

Just be sure you read all the details and take your time.

Hands-On History Ancient Egypt

So the first couple of lessons, which are called Stops (there are 25 Stops total), is where a lot of the prep work is done. We have done 3 STOPS and stopped so that we could catch up on some of the fun projects.

We started by making the fun passport first.

All the templates you need to make each printable is with this download. It is the total package.

Tiny wanted to use a photo for his passport where he was wearing his Ecuadorean hat. He is proud of that native hat.

He actually thought this was cool to make because when we got our passports for coming here to Ecuador, he learned a lot about visas and passports.

Then next we worked on making the timeline called “Snapshots Moments in History”. This baby has 8 pages plus 4 pages of timeline figures and extra pages for decorating.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study - Trip through Ancient History

You can choose to do the pages notebook style or accordion style.

Since we love lapbooks, we decided to go ahead and do the timeline accordion style.

It took a bit of time to cut each page and tape it, but now we have the timeline for the whole project and will be gluing our timeline figures as we go along at each Stop.

Homeschool History Based Activity Study

Then this luggage idea, complete with luggage tag is so creative.

Just a heads up, my luggage looks a bit different than what the instructions said. You will be able to create yours like the model one shown in the download because you probably live near a Wal-mart.

Since everything is not easy to find here in Ecuador, I had to help Tiny create something just a bit different.

First, I couldn’t find a file folder with pockets and brads. I went to 7 stores and they just don’t have that here in Ecuador.

So we made our own pockets and instead of using the brads like the instructions said, we used a file fastener.

If you make it and you live near civilization, it won’t take you near as long as it did for us to make our luggage.

We loved making it though and Tiny even wanted to glue some luggage stickers that we found on the internet onto the outside. It came out so cute.

Inside we store the travel log pages, which Tiny will write on at the end of our journey.

History Based Activity Study Ancient Egypt

We can store other items in the pockets too.

Then lastly we made our beginning scrap book called Scrapbook of Sights.

The instructions called for a clear outside pocket and a 3 ring binder. Guess what?

They don’t have clear outside pocket binders here and there are only 2 ring binders used here in Ecuador like the picture shown above. Again, your final product will look a bit different than mine does here.

This wasn’t such a big deal though because we just glued the cover page onto the outside and can use a 2 ring binder.

This binder is for storing the map we did about Upper and Lower Egypt and it will store our timeline as we add “snapshots” of our trip.

Too, we listened to our first audio as we headed down the Nile River.

I really like this part to this curriculum because out of all of my boys, Tiny is the strongest audio learner and he just curled up beside as we listened to this audio tour complete with sound effects. So much fun.

You see, there is no way I will be able to get this all in one blog post because there is way too many wonderful things to tell you about this project.

I will update you as we move along through a few more Stops and do more of the projects.

Do you have plans for an upcoming unit study on Ancient Egypt?

You’ll love the other parts to this unit study:

Hugs and love ya,

When We Used Story of the World as our History Spine

June 23, 2014 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When we used The Story of the World as our history spine in the younger years, it was one right choice I made for us.

Although loving history, my knowledge included only the history of the United States and it was pretty lame at that.

Because the The Story of the World came out around the time my oldest son was in the early grades and because I had read numerous good reviews, I used it.

It ended up being a perfect fit for all of my sons. We did begin with Volume 1 and worked our way through Volume 4, which is the whole series.

When we used The Story of the World as our History Spine

It is hard to find history programs for very young children that are presented in a story format and that make teaching history to young children easy. That is one thing I appreciated about the format.

I think it’s a must to have not only the story book, but the Teacher’s Manual which has the activity pages in them or purchase the activity pages separately for each kid.

STORY OF THE WORLD AS A HISTORY SPINE

The teacher’s manual not only has questions that help you to review the story but it has the answers right there too. No flipping to another section to find the answers That is a huge tiny pet peeve of mine about teacher’s manual.

Also, there are plenty of resources listed and choices for extra reading for a variety of ages.

It is a multi-age resource, which is a great find too if you are teaching more than one child.

If you are new to homeschooling or if you don’t have a huge background in history, The Story of the World makes teaching history painless. It would make a great addition to your curriculum too even if your kids are a bit older.

If your oldest kid is beginning middle school, I think this curriculum is still doable to teach all your kids if you have that circumstance.

Volume 4 is targeted for grades 4 to 8. So if you have children in that age range and want to use this, just remember that Volume 1 was written for 1st to 4th grade. I don’t see any harm in using it for your kids if they are older and can tolerate a bit of the language written in the earlier volumes for younger children. It sure helps the teacher mom along.

The Story of the World is just an introduction to history and I think it does a fantastic job of hooking your children on history along with the maps and activities laid out in the program. It helped us to form in our minds some major pivotal history points that the boys still refer to today.

It has slight Christian content, but we always added more. I have said before I appreciate that fact about curriculum sometimes because we can cover Bible subjects at our pace.

Overall, The Story of the World is a keeper for us because of the ease of use, story format, use for multiple ages, teacher helps and having everything laid out.

On to more history spines we used through the years in my upcoming posts.

Hugs and love ya,

Want to read more?

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

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

When we used Notgrass World History as our History Spine

8 Ways to Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically

Should Homeschool History Be Covered in Chronological Order?

historyspine

Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Part 2

American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp

HANDS-ON HISTORY FOR KIDS

MORE ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNING ABOUT WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOYS

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

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 – Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

Homeschool History and Crafts Obsessed

20 Awesome History Books for Kids

History Books for Kids

Other History Books:

History Books for PreK – Kindergarten

Elementary History Books

History Books for Young Adults

Ancient Egypt Unit Study – Trip through Ancient History

ANCIENT EGYPT ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

Hands-On History Ancient Egypt

Homeschool History Based Activity Study

History Based Activity Study Ancient Egypt

When We Used Story of the World as our History Spine

STORY OF THE WORLD AS A HISTORY SPINE

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historyspine

American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp

HANDS-ON HISTORY FOR KIDS

MORE ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNING ABOUT WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOYS

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

Homeschool History and Crafts Obsessed

History Books for Kids

Other History Books:

History Books for PreK – Kindergarten

Elementary History Books

History Books for Young Adults

ANCIENT EGYPT ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

Hands-On History Ancient Egypt

Homeschool History Based Activity Study

History Based Activity Study Ancient Egypt

STORY OF THE WORLD AS A HISTORY SPINE

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