The Curriculum Choice

Hands-on History Fun

Charlotte Mason, Hands On, History, Uncategorized, Unit study resources 6 Responses »

Mar 112010

For some of us the idea of doing hands-on projects with our children can be daunting. I am neither crafty nor artistic, and I don’t enjoy making and cleaning up messes during the course of our school day. However, I have come to the conclusion that with a little bit of forethought and planning, including hands-on activities in our history lessons can be painless and fun.

Most importantly, the right project can bring a historical topic or time period to life for children. I am always amazed when one of my children brings up a project we completed several months ago and is still able to associate it with the concept about which we were learning.

Today I thought I would share with you a couple of my favorite resources for user-friendly, hands-on history projects. Most of these books can be found at your local library or an online bookseller.

American Kids in History by David C. King – There are several volumes in this series that cover different time periods. We have only used Colonial Days: Discover the Past with Fun Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes and Revolutionary War Days: Discover the Past with Exciting Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes. Some of our favorite projects from these include quill writing, making and playing traditional colonial games, and dipping candles.

More Than Moccasins: A Kid’s Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life (A Kid’s Guide series) is just one of many Activity Guides that Laurie Carlson has written for different periods in history. From this book we enjoyed several Native American projects including making and trading wampum (clay beads), making and wearing paper bag vests, making and playing with spinning tops, and playing Shinny, an early form of hockey.

Most of the games, crafts, recipes, and other projects that we have done in these books were moderate to easy for my 6 and 8 year old to complete, along with a little bit of help and guidance from me. The time required to complete each project was anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. (O.K., except for the candle-dipping. That one required a lot of help from me and took a long time to complete, but the kids have not forgotten it!)

For most of these projects, we used supplies we already had on hand or recycled household items. Some of the projects do require materials that you would probably have to purchase, for example, the paraffin wax for the candles.

I hope that you’ll check out these resources and find them helpful in spicing up your history studies with some hands-on fun.

Written by Shannon, who is a history-buff at heart and enjoys blogging about her family’s homeschooling adventures at Song of My Heart.

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The Mighty Works of God: Self Government

Biblical Principle Approach, History 7 Responses »

Mar 092010

History textbooks have a tendency to be boring, but I discovered a series of about American history to treasure. These books do not contain dry lists of dates or a simple retelling of events. Instead, they focus on the causes behind events: people and Providence.

The Mighty Works of God consists of three volumes for the early elementary years. They are not listed by grade-level, but gradually increase in difficulty. This review will focus on the 1st level, which is roughly 1st or 2nd grade.

The first lesson from The Mighty Works of God: Self Government introduces history as the story of God working in the lives of men and nations. For his title page, my son wrote,

“You are the God who works wonders…Psalms 77:14”

He was so inspired considering the works of God in his own life that he composed a song:

God, You are so good to me. God you set me free…

That moment I knew it was a good curriculum choice.

We placed the carefully written song in his notebook along with the variety of colorful pages created from the CD in the Teacher’s Guide Timelines, coloring pages, t-charts, maps, and notes created a meaningful overview my son still enjoys purusing.

The Teacher’s Guide also includes detailed lesson plans and suggestions For Reflection and Reasoning and Cultivation Mastery. Each lesson is one leading idea, so it is simple to implement.

The lessons are derived from original source documents whenever applicable and those sources are shared in The Teacher’s Guide. I still refer to the quotes and research even though we aren’t using this particular curriculum right now.

I requested permission to use some images and samples from the book, and it was graciously given to me. The following list of files (pdf) were sent to me by the author, Ruth J. Smith.

You can get a good understanding of what is covered in the year-long program and a glimpse of the beautiful artwork throughout:

I learned so much using this curriculum. It gave me examples of how to use leading ideas and how to research lessons. It also filled many holes my own history education, especially in regards to looking for internal causes instead of merely at external events.

The best part is that it inspired my song-writing son to remember the Mighty Works of God.

Written by Renae Deckard, Biblical Principled mother of 3. Find Renae’s reflections about homeschool and family life at Life Nurturing Education.

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It’s a Zoo Out There! Apologia Review

Elementary, Science, Unit study resources 2 Responses »

Mar 082010

There are so many interesting animals to learn about. Our favorite family field trip is to the local zoo. We have been going since our oldest was an infant and still enjoy it 8 years later with five children. It will come as no surprise to you, then, to find that we love studying animals in homeschool. Being a unit study family, we have made many units on our own. This past year we found a textbook that is perfectly adapted to unit studies.

Exploring Creation with Land Animals of the Sixth Day is the third in a series of Zoology books offered by Apologia Science. We looked at each of the zoology book’s topics, samples, and table of contents before my oldest chose to begin with Zoology 3 because so many of her favorite animals from the zoo are covered in this book.

Things we love:

Written in an easy conversational style directed at the student - this makes it a perfect read aloud for our family.
Beautiful photography - who is not inspired by amazing photographs of animals?
Christian Perspective - a book that openly celebrates God’s creative powers and his amazing designs.
Experiments that work - directions lay out each step, a materials list is in the front of the book, and experiments really apply to the topics in each chapter.

With 14 chapters packed full of information this book can fill an entire academic year. We use it a little differently, picking it up when we want to do a unit study about a specific animal family, then putting it away again until we’re ready for more animal adventures. That means we have only finished a little over 1/3 of the book this year. My eight year old loves the book so much that she has read it nearly cover to cover already on her own. She takes it to her room and reads during quiet time. Many times this year she has come to tell me all about the things she has learned, or to ask a question the reading has brought up.

While we do not have many textbooks in our home, I have found the Exploring Creation series to be a wonderful fit for our unit study family. We will be investing in the rest of the series in the coming years.

Written by Tristan, mom to 5, homeschooling through unit studies with a side of lapbooks. You can visit her at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.

{Disclaimer because the FTC says I have to: I bought this book with my own money, and yes, we really use it. All opinions presented herein are my own.}

Elephant image courtesy of Tim Seed / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Blog Hop give-away coming soon!

Uncategorized 1 Response »

Mar 072010

Curriculum Choice is hosting a homeschool blog hop give-away and we need help spreading the word about it! It is coming up in two weeks. Read this page for more information about how to participate.

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Looking for writers

Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 062010

Curriculum Choice is looking for a few moms to fill some open spots. We are in need of a classical mom and a Charlotte Mason mom. If you love to tell others about the curriculum that you use with your family and you would like to join an amazing team of writers, then please fill out the form on our Authors page.
We will consider all that apply, but only have room for a few new writers so please include a link to a sample of your writing/reviews. At this time, we are not accepting writers that currently write reviews for The Old Schoolhouse. Sorry ladies, enough of your time is being taken up already, but we appreciate your interest.

We have a great community of women behind the scenes of Curriculum Choice. We are a part of the Homeschool Lifestyle Media network and collaborate with the Homeschool Classroom. We’d like to hear from you if you are interested in reviewing!

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Itty Bitty Bookworm: Toddler and Preschool Curriculum

Hands On, Language Arts, Literature, Preschool 2 Responses »

Mar 052010

The Itty Bitty Bookworm is a literature based curriculum for children as young as 18 months up to 5 years old. The curriculum comes on CD for the Bo and Baily Curriculum. The Bo Curriculum is geared toward ages 3-5 years old and the Baily is geared toward children ages 18-36 months old.

As a Charlotte Mason inspired home school, a literature based curriculum appealed for such little ones appealed to me. I believe children should be surrounded by solid books to enhance and encourage education. Itty Bitty Bookworm fit in with this line of thought. The curriculum uses excellent books while using many books you most likely have for your child.

What is included in the curriculum:

A weekly supply list.
List of suggested items to enhance the curriculum.
Graphic organizer for the teacher to take notes on student progress.
Overview of the year in advance.
Monthly objectives to keep you on track.
Coloring pages, printable poems, activities, and crafts.
Complete schedule and list of activities perfect for group settings as well as homeschooling.

I have one child using Bo and one using the Bailey Curriculum. Each child is having so much fun exploring literature and doing the activities. I was surprised how much my 19 month old is learning! Bo and Bailey use many of the same book so that makes it easy and fun for all of us to enjoy reading time together.

This is a very well laid out program that shows the years of love and research it took to develop it. I highly suggest looking into Itty Bitty Bookworm for your toddler or preschooler. The sooner they learn to enjoy literature the sooner they will bloom!

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Considering God’s Creation Curriculum Review

Elementary, Science 8 Responses »

Mar 032010

I’m one of those homeschool moms who can never use a curriculum exactly as it is planned. I regularly tweak, skip, and add. So I admit that I’ve not used Considering God’s Creation as it is designed, but I’ve loved having it on my shelf as a resource for supplementing science and nature studies.

Considering God’s Creation is written for 2nd through 6th grades and is flexible enough for teaching a group of children in various grades. Perfect for a Charlotte Mason styled homeschooler who wants no formal science before 7th grade, this program is very gentle and provides a brief introduction to many areas of science: creation, the universe, weather, rocks, plants, animals, ecology, and human body.

The authors recommend using the 36 lessons over 2-3 years, making this $30 curriculum an incredible value. (You can buy Considering God’s Creation at Rainbow Resource.)

Considering God’s Creation is a set of three resources – a student book, a teacher’s manual, and an audio CD.

The Student Book

The student book has almost 200 perforated pages that can be reproduced within a family. These make up the notebooking component of Considering God’s Creation. Some are strict pages with coloring or matching, but many are cut and paste paper activities or minibooks.

One of my favorite parts of the student book are the detective pages. These are one page worksheets that can be filled in with details; there are boxes to tick and places to draw diagrams.

Detective Pages offer a concrete framework for careful observation and documentation, so they are great for science notebooks or for nature journals. The student book wisely includes duplicates of the detective pages because you will want to use them many times in your scientific observations.

Working on Rock Detective

Detective Page Topics

Solar system
Scientist (biography)
Rock
Cloud
Speed
Flower
Mold
Tree
Insect
Animal

Twelve crossword puzzles serve as review and can be used as tests for older children.

The Teacher’s Manual

Considering God’s Creation is a very “open and go” curriculum thanks to the teacher’s manual; any needed preparation is clearly outlined at the beginning of the teacher notes. Each lesson includes Bible references to connect the science to God’s word. There are suggested experiments or activities, a fully scripted lesson (with answers to all the questions), a notebooking activity taken from the student book, evolution stumpers, and resources for further study.

The Audio CD

The audio CD has songs to help you learn the science facts. The lyrics are included in both the student and teacher’s books.

My Own Evaluation

The notebooking aspect of the program is easy to adapt to either science notebooking, nature journaling, or even lapbooking. As a downside, some of the printable papercrafts and minibooks are tiny, with lots of information crammed on very small pieces of paper. You may want to enlarge some of the reproducibles or adapt their use. For example, the minute flaps that are to be glued together could be more easily stapled.

Another option that we used was to print the diagrams and illustrations and affix them onto blank minibooks we’d already created. (You can see an example of this method with the shutterfold about eyes pictured above.)

The style is a bit coarse; Considering God’s Creation is not as visually polished as an Evan Moor or a Scholastic book. But the Christian emphasis in the lessons and the comprehensive nature of the book make up for it.

Personally, I find the songs in the program very annoying, so the CD stayed safely in its envelope in the back of my teacher’s manual.

Pros

Multi-age
Christian
Inexpensive
Reproducible pages
Easily adaptable for notebooking, journaling, or lapbooking

Overall

I think that every homeschool with elementary aged children should have this resource. If you’re a Charlotte Mason styled homeschooler, you’ll find Considering God’s Creation a perfect fit for a gentle science study for elementary years and/or as a help for nature studies.

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Remembering God’s Awesome Acts

Bible, Classical, History, Unit study resources 13 Responses »

Mar 022010

I bet many of you are familiar with Considering God’s Creation by Susan Mortimer as a science curriculum, but have you also heard of her history curricula, Remembering God’s Awesome Acts and Remembering God’s Chosen Children?

Of the two history books, I’ve only used Remembering God’s Awesome Acts, so it’s the one I’ll review here. But, as much as I liked it, I won’t hesitate to recommend Remembering God’s Chosen Children, too!

Remembering God’s Awesome Acts is a history and Bible curriculum in one that covers ancient history from Creation to Moses. In unit study style, the activities include much more than just history and Bible! Art (including detailed drawing lessons), writing, poetry, drama, culture studies, languages, anthropology, archaeology and much more make this study very exciting and interesting from day to day.

Important topics such as evolution vs. creation are tackled, as well as world religions and missions. Many of the ancient history topics are brought home through lessons on current culture and people who make a difference as Christians today.

The curriculum is broken down into eight units:

Unit 1 – Who is God?
Unit 2 – Who is Man?
Unit 3 – The Fall of Man
Unit 4 – God Saves Noah
Unit 5 – Dispersion of Man
Unit 6 – The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
Unit 7 – Joseph in Egypt
Unit 8 – Moses Leads the Israelites Out of Egypt

A teacher’s guide leads the teacher through the unit with suggestions on how to introduce each section, short read alouds, and directions on what workbook pages to use when. Bible verse references are always included with each new topic within the unit. Sample work, answer keys, hieroglyphic flashcards and a small list of recommended supplements are included, too.

A “Create-A-Notebook” is provided for your student. (You will need one of these for each child.) Within the notebook are more than 270 pages front and back of activities for your student to complete. I have been so impressed with these sheets! Once the curriculum is complete, your child truly has a wonderful notebook documenting the entire unit, Genesis through Exodus 12. I can’t possibly describe all 270 pages, but here are some of the activities your child will complete:

maps
charts
visual organizers
to scale drawings
country studies
language studies
outlines
writing assignments
review sheets from lessons learned
games and puzzles
logic and math sheets
an much more!

Another positive…the study can be used with any child from 5th grade to 12th grade, so all of your older children can work through it at once! As with most unit study style curriculum, it’s hard to put a time frame on how long it will take. For most families, I can easily see it lasting most of a year. Families who have a little more scoot in their boots might be able to complete it in a semester.

I’d love to hear from you if you’ve used either of these history books from Susan Mortimer! What did you think?

-Written by Cindy, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of three. You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and Shining Dawn Books.

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