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Category Archives: History & Geography

Review of Sacagawea by Knowledge Quest

The exploration of early America is a time of history that captures the imagination with brave people traveling to unknown lands, crossing rivers, mountain ranges, and wide open spaces, facing dangers we can only attempt to visualize in our minds. Knowledge Quest feeds your student’s curiosity about this era with Sacagawea, a historical novel about one of American’s most honored women.

Sacagawea, by Karla Akins, is an interactive ebook of about 112 ‘pages’ for kids ages 10 and up, with embedded links that readers can click in order to gain a deeper understanding of vocabulary, people, places, animals, and other information specific to the story.

Excerpt:

From the top of the hill, Sacagawea spotted thin lines of smoke dancing in graceful rings from the old Fort Mandan built by the Corps of Discovery. Abandoned by the explorers after their Great Journey. . .

Students can immediately access definitions that enhance their reading and learning experience. It’s instant information gratification!

The book actually begins the narrative after Sacagawea’s travels with Lewis & Clark, as she relays the story to her son Pompey. It is an intimate look at her personal life. She starts with the events surrounding her kidnapping at age 13, and subsequent purchase by Charbonneau to be his wife. She feels a sense of displacement and despair, until The Man with Red Hair arrives at her village in need of a guide and interpreter, and she sees hope that she can go home again to her family.

The book is well-written, descriptive, and fast-paced. The first person narrative draws the reader into the emotion and circumstances of her life. The illustrations – some black and white sketches, some in color – along with maps that track their travels, are beautiful and add that extra bit of interest to the ebook and helps ground the reader in the story.

Sacagawea’s story doesn’t end when the Lewis & Clark exploration is over. An epilogue provides us with details of the end of her life, as well as some closure about her son Pompey.

Written for ages 10 and up, my only caution would be for younger children who might sensitive about the honest (but not graphic) portrayals of spousal abuse and alcoholism.

Emma read Sacagawea for this review, and appreciated the up-close-and-personal narrative, as well as the ability to receive instant explanations of unfamiliar words and phrases, many of which are in Native American vernacular.

Originally released as 4 separate episodes, beginning with Stolen!, and followed by Passage, Survival and Equal, the complete Sacagawea story is combined in this ebook, . Read a sample chapter, then the entire Sacagawea Saga, now available on Amazon.com as a download for your Kindle for $4.97.

Review of The Pilgrim Story by Dayspring Christian Academy

15 Oct

When teaching history, it isn’t enough to memorize people, places, and dates. To truly internalize the information, students must be encouraged to thoughtfully consider the events in their context, as well as the repercussions of those events, as we often continue to feel the effects today.

History is a subject that seems to self-select for certain study methods. One of the reasons so many homeschool parents favor the Principle Approach is that it not only emphasizes learning from a Biblical worldview, but when using this method, the student researches the subject thoroughly and keeps all of their work in a notebook- in essence, creating their own ‘textbook’. The idea is to encourage students to take ownership of the subject they are studying.

Utilizing the Principle Approach, Dayspring Christian Academy offers a self-paced 6-month online course for grades 3rd through 6th called The Pilgrim Story for $99. Packed with information from primary sources, engaging assignments, enrichment activities, and spiral review, this interactive program provides comprehensive instruction in this era of early American History, highlighting principles of Christian character.

After purchase, The Pilgrim Story will be available within 48 hours. The first step is creating an account with your own unique user name and password, and then you will have access to all features of the program, such as a user profile, course administration, and reports for tracking student grades and percentages.

As always, begin the course by reading and watching the tutorial which explains how to use the player and implement the program itself. You are introduced to the instructor, Mary Stauffer, and all lesson components are explained, including the use of the Contents and Resources tabs, primary source material, and student notebook. This is very important- one of the reasons people become frustrated by new curriculum is that they do not lay the groundwork for success by reading and following instructions before beginning to use the curriculum. Even with a self-paced course like The Pilgrim Story, which requires moderate parental involvement, parents and children should take the time to prepare for the course – for example – by printing the pages needed for the student notebook and obtaining additional resources listed from the library.

Each lesson starts with a reminder of how to navigate the player and use the Resources tab to download and print all student materials. These vary somewhat from lesson to lesson, but each includes a student notebook page and a vocabulary list.

There are 5 units and a total of 17 lessons. Each lesson consists of audio narration of slides with text and pictures relating to the subject, and will take from 30-45 minutes to complete. The student notebook pages help the child learn how to take notes, and interspersed through the slides are activities, quizzes, and essay questions to help students focus and think through important content. Each lesson ends with a quiz, and lessons following Lesson 1 begin with multiple choice questions for review.

Each unit is completed with either an essay or multiple choice test. The parent must grade the essay, but for the multiple choice test, instant scoring is available in Course Administration. The teacher and student can also choose to see the answers.

Lesson titles:

King Henry
Geneva Bible
Life in Scrooby
Liberty of Conscience
Leaving England
The Second Escape Attempt
Leiden
Preparing to Go
Leaving Leiden
Conditions on the Mayflower
Building Christian Character
The Mayflower Compact
Exploration
The First Winter
Spring 1621
The Wampanoag People
The Rest of the Story (covers 3 years of life in the early colonies)

We found the information provided dispelled many myths surrounding the lifestyle, events, and motivations of the Pilgrims to leave their home country and travel to America. The pictures and text were visually appealing. Essay questions offered opportunities for oral discussion or composition practice. A variety of review methods helped maintain interest. The Pilgrim Story is rounded out with a virtual field trip to to Plymouth, MA, led by Mary Stauffer, the creator of this course. She has led over 20 tours of the Plymouth area, and often lectures about this time in our nation’s history.

Noah reviewed The Pilgrim Story and took notes. Some things he liked about the program:

Simple interface
The narrator had a nice voice
Controls were easy to find
Lessons start with instructions for how to use the player
Each lesson has its own resources and vocabulary list
Each lesson had its own list of references
There were quotes that were formatted nicely for printing

The only negative comment he made was that the player size could not be expanded nor could he zoom in on the slides.

We used this program on PCs with Windows Vista, and our default browser is Google Chrome. We did not experience technical problems using The Pilgrim Story.

The website provides very detailed hardware and software requirements. Briefly, they are:

PC with internet access- either DSL or cable
Internet Browser- recommended current versions of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox
Cookies enabled, pop up blockers off
Program that can read .doc files

Also needed:

Macromedia Flash Player, PowerPoint or PowerPoint Viewer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and a media player such as Windows Media Player.

These are all available as free downloads. You can also use cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive to backup assignments such as essays, and share access to those documents.

Check out Dayspring Christian Academy on Facebook.

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Learn history by “doing” history

04 Oct

The way we usually learn about history is different than in every other subject. In music, class we listen to music and sing, and often learn to play an instrument. For art class, we learn about drawing, painting, and sculpting by actually drawing, painting and sculpting, as well as viewing real works of art. In language arts, we use paper, pen, and voice- the tools of the reader, writer, and speaker- to read literature, compose prose and poetry, and discuss content. We learn math by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers, and science often involves experiments and observing the natural world using the principles of chemistry, physics, and tools like magnifying glasses and microscopes.

As for history- we don’t really ‘do’ history. A traditional history class revolves around reading heavily edited and condensed articles about people, places, and dates in textbooks, rounded out by the occasional field trip to a historic landmark. This seems rather thin when compared to how much we can immerse ourselves in other subject areas. Is there a better way?

Yes, there is. By using the same tools that historians use, we can offer a much more enjoyable and accurate view of history.

The main tool of the historian is primary sources. A primary source is something that was created by a person who experienced an event, or was an eye witness to that event. These could be in the form of artifacts, letters, diaries, legal documents, audio or visual recordings, transcripts of speeches.

Primary sources are original materials. They are from the time period involved and have not been filtered through interpretation or evaluation. Primary sources are original materials on which other research is based. They are usually the first formal appearance of results in physical, print or electronic format. They present original thinking, report a discovery, or share new information.

Secondary sources are also used, but are not considered as reliable as primary sources.

Secondary sources are less easily defined than primary sources. Generally, they are accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. They are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence. However, what some define as a secondary source, others define as a tertiary source. Context is everything.

What does a historian do with these sources? They look for patterns of cause and effect, as well as similarities and differences between peoples, times, and places; they assess the evidence to provide explanations for changes in how groups and societies interact with each other; they map changes in cultures and governments and offer insights into human nature. Historians are like detectives, only they examine clues left by the past. The quality and chain of evidence is as important to them as fingerprints, hair and fibers, and DNA is to the crime scene investigator.

If we use the tools of the reader, writer, artist, and scientist to study those content areas, why not use the tools of the historian to study history?

Not only is this the most effective way to learn history, it is also the most economical. With the internet and the public library, primary source documents are down the street, or just a couple of clicks away.

Here are some links to primary sources online:

United States National Archives Teaching with Documents Lesson Plans
Constitution.org Treasury of Primary Documents
California State University Primary Documents Online

While secondary sources are not considered as reliable as original source documents, secondary and tertiary sources provide students with an excellent opportunity to discuss and debate the interpretations of the authors of those sources.

Example Lesson: The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

Read the transcript of the document, then read it out loud as one would in delivering a speech.
Read the transcript of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of 1862. Are there differences between these two documents?
With a map of the United States, outline and label the areas affect by the Emancipation Proclamation.
Listen to the audio of an interview with former slave Charlie Smith, as he describes his life after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Rewrite the Emancipation Proclamation in modern English.
Watch videos produced by modern historians, find the sources they quote, and discuss the views they present. What did they say that was verifiable fact, and what was simply their opinion?

With even more primary sources at The Civil War Trust website, students can examine political cartoons from that time and discuss the political views behind them, and then take a quiz to test their memory of the events surrounding the end of the Civil War.

History deserves to be studied with more effort and treated with more respect than is given by traditional methods. By using primary sources, we exercise our ability to combine different kinds of evidence, learn to think critically about conflicting reports and interpretations, and apply patterns and principles to modern and future history.

Review of Box of I.D.E.As ~ Salt

01 Oct

Homeschooling families are always looking for ways to teach multiple ages, and many have found unit studies to be the answer. Unit studies take one topic and spread it across the curriculum. Families read and research the subject together, and the parent assigns exercises and projects appropriate to each student’s level.

A Box of I.D.E.As. (Ideally Dynamic Enrichment Activities) has taken the unit study to highly usable, flexible, and productive level for students ages 9-16. Topics available are:

Pigs
Salt
Eleven
World War II
Quilting
Laundry
and many others will be available soon

We reviewed the .pdf download of the Salt unit. We are a salt loving family, using it on everything from apples to lemons, and even chocolate chip cookies. Salt makes food taste more like itself, and has many household uses. Salt makes for a very fascinating study that encompasses history, science, economics, nutrition, and industry. Our kids are always excited to see how many ways we can incorporate one topic into all subject areas, and it was fun to think about how those little grains that sit in the shaker on the table, for which we pay so little at the store, could have so many uses and impacted history in so many ways. We realized how much we underestimate items that to us are common, but were once very precious.

With each completed module, we have added some great projects to our school files for documentation and future evaluation.

The download included a letter of explanation about Box of I.D.E.As., and some suggestions about how to use it. Each module could stand alone, but using all of them provided a very well-rounded overview. The Salt modules covered:

The History of Salt- Contains surprising facts about the impact salt has had on civilizations from the beginning of history and around the world. Economies, cultures, and wars have been influenced by the uses and need for salt. Instructions and fact cards for a game about the chronology of salt, web links for further study, and a page for the student’s portfolio round out this module.
The Language of Salt- Salt has been so important and influential that many of our idioms are based on the value and uses of salt. Cards for a word match game can be printed, and web links offer more background information about this topic.
The Need for Salt- This module explores the nutritional value of salt, and students can have a little adventure in their own kitchen, looking at labels for sodium content, planning a well-balanced menu, and includes a chart that lists the sodium content of common foods.
Preserving with Salt- we know that throughout history, salt has been used to preserve foods. This module delves further into food preservation, and all you need to play the game are game markers and dice.
Producing Salt- Salt is a plentiful substance, it can be obtained by various methods. Check out the web links to videos and pictorials of salt being harvested.
The Science of Salt- Follow the instructions for experiments to learn more about the properties of salt. A great addition to your child’s science portfolio.
The Salt March- What do salt and Ghandi have in common? Do this module to find out.
The Salt of the Earth- Research the many geographical locations where salt is found and produced and play the accompanying game with the map and cards provided.
The Wall that Salt Built- Salt is so valuable and treasured around the world that is has been used to finance such enormous tasks as building the Great Wall of China.
Very Salty- More geography lessons and a game about bodies of salt water, and what this means in other parts of the world.

The Salt unit was completed with a timed, multiple choice test. Even if you don’t usually test your children, these are recommended for SAT/ACT practice for older students. Answer keys are included.

We also discovered that these studies are very portable, and it’s great to be able to use down time in the car for fun discussions about the modules we had covered.

This product is offered as a physical Box of I.D.E.As. with everything you need for the assignments and activities for $79, extra student modules for $4, or as a .pdf download for $49.

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1 Comment

Posted by Susan Raber on October 1, 2012 in History & Geography, Homeschool Elementary, Homeschool High School, Homeschool styles & methods, Schoolhouse Crew Reviews, Science

Tags: Schoolhouse Review Crew, teaching multiple ages, the history of salt, the uses of salt, unit studies

Review of Costumes with Character

30 Aug

One of the joys of childhood is playing ‘dress up’. Pretending and role-playing are one way children learn about the world around them, about other times and places. However, providing costumes to enable such play can be difficult and expensive.

If you can thread a sewing machine, you can use Costumes with Character from Golden Prairie Press to satisfy any girl’s desire to play dress up in old-fashioned dresses, vests, shawls, aprons, and bonnets. The book is based on the idea of making or finding a plain, solid color dress that can be fitted to your child, then accessorized with the patterns provided. In the Costumes with Character book they are pictured in grids to be enlarged for making full-size patterns, but there is also a book of full-sized patterns. The accessories add the fun, historically accurate touches and an opportunity to experiment with prints and even a little bit of embroidery.

My daughter and I love to shop thrift stores for dresses, skirts, and shirts that we can alter in some way that create a new and unique outfit. It’s like our own little adventure, and many of our local thrift stores have quality clothing in very good shape for less than $5.

If you are comfortable sewing the basic dress, a solid color midweight fabric is still going to be a bargain when you compare the prices of period costumes.

Each chapter of the book covers a specific period in history, with the inside story about the people and the clothing of the time. There is a wealth of historical information to go with all the patterns for collars, neckerchiefs, cuffs, bustles, belts, underskirts, and even a parasol, from the times of the Pilgrims, Puritans, Quakers, American Revolution, Young Republic, Romantic, Pioneer, Civil War, Victorian, and the early 1900′s.

The combination of stories and costumes is a wonderful way for girls to internalize the lives of people and events of the past.

Costumes with Character is available as a printed book for $29.60, or as an ebook for $17.56. You can also order the book of full size patterns for $12. These books would be a great addition to any history or home economics course, or just for the pleasure of creating something that is both fun and educational.

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