Heritage History Review

I told you I’d write a more full review once I’d had a chance to use it more, and then I got busy reading the books included in my Early American library and planning for the school year that I forgot to do that.  But now I have a REVIEW AND A GIVEAWAY for you!

I wrote a detailed how to get your books loaded onto your Nook post a few weeks ago, and the advice there is still how I do it.

Since then, I’ve taken the time to read two of my books, and I love them.  To make it easier for me to find them, I created a special bookshelf of my American history books.

They are all formatted very well, and like all other Nook (and I’m assuming Kindle) have a touchable Table of Contents to get to specific chapters within a book.  I enjoy that feature since for most of these books I’m not planning on reading the whole book to them.

At first when I got the books I assumed I was only going to be able to use it for the fall semester, thinking the spring semester would be too recent to have books included.  But, I was surprised to learn there were some books for World War 1 included in the set as well.

PROS of these CDs
1.  They’re an affordable way to add in some great classical litereature to your school year, each of the Curriculum CDs has at least 40 books, and the libraries look to have at least 30 books.  That’s a great buy.
2.  Well organized.  They break the books down into beginner (green), intermediate (orange), and advanced (red).  I’m planning to use both beginner and intermediate books as read alouds for my kids.
3.  The books themselves are well-formatted for all of the different formats (e-reader, PDF, etc).  They are easily navigable.

CONS of these CDs
1.  If you don’t have an e-reader it could be a lot of printing.  You’d have to decide for yourself if that was worth it.  I’ve had times before I got my Nook I thought it was, but that’s one only you can make the call.
2.  Some of the books on the Early American library are compilation types, which means I have to go to each book to find what I want, and the titles aren’t always descriptive enough for me to know what it is.  Now, I don’t think this is a total con, because it gives me an excuse to read the books.
3.  You might get sucked into reading about something you’re not studying.  We finished studying Lafayette awhile ago, and yet I still took the time to read all about him.  Why?

and how I’m using it with All American History

I’ve only got the lesson plans for the fall semester, but here’s my general plan so far…….  Of course this is subject to change.

Prelude to Civil War

excerpt’s from Uncle Tom’s Cabin for Young Readers, this was such an influential book
Underground Railroad short story from This Country of Ours

Civil War (this is 4 chapters in

All American History)

American Book of Golden Deeds: Sympahty of Abraham Lincoln (short story)
Battle Between Ironclads short story from This Country of Ours (very important battle for military history)
Death of Stonewall Jackson short story from This Country of Ours
Grant’s Campaign from This Country of Ours

Reconstruction

President is Impeached short story from This Country of Ours (I still remember the political cartoon about this from when I took US history in high school)

Gilded Age and Westward Expansion

True Stories of Our Presidents for Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur (just finished reading one of those for myself out of curiosity)
Stories of Theodore Roosevelt (in particular Battle for San Juan Hill)
Antoine of Oregon
(I’m still looking through for this portion)

TO BUY IT

Go to Heritage History and check out their stuff, if you buy a history curriculum, add the Spanish Empire library to your cart and enter the code TICIAJOY in the coupon box to get the Spanish Empire library for free!

BONUS, FREE RIGHT NOWI just got an email that the Story of England is free right now!

WIN IT

Now you get a chance to win one of their CDs for yourself!  Use Rafflecopter to enter below.  I was so excited to post this I forgot to put in the:
RULES AND CONDITIONS:
Giveaway closes one week from today, August 15, 2012
United States or military base mailing adress only
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Learning All the Time

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Davy Crockett’s birthday is August 17 and to prepare for it we decided to learn as much as we could about him.

We started off by reading some fun books about him.  First a biography that gave the factual information.  Davy Crockett (History Maker Bios (Lerner))is a nice little book that did the job rather well, sadly our library didn’t have the David Adler book, but this one is just as much fun.

 

Did you know that Davy Crockett didn’t go by Davy during his lifetime?  That didn’t start until all those tall tales were printed in the 1850s.  I also was shocked to learn his father rented him out for a year as a hired hand at 12 years old.  I’m trying to imagine the 12 year olds I know doing that, YIKES.

 

Next we got to my favorite part of the study, the tall tales.  I checked out from our library 3 books:

 

Davy Crockett Saves the World, I’ve written about before, and we’ve checked out many times.  Davy Crockett saves the world from Halley’s Comet and impresses the girl, Sally Ann Thunder.

 

Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett, try saying that three times fast, or multiple times throughout while reading the book, I guarantee your tongue will be tied.  Is all about how SHE saved Davy Crockett and married him.

 

Davy Crockett Gets Hitched is how Davy met and married his wife by outdancing her.  This had Princess bouncing up and down on my lap as we read it.

 

After reading the books we used a technique I learned in college called “Somebody wanted, but, so” (follow link for printable).

Here’s the one we did for “Davy Crockett Saves the World.”

Davy Crockett wanted to marry the girl, but the comet was going to destroy the world, so he beat the comet up.

 

It’s a great chance to review summary skills without too much writing.

Of course you can’t study the King of the Wild Frontier without experiencing some wildlife, so we headed off to the canyon and hiked through the woods.  We all agreed that Davy must be incredibly brave to hike through all of that land without knowing where he was going and carrying all of his gear with him.  It’s hard work hiking through a forest with a trail, just imagine without one!  I also can’t imagine hiking through a forest in leather or wool clothes.  It was hot in our shorts and t-shirts.

 

We tried to track animals like Davy Crockett did, but were unsuccessful.  Instead we found lots of evidence of human habitation.  It was amazing to see how much trash people had left on this trail, and we all agreed to come back with trash bags and pick it up.

 

I also want to come back with plaster of paris to try making molds again.

 

After we had treated all the bug bites and rehydrated ourselves, it was time to see if we could be as successful as Davy Crockett was with marksmanship.

Of course we’re not going to use real guns, Nerf weapons work quite well for us.

 

In case you’re wondering, we are not crack shots like Davy Crockett, quite the opposite.  We spent fully half out time hunting for our shots.  It’s a little hard to get pictures when you’re on your hands and knees looking for Nerf ammo.

 

We had a re-enactment of how Davy Crockett died at the Alamo (pictures from our earlier enactment).  Three months later the kids still talk about the terrible tragedy of the Alamo, which shows me they learned that lesson very well.

 

 

And what would a unit study on Davy Crockett be without watching the Disney movie Davy Crockett, who doesn’t want to watch that?

 

We cuddled up on the couch and stayed up past their bedtime watching the movie.  The kids were quite happy.  I’ve no spent the past few days with the song stuck in my head, and Princess has been singing the three words she knows over and over again.

 

I would highly recommend studying Davy Crockett, it’s a fun study and a great one for young boys.

 

 

But to warn you, you might discover your child playing Davy Crockett and telling you about varmints and rascals after studying him.

 

It could happen to you too.

A Felicity tea party

My last post over at the Homeschool Village I wrote about letting precious things go.  My big thing is my Great grandma’s tea set. 

It’s old cracked and missing several handles, but Princess has been dreaming of using it for years.  YEARS I tell you.  I mistakenly told her she could use it at 5, and she remembered.  OH DID SHE REMEMBER.  I’ve been asked almost every week since she turned 5 when she could use it.  Of course she always asked when it was a horrible time, at least in my mind.  During the Week of Girls, I finally stopped saying no.

So we ate lunch on them.  A healthy lunch of crackers, sausage, and cheese.  It’s a favorite here.  To make it “healthy” we add apples.  You know, a fruit.

 

How is this Felicity from American Girl Dolls?  We practiced our manners and called each other characters from the book.  I was Miss Manderlay.  Princess was Felicity.  Her friend was Elizabeth.

 

We also wore BEAUTIFUL one of a kind hand beaded jewelry.  I think I have a few beads left.  Seriously, they went through 3 tubs of them.

 

After, they “carefully” (and I nearly had a heart attack) cleaned the dishes, one at a time.

And then more jewelry was made.  Yes, Princess does live in this dress if I let her.  She does grudgingly remove it from time to time.  Like right now when I need to repair 2 seams.

getting started with Heritage History CDs

I just got my very first Heritage History CD in the mail.  I would like to first mention my restraint at not tearing it open in the car.  A review will be forthcoming, but I figured someone else besides me has to wonder how things like this work, so I’m putting together a super simple what to do.

1.  Put the CD in your drive (yes I know that’s obvious, but I’m going from square one).  Mumble to yourself about the blanket the kids left on the floor, and your obvious need to clean the office.

2.  Click on run books_genre.html.  This will open up a tab in your browser. Now start drooling as you see all of the books you can read.  I mean you can read to your kids.  I of course got this for my kids.  Not me.

3.  Spend the next 20 minutes trying to decide what to read first.  I really can’t quite decide, but I think I’m going to read to them about Marquis de Lafayette.  I love that the books are divided by age category.  Green is for the youngest kids, orange for middle kids, and red for older.  I’d guess from the first few pages I’ve read, that Green books could be read by a 3rd grader.  I will eventually share this with my kids.  I promise.

4.  Go get your Nook or Kindle cord to transfer files to your reader.  Then follow the directions included.

 

5.  Now spend another twenty minutes trying to decide which of the 12 books you just put on your Nook you want to read first.  I showed restraint in only putting 12 on.  A LOT of restraint.

 

I also did not order the Ancient Greek CD because I wanted it.  I was good, but now that I think of it, it could be a perfect present for a friend of mine……….

 

Now, I’m sure you’re asking: Why is she telling us all this before she’s done anything with it?

Two reasons:

 

1.  Any purchase right now gets you entered to win a free Kindle Fire (SCORE!)

 

2.  Because if you put in the code: TICIAjoy  You can get a free Spanish Empire Library with the purchase of any curriculum.

 

 

*** DISCLOSURE: I did receive a free copy of the American Library, but come on it’s so cool…..  ******

Michigan: The Log Cabin Quilt

Jeff’s working late, so I’m having fun working through my backlog of things to write about.

We’ve just had a crazy CRAZY spring, and the summer isn’t looking to calm down.  These are all things done weeks ago.

They’re not super exciting as far as activities go, but the books are so wonderful that I have to share them.

“The Log Cabin Quilt is about a family that moved to Michigan after their Mom died.  The grandma comes with them, but their Dad is sad.

One winter night he’s gone out hunting and they see he hasn’t gotten back.  It’s cold and they’re sad, and they try something unusual to help with the cold.

One of the major plot points of the book revolves around “chinking the cabin,” chinking is putting bits of mud into the holes between logs.  I loved the chinking activity Phyllis did with her kids, but with less than 15 minutes for our activity, that was not an option.



So, we colored in our chinking.  Then we drew how we would decorate our cabin if we were trying to make it feel like home.

Apparently my boys would put random bits of color in their houses.  Actually I think he explained to me it was a tube that would deliver the things he wanted.  He went on to describe the things, and it was a long and bizarre list.

Babies, toys, candy, food, more food, and then some more food.  Apparently my kids are starved, and I never feed them.  And, I’m still wondering about the babies.  His theory was he’d send them back when they started crying.

How to make a mini book with no staples

Since, this is going to be one of the primary features of tomorrow’s post, and it takes some explaining to put together, I figured I’d better explain it here.

Back in college I learned how to make these, and then forgot it.  When I went to the homeschool convention a few weeks ago, I was reminded of this.

Supplies: scissors, paper (at least 2 sheets), pencil, optional ruler


1.  Hamburger fold both of your sheets of paper in half.  You could fold it the other way, but it looks more like a normal book this way.


2.  Mark on the fold of each piece of paper a line, approximately two fingers up.  If you want a more exact measurement, then use a ruler to measure one inch.


3.  On the first piece of paper, cut on the fold up to the mark on both ends.


4.  On the second sheet of paper shave a little bit of the fold off between your two marks.


5.  Roll the first sheet of paper like a burrito.  You want the fold to line up in the middle.


6.  Take the rolled piece of paper and put it through the middle of the other like you see in the picture.


7.  Fiddle with the rolled piece so the two slits line up with the uncut portion of the spine.  If you didn’t measure or cut correctly you may need to make the cut a little bit bigger.


And now you have a bound book that didn’t require any tape or staples to make it.  If you want more sheets you can do more.  If there is an odd number, than you need to put the larger number of pages in the second type of page (where you shaved the edge off).

Quick simple and fairly easy.  My 5 year old daughter was able to follow the instructions for this, so if you child already has some crafting experience, than you’re golden.

Lewis and Clark explore the park

Hey, I rhymed.  I’ll pretend that was on purpose.

We read about Lewis and Clark ages ago and we’ve had a field trip planned to explore and map out a new playground since that time, but we kept having things get in the way of our ability to do it, illness, inclement weather, you name it.

Finally we made it there.  I turned them loose in the park with the instructions of younger kids had to draw 10 things in the park to make their map and label them.  Older kids (which was the other family) had to draw 20 items, label them and create a map key.
Of course the boys had to bring their guns, because they remembered that Lewis and Clark both had guns to protect themselves and to hunt thanks to a video recommendation from Phyllis over at All Things Beautiful (Lewis and Clark part 4 post).



I loved the variety of maps they came up with.  The younger girls had smiley faces and pictures of people playing at the different parts of the park.

While the boys……..




They did the assignment.  Exactly, they did draw some parts of it.  But as they got to thinking more and more about playing in the park it became more and more of ……

well, squares with letters in it.




Oh those cries of outrage as I made them draw more.  You’d think I announced the end of desert with my requirements.

In the end they got quite a lot of playtime, so I don’t know what they were complaining about.


Oh, and if you’re in the Austin area and you haven’t been to the “Play for All Abilities Park,” then you NEED to get there!