History

This year in History we are using a product called 'History Pockets' by Evan Moor. Basically the book is broken down into 8 small units and you use the printables and activities to make lapbooks for each unit. I bought 3 of these books and we're still using the first one - so I anticipate that they will last me another school year. And then I can decide on whether we want to order more topics for the following years. I wanted the girls to start by learning a lot about American history, before we went on to study world history.

The 3 books I bought were:
Life in Plymouth Colony
Native Americans
Colonial America

In the first book, these are the units we've done so far ... I bought the colored folders for about 2 cents a piece back when school supplies were super cheap - so I have a TON of them. So we just use a new one for each unit and each child gets one.
Each unit has a section of vocab words called "words to know" and they cut & paste the pics to match the words, then write out the description. And color if they wish ...

Then there are various activities that go along with each topic - some are coloring, some are cutting and pasting, some are acting something out ... you can make it as simple or as complex as you want ... here are a few of the things they've done ...

We keep all of our lapbooks and folders in one large bin. It's neat to go back and see what we've worked on over the last couple of years!

In our last unit which was called 'home sweet home', the girls learned all about what the pilgrims homes were like. Back around Thanksgiving time we had gone to visit an old village where they could see what a real home would have looked like - I think they are very grateful to live in this day and age with all our modern comforts! With this unit we made dioramas of the pilgrim houses ... we used an old box and they colored and decorated the pieces to go in the house. I thought it was very cute and creative that they decided on their own to make furniture out of cardboard! They made tables and beds to go in their houses ...

So that's about it. History has been a lot of fun. I am learning so much right along with the girls! I had also bought The Story of the World for history, after hearing so many good things about it from other homeschoolers - but after getting started with it last year I felt it was a bit much for my girls at the time. And again, I decided to start with American history .... so, I HAVE all the material for the Story of the World, and one day, when we're ready, we'll get going on that. I figure I still have about 2-3 yrs worth of history resources! Gotta love that!