A Field Trip Back in Time

This last Friday we had the pleasure of going on a field trip with our local library!  This field trip took us to a local island where a group of log structures have been brought.  Instead of having a log cabin here or there throughout the county, many were moved from their original location and placed in a sort of village so you can tour them all at the same time.

Once or twice a year, they open up the cabins so that you can see inside, and also have local historians on site to tell you all about the building you are in.  It was very neat!

Here we are hearing all about the ice blocks cut from the local river during the early 1900's.  Our city provided many other cities with ice each winter.

Mustang listening so she could take notes in her research journal.  This is her self appointed way of taking notes.  Never thought anyone would WANT to take notes, but she loves it!

1830's era corn crib.  Extra interesting to us since Daddy is a corn farmer!

Sitting in the church pews.

Explaining that the men sat on one side and the women on the other.

 School time!  The school itself was closed for repairs, but they did a nice job of creating a 'school' on the porch.  We kinda messed up her story when she asked how we GOT to school and many of our group were home educated :).

I thought this sign was very interesting!

Checking out the 19th century country garden.

This house was home to a family with 13 children!!  The guide is explaining how to do laundry by hand.

And here, we received a log splitting demonstration!  Very neat to watch!!

We were all very much impressed and learned so much!

This was certainly a fun field trip!  

I hope you are finding some great places to visit this summer.  Come back and tell me about them!

God Bless,

Lisa

TOS Review: Homeschool in the Woods

Homeschool in the Woods specializes in writing hands-on history timelines, activity packs, lapbooks and more!  Homeschool in the Woods was created by the Pack family who began homeschooling in 1996.  They found that they enjoyed history a lot more if they could 'see' how it all worked together.  They began using timelines but their mom-a former graphic design artist-was disappointed in the images often found in products they found to use.  Finally, in 2002, the family used their talents to start Homeschooling in the Woods.  They began with timeline products and have grown to offer many more products to help history come alive.  Over the last month, we have been trying out their new Activity Pak Great Empires.

Ever since we started memorizing the timeline of history in our school co-op, my children have been much more interested in learning about historical people and events.  So, when we were offered the opportunity to review this pak, I was very excited.  The Great Empire pack covers 14 great empires of history they are:

• Ancient Egypt
• Ancient Greece
• Ancient Rome
• Ancient China
• Arab-Muslim Empire
• Mongolian Empire
• Viking Empire
• Spanish Empire
• French Empire
• English Empire
• German Empire
• Japanese Empire
• Russian Empire
• and The United States of America

Each of the empire studies includes a text page and activities.  There are between 4 and 10 activities for each empire.  The activities vary greatly.  For example, the activities for Ancient Egypt include making a Cartouche to cooking Fig Cookies.  But, each empire generally included one 'art' project and one cooking project, along with map work and internet research.

Also included in the Ancient Empires Activity Pak are book lists for each empire.  We found these lists to be particularly helpful and full of good suggestions.

We started out our study by reading the included texts, and then Mustang was aloud to choose which-if any-of the activities she wanted to do.  When we went through the Egypt study, she really enjoyed the Cartouche project and was very interested in the heiroglyphs used to make them.  She wrote me a lot of messages to decode with the heiroglyphs.

As I mentioned before, however, our favorite item ended up being the book lists.  The text sections of the Activity Pak seemed to be a bit hard to read.  Not sure if it was because Mustang is at the low end of the suggested age or what, but I had a very hard time getting her to read it.  This is from the girl who will sit and read a chapter book in a couple of hours.  Once we focused on reading the books suggested and MANY others that we found in the same area of the library, her interest in trying out the activities went way up.

Since there are a total of 14 empires in the study, we are far from finished with this pack.  I do plan to try and continue to work through it, though I think we will likely wait at least a little longer.  It seemed some of the work was *just* a little bit ahead of her.  Not so much because she can't read it-she can certainly read it.  She is just still drawn to slightly easier work, and I would rather her work quickly through work and enjoy it then to have to force her to get through when I am sure in another year or two she will be very interested in doing the work.

I do think that the Home School in the Woods Ancient Empires Activity Pak is a great deal at only $18.95.  It is well written, and is easy to use.  It would be a perfect summer learning pack, or even a backbone to begin your history studies.  It is very versatile, and you can use as much or as little as you want.  You can also take as much time as you want, too.  If you just read the texts and did one or two exercises per empire, you could complete it in maybe a month, or it could take over a year if you spent a whole month on each empire.

Home School in the Woods also makes a number of other paks.   Other members of the crew also reviewed a Composer pack and a Lapbook on the 20th Century in America.  Be sure to check out the crew blog and see what others had to say!

Happy Learning and God Bless,
Lisa

What Would the Founding Fathers Think?

Since Monday was President's day, we have been reading some various books about past presidents of the United States.  One, in particular, was about Abraham Lincoln.  The book mentioned that President Lincoln would take visits from citizens-and help them whenever he could.  He would also write letters, including sending out autographs to those who wrote to ask. My children thought this sounded wonderful and thought we should head down to the White House and see President Obama.  I had to explain that our President no longer takes visitors that simply show up to see him.  He is a very busy man, too busy to see us!

That was 140 years ago, and the differences in society are huge.  Let's back it up even further to the very beginning.  When Franklin, and Madison, and Washington were around.  When they sat down and used their wisdom to layout the government for our new country.  I wonder how much more things have changed? 

Better yet...let's think about what would happen if THEY came here...to year 2013...

What Would the Founding Fathers Think? by David Bowman proposes just that.  Benjamin Franklin, inventor that he was, invents a time machine.  He, James Madison, and George Washington all squish in the little machine and take the ride of their lives, only to discover the biggest shock of their lives.

Once they arrive here in the 21st century, they manage to find a contraption that Franklin calls 'Share Knowledge with Young People Everywhere.' or SKYPE.  Lol!  And the three go about making their findings of the state of the nation and their opinions on how well their intentions have been carried out.  As you might be able to tell from the looks on their faces on the cover-they, well, are not exactly pleased with how the US looks 230 years later.  

I don't know about you, but so often in life I have found then when talking about politics people just turn off-or get angry.  It's such a daunting subject and-too often-no one really gets it anyways.  They don't understand why we do things the way we do, and have no clue what we did 200 years ago.  They do care, but they don't have time to read about history when current day is overwhelming.  And that's adults!

If we have that much of a challenge getting our adults to understand, getting children to understand what our founding fathers meant when they set up the Constitution or Bill of Rights is nearly impossible!  It's boring, it's overwhelming, and it doesn't have anything to do with them anyways-right?

Author David Bowman starts out the book with three main points:

1.  The United States of America was and is the greatest nation on earth.

2.  Today, the United States of America is in serious trouble.

3.  You will inherit the USA-and all its problems-in just a few short years.

Mr. Bowman goes on to explain how it got this way, and what is need to fix it.  He writes this in easy to understand language, in a way that kids ages 8 and up can understand!  Using his amazing talent, he illustrates the book with funny and entertaining graphics.  

He covers topics such as the proper roll of government, 

separation of church and state,

and entitlement.

But, the best part of the book, IMO, is when he discusses the two pyramids of government.

This is how the US government was designed to work:

But, when they come for a visit, the founding fathers feel that our pyramid has been slightly altered and is looking a bit more like this:  

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  John Adams

So what did we think?

I've, honestly, never seen something so well done on this subject!  I figured it would be quite some time before I was able to discuss politics with my children.  But, What Would the Founding Fathers Think?  has been written at a level that even Mustang voluntarily picked it up.  

She doesn't understand most of what is in the book, but it has opened up an opportunity for lots of conversations about government, how our country works, and if it needs to be changed.

My favorite part is that-no matter whether our country can be turned around or not-knowing that God was the foundation of the pyramid for our Founding Fathers is challenging to each individual.  It's a key component of our nation's history that is left out of our public school's history lessons and is on it's way to being left out of our nation's future completely.  

What Would the Founding Fathers Think?  is designed to be a young American's guide to understanding what makes our nation great and how we've strayed.  But, I think that it should be read by young and old Americans alike.  It's a quick read that will leave a lasting mark!

Buy it:

What Would the Founding Fathers Think?  by David Bowman  

Paperback, 122 pages

Retail price:  $11.99

Also available in Kindle and Audio CD formats

Connect:

Author David Bowman's Website

Facebook

Comment:

I'd love to hear your thoughts on teaching our children about our founding fathers.  Do you think they would be happy with our current state?  What needs to change?  When is a good age to start talking about this with your children?

Thanks for stopping by!!

God Bless,

Disclaimer:  I was sent a copy of What Would the Founding Fathers Think?  I agreed to read the book and write this blog post.  All opinions expressed are my own.  I was not compensated in any other way.

TOS Review: Heritage History's Introductory Curriculum for Young Reader's

Hi, I'm Lisa and I have a problem.  I have an addiction to buying books.  I think it comes with the territory of homeschooling, but used book sales are one of my favorite places in the world.  A whole room just full of interesting texts, beautiful pictures, and stories of history.  I could bring them all home.  There is just one BIG problem.  

You see, my husband was on to me and my book buying addiction.  So, he staged an intervention.  He informed me that the two bookshelves in our living room were MORE then enough room to store all the books I would need to own.  Then he handed me a Kindle and told me I can use it to store all the books I wanted.  

I was thrilled to own a Kindle Fire, but I have another confession.  I am NOT technologically inclined at all.  Seriously.  I have to ask my 6 year old to turn on various electronic gadgets for me.  She can hook up a DVD player, VCR, media player and more.  Me?  I'm lucky to find the on button.

Heritage History's Young Readers Classical Curriculum CD has been helping me with both of these problems!

The Heritage History Young Reader's CD contains 86 books, recommendations, and a teacher's guide.  Yes you read that right, EIGHTY SIX BOOKS!  And, I only have to find room for one tiny CD!  

The books are all historical books that are now copyright free.  Heritage History has compiled them and reformatted them into PDF, EPUB and Mobi files, giving you the option of viewing them on a Kindle, IPad, Computer, or printed document.  The CD contains a GREAT tutorial on how to move the books from your computer to your e-Reader, hence the techie sounding explanation from me.  I didn't know what a Mobi was before!  I even got the privilege of telling my techie husband!  

The books that Heritage History chose to put into the Young Reader's collection are wonderful!  I like books, but there are so many that I have never read or even heard of.  Many of the stories in this collection are new to me.

Some of my favorites include:

Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans, Edward Eggleston

Stories of the Pilgrims, Pumphrey

American History Stories Volumes I, II, III, IV, by Mara Pratt

And a whole series of Twins stories from Lucy F Perkins.  We are currently reading Dutch Twins and the kids love it!  I think it's a cute story, too!

You can view the entire list of stories here. (Scroll down past the list of CD volumes)

The Heritage History CD's are compiled to be used as a history curriculum.  Each disk includes a Teacher's Guide and recommendations on how to use the curriculum to get the most out of it for your child.  

My children are just a little young to read these stories on their own, but I am excited to have such a rich library of texts to read from.  We read each night before bed, and I know that these stories will keep us busy for a LOOONG time.

Now, I mentioned that the stories on the Heritage History disks are historical texts.  All of which are copyright free.  I mentioned this to my husband and he wanted to know why one would pay money for this product, then?  I wondered the same thing!  So, I began looking for other sources of the texts online.

First, I used the story we are currently reading, Dutch Twins, as my guinea pig.  I could find it for free on the Amazon website, ready for Kindle Download.  However, it did not have pictures!  And, with three little ones reading with me, pictures are VERY important!!  Next, I tried the American History Stories by Mary Pratt.  I was able to find it, too for $1.99 each volume.  Nearly $8.00 if you purchase just the 4 books in that series.  I didn't go through all the stories, but if even half of them cost, you would save a lot of money to buy the CD collection.

You can, however, read all the stories on the Heritage History website at no cost.  I found that with our Kindle e-Reader it is best to download and transfer.  But, the Kindle Fire is setup so that the web-site versions are much easier to read then the actual download.  That only works if we are home with the internet connection.  If we are traveling I won't be able to read the web-site unless we are stopped somewhere with a Wi-Fi.  The CD has the added bonus of being able to print out any portion of the text should you have need to do so.  My only real complaint is that you can't download your digital purchase.  Otherwise, I think it's great!

The Heritage History Introductory Curriculum for Young Readers is very affordable, too.  Just $24.99 (plus shipping).  There are other collections available for the same $24.99, they include Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, British Middle Ages and British Empire.  You can also purchase the 5 CD set for just $99.99, a savings of $25.00.  They are all loaded with fascinating texts that should keep your reader busy for many years!!  

The Heritage History web-site is chock-full of wonderful information to use along with your learning.  Be sure to check it out and see if an order is in your future :)

Many of my fellow crew mates also reviewed a Heritage History collection.  Check out the crew blog to read what they had to say!

Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of Heritage History Young Reader's CD at no cost in exchange for an honest review.  I was not required to write a postive review, all opinions expressed are my own.