THE PLAN: The Underground Railroad to Today

My little chicks on our first day of the new school year!

Hello there to anyone who is still checking our blog! 

I had intended on only taking a month off from blogging, but then my husband had an injury at work and we have been traveling weekly to his appointments.  After two surgeries we were told that he will probably always be legally blind in one eye.  We are thankful that he will still be able to work and know that the Lord allowed it for His glory.  However, traveling and trying to get our new house in order has taken up any time that I would have had to blog and now the summer has come and gone and I never properly documented it!  :)

Things are starting to settle down around here and I thought it a perfect time to start back up again because we just began our 5th year of HOMESCHOOLING!  Wahoo!!!!  I'm just a little excited about it!  Megan is beginning 4th grade, Jordan is in 2nd, and Jackson is K5.  For the grandparents (and a little for myself), I'm going to attempt to chronicle our school year, even if I only get a few pictures blogged. 

{American History 1850-Present}

Photo credit

This year we are studying American History 1850-Present and so we began this week learning about slavery and the Underground Railroad.  I prayed about how in-depth I should go with this study, not wanting to upset the kids.  Some of the photos in our resource books are hard for me to look at, and I ended up omitting those ones.

After reading the corresponding chapter in "The Story of the U.S.A, Book 2," we read mini-biographies about Soujourner Truth and Frederick Douglas, and then looked through a photobiography about the Underground Railraod.   Megan began reading "Freedom Train: The story of Harriet Tubman."

For activities we're using "The Underground Railroad for Kids."  After we journeyed through the Underground Railroad over at National Geographic, we made paper quilt blocks.  The girls each chose one pattern from the list of Railroad designs and then cut out the triangles and created their own!   We're also going to be making lanterns this weekend.

Next week we'll be studying Abraham Lincoln and then sliding into a big unit on the Civil War. Stay tuned...


 

The Blessings of Planning Your Own Curriculum

Our history, geography, and reading materials for 2010/2011!

(My little boy is pretty sick, but he wanted to be in the picture!)

For the past two weeks, I have been knee-deep in history books, plotting my way through next year's history curriculum.  All this to save $100 on Sonlight's teacher's manuals. 

Well, it's not only because of that.  I like studying history as a big unit study, so I've been scouring the internet to find crafts, music, movies, recipes, worksheets, patterns for costumes, pictures, and everything else that goes along with our studies. 

This year has been our first of really immersing ourselves into the times that we have been reading about, and it has been AMAZING!  For the first time, my kids all seem to be invested in the topics that we are studying.

The kids reading "How We Crossed the West:  The Adventures of Lewis & Clark" during history today.

Last year, I would have never thought that they would care so much about history of all things, but I think that there is something about really getting to know a time and a place that creates a warm spot in your heart for it. 

(Go Bulldogs!)

In high school, I had a history class with a phenomenal teacher named Mr. Greif.  It was the very first time that anybody had ever presented history to me as anything but boring book work and trying to quickly find the terms in bold so you could fill in the blank.  

I remember that one of our assignments was to add a verse to the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire," going in chronological order from where the original song left off.  It was FUN and I learned so much!!!

Our Plan:

For the bulk of our studies we'll be hitting all the majors:  

Civil War

WWI

Roaring Twenties

Great Depression

WWII

Civil Rights Movement

Space Age

and incorporating other little topics also:  

life on the plains

America as a "melting pot"

Wright brothers

Cold War

Women's lib verses the Bible

And a bunch of others. 

I'm also adding geography (learning the states and capitals), and doing mini-studies on the presidents as we come to them (we began this when we got to Washington this year.)

I get asked a lot how to create your own curriculum...

For Math, Language, Spelling and Writing, we use Abeka. 
We love them, but you might like a more relaxed curriculum.  Or a more computer-based curriculum.  Or a cheaper curriculum.  It's up to YOU!  We have found Abeka to be thorough, rigorous, and organized.  We order everything new from their website for our oldest and re-use the books for our other two.

For reading and history/geography, I start by using my free Sonlight catalog as a guide. 
Their book list is wonderful, but their prices are a bit high for me.  Instead, I purchase them at Rainbow Resource for a discounted price.  That's also where I get most of my other resources for things like art, crafts, charts, and other educational materials.

  Then, I use the internet to beef up our study materials.
As I mentioned before, we love to study our history like one giant unit study.  To do this I have to look around online to find other fun stuff!  I find things like crafts, recipes, movies, songs, and printable worksheets or coloring pages.  Just Google the era or area that you are planning to study and you'll have more at your fingertips than you could ever complete in a year!


For science we use Sonlight and buy the kits directly from their website.  
After trying both Abeka and The Well Trained Mind, we learned that most science curriculum are DRY, BORING, and TEXTBOOK-BASED.  We didn't care for that AT ALL and someone told us about Sonlight's LIVING BOOKS.  We tried it and are hooked!  Science is everyone's favorite now.

You can find great ideas at The Homeschool Lounge as well!

I really feel overwhelmed with gratefulness for the resources that God has allowed us to have for our schooling.  I don't want to take even the paper we write on for granted.  From books, games, and movies to the sewing machine that my mom is letting me borrow--all of it is just such an enormous blessing.  Thank you Lord.