For history we decided to study about slavery in America.  We researched how it came to be, tracked the slave trade routes, read a book that gave word by word accounts from former slaves, read about some famous former slaves, and watched some DVD's on this subject also.

We let them watch certain parts of the movie "Roots" but not all as we had some issues with the nudity in the beginning even though we know that is how they were in Africa at that time.  It was just a modesty issue for us.  We also watched the 4-disc documentary "Slavery and the Making of America" that was from PBS and we rented from Netflix.

We read the book "We Are Slaves" which gave first hand accounts of incidents that happened to individual slaves, some caught in Africa, some born in America.  They told of their experiences with their living conditions, the masters, the overseers, escape attempts, the whip, the auction block, the way they were transported, and so on.  It was all told in their own words with their own language/slang/accents.  That may not be the exact title of the book, when we finished with it I gave it away and can't find where I wrote down the title and author.

We also read books on Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad, The Emancipation Proclomation and Abraham Lincoln.

The kids were amazed about how life used to be here not that very long ago, and they all agreed it was morally wrong.  They were shocked to learn that slavery in some form or another is still going on in some parts of the world.