Sep. 27, 2009 - History category

Just wanted to note that I'm starting a new category for History.  Previous to this date anything I've blogged on having to do with history has gone under the category, "Mystery of History" and most of the enteries had to do in fact with that curriculum as that's what we've used.  Now as we're coming to an end of the MOH curriculum we're moving on to and mixing in other curriculums so it makes sense to change my history category to plain old "History".

I note this becuase if you're here looking for MOH you may want to check both the "Mystery of History" category for primarily book I, II and some book III subjects but you may also want to check the plain "History" tab for more book III subjects.

Likewise if you're looking for All American, Truthquest or just history in general you may want to check both categories since I've created many notepages and activities that may work for many curriculums.

Mar. 10, 2009 - Niles homeschool History Fair

This past weekend was our annual History for our homeschool group.  It’s always so fun to see what all the kids came up with and how their individual personalities shine through in their exhibits.  Three of my four participated this year.

Lexie did Leonardo da Vinci.  I can’t tell you why she chose him (he’s certainly not the most Godly choice to study) but I had to encourage her to tell people other things about him first before saying he was probably gay.  After I discussed that with her she usually told people right off the bat that he painted the “most famous” painting, The Mona Lisa.

 

 

Ariel did the Aztec’s.  She had completed a diorama of an Aztec house quite awhile ago in Mystery of History II so that became the catalyst I guess for this project.  Also,  the fact that Mom and Dad went to Mexico and brought back a sun dial for her display I think helped too.  I was impressed that she caught one discrepancy in our texts and one answer key mistake because of all her studies.  They really do pay attention sometimes!

 

 

Logan is still very interested in the Samurai and ancient Japan (and China for that matter.)  He chose a Samurai “general” for his display.  This year he didn’t get nearly as much done as he hoped.  High school work has him pretty bogged down (Chemistry especially!)  Usually, he makes some short of army for his table display and this year he even had visions of a Samurai warrior outfit to dress in but time was not on his side.  I think he had fun anyway talking about one of his favorite subjects to judges and anyone else who came by to listen!

 

 

Now starts the countdown for Science fair….

Jan. 31, 2009 - Navigation tools of the Explorers

 We had our History group on Friday and decided to focus on the explorer’s around the time of Columbus and the navigational tools they might have used.  I found a great site that has pictures, videos, worksheets and more!  Be sure to check it out. It goes great with MOH III and all the lessons on the explorers.

So here’s our pictures of the tools we made.  Can you guess what they are?

We had the kids split up into three groups and follow the directions (from the above mentioned site) to make their “tool”.  Then each of these has a short video and a page of information they read to be able to explain to the rest of the group how their instrument was used.

Okay, so did you guess right?  It’s a compass (top left), quadrant (top right), and an astrolabe (bottom.)  I’ll let you check the video’s out for yourself to explain how they worked!

Jan. 12, 2009 - All American History and Mystery of History III

With this new semester we are making some changes in the way we do history.  If you’ve followed this blog you probably have read a few that involved our history co-op.  Starting this January our co-op has changed and we’re doing more on our own which I’m actually really excited about.

Some of this came to being because we need to find a way to get our older children, my son included, through history before they’re officially done with high school.  We love the Mystery of History curriculum but it’s not complete yet so I needed to figure out what we were going to do.   One of my questions to Linda Hobar (author of the Mystery of History series) was if the future volumes were going to include American or not.  It makes a lot of sense to me to stay on chronological and just do world and American together.

Linda’s response first to my thought on timeframe for the series was that yes, “My Volume IV is at least 3 years from being done!...I think a lot of MOH users will pause after Vol III and take 2 years to study some American history while I’m still writing Vol IV!”

  I had asked about combining MOH III and All American to which her reply was, “Great question.  I suspect that people will do both ways and each camp will be fine.  Some will take my Vol. IV, and pause and fluff up with more American history AS they go along taking more than one year to complete Vol. IV.  Others will pause after Vol. III completely, and study 1-2 years of American history.  Then, take on my Vol. IV for the rest of the story (world wars to present), simply reviewing Am history that was already studied in depth.”

With that information and after a lot of thought and searching what we’ve decided is best for our family is to combine All American History and Mystery of History III since there is quite a bit of overlap.  This shortens our overall length and still gets our high schoolers done in a timely fashion staying chronological.  The current plan I put together takes us to January 2010.  From that point I will need to find modern history for both world and American but I’m taking one step at a time.  Someday with my younger children Mystery of History IV may fill that but there’s no hope of that being published in time for my oldest and in all likelihood my second oldest as well.

With each Mystery of History lesson we’re doing notebook pages.   The first ones we did I just took generic notebooking forms I had gotten that fit. (Love these notebook pages by the way, we use them all the time and they’re on sale right now, like $10 I think!)   For instance on the War of the Roses I used one that had boxes on each side for the two original ruling families and then had the kids write on the center lines how the Tudor family came to be.  To do this all I did is quickly scan the lesson about 5 minutes before we started to see what type of sheet would work well and printed them off.  You could do the same thing with plain notebook paper and just draw the three columns.  Notebook pages just make it a little more interesting.

When we use the All American history there are worksheets for each lesson that we will use.  These are a more fill in the blank kind of thing so using the two curriculums and two methods for recall will give a good variety.

Of course we’ll still do some of the project and research type things once in a while.  We’re planning on doing the YWAM biography on Columbus and a stopping a bit for some extra reading and studying in that area.  Each child will also have at least one project for each month as well.  The file I’ve noted below has a lot more of our “extra’s” I’m planning.

To stay on track we’ll still be doing a co-op of sorts but only once a month.  Our plans are to do a meal together from whatever time period/country and then the kids each present something they’ve learned on the lessons from that month.  We’ll probably do one planned craft, game or other activity as a group but that’s about it.  It will be much less planning for the mom’s but still fun and educational for the kids.

If you’re interested, here is the integration of All American History and Mystery of History III along with some resources I’m adding.

Oh, and if anyone has suggestions for modern (WWII and beyond) comment away.  About the only thing I’ve seen so far is the last volume of Story of the World and I’m just not real excited about that one.    I’m sure over the next convention season I’ll be perusing what’s out there!

Dec. 18, 2008 - Finished Mystery of History II

Well we did it!  Book two of The Mystery of History is finished!  We'll start book III along with All American (also by Bright Idea press) in January.  My plan is to stay chronological and do both world and American at the same time.

This was also the end of our co-op, at least in it's present form.  Some in the group are continuing to meet weekly but stretching out the lessons somewhat.  My personal view on this is that we'll cover the same period's three times (Trivium) so I don't want/need to dwell on every aspect for long periods.  The other side to this coin is we need to cover it all and time will run out if we dawdle too much in any certain area.  So, we may do a different type of co-op with at least one of the other families going the same route but we haven't decided yet.

For the last week our high schoolers got to do a fun project.  They made an Inca rope bridge.  I think it turned out pretty well and they had fun doing it.  >

We also at Quinoa (pronounced keewah), which is an Inca grain.  There was so much on the Inca's alone you could do a whole lapbook.  We did a page with booklets on the rope counting, eating Quinoa, the Allya (family group/clan) and the types of lands included in their area (rainforest, mountains, and desert.) 

The other lessons for the week were the Ottoman empire and The Printing Press.  Check out my previous blog for the worksheets we used.

Now we're looking forward to a new book and getting more American into the picture.  I've got lots of extra things planned to go with Columbus and John Smith.  We're also doing The Pilgrims Progress unit study for our Literature which will go nicely with the beginning of MOH III.  Isn't it so fun to start new books?!

Nov. 14, 2008 - Mystery of History book II, last four weeks

In History this week we did the Aztec’s among other things.  My daughter Ariel decieded to do the diorama project of an Aztec home.

At our co-op we also did a little “lapbook” page if you will on Aztecs.  Here’s my sample and one of the kids too.

We are finishing our Mystery of History book II after taking a break to cover government and the election.  Below is the mom’s page that I do for our co-op with all the links for all of you interested in Mystery of History, it includes the last four weeks of semester II.  You can find the rest of the 2^nd semester from my previous post, here.

Each week I’ll try and post some of the finished work like I did above so check back if you’d like to see samples.

MOH rest of book II planning

The activities in red are ones we are planning on doing during the co-op and the blue links are optional for more information on your own.  NB stands for notebook page.  I have most of the notebook pages pdf (they are turned blue within my red, hope that makes sense) and linked but there may be a few I’ve not got pdf’ed yet so check back after those weeks are done and they are likely to be there.

√11/13 lesson 73 Dante Alighieri, poet of the middle ages

73A Younger-write poetry in 3’s Notepage w/ paragraph at top on structure of Dante

73C Older-read and discuss Divine Comedy sections (discuss using guide below) NB page

http://www.archive.org/details/divine_comedy_librivox complete audio of Comedy in sections!  Excellent!  For older group listen to first 15 minutes of #1 selection Canto 1 +2

http://www.divinecomedy.org/divine_comedy.html

text of divine comedy (Longfellow, ilalian and others), timeline of life

http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/utopia/index2.html study guide and audio in Italian of phrases (high school)

√11/13 lesson 74 Aztecs (The Mexica) All eat tortia’s by age and drink Aztec cocoa

ALL Folder book W/ cocoa recipe,  sun calendar, codex (for codex cut 8 1/2 /x11 in half long ways then fold twice and refold accordian style, make "bark" construction paper covers)  see picture above

http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/mexico.htm

great color pages, under teachnotes “worksheets”

http://www2.truman.edu/~marc/webpages/nativesp99/aztecs/aztec_template.html information on calendar

√11/13 lesson 75 100 year war

75B Read text of Battle of Poitiers by Jean Froissart, discuss/do summary

older-timeline NB page, younger-weapons worksheet/colorsheet

http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/battles-timeline-one-hundred-years-war.htm the many battles and key information

√11/20 lesson 76 The black death of Europe

FOCUS ON MAP, Video clips from CNN millennium

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm Eyewitness history account

Middle/Older- write an account after reading the eyewitness account by Giovanni Boccaccio

Younger- Listen to reading of account

√11/20 lesson 77 The Ming Dynasty of China and the Forbidden City

ALL- Map of city with statistics (999 rooms, 5 roof types etc…)

http://www.dpm.org.cn/English/c/c1/c3a.html actual palace museum site

http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/china/ming-qing/beijing/map.html virtual map of places in forbidden city

√11/20 lesson 78 John Wycliffe, “Morning Star of the Reformation”

middle/older- NB page

ALL-Excerpts from Movie

younger-do reformer sheet

√12/4 lesson 79 Geoffrey Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales

Read some, older “selected tales”, list characters with modern equivalents

 Younger-Make bag puppets and act out

middle/older-List of character and modern equivalents 79C#5

ALL-Read selections

√12/4 lesson 80 John Huss

http://www.exclassics.com/foxe/foxe106.htm trial of john Huss

middle/older NB page

younger-add Huss to reformers sheet see John wycliffe for link

√12/4 lesson 81 The life and death of Joan of Arc

update timeline from 100 yr war page

Younger 81A stained glass puzzle

Famous Men of middle ages reading on Joan

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=haaren&book=middle&story=joan

http://gardenofpraise.com/testb21.htm possible worksheet

http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdjoan.htm color sheet, song, puzzles

Older-tea stain and analyze dye letter from website in 81B

√12/11 lesson 82 The Inkas of South America

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/content/inca/

 very cool inca mummy notational geographic video!  Highly recommend.

all-try quinoa

younger/middle notepage with aylla (family tree), rope with notes, Tawantinsuyo

older mini rope bridge scene

√12/11 lesson 83 The Ottoman Turks Take Constantinople

younger names on links

middle/older link page, Ottoman info at bottom

middle –rolling brick on pencils demo

√12/11 lesson 84 Johannes Gutenberg Invents the Printing Press

middle/older books nb page

younger potato stamps

Famous men of Middle ages reading on Gutenberg

May. 9, 2008 - Medieval Feast

Most of the kids (and some parents) participated in entertainment between the courses.  We had several poem recitations, juggling (scarves and balls), games and a little “comedy”.  My son Taylor our monk for the evening provided the blessing for the meal in Latin and English and since he also plays the drums did the drum roll to announce each course.  In my reading it was either a drum roll or trumpet and since we had drums…

Here’s the poem my daughter Ariel did:

To A Cat

Poor puss is gone! 'Tis fate's decree---
Yet I must still her loss deplore,
For dearer than a child was she,
And ne'er shall I behold her more.

With many a sad presaging tear
This morn I saw her steal away,
While she went on without a fear
Except that she should miss her prey.

I saw her to the dove-house climb,
With cautious feet and slow she stept
Resolved to balance loss of time
By eating faster than she crept.

Her subtle foes were on the watch,
And marked her course, with fury fraught,
And while she hoped the birds to catch,
An arrow's point the huntress caught.

In fancy she had got them all,
And drunk their blood and sucked their breath;
Alas! she only got a fall,
And only drank the draught of death.

Why, why was pigeons' flesh so nice,
That thoughtless cats should love it thus?
Hadst thou but lived on rats and mice,
Thou hadst been living still, poor puss.

Curst be the taste, howe'er refined,
That prompts us for such joys to wish,
And curst the dainty where we find
Destruction lurking in the dish.

---Ibn Alalaf Alnaharwany

Oh, and as you might have noticed in the picture we did get some of the sewing done!  My youngest got her beautiful blue dress she wanted.  Ariel got her long skirt but we ran out of time for the cloak (it was over 70 that day anyway, she would have cooked.)  My oldest got his tunic for a woodsman but we didn’t get around to the hat.  Our monk was easy, it was a left over robe originally used as a Ewok from Star Wars!  My husband of couse came straight from work so he was dressed "modern" and I just did the best I could from my closet!

It was fun and I’m sure most of the kids will have fond memories of the Medieval Feast!

Apr. 15, 2008 - Medieval Feast

Okay, this one is not to show off some wonderful things we've accomplished but to give a sense of reality to this blog and maybe check my sanity.  Have you ever done this?

Yesterday we went to JoAnn's to check out patterns for our upcoming (in less than two weeks) medieval feast we are attending for our history co-op.  Well, they are on sale this week for .99 cents so we went a little crazy.  Of course my youngest daughter wants the beautiful princess dress that I might add is not one of those "EZ patterns".  My second oldest wasn’t sure what she wanted so I was able to steer her to a simpler full skirt and bodice.

At first glance I thought that would be easier but the bodice is laced and so is the back of the dress for my youngest.  It calls for eyelets.  If anyone has any advice on this or has done this please share!!!  I did a roman soldier costume for my son before that was laced but it was on a fake leather so I just punched the holes with my scrapbook eyelet tool.

We went to Wal-Mart (the home of $1 a yard fabric) and found what we needed and then they had this beautiful thick, nice fabric that matched the skirt and bodice my daughter Ariel picked out.  When we had been at Joann’s she looked at the cloak patterns but I said a dress was enough (figuring enough in dollars and time) but when we saw this fabric...  Needless to say we're hoping to do a hooded cloak too for only $7!

Okay, so here's the reality check.  What am I thinking?  We are in our final push to finish school.  You know where you count what you've got left and figure out when you can get done.  Our aim was core subjects by May 9th and some odds and ends we've been neglecting from then until the end of May doing about an hour each morning.  Plus soccer season has started which means practices and games for one son and my older son is refereeing this year (means I'm the taxi!)  And as some of you know for me it's convention season which means I'm busier with my business.

So a little insight on my crazy thoughts, they are online researching their costumes and what they are doing for the feast.  My oldest was searching to find medieval music to learn and play on a recorder.  Taylor, my 12 year old needs to research if monks wore crosses or not and wants to find out about prayer in medieval times so he can offer the blessing.  Ariel my 10 year old is making her own costume so she can enter at least part of it in the fair.  We're having a little trouble with that because apparently only 12 year olds do costumes or heritage for home ec so we'll have to enter it as a skirt and shirt.  And my youngest...well she's fairly glowing at the thought of her dress!  Seeing her face wearing it will be enough on that one.

Sometimes we (I mean me) can get so caught up in "getting done" that we miss some of the education that they will really remember.  They won't remember that we didn't get done by May 9th but they will remember this medieval feast I'm quite sure.

So what do you think?  How do you find that balance?  Please comment below and share your thoughts.  Oh, and if you have any advice on the eyelets please share that too!

Gina

Mar. 24, 2008 - Mystery of History II 3rd and 4th quarter

  Well, here it is!  This one was a tough one to plan!  There just wasn't as much out there for this semester so I created a lot of the extra sheets and such we will use myself (which isn't bad, just takes more time!)   For those of you new to my blog, I participate in a Mystery of History co-op.  I plan everyother semester and add activites, notesheets and such to enrich our study.  This is a copy of the "syllabus" for our co-op.  I hope some of you will be able to use it in your home or co-op to add to your study of this time period whether you use MOH or not.

Please comment and let me know if you plan on using some of the things (helps me justify all the time put into it!)  If you do find any broken links or things where I have not given proper credit please let me know.  I try to be careful and link to sites (or give the site name) so that you will know where the source for the documents are.  Most of the ones I created are on box.net and I pdf'ed them so you should be able to open them, but again let me know if you have problems.  ENJOY!

Mystery of History book II 3^rd Quarter planning

43 Iceland (3/13)

H Notepage

M Notepage

UE Booklet for Viking folderbook

LE Booklet for Viking folderbook

44 New Zealand 3/13

All- Maori Tatooing or this one

45 Zimbabae of Africa 3/13

 tri-fold for page on zimbabwe

H- Present Zimbabwe http://www.homeschoolshare.com/documents/country_shutter/africa/zimbabwe%20shutterfold.pdf

MS- present Sudan http://www.homeschoolshare.com/documents/country_shutter/africa/sudan%20shutterfold.pdf

UE- present Nigeria http://www.homeschoolshare.com/documents/country_shutter/africa/nigeria%20shutterfold.pdf

LE- follow along do all three booklets for page

46 Good King Wenceslas  family presentation (10min.) ____________________ 3/13

3/13 summary

 H-Iceland notepage, New Zealand Tatoo design, Zimbabwe trifold and presentation

M-Iceland notepage, New Zealand Tatoo design, Sudan trifold and presentation

UE-Iceland booklet, face Tatooing, Nigeria trifold and presentation

LE-Iceland booklet, face Tatooing, follow along with presentation and do booklet

47 Otto I and Holy Roman Empire 3/20

All-Act out fairy tales (Grimm) 47A

grimms fairy tales http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext01/grimm10.pdf

H, U and UE German King chart , LE Cinderella coloring sheet

48 Vladimer I of Russia 3/20

H-notebook page

M-Notebook page 

UE-Notebook page

49 Song Dynasty family presentation (10) ____________________ 3/20

Summary 3/20

H-Act out fairy tales, king chart, Vladimer sheet

M-Act out fairy tales, king chart, Vladimer sheet

UE-act out fairy tales, king chart, Vladimer sheet

LE-act out fairy tales, Cinderella color sheet,

50 St. Simon and the Coptic church 3/27

H-Coptic note page

M-Coptic note page

info on Coptic church http://i-cias.com/e.o/coptic_c.htm

51 Eric the Red Greenland 3/27

H- Saga page Homework- p 15-21 aproximate (text)

M- Saga page read in class selection

UE- booklet for viking folderbook (from Hands of child lapbook)

LE-booklet for Viking folderbook

52 Leif the Lucky 3/27

H-Saga page (w Eric) Homework p. 23-26 approximate

M-Saga page (w Eric) read in class selection

UE-booklet for viking folderbook, wheel on Viking ships

LE-booklet for Viking folder book, make viking ship

make Viking ship http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/activities/bayeuxtap-ship.pdf

Leif Ericsson biography http://highland.hitcho.com.au/ericksonbio.pdf

3/27 Summary

H-2 Saga discussion + pages, Coptic church notepage

M- Saga discussion and page, Coptic church notepage

UE- 2 booklets and Viking wheel

LE-2 booklets and make Viking ship

53 MacBeth king of Scotland 4/3

H-Fact/Fiction on Shakespeare, homework read ahead

M-Fact/Fiction onShakespeare shared reading in class

LE-library book

54El Cid, Spanish hero family presentation ____________________ 4/3

55 Willimam Conqueror/Battle of Hastings 4/3

H-Chart comparing medieval to modern (see below)

M-3 claims to the throne (see below)

UE-3 claims to the throne, Feudal booklet (see below)

LE- paper soldier page/play (see below)

 http://highland.hitcho.com.au/feudalbooklet.pdf feudal booklet UE

http://highland.hitcho.com.au/middleagescomparison.pdf chart for m and h comparing medieval to modern

battle of hastings view tapestry  http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/Index.htm

http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/year7links/1066/claimstothethrone.pdf

claims to the throne 3 column William of hastings, M and H

http://www.juniorgeneral.org/hastings/hastings.html junior general battleof hastings LE black and whites

56 Pope Gregory VII Henry IV and investiture controversy 4/3

Summary 4/3

H- Shakespeare discussion and Fact/Fiction sheet (fold paper in half fact one half/fiction on other half), chart on medieval/modern

M-Shaks peare reading/discussion and fact/fiction, three claims to throne sheet

UE- 3 claims to throne, feudal booklet

LE-macbeth reading and paper soldiers

57 Early Crusades 4/10

Pope Urban II 1^st and 2^nd crusades

H-chart on crusades

M-chart on crusades

UE- chart on crusades

LE-Shield to draw cross

http://www.factophile.com/show.content?printerfriendly=yes&action=view&pageid=151 chart of all crusades for info to fill in chart

58 Petrobrusians and Waldensians 4/10

59 Eleanor of Aquitanine queen of two nations 4/10

Medieval feast

feast info for banquet http://www.castles-of-britain.com/castlesf.htm

recipes for feast http://www.godecookery.com/nboke/neweboke.htm#cheese

http://highland.hitcho.com.au/medievalcookbook.pdf menu and recipe info cards

All-make menu/recipe cards, practice “entertainment”, juggling, recitation from Library medieval book, acrobatics, love poems

LE feast coloring pages

Sign up sheet later for duties and recipes

Homework -costuming ideas http://reddawn.net/costume/first.htm http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/Renaissance/guildhall/costumes_women.html

http://www.virtue.to/articles/in_depth_garb.html

60 Jews of the middle ages 4/10 ______________________family presentation

4/10 Summary

All-crusade chart/shield, then menu/recipe cards and feast preparations

No 4/17

61 Richard the Lionhearted Saladin and 3^rd crusade 4/24

H, M and UE update crusade chart

Courtly love and chivalry lists for info http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall/chivalry.html

H, M Chivalry from Lilliput http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/0GbMR5CwGJkD8FCMcZ_32eHYMFGckATjHrFYXdS01JpaWm-2PlZnRqNktyZFQ5b-kZIO8n80VftFWVy8iRSh-aroP9463A/History%20/History%202/Chivalry.pdf

UE, LE book making project

http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1220_gothic/pdf/make_a_medieval_book.pdf

62 Robin hood 4/24 _____________________family presentation

63 Shoguns and Samurai of Japan 4/24

H-Create crest, Bushido compared to chivalry

M-create crest, Bushido compared to chivalry

http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/bushido/bindex.html

UE-oragomi hat , coloring picutre

LE-Newspaper Samuri hat, coloring picture

oragomi sammuri hat http://www.elca.org/countrypackets/japan/samurai.html

japan crest info http://mothra.rerf.or.jp/ENG/Hiroshima/Things/69.html

4/24 Summary

H-Chivalry summary, update crusade chart, Samuri crest and Bushido comparison

M-Chivalry summary, update crusade chart, samuri crest

UE-book making, origami hat, color picture

LE-book making, newspaper hat, color picutre

64 St. Francis of Assisi, St Clara and St. Dominic 5/1

H, M, UE tri notebook sheet with paragraph for each

65 The Childrens crusade 5/1

pied piper test http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/etext/piper/contents.html

LE, UE- picture story of children crusade

H, M, UE update chart

66 King John and the Magna Carta 5/1

http://www.constitution.org/eng/magnacar.htm

H, M- worksheet on magna carta

magna carta text http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/magnacarta.htm

5/1 Summary

H-Magna carta sheet, update crusade chart, tri sheet

M-Magna carta sheet, update crusade chart, trisheet

UE- update crusade chart, tri sheet, all creatures sheet, picture story of crusade

LE-all creatures sheet, picture story of crusade

67 Frederick II, The amazement of the world 5/8

H, M ,UEupdate crusade chart

H, M notepage

LE coloring 67A , UE crown and copywork

68 St. Thomas Aquinas, Philosopher of the middle ages 5/8 http://www.newadvent.org/summa/

H, M quote sheet

UE, LE write verse about burning and draw/list things that will last and won’t

69 Roger Bacon, Scientist of the middle ages 5/8 __________________ family presentation

5/8 Summary

H-update crusade chart, fredreick notepage and Aquinas quote page

M-same as H

UE-verse listing, Crown with copywork, one quote with copywork

LE-verse listing, Coloring on Frederick, decorate Crown with copywork

70 The Great khans and the Mongol Invasion of China 5/15 http://www.lacma.org/khan/general/khanrgt.pdf

H,M,UE character report based on movie and lesson http://highland.hitcho.com.au/gkahnbio.pdf http://highland.hitcho.com.au/polocharactersheet.pdf  , LE picture with description

71 Marco Polo Travels East 5/15

crossword on excerpt

H,M,UE character report based on movie and lesson, LE picture with description

Biography by A&E Marco Polo (50 min)

72 Sir William Wallace and Robert Bruce “Bravehearts of Scotland 5/15

5/15 Summary

H-2 character sheets both from Highland Heritage

M-2 character sheets

UE-2 character sheets

LE-2 pictures

Ongoing game-All Battle of the Barrons

extra links-

Our Island Story text Baldwin project, stories of many, Becket, battle of hastings etc…

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=marshall&book=island&story=albion

Famous men of middle ages text marco Polo, William conquer etc…

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=haaren&book=middle&story=_contents

falconry info http://www.r3.org/life/articles/falconry.html  more hunting info http://library.thinkquest.org/10949/fief/medlord.html

 p.s. Two things I forgot to note...#1 abreviations are H-high school, M-Middle school, UE- Upper Elementary and LE- Lower Elementary.  #2 The last four weeks are not included yet as the way our schedule is turning out we won't finish them till fall in our co-op so didn't get them done yet.  I'll post those probably over the summer!

Dec. 4, 2007 - History notebook pages

 Headline- "Mass suicide by jews!"  This is the article on Masada written by Ariel age 9.

Just a few things we’ve been working on….These are pages from my 9 year old daughter and 12 year old son.  We read our history and then they, (or I depending), chose something from that week to work on.  This particular week they chose notebook pages.  I use these as free writing for them.  That means I don’t correct it.  They have other assignments that I’ll critique and have them do revisions but this is more about getting them to put on paper what they remember from their History lesson.

"Pompeii goes down", by Taylor age 12.

We sometimes make our own pages but both of these were ones I got online.  I found the Pompeii one free online and the newspaper one Ariel used for her Masada article was part of a set from Lilliput station.  It’s reasonably priced and saves you lots of time creating your own.  The nice thing about buying some is your kids can browse and pick out the one they want to print.  It free’s up mom to be working on something else!

Nov. 7, 2007 - Mystery of History I finished!

We have finished Mystery of History book I!  It took us more than a year, we did 3 quarters last year and finished the 4^th quarter this fall.  This just seemed more of a doable pace for our family.  When I looked back we sure accomplished a lot!  I highly recommend this book!

I believe we learned more about history and the history of the Old Testament than ever!  Most of all I think they remember a lot of it.  We didn’t do all of the activities but we did some.  We also added some of our own but some weeks we just read the chapters too.  We were very flexible with it.

Some of the parts worked for us and some we ditched.  Our timeline is very “eclectic” compared to the examples.  I think most of the figures are still on there though I’m sure some are missing.  My girls ages 9 and 7 colored most of them and enjoyed putting them on the board.  The boys who are 14 and 12 didn’t enjoy it as much so this year they are doing a timeline in their notebooks.  We’ll see how that works out.

I haven’t decided yet if we’ll make a timeline for our book to keep these figures or just get rid of them (I do have the picture after all.)  We have so much homeschool “stuff”, you just can’t keep everything.  We’ll probably pull them off and renumber to start our book II timeline.

We did start with the note cards and did them about ½ of last year but it really wasn’t working for us so we quit doing that part.

This week we did the first 3 lessons of book II and are looking forward to the new era’s we will cover!

Oct. 31, 2007 - Romefest

 Our Mystery of History co-op group put on a Romefest for our local homeschool group.  It was a lot of work and a lot of fun!

We had games which included a gladiator training school.  My son and one of the other older boys dressed as Roman guards and first bought the “slaves” from a slave trader (my other son) before instucting them on weapons and methods.  Another mom “bought” some for household servants.  They needed scribes to read Roman numerals and Olive pickers.  The slaves all had signs (in Latin of course) around their necks to describe their “talents”.

Of course we had Roman food.  Food from early Rome was very limited (at least to our taste) so we did a feast from all the era’s of Rome.  It started with Parmesan Polenta which was a big hit.  From there we went on with several courses  ending in cheesecake!  We had to eat like the Romans did, reclining which was fun.  My kids want to eat like this at home.  I said, “ NO.”

We also did a few crafts.  The kids made mosaics with dried beans and peas.  They also made painted cloak pins to wear.

The Romans wore tunic’s (several styles we learned about) as well as togas and most of the kids (some mom’s and dad’s too) dressed for the festival.  We also learned about jewelry and hairstyles.  They had lots of ringlet curls and twists, especially piled up on their heads.  We did the best we could to emulate but without slaves to do the work.

For music we had a harp player come in and explain the history of the harp as well as play for us.  The kids seemed very interested.  It was beautiful music even though we don’t know what kind of music they played back then we know it was one of the instruments they had. 

It was a lot of fun but I’m sure glad it’s over!

Sep. 10, 2007 - Roman lapbook

Here is the lapbook I've created for our Mystery of History Co-op.  We've titled it, "End of the Roman Republic beginning of the Roman Empire."  It covers about 3 weeks of study. 

The lapbook consists of one file folder refolded and one half of another file used as an extension.  In this picture below you can see the "extension" folded up with two strips of paper to form a timeline.  On the left are two "booklets", one has a map of the battle of Actium on the front and then the kids will write their description of the battle inside.  The other "booklet" is a fictious diary entry of Cleopatra.  On the right you have the booklet on the Pax Romana, the inside the kids are describing what that means and what it included.  Obviously, what is written on each will vary according to the ages/abilities of each child.  The bottom right is simply the scripture that mentions Caesar Augustus (Luke 1:1-7.)

This third picture below shows the lapbook as you flip the extension down (you'll notice the left and right flaps are the same as above.)  It has two flip sections on the First Triumvirate and the Second Triumvirate.  The titles flip up and underneath they'll write what the Triumvirate is.  For each flip section I used two pieces of paper folding them (one folded down about 2 inches from the top and the other about four) and nesting and stapling to make the flaps, then I simply cut the paper into thirds to make 3.  For each third they write or glue a picture of that member of the Triumvirate and then write a fact on each "page".  Marcus Lepidus is the only one that's tough to come up with 3 things for.

On the back we're asking each student to do a one page report on one of the 6 men of the "Triumvirates" and glue it to the back of their lapbook. 

The one pictured here is my "sample".  I don't make samples for my own kids but for co-op I usually do.  We start it in a couple weeks, it should be fun!  Hope this project has given you ideas and inspired you to work on one with your kids! 

Gina

Aug. 9, 2007 - Mystery of History I qtr 4 syllabus

I thought some of you might be interested in what our co-op does for planning and activities.  We had our planning meeting Tuesday night and here’s the “moms” syllabus I handed out.  There may be a few additions and changes but this is basically what we’ll do and work from. 

Our basic schedule is 15 minutes of teaching time/video clips, 15 minute map instruction/making, 1 hr 15 minutes class time, and 15 minute wrap up and game.  The teaching time in going over the lessons we read at home.  Sometimes we have video clips added in this section and sometimes we do whole movies for the teaching time which then shortens our class time.  The class time is where we break up into age groups and work on the various activities geared toward each each group.  We have 4 age ranges as follows;  Y stands for Young which is about 5-8 yr olds, YM (Young Middle) is 8-11, YO (Younger older) is 11-13 and O (older) high school.  When you see A that means All groups.  Oh, and the game during the wrap-up time is a simple quiz type game we do to reinforce what we go over each week.  We simply divide the kids into teams, each team takes turns answering questions we take from the lessons and they get awarded point that we keep track of.  It's just a fun way to review.

The items in red are things we will do at the co-op.  The items in green are presentations certain children or families will prepare.  The blue items are just for reference.

I have already put the sample of the Alexander mini folder book for week 29 here on my blog.  I’ll add the sample of the lapbook that we’re doing over weeks 32-34 soon.

Hope for those of you using Mystery of History you can use some of this and for those of you doing the same time period you can glean as well.  Also, for those of you thinking of planning a co-op hopefully it will give you inspiration.

Gina

4^th Quarter MOH I mom syllabus

Wk 28

• Malachi  82B prophet trading card game (A) ,82A book of remembrance? (Y, YM), 82C post exile synopsis  note book page(YO,O)
• Plato and Aristotle Plato and Aristotle selection for reading and review taken from Book of Virtue’s.(O)

http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html Timaus by Plato

• Philip II of Macedonia and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus view and discuss Phlanx (YM, YO, O)

http://www.amazeingart.com/img/mazes/mausoleum-maze.pdf maze art

Wk 29 Drive through Greece 1, 6 (5?)

• Alexander the Great Mini folder book (A) containing-split square book, map for back of folder, 86B Macedonian Times, horse cutout for younger, prophecy scroll book (Daniel), other booklets for pocket one schooling, reading, role model, Malaria etc…

http://www.deadromans.com/coins/default.htm site with lots of info on coins (info is on Roman coins rather than greek however)

• The split of Alexander’s Empire
• Archimedes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria (Helper_________ 5 minute presentation on Archimedes) All to take notes on notebook page.

http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/contents.html good website

http://www.notebookingpages.com/files/Scientist_-_Archimedes.pdf notebook page

Older group to prepare to present Emperor Asoka of India for next week

Wk 30 tape Trisha? or library on terra cotta

• Emperor Asoka of India (Older group present 10-15min.)
• The Septuagint and the Colossus of Rhodes 89A Roman numerals (Y, YM),Translation exercise (OM, O)
• The Quin Dynasty (library tape?) 90A play dough statues (Y),Great wall stat sheet/note page, terra cotta soldier sheet/note page (YM, OM, O)

http://www.abcteach.com/china/greatwall.htm (notebook sheet on wall)

Wk 31 Trisha’s video clip on silk road?

• Hannibal, Elephants, and the Punic Wars reenacted battle of Zama (O) Picture of elephant w/ sentence (Y, MY?)

http://www.juniorgeneral.org/rome/zama2.html Battle of Zama rules from Junior General

• The Han Dynasty Make paper (Y, MY, MO?) http://www.tutorials.com/06/0697/06978.asp paper making instructions
• The Maccabean Revolt Read maccabees (O, MO?), make Hanukkah dish (MY)

http://papertoys.com/menorah.htm cut out 3D menorah

Wk 32

• Spartacus  (Movie night for O, MO?) ,slave signs 94B(Y, MY)
• The First Triumvirate Start Roman Empire lapbook, first triumvirate flip up and Crassus, Pompey and Julius flip facts, timeline, Assign report on one of 6
• Julius Caesar (Helper __________ presentation, use Famous Men of Rome)

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=haaren&book=rome&story=julius&PHPSESSID=9e68865f1d6ca339b8a089f0db734bc6 link to text of Biography of Caesar from Famous Men of Rome  (Baldwin project)

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/julius_caesar/full.html text of play by Shakespeare

Wk 33

• The Second Triumvirate Make Lapbook book
• Cleopatra make diary entries for Cleopatra and/or Julius
• Herod the Great Movie 50 min., notebook response page

Wk 34

• The Battle of Actium make Egyptian food (Y),  Movie night Cleopatra? List 8 historical facts from film,
• Augustus Caesar and the Roman Empire Book on Pax Romana, Augustus Caesar  booklet , Luke 2 1:7 copywork , possibly build aquaduct model, trace geneolory of jesus http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=haaren&book=rome&story=augustus link to text of Biography of Augustus from Famous Men of Rome (Baldwin project)
• John the Baptist

Reports due add to back of LB

Wk 35

• Jesus Christ, His Birth 103C Prophecies fulfilled (MO, O), Jesus film parts(A) http://papertoys.com/nativity-scene.htm paper model of nativity to cut out

http://highland.hitcho.com.au/prophecies.pdf chart to fill in prophecies fulfilled by Christ, lists scriptures.

• Jesus, His Teachings and Miracles Movie night Ben Hur?, cartoon Ben Hur (Y), Act out miracles (Y, MY)

http://www.nestorian.org/the_lord_s_prayer_in_aramaic.html The Lords prayer in written and spoken Aramaic

• Tiberius Caesar, Pilate and Herod

Wk 36

• The Twelve Disciples of Christ

chart to fill in information on the disciples(O, MO)

• Jesus, His Death and Resurrection Jesus film (A)
• Jesus, the Mystery of History

Extras-

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2145 downloadable book of Ben Hur (high school or read aloud)

Biographies of both Alexander the Great and Cleopatra both by Jacob Abbot at http://oldfashionededucation.com/biography.htm

Jul. 10, 2007 - Alexander the Great Folderbook

 ,

Thought I would share some of what I’ve been working on this summer.  For me summer is when I plan a lot of our next year.  This folderbook I designed for our Mystery of History co-op but could be used for any study of Alexander the Great.

What’s a folderbook?  I think of it as a cross between a lapbook and a notebook page.  They fit better in a binder than a full lapbook and don’t require as much information.  Sometimes we have a subject that I want to make fun and interesting for the kids but it doesn’t warrant (or we don’t have time for) a whole lapbook.

To make the folderbook you take a legal size cardstock and flip the bottom few inches up to make a pocket.  In the pocket you can put as many “pieces” of information as you want to.  In this one we have a “report card” for Alexander and a bookmark with the prophecy from Daniel which refers to Alexander the Great.

On the rest of the sheet glue as many other “pieces” of information as your can fit.  On the outside of our pocket I placed an envelope to hold our newspaper article on his death.  Above the pocket we placed a “triangle square” with the division of his empire.  To the left of that is our title, “Alexander the Great” with his date for our timeline (we keep this ongoing on our wall.)  Not pictured but on the back of the folder we’ll have a map of his territory.

The kids love these “hands-on” kinds of projects and boy do they reinforce the lessons.  Whenever I have my kids do a lapbook or folderbook on something I can guarantee they’ll remember it better!

I don’t see too much on folderbooks out there.  Have you done any?  Please comment and share!

Gina

Jun. 30, 2007 - Living History fun!

, ,

Last Saturday we stopped by a local park for a wonderful living history event.  It was titled Archeological Dig Day.  Students from Western Michigan University have obtained a 10 year contract with the city of Niles to excavate the old fort that was at the edge of the St. Joseph River here in Niles.

My kids had fun and were able to ask some great questions and make intelligent comments!  Yeah!  I actually have taught them something! 

They had pits where they believe they’ve found a fireplace and in another area the foundation.  My boys were really interested in the guns they had on display from the time period.  We also found some of the musical instruments that reinactors in the camp had very interesting.  My kids all play something and we had in fact just come from a choir/orchestra concert when we stopped by.  Both the girls like to play on the lap harp at home and they had a Psalter which looked similar but was played with a bow.  I had never seen one of those before.

So we got lessons on British cannon firing, writing with ink and quill, marbles and beads of the time, blacksmithing, music (literature of the time since most couldn’t read), root beer making (it was very sticky and sweet), archeology and probably more.  Well, that should be enough for at least several weeks of lessons! 

If you have any opportunity near you for a live history event don’t miss it!  Great learning and fun.

Gina

May. 17, 2007 - post exile lapbook

We are finishing up our 3^rd quarter with Mystery of History(MOH)book I.  It’s our plan to do 3 quarters per year instead of 4.  It’s just so rich!  We like to take advantage of lots of extras and really cover it.  This is my youngest daughters' (age 7) lapbook of the post-exile Babylonian period covered in quarter 3.  Our youngest group in our co-op each completed one over the last two months. 

Some of the pockets are taken exactly from the recommended projects and others we devised ourselves from things we found on the internet and created.

Lapbooks or folder books are such a great way to reinforce and help kids keep remembering later.  My daughter loves showing hers off!  The kids couldn’t wait till they were complete and could take them home!

One of my blogging friends has created a wonderful resource for lapbooks.  Forget Goggle, just go here Lapbooking 101 for instructions, examples, folds and much more.  It’s very complete and a great resource for anyone thinking about it or for new ideas for those of us who have already tried some!

Gina

May. 2, 2007 - Battle of Marathon

Yesterday at our History co-op our older group reinacted the Battle of Marathon.  It was a nice break for them from our usual weightier assignments.  Some of the kids were apprehensive at first but in the end they all had fun.  Our reinacted battle had a different outcome from the historical, Persia won in ours.  We used the game rules and paper soldiers from Junior General.

My oldest son Logan, in the picture above was thrilled to be able to be doing gaming for school!  I love that with homeschool we have the flexibility to let our kids LOVE doing school!

Gina