Category Archives: History

Blessed Heritage History Curriculum

01/29/2021 Danielle Huddleston 1 Comment

I love Belinda’s description of her curriculum, “A Literature-Based history featuring African-American presence and contribution”.

It is exactly what I was looking for and I have really enjoyed getting another point of view on the history of America.

My boys are on week 9 of the Intermediate Level Volume one book.

It is geared towards more middle school aged kids and I have her highschool curriculum as well but after looking at it I decided(although I loved it) that my boys were not ready for the content yet.

But I am really looking forward to them doing it in another two years.

Because this is geared for a lower grade then the boys, I have needed to add a lot more reading to it.

One of the things I loved about her curriculum was starting with the first people to come to America.

I added as many books as I could on native american history and was happy to find this list on books by native american authors.

I also struggled a bit with keeping track of what they were doing from the curriculum and came up with these spreadsheets that I can easily see.

I think I will grade them based on completion.

They have one sheet for the reading and one for the activities.

She recommends The History of US books to go along with her curriculum.

I was not sure about them based on reviews so I got Masterbooks “America’s Story 1” to try also but my boys ended up liking the History of US a lot better and it covered the history of America before Columbus a lot more. Especially the first book “The First Americans”.

I am also trying to use her Primary Level with my three girls.

They do better with projects and documentaries than sitting for reading but I finally worked out how to get more reading done this month.

Before this month I just got every kids book I could on Native American folklore and culture for them to look at and read.

Although we have not done them on the same schedule as suggested, we did make two of the projects she has in her curriculum.

Tipi’s and corn husk dolls.

The tipi’s we made because of this book “Storm Maker’s Tipi”. It was a nice easy craft that they enjoyed.

I actually did the corn husk dolls because of another book I got “A Kid’s Guide to Native American History“.

It is a really interesting resource but I have not used it as much as I have wanted to yet.

So far we are really enjoying her recommended reading!

History, Homeschooling

World History ~Middle Ages 8th grade

06/25/2020 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

I did buy a Simply Charlotte Mason curriculum for our Middle Ages study but ended up not using it.

The book list was good but did not cover all the world, mostly Europe.

And the reading plan did not fit my boys reading style. It had you read small amounts from several books instead of reading one book all the way through.

I ended up buying a PDF overview of the middle ages that had a few worksheets and tests to go with all the books I was having them read.

I have just not found a good way to grade reading and find tests easier to grade.

But again it was mostly European history.

Then I became somewhat obsessed with finding books that covered different parts of the world during that time.

I will share what I found and also a curriculum that seems to cover it all.

These are some of the books we got that covered Europe. The Cathedral and Castle book and movie by David Macaulay were again so good. We have enjoyed his books and the movies made from them. My oldest son really liked these books by Winston Churchill on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.

They were suggested by another blogger Nicki Truesdell.

The White Stag was recommended by the Charlotte Mason Curriculum and is about Attila the Hun.

Mansa Musa and the Empire of Mali was a good book to introduce my boys to the greatness of Africa during this time.

The Golden Age of Islam was going on at this time as well and had a huge impact on the history of the world!

Arabian Nights was written during this time as well!

My boys were not into the Beduins’ Gazelle, it is a love story which they both gagged at but it does give you a glimpse into the life of a Beduin at that time.

The Walking Drum is definitely more my boys speed. Lots of action but I love how Louis Lamour talks about how advanced the middle east was at that time.

The Usborne book on the left was a great resource for what was going on in the world at that time.

I do wish I had gotten a newer version which is called “Medieval World” but this still gave a great overview that was diverse.

The Silk Road book was nicely written even for me to read to my 6yr old. And it has projects you can do at that time.

So if you are studying the middle ages and want to cover some of the big things going on hopefully that will give you a starting point.

This is what I laid out after looking into a lot of different information for studying next time.

Week 1-2

Europe, Vikings

Week 3

Africa, Mansa Musa

Week 4

Middle East, Islam. Banu Musa

Week 5

Asia, Khan, Silk Road, Marco Polo, Confucianism, Mongols

Week 6

North and South America, Cahokia, Incas, Toltec’s

We liked to watch the Crash Course to World History videos on youtube with John Green as well.

He is not a Christian perspective but he does cover what was going on all over the world.

I did find the Masterbooks Curriuculum “The World’s Story 2” covers this time frame and does seem to cover it all which was so nice.

I am not sure why so many of the other programs did not.

Maybe I was just looking in the wrong places.

Have you found a diverse curriculum you like?

History, Museums/Events

Honey Springs Battlefield Reenactment 2019

11/07/2019 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

History events are my favorite. The Honey Springs Battlefield Reenactment only happens once every two years and the weather was beautiful so there were a lot of people. I would have loved to go to the educational day but it is a bit far for us to do both that and the battle.