Category Archives: History

In Freedom’s Cause: The Real Story of Wallace and Bruce

wallaceandbruce

In the midst of our study of the Middle Ages we listened to this amazing Audio Theater version of G.A. Henty’s book “In Freedom’s Cause.”

I thought I would let you know how we liked it.

My boys are 7&8

My oldest can be a bit sensitive.

This was an amazing story.

It makes this nations struggle for freedom come alive!

This is good and bad…

If you are not sure why that would be, look up the story of what happened to William Wallace and what disembowelling is.

They did not get really graphic but there was some yelling and pleading to God going on.

They did a wonderful job explaining about why William Wallace went through all that pain.

His death fueled a nation! But my oldest wanted to quit the second his death scene came on.

I made him wait(I was hoping it would end on a somewhat happy note) so he would not end it on such a bad feeling.

It takes a while to get to a happier spot but it does end without leaving you depressed.

He ended up really liking it although we will probably wait a while to listen again.

It is intense.

 

So what do I think?

The story telling was excellent!

I think this is a must for teenagers learning the history of that time!

It might leave your kids with a dim view of European leaders of that time, I think seeing the good and bad of every civilization is a good thing.

I learned so much though!

My boys did okay but I think an older child would enjoy it more.

I do think this type of story is just the thing to make history come alive for your kids though!

History was passionate, messy, scary, amazing, and interesting!

Don’t be afraid to let your kids see what really happened!

Dry text books should not be the only way your kids know history!

Middle Ages, the Plague, and Microbes.

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We started out our study of the Middle Ages with an overview of what was going on all over the world during the early part of the Middle Ages.

There were actually different stages to the Middle Ages and each one was pretty different.

Not all of them were Dark either.

timeline

working

Please remember my boys are adventure loving and they like the exciting history best before you look at the timelines they created.

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They latched on to even the slightest mention of a battle…

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I did get them to leave Easter Island battle free though!

Boys…

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Yes, the Roman Empire was still around during the Middle Ages.

I pretty much got every book the library had on Knights and the Middle Ages and just let my boys go at them.

knights

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You Choose history books were again a favorite of my boys.

They will read them again and again.

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I like to mix in a LOT of Historical Fiction with our studies.

crusades

We watched Disney’s Robin Hood to go with our study.

I was pretty excited about it!

castle

They also did a couple of the lessons with Draw and Write your way through History.

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microbes

I felt like I failed in the science department at first.

I was just getting books on the plague and talking about different discoveries that were going on.

Then at the end of our study we collected puddle water and studied it under the microscope.

They were amazed and proceeded to eat up all the books the library had on Microbes!

We also watched the Magic School Bus Episodes on Microbes.

Magic School Bus “In A Pickle” and “Inside Ralphie.”

I have to remind myself sometimes that my slow and steady approach to getting the boys interested in something does work!

It just looks lazy for a bit but always pays off!

For more ideas on the Middle Ages, check out my Pinterest board.

Ancient China, Gunpowder, and Paper.

china

*This post contains Amazon Associate links

We touched on China BC, here.

This time we were learning about the beginning of Gunpowder, Paper, and China’s three Kingdoms in the 1st century AD

Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #31: China: Land of the Emperor’s Great Wall: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #14: Day of the Dragon King (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
is made to go with the Magic Tree House book “Day Of The Dragon-King (Magic Tree House 14, paper)” but it has a lot of information that was helpful for this study as well.

We also got “The Story of Paper” by Ying Chang Compestine.

I had planned to try to make paper with the boys but when it came down to it what I wanted to do proved to be too much work for me to jump in on.

I found resources for Gunpowder hard to come by but here are two interesting video clips we found on the history channel’s site,

Gunpowder: A Brief Big History

Gunpowder to Guns

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I did decide to delve into Chinese Characters and Mandarin this time though.

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The boys had a lot of fun trying out different characters for numbers.

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The book they used is “The First 100 Chinese Characters: Simplified Character Edition: The Quick and Easy Way to Learn the Basic Chinese Characters (Tuttle Language Library)”.

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We used Tuttle Chinese for Kids Flash Cards Kit Vol 1 Simplified Character: [Includes 64 Flash Cards, Downloadable Audio, Wall Chart & Learning Guide]: Simplified Character v. 1 (Tuttle Flash Cards) to learn some Mandarin.

I have the Early Start Mandarin Chinese with Bao Bei the Panda
videos for children that are great at teaching words and phrases but they proved too young for the boys now.

I was a little sad they are too big for them.

I remember how much they liked them when they were little and how great they are at teaching Mandarin!

chopsticks

I had the boys try out chopsticks for the first time as well!

It did not go well with my youngest…

HA!

If you want to see other resources that I saved but did not get to, check out my Pinterest board for Ancient History, here.