Tag Archives: history

Saint Patrick

I do not really go all out for all of the holidays.

We don’t usually do units on them for school either.

This year because I had a book about Saint Patrick I wanted to read I decided to do something different for Saint Patrick’s Day yesterday.

ChallengeonthehilloffireChallenge on the Hill of Fire” is done by Adventures in Odyssey.

I have really liked the other books in this series and this one was no exception.

Great read!

The stories about Saint Patrick say that he used things to do with the culture in Ireland to preach Jesus.

He supposedly used a Shamrock to teach about the trinity.

readingWe did our picture for “Embrace the Camera” while I was reading our book to the boys.

After we finished the book, we went outside in search of a Shamrock.

booksI have been wanting to get the boys into nature journaling and this seemed like a perfect opportunity.

search

picking

woodsorrel

After we found some the boys got right to work.

drawing

drawing2

done

patrick

mineI did one also!

It was really fun!

lapelOne of the stories we read about said that Christians put the shamrock on their lapels.

My youngest of course really wanted to do that.

He was not as happy when it dried out on him though…

What do you do for Saint Patrick’s Day?

Our New Timeline!

History Timeline ~daniellehuddlestonphotography.comI had been a little unhappy with our previous timeline for some time.

It was not as easy to see when things took place in history since it was in a book and after reading some interesting information I did not agree with the times it gave.

coloringI really did not think we had enough wall space for a full one on the wall until I saw this post from a blog I follow.

Let’s face it, after seeing her timeline I just wanted one and was going to find a place for it even if I had to put it on the ceiling!

If you know me, you probably know that once I get an idea I want to do it NOW!

seamsI was following the tutorial given on creation.com(the source given in the blog I saw it in) but it called for a roll of paper.

I did not have a vehicle or a roll of paper.

A big problem for someone that suddenly really wanted to make a new timeline.

I debated walking to Wal-Mart but finally settled on taping cardstock together.

It is a lot stronger than the paper from a roll and turned out great!

metricThe site uses metric for all of their measurements.

I tried changing it to inches and it was way too complicated.

Metric is a lot easier!

measure

bcI went ahead a marked down every thousand years before having the boys help me mark down the hundreds.

I felt like the mom of the year for letting them help.

We had a lot of close calls where I thought a bouncy boy was going to rip the whole thing.

I told them I would probably cry if they ruined it…

helpI had my oldest take some pictures since I was busy trying to get my 6yr old to look where he was marking…

hold

drawingAll in all it went pretty well!

hundredsI used a white label sticker to cover mistakes.

The one in the picture is actually one of mine…

timelinesI used several sources to plot out our timeline.

The Big Book Of History, The Ussher timeline chart by Paul Hansen(free download), and the The Seven C’s of History.

answertimelineWe are still using our figures from History through the Ages.

I have just been printing the small images without text and cutting off the dates on them.

The boys and I talked about why we were changing our timeline and why I did not agree with the dates on the old one.

I want to have them research this and come to their own conclusions when they are older.

floodI decided to include the descendants of Adam on this chart.

We had looked at it before on “The Big Book Of History” but drawing it really made it click for my oldest.

He got really excited and said, “Methuselah probably knew Adam!”

It really sold the validity of Genesis.

If you realize that the eye witness was not very far removedĀ  from the writer it makes it easier to except what is written as accurate.

figuresWe glue the figures on the timeline as we learn about them.

It is one of the boys favorite things to do.

History Timeline ~daniellehuddlestonphotography.com

This timeline is about 6ft long and 11inches tall so it still takes up quite a bit of wall space but it is worth it!

I love the idea of the boys being about to see when things took place in history compared to when we live now.

Have you ever made a timeline?

How do you make history come alive for your kids?

History~Stonehenge

Since I am teaching history via a timeline, we learned about Stonehenge right after the Sumerian Civilization.

buildersFor most of the study we just used “Decoding Stonehenge” on Netflix.

We had tried to watch this a couple years ago but this time the boys seemed to enjoy it better.

It has a lot of re-enactments of what they think took place at Stonehenge.

Whenever I think a movie might be a little bit too much for them I always make popcorn.

Popcorn always makes them sit still longer!

batmanThey made a model of Stonehenge with the Jenga blocks.

This really helped them remember what Stonehenge was!

We also found a good article on kidsdiscover.com.

It had a quiz at the end that the boys really liked doing.

I have just recently realized they love online quizzes!

stonehengeLego men of course needed to be added to our Stonehenge model…

solsticeSince the video we watched talked a lot about Solstice, I took the opportunity to study it.

These books, “The Shortest Day, The Longest Day, and Arctic Lights Arctic Nights” were really good!

I got all three at our local library!

I also found some really good information and videos about the Solstice at the Teacher Vision Website.

My only regret was not learning all of this during a Solstice!

Maybe we will have to look into it again in June when the Summer Solstice takes place.