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changes in history curriculum for 2014…

January 20, 2014Written by Joy

We started the 2013-2014 school year trying out a new history curriculum. I was wanting to do American history with my kids and was having a hard time locating one I thought would work. The two previous years, we had used Mystery of History from Bright Ideas Press. Bright Ideas Press history, All American History, looked a little too challenging for my younger kids, so I choose My Father’s World: Adventures in U.S. History.

The first few weeks, we struggled and had a lot of tears. The kids did not like the change. It was TOUGH. They cried, then I cried. I was determined to give the new curriculum a chance, though. I know that sometimes change can be hard, but that if you give things a chance, it could work out. I told myself that we would give the new history until the end of the year. I wanted to make sure that we gave it our all, before we switched curriculums. The kids like the time period that we were studying. They just did not like how it was presented, they did not like that there wasn’t daily activities or projects. With this curriculum, there was a lot more copywork, than anything.

The end of 2013 came and I knew the time had come. We were going to change history curriculums. The problem was, which one do I choose now? I had wanted to teach the kids American history. I have just had a hard time trying to find one that I liked. I knew we needed to go back to something that we were familiar with. One of the joys of homeschooling, is using curriculum that fits the needs and learning style of your children.

So what will we do now? One thing we will do is continue to read the books that I picked up on American history. They are short readers that the kids can read on their own. We also have the Little House on the Prairie books that we will read together.

{Disclaimer: This post has affiliate links.}

My kids have asked to go back to Bright Ideas Press, Mystery of History. Since we finished with Mystery of History: Volume 1, last year, we will begin Mystery of History: Volume 2, this next week. I already had this Volume on our book shelf, so it will save us money for the time being. In the mean time, I will be saving to purchase their All American History Jr. I would love to be able to look at the books and see what all the Jr. section covers. Hopefully, we will be able to start this in the fall.

After 11 years of homeschooling, I am learning it is okay to change curriculums, even during the middle of the school year. One of the joys of homeschooling, is being able to meet the needs of your children if something isn’t working. So mom, don’t give up if you are having a rough time. If you feel like you have given the curriculum a fair chance, and it still isn’t working, then change! You will eventually find something that will work, or a curriculum that you can tweak enough to make it work for your family.

Have you ever had any curriculum that made your kids break down in tears? Have you had to change curriculums in the middle of a school year? I would love for you to share your experience with us!

2014, homeschooling Adventures in U.S. History, All American History Jr., American History, Bright Ideas Press, curriculum, history, homeschooling 2014, My Father's World, Mystery of History

Wednesday’s Around the World ~ Leif Ericsson and the Vikings

October 2, 2013Written by Joy

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Wednesday’s Around the World ~ Leif Ericsson and the Vikings

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This week on Wednesday’s Around the World, I am sharing with you about Leif Ericsson and the Vikings. Who is Leif Ericsson and what does he and the Vikings have to do with studying the United States? Leif Ericsson was a Norseman, who lived in the far north of Europe. They had a hard life in the area they lived, because the weather could be brutal, with very cold temps, winds and snow. They were sometimes called Vikings, which just means exploring. They explored to find food for those times that they ran short of food. They traded with others, but sometimes they had to steal and they even looked for new places to live.

The Vikings used large boats that could go very fast with the unique sail that had. When the wind wasn’t blowing, they had a large oar that many men could pull to make the boat go. The large boat had a dragon head on the front and a dragon tail on the back. The dragon was very intimidating to those people that the Vikings came across. It filled them with fear and scared them a lot. As the Vikings moved around they created colonies as they explored. A lot of the Vikings, including Leif Ericsson’s dad, settled on land a land that is now called Iceland.

It was always a dream of Eric the Red, Leif’s dad to find a better place to live for him and his family. They hit the open waters and found a place west of Iceland and called it Greenland. Although it was very similar to Iceland, he named it Greenland in hopes that the name would bring more people to settle. However, due to a famine, people kept going to Iceland, instead of Greenland. One a particular day when the weather was awful, a Viking ship accidentally was blown off course and missed Greenland. They kept sailing even further west and came to unfamiliar land. They sailed down the coast, hoping to see something that would remind them of Greenland. They never did see anything they recognized, so they turned around and sailed back east. After 4 long days on the sea, they finally reached Greenland. They told Eric the Red what they had seen and his son, Leif overheard them. Leif wondered why they did not go ashore and explore the land. As Leif continued to get older, he never forgot that story.

One day, Leif told his dad his was heading out on the sea, towards the west to find this land. On the 4th day of his voyage, Leif and his crew caught sight of the land. At first, he did think it looked like Greenland, but as they continue to sail down the coast, he noticed that the land began to change. Leif and his crew went to the shore and started exploring. Leif called this land Vine-land. They stayed their through the winter and then returned to his dad and the people of Greenland. He told them all about the rich land they had found. Soon, other Vikings followed him to this new land and they set up a settlement. The settlement only last a few years due to the battles with the Indians that lived there. Vine-land, the place that Leif Ericsson discovered is known today as, Newfoundland, Canada.

The kids and I had a fun time learning about Leif Ericsson, his family and the Vikings. We learned that Leif had discovered what is now known as Newfoundland, Canada in North America. This was the first time that someone discovered North America in A.D. 1000.

We looked on our world map and found Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Greenland. We then kept following our finger all the way west and right to Newfoundland, Canada in North America.

My kids and I are learning a lot and enjoying the lessons in the Adventures in U.S. History from My Father’s World.

What have you been studying about in History and Geography? Link up with us and share!

2013, homeschooling A.D. 1000, geography, history, homeschooling, Leif Ericsson, link up, My Father's World, North America, Time-Line, vikings, Wednesday's Around the World

Wednesday’s Around the World ~ The Pledge of Allegiance

September 18, 2013Written by Joy

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Wednesday’s Around the World ~ The Pledge of Allegiance

So, I am behind in posting Wednesday’s Around the World. The last couple of weeks have been a little stressed in our area. We live in Colorado and are very near all the flooding areas. We were blessed to not have been directly affected by the rain and the flooding. My husband and son had to take a couple of detours to work due to closed roads/bridges, but that was it. Yes, we were truly blessed. Also, due to all of the rain and damp weather, I had a Fibromyalgia flare-up. I am very thankful for the dryer weather that we are having now.

Now on to Wednesday’s Around the World. We have started slowly back to studying history with My Father’s World. We are using the Adventures in U.S. History this year. The first couple of lessons covered the Star Spangled Banner, the U.S. map and where we live and also getting a time line started.

Adventures in U.S.History

The student notebooks that are pictured above, will hold their pages that they learn each day. They will also add in the pages for each state that we will learn as well. The first page that they put in their folder was The Pledge of Allegiance (which I forgot to take a picture of). So what is The Pledge of Allegiance, you ask? It is a promise that Americans make to their country. The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. He wrote The Pledge for a Columbus Day program celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus discovering America. There was a change in 1923 and 1924 when “the flag of the United States of America” was added. Then in 1954 Congress added the words “under God”. This is how it reads now,

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

My kids and I are saying this together, every morning. It is important for me to teach my children what this nation was built on and to stand up for what they believe.

The next thing we did was make a time-line. Since our wall space is limited, I decided to put our time-line in a 3 ring notebook. This way, we can add pages as we continue to work through the ages. We did start with Jesus being born. We will continue to add the important dates that we learn in U.S. History.

Time-Line

Another lesson we did, was go over a map of the United States. The kids got a blank map of the United States. We talked about the directions of North, South, East and West. Once they learned the directions, we got busy labeling different places on the map. The kids learned where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are at. They learned that Canada was north of us and Mexico is south of us. Then, they got to put an X on where we lived at on the map.

Working on US Map

After the first day, (I had a child upset that we were not continuing on with the history we used last year), the kids started enjoying our lessons. They can already say The Pledge of Allegiance without looking at the paper and they can point out on a map, where they live. I really think we are going to enjoy learning about the United States history this year.

I am excited to be hosting a link-up again. I am looking forward to seeing what y’all are learning about in history. Be sure to link up below and share with us!

2013, homeschooling, Wednesdays Around The World history, homeschooling Wednesday's Around the World, Map, My Father's World, The Pledge of Allegiance, Time-Line, U.S. History, United States

our curriculum for the younger kids ~ 2013-2014

August 9, 2013Written by Joy

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our curriculum for the younger kids ~ 2013-2014

Disclaimer: There are some affiliate links in this post. The little money that I might make from you purchasing through the links, help our family in buying our curriculum.
I always enjoy seeing what curriculum that everyone else is using, so I thought I would share with you our curriculum we will using this upcoming school year. I am also joining in with the iHomeschool Network and the 5th Annual “Not” Back-to-School Blog Hop.

My younger two kids are in 2nd and 3rd grade this year. It is amazing how quickly time is passing us by. I am enjoying being able to be at home with our kids, watching them grow and learn new things everyday. Since there is only 18 months difference between my younger children, I find it a lot easier on our family if we do a lot of the curriculum together. While they are on different levels in math, everything else, we do together.

{History and Geography}

For the first time in a couple of years, I am changing curriculum. While I am excited about this change, I am also nervous. I don’t think I have changed so much in one year since we started homeschooling 11 years ago! The first big change for us is our history. As much as I love Mystery of History and Bright Ideas Press, I wanted to focus this next year on American History. With the way our country is today, it is important for me to teach how the country was founded and why it was founded. After much praying and researching, I decided on My Father’s World, Adventures in U.S. History. We will be doing everything they offer in their deluxe package, with exception of their science. Notebooking will also be a big part of our schooling this year as well. We will be notebooking through the 50 states for history and geography.

{Language Arts}

We will also be switching up our Language Arts curriculum. We will finish the Bob Jones English I have from last year, but we will be adding in Growing with Grammar, A Reason For Spelling and A Reason for Handwriting. I haven’t used a Spelling or Handwriting curriculum with the kids before. I have always printed off worksheets and just worked on the words as we came across them in our English book. I felt like we needed to step it up in this area of our schooling.

{Math}

For Math, we will finish up our Bob Jones curriculum from last year. Once they finish those books, we will begin using A+ TutorSoft. They will be doing the math on the computer. I think this will be a good switch for the kids. I also have the Life of Fred books; Apples, Butterflies, Cats, Dogs and Edgewood. That I got for a great deal and we will be trying those out. Everyone that I have talked with that has used them, has said they have been a success.

{Science}

Since I have been homeschooling for so long, some companies and curriculum have just worked for us. One of those companies is Apologia and their science curriculum. We will be using their new science book, Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics along with their Jr. Notebooking journals. I have used Apologia science curriculum for 7 years now and my children and I thoroughly enjoy reading the lessons and doing their activities. I have learned as much as they have!

{Bible}

We will also be sticking with Apologia for Bible as we go through their curriculum book, Who is God? We will be using their coloring book and their notebooking journal. I bought this book last year, but when we moved, I set it aside since we had so many changes to begin with. We will also be covering Bible lessons that My Father’s World has in Adventures in U.S. History.

{Fine Arts}

My kids love to draw and listen to music, so for Fine Arts we will be using See The Light for art lessons. Pat Knepley is amazing in the See The Light art dvd’s. My kids really enjoy listening to her explain how to draw. For music, we will be using Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers (Bright Ideas Press) and Introduction to Tchaikovsky & the Nutcracker Suite (My Father’s World).

After writing it all out, it seems like an awful lot of work to do and yet, I still feel like I have not added everything that I have planned! We won’t be doing ever subject every day. We will also be adding in field trips with our homeschool group. Our youngest daughter will be taking dance lessons and our youngest son is wanting to play sports. Once you fill in those days, I think it will be a well rounded year for us.

Are you excited about the upcoming school year? I would love for you to share what all you and your family will be doing. Be sure to stop by and link up with iHomeschool Network and see what others are doing. As you will see, all homeschooling families are unique and do what is best for them and their families. THAT is what is so wonderful about homeschooling!