After wrapping up our Civil War unit from last year, it was time to begin our American History course over again and this time include the littler kids. While they have often listened in on history lessons in the past, as well as watched movies and come on field trips with us, I love American History enough that I wanted each child to get the full benefit of a thorough look into our early American History, and not miss out on things they might have been too young to understand when they first heard them. Consequently, I have debated for a long time about what to do with our history class. I didn't want to just leave the big kids hanging while I got the little kids up to speed, but honestly, I didn't feel like I could teach two full hours of history each day either. The decision of what to do was plaguing me for months.
Then, as I was talking to another home school mom in our area one day, I got a fabulous book recommendation that seems to have solved my problem. She told me about a series of books put out by the Beautiful Feet Company. As I already have several of their history picture books, I decided to go ahead and order the set she recommended without too much more investigation. As it turns out, the decision was a providential one. These books focus on an important person in American history, but rather than talking more about American history, they give a portrait of the world at the time of this person. The set included a book on Christopher Columbus, Captain John Smith, William Penn, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. It has been the perfect way to merge the kids' history lessons and allow them to still be in some kind of class all together. The younger kids have begun at the very beginning, with early American Explorers, and the big kids and I are enjoying piecing together the bigger picture by studying how they fit into the world framework.
It's been so much fun to come to better understand the way the explorers all fit together and how they came to influence one another and eventually lead to the discovery of America. I can imagine it will be just as riveting as we continue on and see what France, England, Spain, Italy and Africa and China were all up to when the colonies were forming and the American Revolution was brewing. As I read to my kids and learn and explore with them, I can't help but wonder if at least part of the reason I'm home schooling isn't for me. I just eat this stuff up. And I see the hand print of God in and through the grand orchestrations that brought about this great country. I love it. And the kids are having a pretty good time too. There is nothing quite like being begged to start our history lessons! And some of the lessons tend to linger around for a while, like our Viking exploration class, where the kids constructed a ship and set the house up as Vineland, or the spice tasting trail we made while journeying with Marco Polo. I wish I had photos to commemorate them all, but alas, sometimes we're too busy making memories to remember to record them. Here is one of the mighty Leif Eriksson and his crew though.
I ought to put the video we made on as well, but I haven't ever figured out Nick's system of cataloging our home videos. In the video I can hardly narrate because I'm laughing so hard as Nick attempts to push them through Stone Slab Land, Forest Land, Bird Island, and into Vineland. The kids are laughing their heads off too. It will be a family treasure for years to come. The Viking ship on the other hand, well, even though it was such quality work, it will probably sink at some point and disappear, much like the original Vineland saga. Oh our adventures in homeschooling!
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