A Quest for a Great Homeschool Year: Social Studies Overview for 2019-2020

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If you didn't know, history is probably my favorite subject to teach. Our teen will be learning World History this year while our younger children will continue unit studies that will introduce them to a variety of history- and social studies-related topics.

High School 

World History

We will be starting our teen with the Renaissance and Reformation time periods, working our way through to modern times, in our World History course. We will be using a variety of materials including my own teaching items from when I taught high school World History. Once we officially start the homeschooling year, our teen will complete Project Passports: Renaissance & Reformation from Home School in the Woods. And then we will use materials from SchoolhouseTeachers.com (using part of the 36-week World History course) and my own materials for the following course of study.

Course of Study – World History

• Renaissance and Reformation 
• Absolute Monarchies 
• French Revolution
• Russia & Revolution 
• Industrial Revolution 
• World War I 
• Between the Wars 
• Dictatorship in Russia 
• Rise of Totalitarianism & the Great Depression
• World War II 
• 1950s 
• And Beyond

Preschool and First Grade 

Both our younger children will be using the 180 Days of Social Studies for Kindergarten Workbook as a starting point to introduce them to civics, economics, and geography. The book is designed in such a way that there will be one full page of social studies practice for each day of a 180-day school year. As we most definitely school more than that (when aren't our children learning something new?), this workbook will really only be a starting point to our reading of history books and other activities.

We will also be focusing upon studying the United States of America using materials produced by WriteBonnieRose. In Exploring the United States Coloring Books Volumes 1-5, our son will take a closer look at each of the 50 states and learn about the animals, important places, and key events of each state. There are ten or more pages per state which means that we will have lots of fun as we learn more about the different states.

In the past, we have studied the lives of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. So, this year we will also take a look at Benjamin Franklin using a coloring book from WriteBonnieRose. There are 19 coloring pages with copy work to help introduce some key facts about this early famous American.

And because I love studying the American Civil War, we will be using the Leaders of the American Civil War Coloring Book to learn more about the different generals who led the Union and Confederate armies during the war. Leaders that our son will learn about include:

• P.G.T. Beauregard
• Ambrose Burnside
• Joshua Chamberlain
• Ulysses S. Grant
• George McClellan 
• And others!

In addition to using the resources from WriteBonnieRose, we will also pick up a variety of books at the library to help us study the states, events, and famous people. We can also include books that we purchased from Library and Educational Services LLC as the timelines will be a great fit for our course of study.

(If you haven't had a chance to check out WriteBonnieRose and the many resources available, I recommend checking out my review on the resources to learn about science and my review on preschool and high school materials.)

This week I am joining up with the Homeschool Review Crew for the Annual "Not Back to School" Blog Hop...5 Days of Homeschool.... Please visit the other members to see what they are sharing this week.

Be sure to see what is happening during the "Not Back to School" Blog Hop!

CREW @ Homeschool Review Crew - 2019 Annual Not Back to School Homeschool Blog Hop 
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses - ABC of Homeschooling
Dawn @ Schoolin' Swag - Adding Fun to Your Homeschool Day
Erin @ For Him and My Family - Large Family Homeschooling
Lori @ At Home Where Life Happens - Learning Life Skills
Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling - Homeschooling the High School Years