Wordless Wednesday: Patches from Canada

My Grandmom, Uncle, and Mom collected patches from a variety of locations. Today, I would like to share some of the ones collected from Canada. 

Wordless Wednesday: Figures in Motion

 Please Note: I received complementary copies of these books through the Homeschool Review Crew. 

How Can You Supplement Your History Curriculum?

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There are so many fun and educational ways you can supplement your homeschool history curriculum. I love history. In fact, I can't remember a time that I did not enjoy visiting historical sites, reading about history, or watching history movies (both fiction and non-fiction). Therefore, it is quite easy for me to recommend many different options to supplement your homeschool history curriculum.

Visit History 

So many of my vacations with my mom, before I was married, involved touring historical locations (like Eckley Miners' Village Museum). This is probably one of the easiest ways to supplement your history curriculum. All you need are time and some money because you will often find tour guides, park rangers, and others at each site who will be able to help teach you and your homeschooled children new facts and information. Many places will even allow you to participate in living history by using tools of the time period, trying on period clothing, or creating a memento to take home.

Watch History 

Another very easy way to supplement your homeschool history curriculum is with documentaries and movies. If you attended public school, you might remember the television being wheeled into the classroom to watch a documentary borrowed from the school library or perhaps from your teacher's own collection. I am old enough to remember a few of my teachers sharing slide presentations with us. While not all documentaries and movies are created equal, there is a great selection available. One of our favorites is Drive Thru History® with Dave Stotts. There are quite a few series in which Dave Stotts takes viewers on a journey through history like those listed:

• Drive Thru History® Ancient History 
• Drive Thru History® American History 
• Drive Thru History® The Holy Land 
• Drive Thru History® The Gospels 
• Drive Thru History® Acts to Revelation 

In addition to documentaries, movies can also be wonderful to incorporate into your homeschool history curriculum. From movies that are not highly accurate to those that are written and try to stick the facts more, there are different learning opportunities. For example, for high school homeschooled children, you may wish to view the movie Gettysburg, read the book, and visit the site to compare and contrast the accuracies and inaccuracies. In addition to this movie, many others focus on the American Civil War, including two television series: North and South and The Blue and Gray. These both follow many fictional characters but provide a sense and a feeling for the time period with costumes, foods, and other details.

Listen & Play Through History 

If your children enjoy music, you might want to research the different genres of music based upon time periods. There are many different ways to approach supplementing your history curriculum with music. Previously I shared how you can study the American Civil War through Stephen Foster's "Better Times are Coming." And don't forget to listen to recorded speeches, watch clips of historical events recorded live, or view home movies to see what was life like in a particular time period.

• Learn to play songs from a particular time period 
• Learn to sing songs from a particular time period 
• Research different musical instruments that may no longer be played today 
• Listen to the music of the era of history you are studying 
• Interpret the lyrics written to learn more about the historical time 

Why not play a game? There are many different games inspired by history and ones that incorporate history into their play. You may wish to purchase games already made and designed like Egyptians, Made for Trade, or even Go to the Head of the Class (which covers multiple subject areas), or perhaps you might want to make your own file folder games like those offered by Home School in the Woods.

How Will You Supplement Your History Curriculum? 

Have you discovered any new ideas to incorporate into your history curriculum? Even if you are using a boxed curriculum, there is always room for additional supplements. Some even have items like literature packages or hands-on projects. We are using the literature package that goes along with Our Star-Spangled Story from Notgrass History. We have also used hands-on kits from Sonlight in previous years.

How Do You Pick a History Curriculum?

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Tips from A Mom's Quest to Teach for picking the best history curriculum for your homeschool and family.

What is your goal when it comes to teaching history in your homeschool? And what is your philosophical approach to teaching in your homeschool? Do you teach all of your children at the same time around the dining room or kitchen table or does each child work independently on curriculum that best suits their learning style?

As someone who has always loved history, there are a wide variety of history curriculum and materials that I love. From Home School in the Woods (which allows you to use hands-on materials to meet the needs and interests of your homeschooling students) to Notgrass History (which takes a more expected approach with textbooks, supplemental literature to read, and a variety of activities and questions provided both in the workbook and textbook), there are so many great options. You can also find a great number of history, social studies, and geography courses at SchoolhouseTeachers.com where you can pick and choose what works for your homeschooling child and family.

Ask Some Questions 

What are you looking for in your history curriculum? Do you want it all printed out and ready to open and go? Are you looking for lesson plans that are easy to follow but still give you more flexibility than a textbook? Do you want unit studies? What about lessons that tie into your other subjects like literature and science?

Download a worksheet to record your answer to these questions.

What Area of History Are You Studying? 

Of course, some of your decisions may be guided by what area or time period of history you wish to study in your homeschool. Are you studying United States History, World History, Ancient History, geography, government, economics, or a combination of some of them?

If you are interested in taking a geographical approach, Let's Go Geography may be a great resource for your elementary-aged students. I also find it is very easy to incorporate other history resources into this curriculum. You can truly tailor it to meet the needs of your homeschool family.

If you are homeschooling a high school student, you might want to incorporate government or economics into their schedule. Last year, our teen used Exploring Government from Notgrass History to study the United States government. I really felt this was an excellent curriculum that opened up the door to good discussions. We also used the Student Review Pack with our teen to help assess his knowledge at the end of the different chapters and units. This year, we have incorporated economics and business courses into his schedule using Money 101 and Business Plan Creation from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. These are all very important areas of study that fall under social studies or history.

This year with our second grader I decided that we would further study American History using Our Star-Spangled Story Curriculum Package (and literature package) from Notgrass History. I made this decision after downloading and looking at the samples they provide on their site. It is truly a beautiful set of textbooks for teaching about the founding and history of America. We are using one student workbook right now with our son, but in the future, I may purchase an additional workbook if our daughter also uses the curriculum.

Final Thoughts 

Every homeschooling family is different. And what works for your family this year may not work for you next year. Perhaps reading books and watching fun, educational videos like Drive Thru History® worked while your children were younger, but now that they are older they wish to work independently and online. Even after you pick a history curriculum, don't be afraid to make changes or modifications—if you need to—for your homeschool and your children. Sometimes, you need to make changes to keep history alive and interesting and that is okay. Providing your children with an environment conducive to learning and helping them to enjoy their schooling should take precedence in your homeschool over any sense of "getting it just right."

Traveling Back in Time with Home School in the Woods Curriculum Resources

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

For the past several weeks, our younger son and I have been studying the American Civil War using the Time Travelers U.S. History Studies: The Civil War from Home School in the Woods. We have had the pleasure of reviewing previous resources from Home School in the Woods including the U.S. Election Lap-Pak, Project Passport World History Studies: Renaissance & Reformation, and others. (I will link my review of these products at the end of this post if you wish to read more about them and how we used these excellent resources in our homeschool.)

I love studying the American Civil War. In fact, my history thesis in college was about a Civil War Captain, Edwin H. Little, who died at the battle of Gettysburg. I had the privilege of reading his letters to his wife. Being able to share my knowledge and love of the American Civil War era with my son brought me tremendous satisfaction.


Because I already have a firm understanding of the American Civil War and I was using the Time Travelers U.S. History Studies with my younger son, who is in the second grade, we did not use every activity or reading. In fact, I preread the lesson text and then summarized it for him. If your child falls in the recommended grade range of 3-8, then you might be able to hand over the text to them to read on their own.

If you are familiar with Home School in the Woods, you should be able to navigate the digital download with a bit more ease than a new customer. At first, it can feel daunting because there are so many wonderful resources packed into your download. And once you unzip your file and figure out what you want or need to print, you will spend time printing your lesson texts, pages that children will complete, project instructions, and maybe images of completed projects. There are some pages that you will need to print on cardstock and others that can be printed on regular white or colored paper. I recommend going through and printing the Project Masters instruction sheets first, put them in your binder, and then flip through to see which other pages you need to print. All of the time invested into preparing the materials is well worth it because you will be able to use a great number of the resources with multiple children in your family – either in one year or as your children get older. We plan on using this Time Travelers resource with our second grader this year and again in a few years when he is older and complete more of the projects independently.

What Is the Time Travelers U.S. History Study?

Time Travelers: The Civil War is recommended for grades 3–8 and is available for purchase either as a digital download (which we received) or a CD and you can get a license for your family, as a teacher, or for a school. It is created to provide your children with hands-on learning experiences while they learn about the war that crossed five Aprils. There are 25 lessons that can span five to 10 weeks depending on how slowly or how quickly you and your family progress through the materials and the number of projects you include.

Topics discussed in the study include:

• Slavery, the Underground Railroad, and Emancipation 
• Bleeding Kansas, John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, and the Secession of the Southern States 
• Several specific battles such as Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Petersburg, and others
• Key individuals featured in Library of Leaders and the women of the Civil War cards 
• The 54th Massachusetts 
• The assassination of Abraham Lincoln
• Reconstruction 

If your children are older, you may want to include the timeline activity and the newspaper "The Camp Kettle." Over the course of the entire Time Travelers study, your child will add key figures and other images to the timeline as they study about them. They can also write short articles that are similar to writing prompts to include in the newspaper. For example, after reading about the battle of Antietam in lesson 9, your child will compose a piece entitled "The Bloodiest Day." I choose to save these activities for future years with our younger son. 

Also included in the materials are penmanship pages that can be used in a variety of ways, maps, lots of hands-on learning opportunities, recipes, and more. Home School in the Woods even provides additional support with articles on their blog including a post about how to make Lincoln's cake and a separate post about Ulysses S. Grant taking command of the Union armies.

So what will your collection look like when everything is completed? Home School in the Woods provides you with many photographs of sample projects and even the neat photo of the entire collection shown below.

The completed collection of work presented by Home School in the Woods

How Did We Use the Time Travelers U.S. History Study: The Civil War in Our Homeschool?

I was very excited about a number of the resources in the Time Travelers: The Civil War resource including the game "The War Across Five Aprils." Our teen son really enjoyed playing a World War I Game we reviewed several years ago, so I was happy that this resource included a game. The game was quite easy to set up. We only needed to print the pieces (which are hats that can be colored blue and gray or printed on blue and gray paper), the question cards, and the game boards. After everything was printed and colored, I attached the game board to a file folder and we were ready to play.

We played the game one evening with our sons representing the Confederacy while their dad played as the Union. (I refrained from playing as I have an unfair advantage since I am the Civil War expert in our house.) As our teen studied the American Civil War two years ago, I went through the questions to find ones that all three would be more likely to be able to answer. While there were quite a few wrong answers, including one about the Confederate submarine that sunk off the coast of Charleston, SC, both teams did quite well. In the end, even with our younger son answering one or two questions surprising both his teammate and opponent, the Union was victorious!

As I read through the text with our son, I had him complete various projects while I was reading. He worked on coloring in the uniform pages of the North and the South. We used a variety of resources, including the master copies provided by Home School in the Woods, for him to complete the uniforms. We then put it together with transparency paper so he could change the uniforms of the soldiers by flipping the transparency film.

Another activity he worked on was the Library of Leaders. He colored the covers of the mini-booklets – and then we read the biographies of the different leaders together. Some of the leaders included Generals Longstreet, Jackson, McClellan, and Grant. All of these booklets are kept in a neat box that we created together.

We have also spent time reading about the women who played key roles in the Civil War as well as learning about how the different divisions and corps were labeled. Our son picked nine of their badges and he picked out which color felt to use for each of them. I love the hands-on nature of these activities. What a great way to make concrete memories.

Included in The Time Travelers: The Civil War files are recipes so that you can plan a Civil War feast at the end of your studies. I really love the idea of the recipes but the thought of making them has me a bit scared. Our kids are really picky and I don't feel like a very talented chef. Perhaps when we complete the study in a few years, I will feel more adventurous and try out the recipes.

I really love the variety of activities that Home School in the Woods incorporates into their homeschooling resources. From reading assignments to baking, there is a great diversity of activities scattered throughout the lessons that will help your children really remember studying the American Civil War. So many people find history boring but it does not have to be when you use the resources from Home School in the Woods.

Do You Want to Learn More?

Please visit my previous reviews: Studying History with Hands-On Materials from Home School in the Woods (Project Passport: Renaissance & Reformation), Reviewing Home School in the Woods' Á La Carte Projects, I Knight Thee a Fun Product! – Hands-on History Lap-Paks (Knights), and Learning about Elections with Home School in the Woods.

Do you want to read more about the U.S. Elections Lap-Pak? Visit their post about studying the election with hands-on activities. And in case you didn't know, the Time Travelers U.S. History Study that we used is part of a series! So if you want to learn more about the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, or World War II, be sure to check out the other resources in the series.

If you want to read about additional ways in which you can use the materials produced by Home School in the Woods, please visit the rest of the Home School Review Crew's reviews.

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram – Pinterest 

Learning about Elections with Home School in the Woods

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

History really comes to life when you have access to great materials like those produced by Home School in the Woods. Our family has had the opportunity to use and review a variety of resources from Home School in the Woods including a Project Passport World History Study, a lap-pak for elementary students, and other homeschooling resources. When the opportunity arose to review another product, we chose to review the U.S. Elections Lap-Pak. With this being an election year, and our teen son studying American government, I knew that this would be a great asset for our homeschool. The entire election process may seem like a normal part of our adult life and – as Home School in the Wood shares on their blog – we learn about these electoral processes as we grow up in a republic.

Home School in the Woods is run by the Pak family who give the glory of their business to God. They started with realistic timeline figures in 2002 and continue to add to their collection of homeschooling materials. So whether you prefer to take a Charlotte Mason approach to your homeschool or you are looking to teach children with different learning styles, Home School in the Woods offers many excellent resources from their blog to their many resources that you can use in your homeschool.

What Do You Get?

With the U.S. Elections Lap-Pak you decide upon one of three license types and between a digital download or CD. We received the digital download for our review for use with our homeschooling family. There are 21 lap booking projects in total to teach your children about elections and the election process. Activities include those that promote creative writing, coloring and drawing, research, reading and comprehension, and more skills. (You will need to print everything yourself – see my advice below.)

For each activity, you can use the Project Directions to help you figure out just what pages to print and on what kind of paper (there are instances where they recommend printing the pages on cardstock or different colored paper). Let's take a look at activity number 8: A "Handful" of Political Parties as you complete this in your homeschool. From the Project Directions (as you can see below), you will need to print two pages and gather together scissors and a glue stick or double-sided sticky tape (I prefer to use the double-sided tape for some projects but I have found the glue stick works well for most of the activities). The instructions are quite detailed and explain what to cut out and attach so you can finish your project.

You can also find out where you can listen to the reading from the text for information about the political parties precisely in the audio file. These links are available from the Start Here file that you download. You click on Political Parties-1 (base) and Political Parties-2 (text) to find the necessary downloads and you can even view a photo of a completed project.

Our son's project as we worked on it.

The sample from the instructions. 

How Did We Use the U.S. Elections Lap-Pak in Our Homeschool?

We used the U.S. Elections Lap-Pak primarily with our first-grader (please keep in mind the activities are designed for grades 3-8). I printed out the reading text as a 24-page booklet which we read through as well as used the audio that accompanied our digital download. It was very nice to have the audio play so I did not have read the entire booklet aloud to our son myself. We followed the activities mostly as they were laid out in the instructions prior to my picking and choosing ones to complete this past week. We still have a few projects left as well as the putting together of the entire lap book itself.

During the past few weeks, we learned about the different forms of government (our son really liked the second activity and proudly walked around explaining the governments and definitions), how other nations impacted the type of government the United States has, and how long the president, vice president, and others serve in office. Each of these topics were examined through the booklet we created as well as the different activities that will be included in our Election lapbook.

What Did We Think? 

The U.S. Elections Lap-Pak fit perfectly into our homeschooling day. It was quite easy to sit down and read the booklet or listen to the audio to learn about the elections in the United States. Depending upon how much work each activity required and how long our son decided to take coloring, the various parts took from as short as 15 minutes to as long as 45 minutes to finish. I felt that the time it took to work on the Lap-Pak was just right.

I really appreciate the way in which Home School in the Woods organizes everything. Now that I have a bit more experience with the materials, I can quickly get everything together for our son to complete during his homeschooling lessons. It does take a bit of time to print everything but that is mostly because you want to make sure you print out the correct pieces on the correct paper.

I was very impressed with the presentation and variety of information in the Lap-Pak. The booklet was easy to read and understand. For the ideas that our first-grader had trouble grasping, I was able to explain things in more detail using the hands-on activities and a bit of my own research. I like that this was something that could be a stand-alone unit or it could be incorporated into one's government course.

Some of our first-grader's favorite activities included those projects that you could move – like the Raising Money project and the Who Do We Vote For? project. He preferred those with moving parts. He also enjoyed creating the Terms of Office mini-book because he really enjoys making little books about different subjects. When asked to tell me one of the most important things he learned, he referenced The American Experiment project: The United States government is based upon Greek Democracy, the English Protection of Rights, and the Roman Respect of Law.

I would highly recommend the U.S. Elections Lap-Pak to families looking to learn more about the election process. This is a valuable resource for any year but especially for a presidential election year! 

Advice to First-Time Users

Now that I have used Home School in the Woods for a couple of years, I am no longer as intimidated as I was when I first had to print out all the materials. As these are digital products, you will need to print and prepare the items on your own (or with the help of your children). At first, it may seem daunting but the instructions are clear and if you make a mistake (like I have), you can always print the page or pages again! And – when you are done – your project may look like the sample below.

When we are all done, our project will resemble this finished sample project.

Do You Want to Learn More?

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There are so many excellent products from Home School in the Woods. We reviewed the Renaissance & Reformation Project Passport World History Studies and the Knights K-2 Lap-Pak. Please be sure to see what the rest of the Homeschool Review Crew used in their homeschool.

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

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

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