I enjoyed stepping away and diving into an Oceans Unit but I am excited to get back into “normal” American History. I have always been fascinated with history so I may enjoy this unit more than Caleb 😉 Here is my post on layout of everything that I plan on covering in American History.
Like always, I begin my units with a short you-tube video or two to give us a quick overview of what we will be discussing.
Our first video, runs 3:53. It gives you a brief overview of all the crucial moments during the war. It was a GREAT first video. They all use different paintings for the background throughout the video.
Our second video (10:34) is part of a series called Crash Course US History. I have never heard of them before. At first I didn’t like it because the host was talking extremely fast but Caleb was actually following along. The speaker would joke or make fun of props that he was using. It was a little too crazy for my taste but like I said Caleb was able to follow along and enjoyed it. I will be checking out some of there other videos for the future.
We received US History for Dummies as a Christmas gift last year. This was the first time being able to read through some of it with Caleb. It was only a few paragraphs that we had to read and it mirrored what was said in the you-tube videos. Caleb really enjoys how this book is written.
The French and Indian War by Scholastic – This is a GREAT book. They made the timeline and events easy to understand and it was a fun read. The photos are vibrant and truly help you get a better understanding on what was happening. There are vocabulary words, a timeline, and a section for influential people. They do offer books on other wars and historical events, so I will have to keep them in mind as we progress.
Next, we did a lapbook that I found at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus. We didn’t follow any of her steps for this one. They were kind-of hard to follow anyways. But Caleb did enjoy cutting everything out and was able to find answers from the books and videos we had read and watched.
The video that we ended up NOT watching was:
The War That Made America – When I got this I thought it was a documentary but it is an actual movie. The very first scene was fairly bloody, so I turned it off immediately. I may have let Caleb watch it if his two younger brothers were not with us. (chances are still not) So you will have to use your own digression on this one. Note to me: Do a better job of skimming through movies first 😉
We did read The Last of the Mohicans (Classic Starts) by James Fenimore Cooper. This story had been re-adapted for children but it is still fairly violent in parts. At least that is what Caleb thought. It was hard for him to follow at times because he was getting confused on who the main characters were. I thought it was a decent book because for my struggling reader, he was able to read through majority of it on his own without a melt-down =)
We ended our unit with Caleb writing out 3 major bullet points of the war and drawing a picture onto his timeline. There was a lot that we each learned in this unit and already we are starting to see a build-up to the American Revolution. So now onto the next stepping stone of that war… The Boston Massacre.
Happy Learning Everyone!!
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