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We liked the Made For Trade game, too.

 

Disney also has a 3-dvd series called The Presidents, along with an app that has the same information but in an interactive scrapbook style.  It's hilarious and entertaining.  It may not be as "clean" as some parents prefer, but it makes the information stick and lets you see what else is going on in the world at the same time as an event you're studying.

 

Soomo Publishing did two entertaining videos: Too Late To Apologize and Bad Romance parodies covering the Revolution and women's rights, respectively. 

History Animated has war maps to show what went on.

Letters of Note requires pre-reading (Mozart was quite the R-rated fellow!), but you can pull personal letters from there regarding various times (the archive link is on the left), and Google has newspapers archived to before the Revolution. 

 

There's a series of activity books that have a title like ______ For Kids that offer a ton of ideas on covering the time periods.  We have the Galileo For Kids one, but I know there's Colonial Times, Industrial Revolution, and Lewis & Clark For Kids.  All of our libraries here have at least one of them in the series.

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We liked the Made For Trade game, too.

 

Disney also has a 3-dvd series called The Presidents, along with an app that has the same information but in an interactive scrapbook style. It's hilarious and entertaining. It may not be as "clean" as some parents prefer, but it makes the information stick and lets you see what else is going on in the world at the same time as an event you're studying.

 

Soomo Publishing did two entertaining videos: Too Late To Apologize and Bad Romance parodies covering the Revolution and women's rights, respectively.

 

History Animated has war maps to show what went on.

 

Letters of Note requires pre-reading (Mozart was quite the R-rated fellow!), but you can pull personal letters from there regarding various times (the archive link is on the left), and Google has newspapers archived to before the Revolution.

 

There's a series of activity books that have a title like ______ For Kids that offer a ton of ideas on covering the time periods. We have the Galileo For Kids one, but I know there's Colonial Times, Industrial Revolution, and Lewis & Clark For Kids. All of our libraries here have at least one of them in the series.

He will love those Soomo videos!

 

Thank you for sharing! We've (I've) failed at US history so far this year. I'm going to try to pick up the slack.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Not sure where you live, but try your best to get to some actual forts & historic sites, & living history museums.

 

If you check their websites, you should be able to find out which weekends they are hosting historical re enactments. Go then.

 

You'll be able to see military camps set up, talk to people impersonating soldiers, etc, see a battle re enactment, learn about campfire cooking, battle field medicine, & much more.

There are big places like Colonial Williamsburg, But also many many smaller & less expensive or free places and events.

 

You want to look for these most often re created (in the central to east coast US) time periods- French & Indian Wars, War of 1812, Rev War, & Civil War. Out west, there tend to be other re enactments like Mexican American war, "old west", pioneers, etc.

Very cool & the kids will love them.

 

(We spend our Summer's participating in them. Re enactors love to talk to kids.)

 

Have fun & good luck!- these are worth spending vacation time traveling to if you don't live near anything.

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Not sure where you live, but try your best to get to some actual forts & historic sites, & living history museums.

 

If you check their websites, you should be able to find out which weekends they are hosting historical re enactments. Go then.

 

You'll be able to see military camps set up, talk to people impersonating soldiers, etc, see a battle re enactment, learn about campfire cooking, battle field medicine, & much more.

There are big places like Colonial Williamsburg, But also many many smaller & less expensive or free places and events.

 

You want to look for these most often re created (in the central to east coast US) time periods- French & Indian Wars, War of 1812, Rev War, & Civil War. Out west, there tend to be other re enactments like Mexican American war, "old west", pioneers, etc.

Very cool & the kids will love them.

 

(We spend our Summer's participating in them. Re enactors love to talk to kids.)

 

Have fun & good luck!- these are worth spending vacation time traveling to if you don't live near anything.

We are trying to plan a trip to Williamsburg relatively soon.  We are in Ohio so it's not tooooo far.

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We are trying to plan a trip to Williamsburg relatively soon. We are in Ohio so it's not tooooo far.

There are definately living history museums/ places in Ohio, plus also I know there are French & Indian War sites that host re enactment weekends too. We go to an incredible one at Fort Niagara (near Niagara & Buffalo) every summer & there are always Ohio groups there. Fort Niagara has at least a F & I event and a War of 1812 weekend every summer too.

 

I have found lots of smaller sites to be better than Williamsburg. But if you do head east to Williamsburg, there are so many other historical places within a few hours drive too!

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There are definately living history museums/ places in Ohio, plus also I know there are French & Indian War sites that host re enactment weekends too. We go to an incredible one at Fort Niagara (near Niagara & Buffalo) every summer & there are always Ohio groups there. Fort Niagara has at least a F & I event and a War of 1812 weekend every summer too.

 

I have found lots of smaller sites to be better than Williamsburg. But if you do head east to Williamsburg, there are so many other historical places within a few hours drive too!

I will look into these, thank you!

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There are many historic sites and museums in Ohio that fit your time period -

 

Faire at New Boston in Springfield, Ohio (Sept. 2-3, 2017) – 1790-1810 

 

Historic Roscoe Village in Coshocton, Ohio – 1830s canal town 

 

Ohio History Connection – sites throughout the state, including:

Miamisburg Mound (and other mound sites) – 800 BCE-100 CE 

Fort Ancient – 1000-1750

Schoenbrunn Village – 1770s

Campus Martius – 1788

Fort Recovery – 1790s

Fort Meigs – War of 1812

Zoar Village  – 1800s

Johnston Farm and Indian Agency – 1800s

Ohio Village – 1860s

Ohio River Museum 

several presidential homes/birthplaces

 

(Family memberships to Ohio History Center are reasonably priced.  The membership provides  free admission to all of the sites.  A bonus is free parking at the State Fair.)

 

Local historic sites

 

Other interesting sites can be found in Kids Love Ohio

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There are many historic sites and museums in Ohio that fit your time period -

 

Faire at New Boston in Springfield, Ohio (Sept. 2-3, 2017) – 1790-1810

 

Historic Roscoe Village in Coshocton, Ohio – 1830s canal town

 

Ohio History Connection – sites throughout the state, including:

Miamisburg Mound (and other mound sites) – 800 BCE-100 CE

Fort Ancient – 1000-1750

Schoenbrunn Village – 1770s

Campus Martius – 1788

Fort Recovery – 1790s

Fort Meigs – War of 1812

Zoar Village – 1800s

Johnston Farm and Indian Agency – 1800s

Ohio Village – 1860s

Ohio River Museum

several presidential homes/birthplaces

 

(Family memberships to Ohio History Center are reasonably priced. The membership provides free admission to all of the sites. A bonus is free parking at the State Fair.)

 

Local historic sites

 

Other interesting sites can be found in Kids Love Ohio

Thank you so much! I appreciate you typing this all out and including links. This is awesome.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Feature films set in a time period can be a great way of absorbing factual information and a "feel" for the times. Here's a past thread with movie ideas for grades 1-6:

 

"I'm looking for movies to supplement Sonlight's Core D - Intro to American History"

 

 

Rainbow Resource has lots of fun hands-on items for supplementing history:

 

- Dig: Archaeology USA - kit for digging up 12 items from different parts of US History, and then identifying them

- Dig: Civil War -- same kit as above, but all items from the Civil War era

- Dig: Indian Relics -- same kit as above, but with a Native American culture focus

 

- Kreative Komix: US History -- Computer CD for PC and Mac for making your own comic book of 3 different time periods: Colonial America; Revolutionary War; Westward Expansion

 

- Colonial America: Easy Make & Learn Projects -- 15 paper models to construct

- Quill and Ink set

- Colonial Banknotes -- reproductions of colonial money

Union State Currency  -- reproductions of 6 different US dollar bills

 

- build a wooden model kit

- scrimshaw whaling kit

- Western Frontier Town -- cut and assemble

Plains Indian Teepee Villiage -- punch out and set up with paper folds/tabs

- WW2 -- planes and other models to build

 

- sticker books -- for example: Confederate and Union Civil War Soldiers

- historical paper dolls

- historical coloring books 

- toy soldier sets

 

Way Back When In History -- trivia/fact board game

Our America -- trivia/fact board game

American Trivia -- trivia/fact board game

 

- Drive Thru History - DVDs; factual/informational but done with humor, not dry

- You Choose Interactive Historical Adventures -- books set in different time periods where you choose the adventure story line as you read

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