"I want to study the American Revolution"... and, confessions of a former SLer

[Janie Grace]

I've been a pretty miserable failure with history this year for my younger kids. I bought a whole Sonlight Core (the first world history, whatever it's called) because I did SL with my bigger kids and we enjoyed it. Actually, I painstakingly pieced it together used to save money -- which makes it even more painful that I have barely done it AT ALL. We have read some of Charlotte's Web, Mrs. Piggle-wiggle, and some other stuff, but I think I'm figuring out that I am just not in the same season as I once was. I now have two middle schoolers and a demanding preschooler in addition to the two elementary kids I hoped to do SL with and... it's just too much. By nap time, I need a cup of tea (because it's too early for wine) and some quiet -- not hours of snuggling on the couch reading aloud.

 

I have stopped beating myself up about it (almost) and am trying to figure out what to do with my 3rd grader's remaining months of the school year. I'm not too worried about my K kid... we read aloud a lot before bed and he's learning plenty. My 3rd grader loves to read and says he wants to learn about the Revolutionary War. I think he's excited to watch Liberty Kids as part of this (and he loved when we read Johnny Tremain aloud a few years ago). So what I'm asking is... if I want to pull together a unit on the Revolutionary War for him, what do you recommend?

 

SOTW just has one chapter on it. I saw that PHP has a Revolution resource... has anyone used it?

 

Is there a unit study out there somewhere, or just a booklist, that you love? I don't need a lot of crafty activities, but some kind of responsive assignments could be nice. Open to anything!

[MomToJazmyne]

You could do something like this: http://www.currclick.com/product/1056/The-American-Revolution-Lapbook?term=american+rev&it=1 adding in videos and read-alouds/readers

[jessicamcc]

Homeschool in the Woods has a pretty extensive unit study on it. http://homeschoolinthewoods.com/HTTA/TTS/AmericanRevolution.htm

I haven't personally used it, so maybe another mama can chime in here that has. I think it is kind of crafty, but maybe you can skip some of those.

[2squared]

I can tell you what my 3rd grader is enjoying this year. He's reading through Childhood of Famous Americans biographies along with watching Liberty Kids and history docs. He labels countries and states on blank maps as he comes across them in his reading and watching. Simple works really well for us.

[Alte Veste Academy]

For your 3rd grader, I highly recommend King George: What Was His Problem? as a spine. Then I would make him a book basket from the library, filled with picture books and biographies. http://www.amazon.com/King-George-Hilarious-American-Revolution/dp/1596435186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360777483&sr=8-1&keywords=king+george+what+was+his+problem

[Janie Grace]

I can tell you what my 3rd grader is enjoying this year. He's reading through Childhood of Famous Americans biographies along with watching Liberty Kids and history docs. He labels countries and states on blank maps as he comes across them in his reading and watching. Simple works really well for us.

 

This sounds perfect! Simple works really well for us, too. :)

[Janie Grace]

For your 3rd grader, I highly recommend King George: What Was His Problem? as a spine. Then I would make him a book basket from the library, filled with picture books and biographies. http://www.amazon.co...was his problem

 

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[fairy4tmama]

My oldest (3rd last year) loved the Betsy Meastro books!

[UrbanSue]

We love the Betsy Maestro books--we're just about through with them. Also, Jean Fritz has a ton of Revolution books. We haven't read most of them because I already had plenty (there are a LOT of revolution kids books). The Betsy Maestro books are so beautiful and such a great overview, you could start there and then get bios of people your son really has an interest in.

[SilverMoon]

Homeschool Legacy has a seven week unit study based on the Revolutionary War. Revolutionary Ideas

 

I haven't used them yet myself, but she'll send you a one week sample if you email her.

[Katie Jean]

I can't really contribute but I love all these ideas! I have been in a similar pickle-while we love SOTW and use it, often an interest is piqued for which we have to find ways to take time and dig in. I'm there right now with my 2nd grader enthralled with Early America. So any ideas there would be great for me! I bought her an American Girl "Kaya" lap book/study guide from Currclick and I have several History Pockets. She is my youngest and I worry that the phenomenon of the youngest trailing behind the olders and all the pressures I have keeping them on task will cause me to look back with regret on her young and what should be fun filled school days.

[SebastianCat]

We are longtime SL users, but I totally understand how difficult it would be to try to do a full SL core with 2 elementary age kids, plus middle schoolers, plus a toddler. We have even modified SL Cores, and that's with only 2 kids. Sounds like you've done a great "mid year evaluation" of what needs to change.

 

The Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers American Revolution CD has a TON of hands on activities for the American Revolution, but I don't know that it would be a great fit for what you're looking for. I found it to be a lot of work printing and organizing all of the materials - which means a lot of up-front prep time for you. It has been a great study and my kids are enjoying it - but I spent time over the summer doing all of the prep work. It is also taking us half of the school year just for this one study, and we will probably only do about 30% of the activities. You could easily spend an entire year on this study alone.

 

I would use the Sonlight Reader list to find applicable books, plus some of the Read Alouds, from Core D. To that, you can add some of the books from the Guest Hollow American History unit study. SL will be mostly historical fiction, with a few biographies, and Guest Hollow will have nonfiction plus biographies.