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My kids are clueless about American history…what to do?
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I realized today when my 9yo was playing the piano — a “spiritual” — that she has no concept of some major events in American history… the Civil War, the fact that there were slaves in this country (when I mentioned slaves, she was thinking in ancient Egypt), the 13 colonies, the general westward expansion, etc. We did some American history a few years ago, but that was more focused on some key individuals. And we are going to get to American history in our history rotation, but comsidering we are firmly entrenched in ancient history we won’t get to it “properly” for another 2-3 years from now if I don’t make a change.
So… there’s a certain amount of cultural literacy here I would like to cover, at an absolute minimum. I mean, that’s pretty pathetic, and I put it totally on me.
At this point, I see that I have a few options:
– run 2 lines of history simultaneously (meaning more thorough of both)
– have the 7yo and 9yo read something independenty to give an overview of American history
– read a book aloud to cover this, with just talking/narrating about it, keeping it kind of simple in terms of “outside” work
– drop ancient and skip up this to this in the timeline…although that seems a bit sudden to do that and rather reactive.
What think ye, SCMers? Also, any suggestions on a book for these options? I have a couple of books here that have been untouched…just picked up SCM’s Stories of America volume 1, also have BF’s recent reprint of A Child’s First Book of American History, several of Edward Eggleston’s American History books, and I have Heritage History’s Young Readers CD. I’d prefer to use soemthing I have (or something free online), but would welcome any recommendations. I’m sure I have more American history books around…I know I do…oh yeah, and Christine Miller’s reprints as well…these are just at the front of my brain.
Sheraz and other history lovers — would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations!
(Believe it or not, I did earn a history degree in college as part of a double major (forever ago)… but feel pathetic on this all the same. I’m just tracing all my woes and shortcomings back to chronic sleep deprivation amidst other issues…just going to shift the blame off of any personal responsibility on my part and make myself out to be a victim here, ok? So yep, just take pity on me, please, and don’t judge! lol)
No judging here! A few ideas come to mind:
Get a sweet simple audio book for American History (or read it aloud). I like the American History Stories series by Mara Pratt.
Watch dvds – gasp. We’re enjoying Liberty’s Kids for American Revolution. My oldest is watching some of the Dear America episodes on Netflix for a broader range of topics.
Don’t worry about it yet. That’s a valid option too.
I do have the first two Mara Pratt books too. 😉 Where would you get the audo books for those or others?
How do you feel Liberty Kids and Dear America are in terms of twaddle? Yes, that sounds like a judgemental question, lol, which I realize is ridiculously hypocritical — considering how little my kids know I’m sure it would be a huge improvement! lol In fact, I’ve had the Liberty Kids DVD collection in my shopping cart on Amazon but I do remember seeing it on Netflix (never watched it, hence I’m asking).
Thanks, Tristan!
My oldest really loved Liberty’s Kid. Those, along with America: The Story of Us gave him a great overview of American History.
I’m watching both alongside the kids and actually loving it. Liberty’s Kids is written with a girl from England (Loyalist) boy colonist, and French boy immigrant as the main kids, plopped down in the middle of the actual events and people of the revolution. We watch an episode and discuss it. It’s going really well.
The Dear America ones are good but DON”t all have a happily ever after, so pre-watch them for younger kids, this is one I’m doing with my 7th grader. So far they’ve all been ones my other kids could watch but might not enjoy a few of them.
I’d say, if you decide you really need to cover this now, look at the titles for SCM modules 5&6 for your children’s ages and check them out, inter-library loan them, or purchase them here and there.
You might also like some of the suggestions on the Charlotte Mason Help site. American and World history are studied alongside each other. Here is a link for a “My America” notebook. http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/history-helps.html
HTH
Their ages are wonderful for creating that spark of love of country and begin the foundation of knowledge about us.
Definitely all the Cheryl Harness American bios and history books
The James E. KNight Adv. in Colonial America series (very detailed)
The Jean Fritz American History books
Ann McGovern books
Related Russell Freedman books
Beautiful and memorable Sam Fink books on the:
Declaration
Constitution
Bill of Rights
Gettysburg Address
Cornerstones of Freedom books; they can learn about topics that are less familiar, too (like War of 1812)
http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/COF.htm
Brintin Turkle children’s Quaker books (3 or 4 of them)
We the People: The Story of Our Constitution by Lynne Cheney
When Washington Crossed the Delaware by Lynne Cheney
America: A PAtriotic Primer by Lynne Cheney
Our 50 States by L. Cheney
Paul Revere’s Rise by Longfellow and Ted Rand -http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Reveres-Henry-Wadsworth-Longfellow/dp/0140556125/ref=pd_sim_b_3
Sam the Minuteman by Nathaniel Benchley (easy reader)
Boston Tea Party by PAmela Duncan Edwards
Samuel Eaton’s Day
and
Sarah Morton’s Day
and
Tapanum’s Day by KAte Waters
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas
Pocahontas and the Strangers
and
A LIon to Guard Us
and
Squanto, Frieds of the Pilgrims by Clyde Bulla
America the Beautiful by KAtherine Lee Bates and Neil Waldman
The Star Spangled BAnner by Peter Spier
By the Dawn’sEarly Light by Stephen Kroll
OUr Flag was Still There – by Tracy Leinenger
God Bless America by Irving Berlin adn Lynn MUnsinger
American Tall TAles by Mary POpe Osbourne http://www.amazon.com/American-Tall-Tales-Mary-Osborne-ebook/dp/B00EGMGGR4/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386214603&sr=1-3&keywords=america+tall+tales
Living Principles of America from Nest (audios) esp. for the 9 yr. old
Little Bear Wheeler Mantle Ministries audios
Mara Pratt’s books are available at Librivox or from Jim Hodges
Squanto audio story from Focus on the Family
Stories of Great Americans for LIttle Americans can be read easily independently.
LIberty’s Kids is very good.
Stories of the Pilgrims is available at Audible (maybe librivox?), I know at JIm HOdges. HIghly recommend.
Boys and Girls of Colonial Days
I second adding in the American history independent books from the SCM Mods.
You can read aloud from The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and The Story of the Great Republic.
Lastly, I tried to find a particular book + cd of numerous American folk and patriotic songs with their histories, but I can’t find it. I’ll look some more and when I find it, will post it.
HTH
My younger kids don’t know very much American history yet either, but we are also watching Liberty Kids and enjoy it. We’ll be getting to American history next year. Looking forward to it!
Hi MLIP =)
Well, since Rachel beat me, I’ll just add some additional thoughts on using the books you have with the HH Young Readers Collection. 😉 If you want to use that so you aren’t having to spend a bunch of money or time, there are a couple of places to start with that:
Comprehensive Histories:
America First by Lawton B. Evans: Starting with Lief the Lucky, covering the conquests of the Spanish in the Americas, the British explorations, the Puritans and the Mayflower, and so on through WWI. Chapters are short and are a bit more detailed in their descriptions of the early Spanish explorers (EXCEPT Columbus – he never even mentions him!) than Mara Pratt’s books. Aimed at ages 8-12.
American History Stories Vol. 1-4 by Mara Pratt: These cover the same time that America First does, but spends less time on the early explorers until Columbus. Then she tells his story in several chapters and includes how America became known as America. This one is also full of pictures of interesting people or things that she tells about. Aimed at ages 8-12.
Period Histories:
Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret Pumphrey. This one spends some time developing everyday life of the Pilgrims in both England and Holland, their voyage on the Mayflower, and their adventures in the new world. Aimed at ages 6-10.
Boys and Girls of Colonial Days by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey: Spend some time with children in their life in the Colonial Era – contains stories of George Washington and Ben Franklin. Many of the stories share the resourcefulness and courage of the people in the early colonies. Aimed at ages 7-9.
Great Americans for Little Americans by Eggleston: This is a great collection for early introductions to many warriors, statesmen, explorers, scientists, inventors, and others. Aimed at ages 7-9.
Civil War:
Stories from Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Story of Abraham Lincoln
A great set of books to read that tell the story of important people, places, and events is the Cornerstones of Freedom set. They are longer picture books. We have many of them and have enjoyed them. You can follow the basic timeline of American history with this set. Rachel gave you a link above for those.
She also gave you a link to Mary Pope Osbourne’s American Tall Tales. We have and like that one, too.
Okay, okay, just ditto her post! =)
As for how to incorporate it, hmmm, that’s always the tricky part, huh?
I have been considering this for my children as well – over Thanksgiving I realized that I need to be a little more deliberate with the younger girls, especially. We are also smack dab in the middle of the ancients and I don’t want to stop and move forward. So here are some ideas that might work for me, perhaps they will spark an idea for you:
Monday evenings we have started doing a puzzle and literature night with Dad. (I blogged about it here.) I could start reading our American history books with everyone.
Fridays are our scheduled lighter days since I pay the bills and shop that day. I was thinking that perhaps I could move something (like geography) to another day and do American History that day.
Maybe I could read the books when we are doing our handicrafts like handsewing, croacheting, etc while they listen.
I could schedule some of them to be personal reading books by the olders.
I actually have the little kids scheduled to read twice a week, perhaps I could invite the older girls in for that. I could even use some coloring book like one from Dover and let them color while they listen…your little guy could use Lincoln Logs to build cabins and forts while he listens. LOL
I’m going to do a seperate post about specific things you mentioned like Lewis and Clark. 😉
Lewis and Clark:
The Lewis and Clark Boat Museum in St. Charles is a FUN place and a way to teach so many things. It has an admission fee and it is worth the money in my opinion. They have a movie area, the museum is on the Missouri River, upstairs is a wonderful exhibit of the animals and birds Lewis and Clark saw. Here are some things we used when we studied MO history:
There is a DVD documentary about Lewis and Clark by Ken Burns, and it was fabulous. It is also about 4 hours long, so we broke it into stages and I made Lewis and Clark coloring “books” from this site: http://www.freekidscoloring.com/explorers/lewis_and_clark/ and a couple of others. They listened/watched while coloring. We got our copy of it from the L&C museum in St Charles MO. It would be available to order online, as well as in the library. They will probably have a copy at the place you are going.
PBS has a wonderful interactive website about this here: http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/ Interactive maps about the route, camping places, journals, Native Americans, timelines, etc… and you do not have to watch the documentary to enjoy it.
http://lewis-clark.org/ another interactive source
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/lewisandclark/
http://dese.mo.gov/moheritage/VideoSeries.htm#UnitFive this has a 10 minute video that talks about how Lewis and Clark left St Louis and it became the Gateway West. Not sure that is what you are looking for, my player doen’t want to work right now.
The Army Corp of Engineers (or someone) did a reenactment of this trip I think in 2003 (2006?) There is a video of it, can’t seem to find it at the moment. Anyway, one of the dugouts is in St Charles, and my kiddos got to sit in it and pretend and think about the trip…cute pictures too, =)
http://www.100megsfree4.com/gogators4/sacagawea.html free Sacageawea paper doll and clothes
I’m out of time. I’ll send some ideas for the Civil War and general westward expansion later. 😉
Oh so many good replies…thank you! I am going to have to chew on this and see where we are at. Sheraz, I didn’t know about those more local attractions — Just the museum at the Arch and things like that, so thank you for mentioning that too.
Honestly, I am feeling super overwhelmed now and never did get all organized at the beginning of the year and it is showing now. 🙁 Granted, this has been a crazy week with doctor appointments, sick children, etc., but I’ve been riding this line for some time so I can’t really make excuses.
I think I will figure out some minimums to keep up with leading up to Christmas and maybe pick out a read aloud or independent selection in the meantime, and maybe watch some Liberty’s Kids of they are still on Netflix (from what you guys are saying, that should go ok even if they don’t have background before watching it, right?)
Then maybe I can have some extra time to get some cluttered parts of the home decluttered and ready for big sisters to come back for the holidays, time to plan a little more, time to hang the stockings, maybe even time to finish the Advent calendar I started making in October…but let’s not get too crazy ambitious here, right? lol
Your sense of humor is priceless :-). I am sure you are passing that heritage on to your family and that is worth even more than American History!!
I haven’t read through all of the replies, but here are a couple of ideas:
Your Story Hour CD’s – EXCELLENT
Drive Through History DVD’s – these will be a nice intro into the information they’ll get in a few years.
There are also some Old Time Radio programs that covered various areas in history very nicely. One of them was the “You Are There” episodes. If you go to archive.org, you can search for OTR programs and other audio files to play like actual news bulletins, etc. which you might choose to use with your actual studies rather than now. Either way, good stuff.
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