Year 1 History Resources

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April 8, 2019 By Jennifer Lambert 7 Comments

Year 1 History: Ancient Times

It becomes really fascinating when you study world history chronologically and see how interconnected everything is, all the causes and effects.

We use Tapestry of Grace for book lists, but I also peruse Ambleside Online and other lists for a well-rounded history curriculum. I want all sides and perspectives.

We use this text as a guide, especially for younger kids: The Story of the World: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor

For older kids: The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome and The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations and Warfare in the Classical World

I go to the library about every week and get what I can.

I shop thrift stores, yard sales, half-price and used bookstores to get books we love to read again and again.

Other books we use throughout our history studies – over several years:

This Country of Ours by HE Marshall
Our Island Story by HE Marshall
The Struggle for Sea Power by MB Synge
A Child’s History of the World by Hillyer
Encyclopedia of the Ancient World
The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon
Magic Treehouse
If You Grew Up…
American Girl Collection and Real Stories From My Time
The Royal Diaries
Dear America

We love Netflix and Amazon Prime for streaming. We sometimes view YouTube.

We love making fun maps with salt dough (also here), cookies, or play dough.

The Holman Bible Atlas comes in handy throughout this school year.

See how we do history.

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

We actually begin this school year with our family history. We make a family timeline and learn our family tree.

Ancient history consists mainly of Celts, China, Maya, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

We also chronologically study early cultures like Sumeria, Phoenicia, and Assyria along with China, India, and the Americas.

Ancient Times is probably our favorite historical year.

Unit 1: Earliest Times

Earliest Peoples
Ancient Babylon
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Israel

Learn about Pyramids

Make cuneiform writing.

Make apple, chicken, or doll mummies.

Celebrate the Jewish feasts – Dance, Sing, Remember, Jewish Holidays all the Year Round, Walk with Y’shua through the Jewish Year

We celebrate Passover, Purim, Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah, and Hanukkah every year now.

Visit a museum or exhibit on Egypt or archaeology

We visited an Egyptian exhibit in Houston our first year homeschooling. We’ve been to the Egyptian exhibits at the Vatican and Louvre, also Chicago and Cincinnati. We love natural history museums!

Church History

Abraham’s Great Discovery

Books of Moses (Torah)

Mythology

Creation stories and myths: In the Beginning

Miriam’s Cup

Movies

Joseph: King of Dreams

Unit 2: Early Civilizations

Ancient India
Ancient China
Phoenicians
Ancient Americas
Early Greece

History

Ancient India

DK Ancient China

The Great Wall of China

Anno’s China

The Emperor’s Silent Army

Ancient Americas to see for Yourself

DK Ancient Greece

In Search of Knossos

Literature

One Grain of Rice

The Empty Pot

Hittite Warrior

The Story of Little Babaji

Keepers of the Earth We really like the books by Joseph Bruchac.

See my Native American book list

Activities

See my China Unit Study

Make or go out for Greek, Indian, Chinese food

Practice calligraphy

Learn about henna

Make a mosaic tile

Play Parcheesi

Play with tangrams

Make a sand painting

Make a beaded headband

Visit a museum or exhibit on ancient China, India, Americas

We saw the Terracotta Army in Cincinnati.

We visit Native American sites when we can.

Church History

Mythology

Philosophy

1 and 2 Samuel

Movies

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Hero

Apocalypto

Unit 3: The Greek Empire

Divided Kingdoms of Israel
Assyrians
Babylonians
Persians
Persian Wars with Greece
Classical Greece: Athens & Sparta

History

These Were the Greeks

Famous Men of Greece

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth

Herodotus

Archimedes

Literature

Aesop’s Fables

D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths

Hamilton Mythology

Bullfinch’s Mythology

Black Ships Before Troy and EVERYTHING Rosemary Sutcliff wrote

EVERYTHING written by Padraic Colum

Activities

Make Papier Mâché Greek vases

Visit a museum or exhibit on Greece

We visited several places in Greece

Church History

Mythology

Philosophy

Old Testament Prophets

Movies

Unit 4: The Roman Empire

Etruscans found Rome
The Roman Republic
The Roman Empire
Ancient Celts
Life of Christ
Early church history in the context of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire is split
Fall of Western Roman Empire

History

DK Ancient Rome

Augustus Caesar’s World

Famous Men of Rome

Horatius at the Bridge

These Were the Romans

Ancient City

City: A Story of Roman Planning

Cleopatra

The Punic Wars

Caves, Graves, and Catacombs

Step into the Celtic World

Raiders of the North

Ancient Celts

Literature

The Aeneid

In Search of a Homeland

Julius Caesar

The Ides of April and Beyond the Desert Gate

Antony and Cleopatra

Androcles and the Lion

Mary

Jesus

The Parables of Jesus

Brave Cloelia

Muhammed

One Hundred and One Celtic Myths

Celtic Fairy Tales

Fairy Folk of the Irish Peasantry

Celtic Fairy Tales

Early Irish Myths and Legends

Roman Britain Trilogy: Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers

Activities

Learn how to make olive oil and try different kinds

Make pasta

Have a Roman feast

Visit a museum or exhibit on Rome

We visited Rome over Christmas one year

We visited Ireland and saw Tara and Newgrange.

Church History

Mythology

Philosophy

Masada

The Gospels

Paul

Early Christians

Movies

The Passion of the Christ

I’m still adding to and updating my list. I love researching and learning with my kids.

See my Pinterest board for Year 1 History:

History of Ancient Times Notebooking Pages

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Transitioning in Classical Education

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September 12, 2017 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

How do you know when your child is ready to transition from grammar to dialectic to rhetoric?

There are many guides out there in the classical education world with recommendations based on age or grade level, but it is really up to the parent/teacher to determine when the child is ready.

What are signs of readiness?

When a child is ready to move on from grammar to dialectic/logic, I look for her to begin making connections and asking lots of questions. The age/grade levels are a guide only. My daughter began making connections earlier than the recommendations. I didn’t want to hold her back with a too-low reading level or have her get bored with further memorizing. We moved on in our curriculum to the “dialectic level.” We still often read the grammar books with the younger siblings because they’re awesome. We continued with memorizing new material. We continued with history timelines. Some things don’t change.

The reading lists on Ambleside Online are a great guide. They are challenging. If they’re too easy, then you need to look to move up to keep the child interested. The key is to challenge without frustration. We don’t want to overwhelm; we just want to challenge. They don’t necessarily coincide to grade levels.

It concerns me to read articles citing that some children shouldn’t expect to even move on to the rhetoric level (can’t find the reference, but I remember reading this recently). I feel it’s my duty to get my children to that level where they can eventually surpass the master and self-teach.

Rhetoric is Socratic dialogue and critical thinking about what is learned. (Dictionary definition: “The art of speaking and writing effectively.”) I think this is one area in which our schools are sorely lacking–as is most of society! The idea of “can’t” permeates our mindsets. If no one else (or very few) achieves it, then it must be impossible or improbable. Our curriculum rhetoric level is advanced high school and even college level reading and work

How does your child learn best?

The descriptions of different learning styles really helps me adapt my teaching of different lessons and subjects to each of my children while not expecting fish to climb trees.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ~ Albert Einstein

Parents should know their children best and monitor challenges to observe when it’s best to move into the next learning level. I love this about homeschooling. I learn along with my children and I know them intimately: what their interests are, what they love and dislike, where their passions lie. I know what frustrates them. I can reteach a concept that’s difficult or we can all help learn together. We can move on when we’re ready. We can skip pages (gasp!). We can do 2nd grade math and 4th grade reading or mix it up however it works best for us.

The three foundations of a classical education:

Grammar Level {Grammar overview}

Dialectic Level {Dialectic or Logicoverview}

Rhetoric Level {Rhetoric overview}

“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.” ~ Plato

When I began teaching my eldest, I had no idea what I was doing.

All options were wide open to me. I had taught public middle and high school students, and college courses. What was I supposed to do with a bright five-year-old? And that whole October birthday thing just threw us off schedule! That first year was difficult.

I started with The Well-Trained Mind (TWTM). I’m not sure how I discovered it, but it must have just been an internet search. I think it appealed to me that it was an education such as I would have desired to have (and aha – there’s The Well-Educated Mind – for others like me!).

We had no real friends who homeschooled. No mentors. We had just moved from Georgia to Texas, thanks to the Air Force. I couldn’t find a teaching job, and her birthday was too late for her to begin kindergarten, even in a private school. God closed every door to direct us to home educate our children.

I loved the curriculum options for all subjects from 1st-12th that are laid out in The Well-Trained Mind (TWTM). Yay for choices! But I had set in my mind that my daughter should be in kindergarten. She was only just 5 in October! Yet I knew in my heart that she was well beyond what kindergartners did all day. (She would have been a trouble-maker in school, that one.)

So I began with an old math workbook and a set of readers from my husband’s mother. She had taught kindergarten and second grade for 32 years! I let Liz set the pace. We sat at the kitchen table for “school” every morning.

My child completed all the “kindergarten” work I had for her in ONE MONTH. Now what?!

Since she already knew how to read fluently, I bought the first volume of The Story of the World and we went. to. town. We read through that and loved the notebooking and the narrating and the doing of fun projects. I loved the combining of history and literature – it seemed gloriously fun to do these unit studies.

We read through First Language Lessons (when it was levels 1 and 2 in one book!) and that was highly enjoyable for both of us. The English teacher inside me just ate it up! She loved the copywork and handwriting exercises. She is highly developed in language. We’ve never formally studied grammar or spelling after that. She now gets all her grammar education from her Latin programs.

I followed TWTM that first few years religiously. I had no other guidance. It was safe.

For the most part, she did really well and everything was fine with TWTM module.

Then she hit those upper elementary years. Tragedy!

The Story of the World just didn’t cut it for her that second time around. You’re supposed to cycle through those 4 volumes of history 4 times, digging deeper in each cycle, but we dug pretty deep on the first go-round.

Thus began the search for something more in-depth.

We dabbled in Charlotte Mason lessons for a year, but we needed more structure. I was in survival mode with another move across the continent and a new baby!

We now use Tapestry of Grace for our main curriculum. It encompasses history and literature, with all the necessary components, such as geography and writing. It divides the curriculum into four levels of classical education: lower and upper grammar, dialectic (logic), and rhetoric. {Story of the World is a core text during the upper grammar level.} We cannot express how much we love it. Our library is very well utilized and our bookshelves are overflowing. We use notebooking every week for the history and literature assignments. We like some of the craft projects and the fine arts program. It is well worth the price, especially to be able to use it for multiple children throughout the years. Some weeks, we have a family read-aloud, but mostly, the kids have different reading selections all on the same theme. I love how well it suits us!

For my two middle kids, First Language Lessons was just ok. I’m not sure if it’s me or them or a combination of us all, but we didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I did with my eldest. They do love the poems and letter writing activities, but perhaps the grammar memorization was too much for them. Part of this may be that we need to get to reading fluency before studying parts of speech thoroughly. Much of it may just be different personalities and abilities. I didn’t use it at all with my son.

And the point to classical education is for the child to go at the pace at which his or her mind develops. It’s a cognitive progression. I have no need to rush my middle kids and no need to compare them to where my eldest was at their age. Age doesn’t matter with classical education. And I’ve never been a stickler for “what grade they’re in.” I don’t have to fit them into those boxes. Thank God.

While my eldest is extremely interested in every aspect of history, my second child is not. My third child likes only some of it. One balks at copywork, and the others love it. My second is fascinated by math; my eldest is not. #3 and my eldest are both linguistically gifted, reading early and desiring to learn foreign languages. My second struggles a bit with reading since she is so right-brained! I constantly re-evaluate my methods and try not to compare the children to each other. I can tell my son will probably be very verbal and I breathe a sigh of relief for my boy to love books in addition to being a very kinesthetic learner. And all my children are very musical (whereas I am not).

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Why We Chose Classical Education

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December 15, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

What is classical education?

This method appealed to me even before I ever thought to homeschool.

Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind. The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study. In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments. In the high school years, they learn to express themselves. ~The Well-Trained Mind

I am all about these 3 classical concepts: multum non multa (not many things, but much), scholé (from the Greek, then Latin for restful learning), and festina lente (make haste slowly).

It’s not natural to analyze problems logically. Parents get frustrated and kids get exasperated when the expectations are too high for their developmental stage.

I teach my kids to think by Socratic Method. I constantly ask my kids questions to help them see, hear, taste, understand the world around them, what they’re reading, what they’re experiencing.

I can customize our homeschool for which stage my children are in and what their abilities are – times four (we have four kids).

These are the classical learning stages:

They are flexible and fluid and each child transitions into the next stage at a different time. Sometimes, it seems like a step forward and two steps backwards.

Grammar Stage

Memorization is super easy at this time.

Reading lots and hands-on learning are key.

Goals: Facts and Memorizing

Logic Stage

Also known as the Dialectic Stage.

Brain melts down and reconstructs with hormonal and developmental changes. How you assist in the rebuild is super important for how kids will process information the rest of his or her life.

Making Connections about learning concepts is key.

The art of argument can be introduced at this time.

Goals: Debate and Logic

Rhetoric Stage

Move on from the art of argument to the more delicate art of persuasion. We learn about marketing and psychology at this time.

Analysis and synthesis are key.

HOTS: Higher Order Thinking Skills – It’s important to encourage older kids, teens, and adults to dig deeper with their learning, to ask the harder questions, to get to the heart of the matter, and to suck the marrow out of life.

Goals: Essay Writing, Research, and Discussion

How we homeschool:

Integrative Learning – We like using unit studies, little microcosm lessons, to really learn about a concept.
Whole Family – we do almost everything together and we like it like that.
Cyclical Education – chronological over 4 general time periods of history: ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and modern. We go through the cycle about 3 times over a “homeschool lifespan.”
Travel – we love learning about our world and seeing the places we’re learning about. We’re so thankful we get to explore our marvelous world!
Notebooking – more free writing instead of boring fill-in-the-blank “busy work” worksheets.

What can my kids handle and when they can handle it?

Children grow at different rates. My eldest is 15 and just entering the rhetoric stage. My son is 5, just beginning school, and is in the grammar stage. My middle girls go back and forth in the grammar and logic stages.

Just because my daughters are in the dialectic or rhetoric stage doesn’t mean we don’t encourage memorization. We still do lots of hands-on work. It’s important to add on the more difficult concepts without leaving out the basics.

There’s a lot of cha-cha when kids transition into new learning stages.

The concepts that define our classical homeschool:

Multum non Multa

We’ve sometimes gone overboard, trying to do too much, stretching too thin – and not succeeding. We prefer to go deep rather than wide. My kids are more than mere vessels to pour facts into. They have a say in what they learn, where their interests lie. I consider their desires.

I see too many curricula offering just a taste of information before moving onto the next thing too quickly. My kids are often unready, hungering for more, desiring to dig deeper to understand what we’re learning. We often spend lots more time than allotted in the teacher guide because we enjoy learning.

Why would I hold them back or push them further when they are so intent on learning right now?

Scholé

Learning is supposed to be leisurely.

The original design of school in ancient times was “apart from physical work.” While we certainly do chores in our home, we prefer to learn in a restful manner. I don’t crack a whip from dawn till dusk. I have a very general agenda and we usually learn at our leisure.

Can you imagine? My public school experience was anything but leisurely. I can and do provide a restful learning environment for my children.

Their hearts are more important than academics.

I don’t want to work my kids to death with busyness. We often don’t complete all our curricula or do it as directed. Are you shocked? We sometimes skip reviews, quizzes, and tests if my kids grasp the concepts quickly and easily or if I feel they’re pointless. I don’t do grades.

If I don’t know how my four children are doing in their studies, then I’m not a good homeschool mom. I don’t have to measure them up against anyone. I used to teach 120+ students and I kept grade records because I had to and because I couldn’t have told you what each child earned on the essay assigned last Tuesday.

We don’t bother with co-ops since they defeat our purpose. I don’t want checklists and schedules and random parents teaching my kids something they don’t even understand themselves. I won’t join any classical cults either.

We limit our extracurricular activities so we don’t feel stressed and rushed.

I make sure the kids get enough sleep. In the spring and summer months, we go to bed later since the sun is still out at 10 PM. We wake up in the morning whenever we naturally rise if we don’t have anywhere to go. It works for us. It’s normally between 6:30 and 8, so don’t think we sleep until noon!

I protect our time so we can be free to learn how and when we want.

Our brains must rest in order to make the connections and assimilate new information. We all need quiet time to just be, to think, to ponder.

When professors, doctors, other professionals take a break from their work to rest, study, and learn, it’s called a sabbatical.

We all need a Sabbath.

Festina Lente

I think activities should have a proper balance of urgency and diligence.

If tasks are rushed, mistakes are made and the desired results are not achieved. Work is best done flowingly, being fully engaged in the task when there is no sense of time passing.

I love seeing my kids absorbed in their learning. I strew books and materials around the house and we love to explore together. We may take a break from our regular lessons to study our backyard pond with its tadpoles and cattails.

We travel often to learn about new cultures, foods, art, language. I don’t make my kids do travel journals every time (honestly, they beg to!). We like to coincide travel with our homeschool studies, but we also learn about new places before, during, and after our trips too.

We live the journey and remember.

I try not to interrupt my children when they are learning and working hard on a project. We don’t have bells, timers, or cute electronic traffic lights to signal when math time is over or to begin history reading.

We prefer a natural flow to our learning.

Some days, we will do science all.day.long. and I’m ok with that. We snuggle up with books or Netflix some days when the weather is cold and blustery. We make time for that and it’s important.

Other days, we may play outside in the warm sunshine and worship God in His creation and develop our family relationships. We bask in the sunshine and watch the iridescent bubbles float through the air or admire new blooms peeking out of the sodden soil. We listen to birds and watch clouds.

Learning doesn’t have to look like copywork, memorizing dates, math manipulatives, or anything dealing with paper and books and pencils at all.

Children learn just fine when we get out of their way.

Learning is living.

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How We Do History

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May 25, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 7 Comments

We primarily use Tapestry of Grace for our homeschool.

It encompasses most of our curriculum needs and we only add math, science, and foreign language to complete our studies.

Tapestry of Grace is a four-year cycle, similar to other classical history programs.

Year 1 – Creation to the Fall of Rome
Year 2 – Middle Ages, from Byzantium to the New World
Year 3 – Nineteenth Century, from Napoleon to Teddy Roosevelt
Year 4 – 1900 to the Present Day

We used Story of the World for our first four year cycle of homeschooling but Liz studied that so comprehensively that we needed something more in-depth after that. We tried compiling our own materials for a year, but I preferred some guidance. ToG uses Story of the World as a spine for upper grammar level.

Each year is divided into four units. Each unit is divided into 9 weeks. Within the units are color-coded study materials and resource lists for the four learning levels – lower grammar, upper grammar (logic), dialectic, and rhetoric.

I like the division of four levels instead of the typical three because it encourages me to include my littles as soon as they are able to sit for read alouds and some seat work.

And now, there is even a Primer level (at an additional cost) so even preschoolers can join in the family fun! We previewed it and it just wasn’t that great.

I don’t always follow the curriculum outline completely. Often I look at the overview and make a checklist for the unit and we work through that until it’s completed. We utilize the library regularly. We can’t possibly purchase all the recommended books!

The 9-week units last us between 3-12 weeks, depending on the availability of material and interest. There are 36 weeks in each year, four units of nine weeks each.

The subject threads available each week are:

History
Writing
Literature
Geography
Fine Arts and Activities
Church History/Worldview
Enrichment
Government (high school level and an additional cost)
Philosophy (high school level and an additional cost)

I am a bit disappointed how sparse the curriculum is for the last unit and a half for year 4. There has been much great literature written and history made during my lifetime and I have to pull it together myself, since there is so little listed in the curriculum that I paid for.

The curriculum is quite biased towards conservative evangelical Christian so I pick and choose what I include and omit (we will not be reading anything by complementarian John Piper nor watching the horrendous Left Behind series or anything by Kirk Cameron), often supplementing so my kids get a more well-rounded idea of real history and world events from all sides.

We actually don’t focus a whole lot on US History. We realize we are just a blip on the timeline. I try to focus on a different region every cycle – Asia, Africa, South America, Russia, etc.

Our Favorite History Texts:

A History of US: Eleven-Volume Set by Joy Hakim
The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon
A People’s History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium by Chris Harman
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz
A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
A Disability History of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen
A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski
A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
Life: Our Century In Pictures by Richard B. Stolley
The Century for Young People by Peter Jennings
Story of the World, Vol. 1: History for the Classical Child: Ancient Times by Susan Wise Bauer
Story of the World, Vol. 2: History for the Classical Child: The Middle Ages by Susan Wise Bauer
Story of the World, Vol. 3: History for the Classical Child: Early Modern Times by Susan Wise Bauer
Story of the World, Vol. 4: History for the Classical Child: The Modern Age by Susan Wise Bauer

How we study history:

Geography
Timelines
Literature
Living Books
Church History
Art
Music
Videos
Field Trips
Notebooking

Maps and Geography

Most weeks, the kids have a map to label and color. It helps to visualize where in the world we are studying.

We have large world and USA maps on the wall too, for quick reference. We have several atlases and apps too.

The kids label physical and political maps, even my youngest!

I supplement our map pages with curriculum from Knowledge Quest – printables and geography galore!

We also create fun maps – with cookies, salt dough, cookie dough, or homemade play dough!

Timelines

This is the first year we’ve completed a big timeline. Tori and I essentially pasted the timeline images (from Story of the World Activity Books) on Index cards. She colored the flags but we left the others black and white. She put them in order and helped hole punch them. I strung them up with yarn in our homeschool classroom.

My Level 3 daughter completes a Book of Centuries page every week as part of her history notebooking.

Literature

Great classic literature to accompany our history studies and the time periods we learn.

You can read our ninth grade reading list here (some were family read alouds).

View all my book lists.

The literature thread has core and in-depth options each week. Most are living books that bring history to life through the eyes of real or fictional characters.

Living History Books

I love, love, love the reading lists. So many choices and we want to read them all!

We love biographies and historical fiction.

History assignments are divided into core, in-depth, textbook, and supplement.

You can see our Great Depression Unit Study with our reading lists and activities.

We were ecstatic to read War Dogs about Winston Churchill and then meet a new friend who has the same kind of poodle as Rufus!

We all thoroughly enjoyed The Secret of Priest’s Grotto. It was just a lucky find at the library! Amazing story.

Church History and Worldview

Our evening read alouds are Bible stories, Christian education, and missionary stories.

The whole family gathers and I read about the missionary who corresponds to our history each week.

We read through the Christian Heroes series. Well-written and easy to read and listen to, even for my young son.

We’re moving away from these now and into more progressive Christian biographies and histories.

Arts and Crafts

I fail miserably at arts and crafts.

But I love love love art history.

We study artists and go see art often.

We’ve visited several art museums this year – Stadel in Frankfurt, The Louvre and d’Orsay in Paris, the van Gogh, Rijksmuseum, and Mauritshuis in Amsterdam.

We loved the history and culture in Greece.

We learned about glass and lace making in Venice.

I love Artistic Pursuits which often corresponds to our history timeline.

I vow to do more arts and crafts projects with the kids since they love it so much.

Music History and Appreciation

The kids and I love to listen to music that corresponds to our history time period.

One of our favorite books is The Gift of Music. It’s a great intro to composers.

We look up YouTube videos or search on Spotify for music and often, we notebook about the ones who interest us most.

Liz practices ragtime on the keyboard:

Videos

The enrichment thread lists recommended videos that support the topics we learn about that week.

Some films for our history lessons for year 4:

Rough Riders, Titanic, Gallipoli, Lawrence of Arabia, Chariots of Fire, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Life is Beautiful, Schindler’s List, The Pianist, The Book Thief, Unbroken, Farewell My Concubine, Ghandi, Malcolm X, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Blood Diamond, Hotel Rwanda and more!

We like PBS and the library if we can’t stream a film on Netflix or Amazon.

I like to teach cinema history when it’s relevant.

Field Trips

Recommendations for field trips, both real and virtual are listed on the website for each unit.

We’ve been very fortunate to be able to travel and see many sites as we study.

We enjoyed seeing Yellowstone National Park a few years ago.

We drove to Georgia a year ago just as we finished up studying the Civil War and we got to see an antebellum home and Stone Mountain.

We learned about the Missions in San Antonio, TX.

We visited the Pearl Harbor sites when we lived in Hawaii.

We went camping and learned about Utah, Yellowstone, the Tetons.

We have traveled all over Europe for three years and visited many historical sites and museums.

We’re studying Ohio history.

Notebooking

Each week has threads with pages for activities, writing, and notebooking options.

I often gather materials and design themed unit studies for seasons, time periods, and interests.

The Student Activities Pages are an optional purchase and I use those mostly for grammar level. Liz still likes some of the graphic organizers for her history notebooking.

*All the following Tapestry of Grace pages are available as a free sample!*

This is the high school writing assignments page:

This is a Dialectic Level page. She completes the Accountability and Thinking Questions in a journal and we discuss them.

Dialectic Accountability and Thinking Questions

This is the Rhetoric Level accountability and thinking questions. They’re a little more in depth. It all starts to come together!

Rhetoric Accountability and Thinking Questions

This is a Rhetoric Level page for church history and government (an optional supplement).

We often read missionary stories (sometimes a different selection than the booklist) and discuss the questions.

This is the Rhetoric Level Literature page. My daughter answers the questions in a journal and we discuss.

You can download high school credits pages for the Rhetoric Level, scope and sequence, and notebooking page templates for free from the website.

I also like to supplement the SAP with printable Notebooking Pages and we often make our own for biographies and topics of interest with the web app:

Supporting links offer great resources for each unit.

Supplements to a year’s curriculum:

Map Aids $25
Writing Aids $40-60 (I have never needed this and regret the purchase)
Lapbooks (options for ready made or pdf files) $15-75
Evaluations $15 per level per year
Pop Quiz (marketed to dads) $50 (We never used these)
Government $15
Shorter Works (Literature Anthology) $25 (I just bought all the Norton’s anthologies used)
Poetics (Literature Handbook) $20-50
Additional Printed Student Activities Packs $15-35 (great to save printer ink!)
Primer Level $49.90 (we didn’t care for this)
Lit Studies $29.95 (we don’t like these plans)

A digital edition of a year plan (updated forever) is $170 and print edition is $295. The digital is constantly updated forever.

Overall, Tapestry of Grace is the most comprehensive program we have seen for classical and Charlotte Mason style homeschooling. We love that it encompasses literature and history and offers so many options and choices.

My eldest just began college and is running the show in her history and English courses, so it’s all been worth it!

History Pinterest Boards:

Linking up: A Little Pinch of Perfect, All Kinds of Things, The Jenny Evolution, Rich Faith Rising, Happy and Blessed Home, 123Homeschool4Me, Hip Homeschooling,

How do you teach history in your homeschool?

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10 Ways to Narrate

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November 24, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 7 Comments

Not all of us have super literate kids who can write pages upon pages of exquisitely written narration after listening to read alouds or quietly reading her literature and history assignments.

Narration is a great assessment tool.

We use narration regularly to check for comprehension and understanding.

We seldom do any formal testing until high school. I love to interact with my children and we can’t do that when they’re sitting at a desk filling in little circles. We hope to instill a love of learning for a lifetime.

What to do for narration with those kids who might be more oral or artistic:

Mix up the options for narration so it doesn’t get boring!

1. Draw or Paint a Picture.

A great way for a child who doesn’t write well yet or who prefers art to express herself. As the child grows, she can freehand write about what she read.

2. Coloring Pages.

Great to print for younger kids who need some guidance. Add words, phrases, or sentences as copywork later as they grow.

3. Act a Scene.

Have your child prepare a skit, complete with costumes and set. A great group activity for co-op or families.

4. Puppets or Paper Dolls.

Who doesn’t love a puppet show? Your child can make simple little paper finger puppets, use stuffed animals or dolls she already has, or make fun sock puppets with all those mismatched socks and some crafty items. Print images from online or have your child draw and color her own and attach wooden chopsticks for creative play. A great co-op or dad performance. We also like themed Toobs.

5. Building.

Use Legos, blocks, or some other fun manipulative to discuss setting and plot.

6. Notebooking.

These are way beyond worksheets. Adapt them to suit your child’s needs. We love Notebooking Pages where we can print a huge variety or make our own.

7. Lapbooks.

These are like fun scrapbook projects about your subject. Lots of printable kits online. Homeschool Share has lots for free!

8. Flashcards or a Card Game.

Use index cards to create a memory game with words or pictures or concepts. Or print graphics to glue on and laminate.

9. Timeline Work.

Create or find pictures and words for kids to cut and paste to a poster. Great for history or literary chronological order work.

10. Sensory Bins.

For very (and not quite) little kids, provide fun multi-sensory activities and teach narration through asking questions and listening to your tot’s creative play. We did a great bin for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Tips for little kids with listening and behaving during read alouds.
For older kids, I still like traditional narration. With Technology. And having a literature reader notebook.

What are your favorite narration activities?

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Grammar Foundations

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July 2, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

I’m rereading The Well-Trained Mind.

I am getting back on track and realizing the importance of a classical education. I still love some aspects of other methods and we occasionally incorporate those into our lessons, but I am a classical mama at heart.

Making improvements to our schedule and organization will make our schooling easier and more productive.

Classical English/Language Arts is spelling, grammar, reading, and writing.

Spelling:

I ordered Spelling Workout B for the girls since we don’t have a formal program and I remember that Liz loved it.

I hear great things about All About Spelling too.

And Kate loves her new spelling workbook. I have to distract her from completing the whole thing on her own when I turn away!

Tori cried all the way through the first lesson. I don’t think it’s too challenging for her.

I just think she was overwhelmed by something new – that pointed out she needs more help than Kate does.

I encouraged her to read the directions to me and we did the exercises together.

She admitted that it wasn’t too hard after the ordeal was all over.

And now that we’ve completed vision therapy, she’s much more confident with all aspects of her life and school.

Classical Mama reading material!

The Well Trained Mind and First Language Lessons

Grammar:

We’ve almost completed First Language Lessons 1. My book is an older edition and it has both level 1 and 2 in a single book. Liz completed that in 1 year! I also teach mini-lessons as needed that come up in our writing and other studies. I love grammar and the girls also get lots of grammar education in Spanish and Latin. We also plan to completely go through Logic of English beginning this fall since All About Reading Level 3 isn’t out yet.

Reading:

We read a lot. I mean, seriously, a lot. Kate tries to sneak books upstairs at bedtime and I’ve taken to having to almost strip search her or she’ll stay up reading and won’t go to sleep until 10:30!

Tori reads to Alex every night before bed. It’s the sweetest thing. He’s a great audience for her. Liz sneaks off to read instead of doing chores. Can’t get too angry at her, lol.

Our school reading does follow the history cycles with Story of the World and Tapestry of Grace. We love historical fiction! We also have units each month for the littles.

Narration:

We’re really good at narration. As an English teacher, it comes naturally to me to ask questions about our reading and the kids are more than happy to oblige, even Alex! They give me the greatest details and I love hearing what they each remember. Sometimes it’s not something that I paid special attention to in our reading and it’s fun to hear what they thought was important. I am pleased at their comprehension.

Notebooking:

We love notebooking. Liz has done well transferring her narration to paper. We’re working on the girls. They do better with freedom to write and draw about what they’re learning. They always exceed my expectations.

Penmanship:

We’re also reviewing a fun cursive program – Prescripts. The little girls really love it. Tori loves copywork and I try to make sure she has enough, but not too much. Liz doesn’t care for copywork, but I try to give her some for Bible or history to help with her memorization. Alex is beginning to actually write letters instead of tracing and it’s so exciting!

Writing:

We also reviewed IEW (for Liz). It has completely changed the way I homeschool. It is an amazing program and the methods are cross-curricular and I am so pleased by the improvements! I am even teaching the girls how to write with the info I learned in TWSS. Alex is already narrating to me or his sisters! We incorporated some of the methods, but we don’t formally utilize the writing program.

Organization:

I am organizing notebooks for our “new” school year. And I plan to be more proactive about having the girls put their own papers in their notebooks each week.

Recommended resources in The Well-Trained Mind…

Writing Strands: I really loathed the style of these snarky little books.

Rod&Staff: boring and too textbook-y.

A Beka: not advanced enough and expensive for workbooks and boring little readers.

Handwriting Without Tears never worked for us, but apparently it’s great for most everyone else. Go figure.

We all love D’Nealian.

I’m rereading The Well-Trained Mind.

Making improvements to our schedule and organization will make our schooling easier and more productive.

Classical English/Language Arts is spelling, grammar, reading, and writing.

Spelling:

I ordered Spelling Workout B for the girls since we don’t have a formal program and I remember that Liz loved it.

I hear great things about All About Spelling too.

And Kate loves her new spelling workbook. I have to distract her from completing the whole thing on her own when I turn away!

Tori cried all the way through the first lesson. I don’t think it’s too challenging for her.

I just think she was overwhelmed by something new – that pointed out she needs more help than Kate does.

I encouraged her to read the directions to me and we did the exercises together.

She admitted that it wasn’t too hard after the ordeal was all over.

And now that we’ve completed vision therapy, she’s much more confident with all aspects of her life and school.

Classical Mama reading material!

Grammar:

Reading:

Tori reads to Alex every night before bed. It’s the sweetest thing. He’s a great audience for her. Liz sneaks off to read instead of doing chores. Can’t get too angry at her, lol.

Our school reading does follow the history cycles with Story of the World and Tapestry of Grace. We love historical fiction! We also have units each month for the littles.

Narration:

Notebooking:

Penmanship:

Writing:

Organization:

I am organizing notebooks for our “new” school year. And I plan to be more proactive about having the girls put their own papers in their notebooks each week.

Recommended resources in The Well-Trained Mind…

Writing Strands: I really loathed the style of these snarky little books.

Rod&Staff: boring and too textbook-y.

A Beka: not advanced enough and expensive for workbooks and boring little readers.

Handwriting Without Tears never worked for us, but apparently it’s great for most everyone else. Go figure.

We all love D’Nealian.

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Spelling Work

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May 22, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

We’re reviewing a fun unit study that comes with a spelling component and I thought we’d see how we do with this new thang.

I never had any large respect for good spelling. That is my feeling yet. Before the spelling-book came with its arbitrary forms, men unconsciously revealed shades of their characters and also added enlightening shades of expression to what they wrote by their spelling, and so it is possible that the spelling-book has been a doubtful benevolence to us.
– Mark Twain

They love the idea.

So, here we begin some new spelling work.

Liz and I are naturally good spellers and drills are just fun for us. I wonder how Tori and Kate will react.

We’ve about conquered reading with Kate. She’s on chapter books now! She still doesn’t write or spell well though yet.

They have a sheet each day to complete, but I realize that they need extra help in between since this is so new and they have no experience with spelling.

Tori still needs practice reading.

I chose ten words from the recommended list and they wrote them five times each and wrote them each in a sentence. I wrote what they said on the board for the sentences and they copied them.

It’s just not enough for such a new concept. Their pretest was 3/10. But I loved how excited and optimistic Tori was that she got 3 right! That’s the way we should think, eh? Not focusing on getting 7 wrong, but 3 right!

So we multi-tasked on the deck this afternoon. Liz quizzed the girls while they prepped juice for lemonade and limeade. I think the sun was in her eyes or she was mad at me. Not sure what I did! {whatever}

Tori and Kate loved the squeezing of the limes.

I printed these spelling cards on fun sherbet-colored paper and laminated them.

We will practice a few more and re-quiz on Friday.

Download your own Spelling Command Cards linked on this page. I love Montessori spelling.

One of our favorite apps is Montessori Crosswords. I just need to be more intentional about having my girls play it.

Looking to add Spelling City to our repertoire. and other apps and games to make spelling fun…

Alex loves Starfall and apparently, they have an advanced app: Learn to Read.

We’re using All About Reading Level 2 (we’re on the home stretch!) and I’ve heard rave reviews for All About Spelling. Probably a purchase in our future. It’s recommended by IEW.

Liz used Spelling Workout (recommended in The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home) and she liked it well enough. I’m hesitant to go the workbook route right now with Tori and Kate.

I like the idea of notebooking spelling and want to do something more creative and kinesthetic than just workbooks, but if Tori and Kate like workbooks, I’ll get them.

A new adventure with both girls mandated to be in school this coming year.

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Middle School Art and Music

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May 7, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 4 Comments

Middle school is tough.

Art and music in middle school is really tough.

I like to teach art and music along with history from year 1 and we cycle through every 4 years, digging deeper each cycle.

This unit was our 3rd time through for my eldest.

How I teach art and music:

Listening
Fundamentals, Theory, Vocabulary
History
Practicing and/or Performing

We listened to Haydn’s Farewell Symphony.

It was part of our classical history studies with Tapestry of Grace Year 2 and the book was on the girls’ list of reading, but we read it together as a family and was delighted and then I found the whole symphony on YouTube. It is magnificent.

Liz finally broke out her acrylics and painted this as she listened:

She loves abstract art.

I love her representation of the musicians’ candles. She explained which parts of her painting meant which emotion from the symphony.

Brilliant.

We often create and complete notebooking pages with music and art.

Check out these great Haydn notebooking pages.

Famous Artists & Picture Study Notebooking Pages

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Geography Notebooking

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November 18, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

I used our Geography A-Z book for definitions of the bodies of water.

Liz and I wrote the definitions on the board for Tori and Katie to copy.

It was a practice in patience. Katie hates copying sentences. or definitions. or anything really.

Elizabeth’s completed page:

I plan to review some geography terms and the bodies of water this week as we go over the story of Thanksgiving in detail. It fits well with our history studies of exploration during the Renaissance.

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Reader Notebook

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May 15, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert 9 Comments

I love reading and writing with notebooking!

Dialectical journals are a great way to incorporate notebooking, discussion, and narration for any age student.

I had started reading notebooks with my daughter a couple years ago and it rather fizzled, but I think she was too young then. We were using Ambleside Online and it worked – for a while.

I also did notebooking with my gifted 8th grade students years ago – when I taught public school. (They’re graduating from college and beginning their own lives now – wow!)

I plan to use a reader-writer notebook with my daughter now that she is in middle school. She needs something more with her reading. We use Tapestry of Grace and she reads lots with that, but I still feel like we’re missing some great literary analysis and she needs to learn how to critique it. Before, I’ve given her so much freedom with her reading. And that was good. She loves to read. Now she will love to analyze it. Yes, she will.

She may not love it, but she’s going to start notebooking with a classic novel or reading unit each month.

I plan to include Shakespeare, poetry, and later on, in about a year or so: To Kill A Mockingbird and The Diary of Anne Frank. I plan to let her choose some books too. She has great taste in reading and I think she’ll be thrilled that she has finally reached a stage where she can finally read some mature content. I can hardly wait to read some of my favorites, that I used to teach in my classes: Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451, A Separate Peace, and Orwell soon! And thankfully, our curriculum has many fine choices of living books and great classic literature too.

I have a binder set up with dividers.

5 dividers:

character analysis
narration/summary (by chapter or act or section)
vocabulary
literary analysis (mini-lessons we will do together)
reader response writing section

(I assign thinking questions based on reading and mini-lessons – these could turn into larger writing projects at the end of units.)

I plan to include notebooking pages in each section to make it fun and interesting. She already has a reading minioffice and we have reader response bookmarks. I have journal topics to assign too. I’m excited to get started on this!

We’ll have a Monday conference time to discuss expectations and schedules. We already do this with Tapestry of Grace work. I will check back in on Fridays or Saturdays to see the progress. I know it will take some hand-holding and organization and explanation in the beginning. She is very clingy with new things. After the first unit and the first month, I hope she gets the hang of it!

She chose to read Where The Red Fern Grows as her first book. Such a fun book to read! We both really enjoyed it.

The girls and I read Charlotte’s Web together and it’s delightful. Alex listened in many times too.

I am going back to my classical roots with my teaching methods.

Resources for Reading and Writing Notebooks:

Scholastic Reading Notebook
Reader’s Notebook & Writer’s Notebook – with amazing printables!
My ELA Pinterest board and Writing Pinterest board and Notebooking Pinterest board
Priscilla’s great Reader Notebook Pinterest board
Reader’s Notebook outline and plan
Guide with a video!
Busy Teachers Cafe resources
Printables from Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus (One of my favorite homeschooling sites!)

It’s always more fun to add color, shapes, and stickers!

NotebookingPages.com LIFETIME Membership

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Year 1 History: Ancient Times

It becomes really fascinating when you study world history chronologically and see how interconnected everything is, all the causes and effects.

Ancient history consists mainly of Celts, China, Maya, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

Unit 1: Earliest Times

History

Literature

Activities

Church History

Movies

Unit 2: Early Civilizations

History

Literature

Activities

Church History

Movies

Unit 3: The Greek Empire

History

Literature

Activities

Church History

Movies

Unit 4: The Roman Empire

History

Literature

Activities

Church History

Movies

I’m still adding to and updating my list. I love researching and learning with my kids.

See my Pinterest board for Year 1 History:

What are signs of readiness?

How does your child learn best?

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ~ Albert Einstein

The three foundations of a classical education:

“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.” ~ Plato

What is classical education?

I am all about these 3 classical concepts: multum non multa (not many things, but much), scholé (from the Greek, then Latin for restful learning), and festina lente (make haste slowly).

These are the classical learning stages:

Grammar Stage

Logic Stage

Rhetoric Stage

How we homeschool:

What can my kids handle and when they can handle it?

The concepts that define our classical homeschool:

Multum non Multa

Scholé

Their hearts are more important than academics.

I protect our time so we can be free to learn how and when we want.

We all need a Sabbath.

Festina Lente

We live the journey and remember.

Children learn just fine when we get out of their way.

The subject threads available each week are:

Our Favorite History Texts:

How we study history:

Maps and Geography

Timelines

Literature

Living History Books

Church History and Worldview

Arts and Crafts

Music History and Appreciation

Videos

Field Trips

Notebooking

Each week has threads with pages for activities, writing, and notebooking options.

Supplements to a year’s curriculum:

History Pinterest Boards:

How do you teach history in your homeschool?

Narration is a great assessment tool.

What to do for narration with those kids who might be more oral or artistic:

Mix up the options for narration so it doesn’t get boring!

1. Draw or Paint a Picture.

2. Coloring Pages.

3. Act a Scene.

4. Puppets or Paper Dolls.

5. Building.

6. Notebooking.

7. Lapbooks.

8. Flashcards or a Card Game.

9. Timeline Work.