Posted by Cindy on January 16, 2009
In researching and making plans for our unit on the westward expansion, I was reminded about another important event in history that I couldn’t possibly leave out of our learning time – the Industrial Revolution, including the subject of child labor. My children were very much moved by the thought of children working so hard, especially when they found out that so many children around the world are still effected by this practice.
We found and read two living literature gems that I had to pass along.
Set in England rather than America, we found The Gate In The Wall
by Ellen Howard to be an excellent piece of living literature as well as giving us a clearer picture of the effects of child labor.
Set in 1830′s New England, The Bobbin Girl
by Emily Arnold McCulley is a superb picture book on the topic.
And not living literature, we found Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor
by Russell Freedman and Growing Up in Coal Country
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti at our local library. Both gave information and pictures that made the topic real to my children.
While reading, I found a coloring sheet in The Story of the World Activity Book Three: Early Modern Times to occupy busy hands and the back served as a nice place to notebook about child labor.
If you’re interested, Homeschool Share has a unit on The Bobbin Girl. Mr. Donn has several interesting links, too. And this site looked intriguing, although I haven’t used any of the activities yet.
Posted by Cindy on August 26, 2008
In our quest to learn Early American History this year, we began by studying early American explorers. I used a book from Evan-Moor titled Who Discovered America? as the spine for information, notebooking pages and activity ideas. It seems as if this book might no longer be in print, however. When searching Evan-Moor’s site, I found Explorers of North America History Pockets that looks to be similar - and possibly even better.
Because my main goal was to help the kiddos understand that the famous Christopher Columbus wasn’t the first or only person to “discover” America, we didn’t spend too much time delving into particular explorers. A brief history of how natives were already in the Americas, a look into the Vikings, and short spurts of Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci, Balboa and Magellan were all we covered.
Two of our favorite books from the unit were:
Leif the Lucky
and
Encounter (this book gives an unusual view of Columbus from the native’s view point)
Even though Mahayla is a voracious reader, I didn’t do a very good job of finding good literature that went along with our units last year. She would find plenty of unrelated books to keep her busy, but I wanted to be sure to assign her at least one book to go along with each history unit this year. Her assigned book for this unit was Morning Girl. Besides simply reading her assigned book, she will be responsible for at least one project or writing assignment to show her understanding. This book’s assignment was to draw a picture from something she read in the book, and then put herself in the shoes of one of the main characters as she wrote about what was going on in the picture.
Now we’re on to a study of Native Americans. I’ll be sure to post notes from that unit when it’s finished!
