History & Geography

Frankfort Field Trips

In case you don’t know, Frankfort is the capital of Kentucky.  It’s also where I grew up and where my family still lives.  There is a wealth of field trip opportunity in Frankfort from government to history to museums and more.  We’ve been trying to make it a habit to go on a quick field…

Slavery and Civil War Resources

Slavery and Civil War Teaching Resources You might remember from my post about Planning a Large Unit Study, that I pick and choose the best ideas for our learning styles and learning objectives from many resources.  These are the the fabulous materials that provided many of my lesson plans. National Geographic Underground Railroad Interactive Civil…

The Freedom Center

Words cannot adequately express our trip to the Freedom Center in Cincinnati yesterday.  After spending so much time in our unit study learning about slavery in our country before and after the Civil War, we have become immersed in the sadness, courage and strength of slaves, abolitionists and those who risked their lives to help…

Slavery and Civil War Plans

Wow.  We’re on our last planned history unit of the school year.  It feels great to be ahead of schedule!  (At least in history, anyway!) I’ve sketched out the main topics I hope to cover in a unit on slavery and the Civil War.  I think we’ll plan to make this mostly a literature and…

Quilt square of green, yellow, and orange. This photo is used for a blog post about westward expansion

Westward Expansion Projects

(This post contains affiliate links.) Westward Expansion Unit Our time spent learning about pioneers and the Westward Expansion was so full, fun and meaningful.  As with most of our unit studies, this one was very literature-rich and included a healthy portion of project-based learning. What Did We Learn? I tried to pulled together a unit…

Kids dressed up for a Night at the Museum Party

Night at the Museum Party

(This post contains affiliate links.) Night at the Museum Movie: Watch and Learn Short and Sweet Version: Co-op Class Only Meets Twice First Meeting:  Everyone watches the movie, Night at the Museum, together.  This meeting is strictly for fun. At Home:  Each child chooses either an historical character from the movie, another interesting person from…

Abe Lincoln Celebration

The Kentucky Historical Museum is a gem for KY homeschoolers.  This past weekend, they put on a HUGE event to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.  Since Civil War history is just around the corner for us, of course we decided to go! Meeting Abe and Mary Period Dancing An Awesome Special Museum…

Quilt square of green, yellow, and orange. This photo is used for a blog post about westward expansion

Westward Expansion Resources

(This post contains affiliate links.) Westward Expansion Unit: Part 2 ~ Resources Part 1 ~ The Plan Part 3 ~ Project Week Westward Expansion Resources My Spine – Amanda Bennett Pioneers Unit Research Questions Teacher Planet Links Louisiana Purchase Game Lewis and Clark Lessons Lewis and Clark Mapping Activities Easy Fun School Lewis and Clark…

A True Unit Study Day

Not everyday is a full unit study day around here, but today was one of those days where every subject just fit perfectly into the Lewis and Clark portion of our Westward Expansion unit.  (Except Bible time.  I could have fit that in, too, but we’re working our way through Hebrews and I didn’t want…