Connecting History and Other Subjects

My public school education (in a good school, and as an honor student) was seriously lacking in nearly every way.  Sure, I learned how to take and pass a test with flying colors, but I retained so very little!  My 6-year-old son can tell you more about the history of the world than I can, and he's only had one year of instruction.....and he's retaining the information! 

Connecting math, science, and literature, to history is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling.  I came across a wonderful way to do so with chemistry today.  The American Chemical Society has four interactive features, including a timeline, of "National Historic Chemical Landmarks", or important events in chemical history.  They also have a This Week in Chemical History page.  We won't be starting chemistry officially for a couple of years, but I hope at least one of my readers can utilize this resource now.

One resource we will be using next year is Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself.  What a wonderful way to tie science to history, don't you think!?  This book is written for the nine-twelve age bracket and I will be using it with a just-turned seven-year-old.  However, he is a serious history buff and already thinks daVinci is one of the coolest guys ever.  LOL  If things seem to advanced for him to do we'll just set the book aside and use it on our next cycle through history.

I also just purchased Science And Technology In The Middle Ages by Joanne Findon.  I have high hopes for this book, I just hope it lives up to them!

And I imagine most of you have heard of Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians, which is the perfect book for tieing math and history together!  There is also a second volume in what I hope will become an entire series!

Please comment and share what you use to tie history to other subjects!

I Gave In and Bought SOTW!

I finally broke down and bought Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times and the activity book to go along with it.  After spending my morning pulling all of the pages out of the activity book to make for easier copying we spent the afternoon reading the first five chapters of the book and doing a few of the activities to go along with it.  We've already covered this material, but I wanted to hear the history from the SOTW perspective, and review never hurts!  We enjoyed the first five chapters, and my only regret is not buying it sooner!

We pulled out our Crayola Air-Dry Clay and made some small clay tablets to write on, as the ancient Sumerians did with cuneiform.  We decided to stick holes in the corners so we can attach some ribbon and use them for Christmas ornaments next year.  It seemed silly to make them only to throw them away in a couple of months.

The top one says "Alexander the Great" and was done by Nik, age 6. 

The bottom is, well.....I don't know what it is!.....and was done by Nate, age 4.

Not a bad day, all in all.  Now we need to catch up on the next twelve chapters so we can move on to new material.

Paper Dolls

My boys adore paper dolls.  I am constantly looking for free paper dolls online.  They love to re-enact scenes from stories we read, and I love seeing that they are absorbing the material.  But I really don't like all of the ink that it takes me to print them, and considering I'm still using an inkjet printer instead of a laser printer this can be an expensive project!  I don't know why it never occurred to me to see what Dover Publications offers in the way of historical paper dolls.  Check these out.....

American Family Paper Dolls
Byzantine Costumes Paper Dolls
Ancient Greek Costumes Paper Dolls
Medieval Costumes Paper Dolls
Russian Imperial Costumes Paper Dolls
Gothic Costumes Paper Dolls
Japanese Warrior Costumes Paper Dolls
Traditional African Costumes Paper Dolls
Victorian Family Paper Dolls
Mumtaz of the Taj Mahal Paper Dolls

Ancient Greece

I apologize for my long absence; the holidays are always very busy.

We're finally into our studies of Ancient Greece and the boys are so excited!  We've only been at it for a week and already I've finished the first three books in Mary Pope Osborne's Tales from the Odyssey series.  Once I start reading the boys just won't let me stop!  :-)  I wish our library carried all six of the series, but unfortunately they only have these three.

Books We Read:
 Pegasus by Jane Yolen
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky  
The Children's Homer  by Padraic Colum
Tales from the Odyssey #1: The One-Eyed Giant by Mary Pope Osborne
Tales from the Odyssey #2:  The Land of the Dead by Mary Pope Osborne
Tales from the Odyssey #3: Sirens and Sea Monsters by Mary Pope Osborne

Links:
PASS World History Part 1 - Unit 5: Ancient Greece Part A  Part B

KidsPast.com - Ancient Greece

On the Shores of the Great Sea by M.B. Synge, we are beginning with the chapter "The Story of Carthage"

Digging Up Greece printable game by Ellen McHenry (we're saving this for the logic stage)

MythWeb - Greek mythology
History for Kids - Greek History

Egypt and a Very Happy Birthday Boy

We adore Playmobil toys!  The very happy birthday boy received a ton of really nice gifts today, including some Egyptian grave robbers and the Sphinx, and he has spent the last 5 hours playing with them!  lol  Now I need to pry him away for bedtime. 

China

PASS World History Part 1 - Unit 4: Ancient Civilizations in India and China  Part A  Part B
KidsGeo Asia Map Match Game
Draw Dragon Dot Eyes: An Old Chinese Fable from StarFall
EDSITEMent: The Great Wall of China
Time For Kids: China

World History Links

Middle East Interactive Atlas
Story of the World Ancients Google Map
CIA World Factbook
Paula's Archives Movies to Supplement History list
Google Books preview: A Little History of the World by Ernst Hans Gombrich
MacroHistory and World Report
Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoonists Index Teacher's Guide
Woodlands Junior School: World History

Vikings

TCOO: How the Vikings of Old Sought and Found New Lands

Viking Tales by Jennie Hall

Vikingapyssel This site isn't in English, but there are some neat things to check out.

BBC Primary History: Vikings

Viking ship coloring page from Crayola

Japan

Kids Geo Asia Map Match Game
Japan tourism video on YouTube
Samurai on YouTube
Sumo on YouTube
Origami
Your Name in Japanese
Kokeshi Dolls
Japan Seen Through American Eyes (for 6 to 10 year old children)
Time for Kids: Japan
Zen Gardens

Nik's Zen Garden

Explorers of the World

This blog has some nice resources for a study of the explorers of the world.  I particularly love the Explorers Cards!

Imagine of Leif Erickson for timeline 
Image of Christopher Columbus for timeline  
Image of Hernán Cortés for timeline
Image of Francisco Vaquez de Coronado for timeline
Image of Ponce de Leon for timeline
Image of Hernando de Soto for timeline
Conquistador coloring page

Teacher Oz has a nice list of links for Exploration and Discovery.


The Mariners' Museum also has some nice resources on Exploration Through the Ages.


We hear so much about European explorers, but what about explorers from other parts of the world?  Chinese mariner Zheng He (Cheng Ho)


American Journeys is full of eyewitness accounts of exploration in North America for the older student.


Social Studies for Kids has lots of good info about a dozen or more explorers.

Ancient Egypt

It's nearly time for us to study Ancient Egypt.  I'm gathering resources to use right now.  The problem isn't finding activities, it's limiting them because I've found sooooooo much!

PASS World History Part 1 - Early Civilizations in Ancient Egypt  Part A  Part B free pdf text

My newest find came this afternoon in a Playmobil newsletter.  Did you know that Playmobil now has an online game called The Nile Game?  They also have a little movie titled The Magic Key.  Scroll around the screen to find the links to them, for some reason I cannot link directly to them.  The Nile Game is on the ship and The Magic Key is in the pyramid.  There are other things like an Activity Sheet, which appears to be a printable coloring page, and a Quiz!  My boys are going to be so excited!

We'll also be using Minnesota State University's Ancient Egyptian Culture page along with library books and books we already own.

ThinkQuest Ancient Egypt is not to be missed! ThinkQuest is an amazing resource!

Video Resources
~The are some History of Egypt videos on YouTube that we will be utilizing.
~And maybe the BBC documentary Pyramids - How They Were Built (also at YouTube.)
~And the National Geographic Tools For Adventure: Explore A Pyramid activity
~We will definitely use the Horrible Histories video (another YouTube one) called The Mummy Song.  My kids love the Horrible Histories!

Lapbook/Notebook Resources
~Homeschool Share Ancient Egypt Unit Study and Lapbook

Coloring Pages
~Kids-n-Fun Ancient Egypt coloring pages

I'll update with more links as I find them.