History

10 YouTube Videos for Exploring Central America

a stone ruin from central america

This year in our homeschool we will be studying Central America. Although we have a great collection of books to read about the topic, I also wanted to find age appropriate videos that show us more about the different countries we’ll be visiting. As much as we adore a literature-based homeschool curriculum, we still love adding on the visual component with online streaming.

I turned to YouTube and found many good picks that I know will enhance our learning.

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Explore Africa Through Streaming Video

an african scene of people biking and carrying goods

Exploring countries and cultures has been one of my favorite ways to learn with my kids about the world we live in. While we take trips as often as we can to experience first-hand the wonders of the world, there are other places that are out of reach for an educational adventure—Africa, for example.This massive continent has a profound diversity of culture and depth of history that come to life when we combine our history and geography curriculum with online video resources.

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Experience Ancient Greece with These Hands-on Homeschool Activities

ancient Greek ruins

One of the allures of BookShark is rather than teaching history to your children from a dry, boring history book, your children learn about history through literature. Instead of merely learning the facts about Ancient Greek culture and events, your children learn through characters (both fictional and historical) in an engaging narrative.

You can bring that knowledge to life even further by supplementing BookShark’s curriculum with hands-on learning experiences and culinary delights.

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13 Video Supplements for BookShark Eastern Hemisphere

map of china and a stone statue of Buddha

BookShark’s Reading with History Level 5 offers kids ages 10-13 a chance to study a part of the world that is often overlooked—the Eastern Hemisphere. While BookShark’s curriculum is meaty enough on its own, you can easily supplement the curriculum with plenty of great shows and documentaries to dig even deeper or to stretch the curriculum over a longer period of time. Pick and choose from among these resources. They’ll help you and your child learn even more about this fascinating part of the world.

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6 Ancient Egypt Activities to Do at the Kitchen Table

6 Ancient Egypt Activities to do at the Kitchen TableAre you studying ancient civilizations for homeschool history, for example BookShark Level 1 or BookShark Level 6? If so, you will probably find that ancient Egypt is one of the most fascinating topics you’ll cover. In addition to your scheduled reading, your child will probably enjoy supplementing with interactive, hands-on activities.

Are these extra activities necessary? Not at all! But some families truly enjoy making crafts and engaging in creative projects, and when those activities can connect to homeschool history lessons, it's all the better. Here are five relatively simple hands-on activities for ancient Egypt that you can do in your kitchen with supplies you already have in your home.

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A Delight-directed Study of Ancient Greece and Rome

a catapult made from craft sticks sits atop a stack of BookShark Readers

As a former teacher turned unschooling mom, one of the many things I love about BookShark is the variety of resources which spark interest in topics that might otherwise seem a bit dense for young children.

For example, I recently had the idea to introduce my six-year-old to the wonderful world of ancient Greek and Roman history. I was struggling to come up with a way to make it fun for her and something she’d want to explore for more than just one day. I wasn’t positive I could pull this off, but I wanted her to explore this important and downright cool period in ancient history.

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10 YouTube Videos for Exploring South America

a black and orange frog sits on a bright green stalk

My boys and I enjoy watching travel videos to supplement our homeschool explorations of history, geography, and sociology. We use videos in conjunction with books to help us get a better feel for the area of the globe that we are studying. Typically we will watch a clip or two from YouTube to get a feel for the country or continent before diving into our reading. After viewing a clip, we like to talk about the most memorable part of each video, writing down a few facts that we learned or noting questions we’d like to find the answer to later.

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Why Elementary Kids Need History & Science Alongside the 3Rs

a 4th grader works on science

Why Elementary Kids Need History & Science Alongside the 3RsOn social media or while talking to other homeschool moms, new homeschoolers often ask how much time they should expect their school days to take, or what subjects they should cover. Inevitably, some more experienced parents advise them to simply make sure they cover the basics of language arts and math, or tell them they don’t need to do school more than a few hours a morning during the elementary years.

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