Finishing Awesome American History

Hooray!  After three semesters, we finished our book and our study of American History!

Naturally, we had a party.

Miss Shelli brought the photos she had taken for our "Migrant Mother" project way back when we studied the Dust Bowl.

It really is amazing what you can do with a professional photographer (and beautiful friends and children) on staff!

So we took 3 semesters for World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern.  We also took three semesters for American History.

What's next?

Well, remember The Big Trip?  It kind of petered out because I wasn't able to keep up with History and Science classes as well as the regular home schooling AND The Big Trip.  But it would make an Awesome Geography class...

Stay tuned next semester, and see where we go with that!

Awesome History: 1973- 1981

 This was pages 308-329 in The American Story by Jennifer Armstrong: Billie Jean King (Women's Lib), Watergate, Muhammad Ali, the Edmund Fitzgerald, Mount St. Helens, Pac Man.


Our active activity was this fine baking soda and vinegar volcano. My mom grew up near (and camping on) Mount St. Helens, and I was 10 when it blew.  Ash rained down on my grandmother's house, and she mailed us some.  I went back a few years later and it looked something like this, but with more blasted tree trunks jutting from the ground like giant ribs.

 Our active activity was Pac Man tag.  If you haven't played it, it's very easy. 

You draw lines on your driveway (or use painted lines in a gym) and the Pac Man chases the other players along the lines, usually working their arms like Pac Man's mouth.

The way we played it, everyone did a fast walk, and you could not reach across lines.  If you were caught, you sat down, blocking your line.

 Our snack was goldfish crackers.  I think we were thinking of the lost ship, the Edmund Fitzgerald, and we may have been thinking it was a fishing vessel.  Actually it was the largest ship in the great lakes, and it hauled coal.

Regardless, Klenda played the song on her guitar, and then Leena played it on the piano, and my brain played it on endless loop for the rest of the day!

And we are almost done!  The last class will finish the book and we are already talking about what to do next year...

Awesome History: 1971-1972

This was pages 298-307 in The American Story by Jennifer Armstrong:Nixon and China, Bobby Fischer, and Marlon Brando.

For our art activity, we painted cherry blossoms using Sumi-e bamboo brushes.  Klenda taught this, and the paintings came out really well!

This was a reference to China and the Chinese cultural exchange opened up by "ping pong diplomacy."

 For our active activity (Bobby Fischer), we did chess.  All the older kids loved this, but we had other games available for the younger kids.

This was a plus for me, since I got to play my favorite "little kid's" game, Mystery Garden.  All of my kids have outgrown it, but our younger students were as enraptured as the Zoomlians had been.

And for our snack, we had egg rolls.

We are now in the part of history that I lived through, but before I really remember it (I was a toddler). 

Awesome American History:1945-1969

Well, that's a big bite of history!  This was three history classes squished into one, catching up from traveling and illness.

Because I am blogging these to give a possible framework to others (and so that I don't have to reconstruct the class if I ever do it again), I'm going to treat the
three weeks separately.

1945-1947, WWII, Computers, and the Housing Boom (pages 267-276 in The American Story by Jennifer Armstrong.). Our art activity was coloring WWII posters from this book.  Our active activity was playing Battleship from this printout.  Our snack was Sun Chips (like computer chips).

1952-1955, Polio, Segregation, Montgomery Boycott (pages 277-287 in The American Story by Jennifer Armstrong).  Our art activity was a bus for the Montgomery Boycott.  Our active activity was a vaccination game using Glogerm to show disease spread.  Our snack was black and white cookies (segregation).

1956-1969, Elvis, Cuban Missiles, Moon Landing (pages 288-297 in The American Story by Jennifer Armstrong).  Our art activity was doing pictures in rhinestones while listening to Elvis, our active activity was dancing to Elvis music, and our snack was "moon" cheese.

Incidentally, I'd like to give a shout out to Extra History's excellent short videos on the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

Awesome American History: 1925-1927

Awesome History is back with semester three out of three for American History!  This week we did the Iditerod, the Scopes Trial, and Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight: pages 235-245 in The American Story by Jennifer Armstrong.


We had a great active activity planned: we were going to do a dog sled activity using Shelli's very large, very affable dog and a wagon.  Unfortunately, it rained! 

The art activity, although more time intensive than we had planned, was a huge hit!

They made husky faces from a template and a mosaic of torn paper.  This was one of those projects that hits the sweet spot of things kids like to do that look fabulous, even with little kids.

 I don't think I've mentioned it it, but quite often, when we have an intensive project like this, we do half the kids at a time.  Most often, the boys have run off to talk Legos and Nerf weapons, and we start with the girls.  Then the girls go play while the boys work on it.



Leena decided to cut out her template in fine detail, and then spray painted it in layers.

The result was very cool, and the process was mesmerizing to the younger girls.

 Everything worked out perfectly:  the art project was long enough that no one really missed having an active activity.

The snack was hot pretzel "doggie bones."

I think if I do it again, and don't have a dog available, I would do paper airplanes as the active activity.  But as it happened, it was a great start to the semester!