Late Colonial Period Through Revolutionary War: Resources for Early North Carolina History

From sugar cakes to gun powder in the cabbages, so much was happening in North Carolina during this period in history. The French and Indian War, the construction of Fort Dobbs, the Regulator Movement, the Moravians settling in Salem, thousands of settlers moving ‘over the mountains’, a grand tea party in Endenton, the Mecklenburg Declaration and the Halifax Resolves to propel us into the Revolutionary War. Throughout the year we will be working our way through North Carolina History and geography. Each month I will share some resources specific to the topics and time periods we are studying that month. I also have a more comprehensive list of North Carolina history resources that I am continually updating as I find new resources.

History Resources Late Colonial through Revolutionary

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You might be wondering about Governor Martin and the Gun Powder in the cabbages. I find that children remember history much better when it is connected to a story and there are many wonderful stories from history. One story that my children love to retell when we are at historical events, is how Governor Martin hid the gun powder in the kitchen garden with the cabbages in an effort to keep the patriots from taking it after he fled from Tryon’s palace. Stories like this help children connect to the event and keep it from being a ‘boring list of events and dates’.

Another wonderful part of this time period is the Moravians settling in Old Salem. This is a culture steeped in interesting traditions (and food). We have been blessed to attend a homeschool day there as well as a Candle Tea event. If you are able, I highly encourage you to visit. However, for those that are unable to visit there are lots of great videos and recipes included in the lists below. One of the things my daughter found most interesting is that she was served coffee and not tea at the Candle Tea event.

Fort Dobbs is an often-forgotten historical site in North Carolina. Now, it’s just off the main road in a mostly residential area, but when it was built in 1755 it marked the boundary between the civilized British Colony and wild Native American lands. There is a lot of great history at the fort and they recently finished a creating a life size reproduction of the original fort that can be toured. They also offer several special homeschool days and other events with lots of living history. We were hoping to tour the fort on a recent trip through the area but unfortunately, they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We did get some great pictures from outside the gate and look forward to making another trip up that way soon.

There is a lot of moving, expansion, fighting, and growing going on in North Carolina during this time period. Despite being regarded as a poor, backwater colony by the British, North Carolina was a tinderbox and rather influential in the movement for independence. Understanding all of these things helps put the Revolutionary War into perspective and sets up a better understanding of the culture of North Carolina during this period.

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I encourage you to check out some of the wonderful resources I have found below (many of which are free) and tell me in the comments what resources you use to learn about the Lost Colony and the early colonial era. Don’t forget to check back next month for resources on the late colonial period through the beginning of the American Revolution.

North Carolina Late Colonial Through Early Revolutionary Period Resources

Books and Magazines:

Tar Heel History on Foot (good for multiple months)

Voices From Colonial America: North Carolina

Living History Classroom (Free Digital Magazine)

French and Indian War in North Carolina (for older students)

Farming Dissenters

The Young Reader’s Series of North Carolina History: “King George and Broadswords!” The Battle at Widow Moores Creek

Videos:

Old Salem Videos

Old Salem (C-Span)

Old Salem (PBS)

Friends in Liberty: North Carolina in the American Revolution

Trail of History Fort Dobbs

Fort Dobbs North Carolina Weekend

History Kids: French and Indian War

Battle of Alamance (short clip)

North Carolina’s Role In American Revolution

Websites:

Moore’s Creek PowerPoint

French and Indian War

Regulator Movement

History of Fort Dobbs

Eighteenth Century Timeline

NCpedia (An online encyclopedia of all things North Carolina)

Battle of Moore’s Creek Curriculum Materials

North Carolina in the Revolutionary War

North Carolina Continental Line

Field Trips:

Old Salem

Fort Dobbs

Tryon Palace

Alamance Battleground

Moore’s Creek Battlefield

Recipes:

Old Salem Recipes

History of Sugar Cakes

Moravian Sugar Cake

Colonial Pantries of North Carolina

A Taste of Carolina Colonial Recipes

Colonial Williamsburg Recipes (not North Carolina but the proximity means the food would have been similar)

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Deals and Freebies

The Old Schoolhouse is running a great special on their magazine! $19 for a year’s subscription and some fun digital curriculum as a bonus.

Crystal Paine is launching her newest e-book, Slashing Your Grocery Bill for a special launch price of just $7!! She always has great tips on saving money over at her blog, Money Saving Mom.

Sally Clarkson just launched her newest book, a devotional for moms! You can purchase it at Amazon now .

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

The Lost Colony through Early Colonial Period: Resources for Early North Carolina History

Last month we enjoyed learning about the American Indians that first inhabited North Carolina. This month we are moving on to the Lost Colony and the early colonial period which will cover through about 1750. This is one of my favorite historical periods and one that we frequently interpret, so my children are already very familiar with the period. I am excited about all of the field trip opportunities for this time period.

Throughout the year we will be working our way through North Carolina History and geography. Each month I will share some resources specific to the topics and time periods we are studying that month. I also have a more comprehensive list of North Carolina history resources that I am continually updating as I find new resources.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Field Trip Ideas

I would have loved to be able to take a trip back to Roanoke Island but it will not fit into our schedule this month. However, if you have the opportunity, I highly recommend both Fort Raleigh and Roanoke Island Festival Park. For more information you can check out this Field Trip Friday post from a couple of years ago. We do, however, have the opportunity to visit Historic Edenton and we may possibly be able to get to Historic Bath as well.

Next month we have to be near Fort Anderson so we plan to make a late trip over there to wrap up this era. We will also be visiting a local school and our the North Carolina State Fair to do some historical interpreting from the colonial period.

Books and Videos

Last year we did a read aloud of White Doe in the Mist which is a fun fictional story about the Lost Colony. It was a fun book but I do want to note that there is some talk of fictional supernatural experiences and ghosts. We are going to use Tar Heel History on Foot to take a couple of walking tours of local historic areas including Edenton. I also plan to read aloud the applicable parts of Voices From Colonial America: North Carolina.

Our Favorite Story

Both the Lost Colony and Blackbeard can be very fun and engaging ways to begin teaching about this period in North Carolina history. Another fun story is the alligator that was under John Lawson’s house. My children had the privilege of hearing this story as preschoolers from one of their favorite historical interpreters at our local historic site. To this day they talk about that story anytime there hear John Lawson’s name. If you have a high school student you may want to read A New Voyage to the Carolinas by Lawson. He does speak about some mature topics but it provides great coverage of what he found on his voyages here in the Carolinas.

In addition, we will be watching several of the videos below and having them choose an appropriate book or novel to read independently to accompany our study. As we get started on our study, I may decide to go deeper into one area or another based on their interests.

North Carolina Lost Colony through Early Colonial Period Resources

Books:

Tar Heel History on Foot (good for multiple months)

White Doe in the Mist

Roanoke The Lost Colony

A New Voyage to the Carolinas

New Bern: Tales from the Inner Banks

The Colonist at Roanoke Island

Blackbeard! Secrets From Queen Anne’s Revenge

Voices From Colonial America: North Carolina

Videos:

Tales From Queen Anne’s Revenge

VIPs at Tryon Palace

Birth of a Colony: North Carolina

Roanoke Superhighway

The First Lost Colony

Websites:

Seventeenth Century Timeline

Eighteenth Century Timeline

NCpedia (An online encyclopedia of all things North Carolina)

American Indian Timeline

Field Trips:

Fort Anderson

Roanoake Island Festival Park

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

Historic Edenton

Historic Bath

Beaufort Maritime Musuem

Recipes:

Colonial Pantries of North Carolina

A Taste of Carolina Colonial Recipes

Colonial Williamsburg Recipes (not North Carolina but the proximity means the food would have been similar)

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Deals and Freebies

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

The First North Carolinians: Resources for Early North Carolina History

When I say the first North Carolinians, who comes to mind? Are you thinking of the Lost Colony? We will get to the Lost Colony soon, but this month we are talking about tho.

We will work through North Carolina’s History and geography throughout the year. Each month I will share some resources specific to the topics and time periods we are studying that month. I also have a more comprehensive list of North Carolina history resources that I continually update as I find new resources.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links; see below for more information. *

As we delve into North Carolina history this month, we will begin by studying the American Indians of North Carolina. I am excited about this study because I know very little of my ancestry, but the little I know traces my roots back to the Tuscarora Indians of North Carolina.

We started our study by watching North Carolina American Indians Live! as a family. This very educational film shared the historic lives of American Indians and their modern-day lives. It helps to dispel some myths about modern-day American Indians. Next, we plan to check out the Pepsi Regional History Center.

Over the next several weeks, we plan to try out some of the recipes and read the book If You Lived with the Cherokee together. My son will be researching a tribe or aspect of the life of the American Indians in pre-colonial North Carolina and presenting it to us as a family. He will complete a stop-motion video to accompany his project if time allows.

My daughter will be completing the American Heritage Girl badge on Native Americans, focusing on those in North Carolina.

While I do not think we will make it to Town Creek or Cherokee this month, I hope we can travel to at least one of those locations before our study of North Carolina history is complete. They offer wonderful resources to better help us understand those native tribes.

If you have a tribe near you, many of them offer festive and educational events that are open to the public. You can learn more about their ancestors and their current traditions.

I encourage you to check out some of the wonderful resources I have found below (many of which are free) and tell me in the comments what resources you use to learn about American Indians. Don’t forget to check back next month for resources on The Lost Colony through the early colonial era.

North Carolina American Indian Resources

Books:

If You Lived with the Cherokee

The First Strawberries: (A Cherokee Tale)

Soft Rain (Trail of Tears)

Only the Names Remain (Trail of Tears)

Native Carolinians

Videos:

North Carolina American Indians Live!

American Indians in North Carolina (distance learning class)

Websites:

North Carolina American Indian Educational Resources

NCpedia (An online encyclopedia of all things North Carolina)

The Tuscarora

American Indian Timeline

Field Trips:

Pepsi Regional History Center

Town Creek Indian Mound

North Carolina Museum of History

Cherokee

Museum of the Cherokee Indian

Roanoke Island Festival Park

Trail of Tears National Historic Trail

Recipes:

Cherokee Favorites

United Cherokee Nation Recipes

American Indian Food

Corn Soup

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Deals and Freebies

As we enter into the fall season and return to our routines it often feels much like a new year and a chance to start over. What are you doing to get/stay healthy? I am trying to drink more water and take daily walks.
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Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Adding Fun Into Your Homeschool: Field Trips

When we started homeschooling, my oldest son was in first grade and my daughter was four but wanted to ‘do school’ like big brother, so she was doing a mix of preschool and kindergarten materials. I had set up our school schedule and thought I had a great plan. It worked for a week or two but then we found the other homeschoolers in our area and started hearing about all of these wonderful opportunities. A trip to the fire department, a local play, a trip to the nature center. I jumped at the opportunity to be involved in these wonderful trips and saw how much my children were learning.

Adding Fun Field Trips

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There was just one problem, it was putting me behind on my schedule and I felt like I was struggling to keep up with my plans and these trips. By the second year, I realized that I needed to value these opportunities and leave space for them in my plans. I started planning for a four-day school week and allowing a day for field trip, or enrichment, opportunities each week. While it looks a little different now with two middle school students, I still allow for a field trip day each week because I think those opportunities are invaluable. They learn so much for the real-life environments and they have fun. When people ask my 13-year-old why he likes homeschool better than public school, one of the first things he says is that he gets to go on more field trips. Our field trips range from a quick trip to the local library, a day visit at a nearby nature park or aquarium, to incorporating learning opportunities into family vacations out of state. They all provide a variety of learning opportunities.

For young children, field trips provide great exposure to a variety of people and places that they need to be familiar with particularly the group that are often called, “community helpers”. What better way to understand about police officers, postal workers, firemen, and other community workers than to talk to them, see them working, and learn about their jobs. A trip to the fire department most often also includes some great fire safety education to help keep them safe in our homes.

You can talk about flowers, birds, and fish all day long, but if you want to get a child really excited about those things, they need to see them. Hikes in your local park and trips to the aquarium, zoo, or nature center can help students really enjoy learning about the world around them and give them a greater appreciation for God’s creation. Many state and national parks offer free or inexpensive classes and guided programs, and self-guided junior ranger activities to help them learn more about different aspects of nature that are present in that park. We have enjoyed bird walks, tree identification programs, and a nature scavenger hunt at area parks.

I feel saddened every time I hear someone say that history is boring. Too often people view history as a list of dates and names to memorize. When my children were in preschool we were very blessed to find living history programs geared towards preschoolers at our local historic site. We would attend once a month and they would bring history to life. There were crafts, impersonations, tours, and more that all made them excited to learn about history. Historic interpreters and living history events can really bring history to life and make it so much more fun and exciting. We now actively search out living history events at other historic sites to visit and volunteer our time at our local site to help bring history to life for other families.

I have had people tell me that they don’t have the budget for field trips and I know this is true in some situations. However, please note that trips do not need to be expensive or far away to add in lots of fun and education. Many of the parks and sites are free or only a couple of dollars per person and some offer group rates for homeschool groups. Most of the community services will do free field trips. There are also often homeschool discounts at larger venues such as aquariums and zoos. When we go overnight, we often camp in a state or national park to save money over hotels (most charge around $25 a night) and pack most of our meals.

I would love to hear about how you incorporate field trips into your homeschool. For more information about specific field trips check out our Field Trip Friday posts. Thank you for joining us this week for the blog hop! Don’t forget to check back often for more homeschool encouragement and check out the other posts in the hop today.

CREW @ Homeschool Review Crew – 2019 Annual Not Back to School Homeschool Blog Hop

Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses – ABC of Homeschooling

Dawn @ Schoolin’ Swag – Adding Fun to Your Homeschool Day

Erin @ For Him and My Family – Large Family Homeschooling

Lori @ At Home Where Life Happens – Learning Life Skills

Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling – Homeschooling the High School Years

Monique D. @ Early Learning Mom – Homeschooling With Autism

Yvie @ Homeschool On the Range – 5 Days of Upper Grades Homeschooling

Abby @ Making Room 4 One More – Time Management for Homeschool Moms

Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool – 5 Days of Homeschool Questions

Amy @ the WRITE Balance – Year-Round Schooling

Annette @ A Net in Time – Homeschooling.

Betty @ Lets Get Real – Homeschooling High School

Cassandra @ My Blessed Mess – Eclectic Homeschooling
Kimberley @ Vintage Blue Suitcase – Roadschooling with a Teenager

Yvonne @ The Life We Build – 5 Days of Relaxed Homeschooling

Destiny @ Some Call It Destiny – Encouragement for the Homeschooling Mom

Karen @ Tots and Me…Growing Up Together – A Peek into Our Homeschool

Cassie D @ Deputie Tribe – Homeschooling 6 Taking Care of YOU

Kristen Heider @ A Mom’s Quest to Teach –Theme: A Quest for a Great Homeschool Year

Patti Pierce – Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy – My Favorite Homeschooling Things

Wendy @ Life on Chickadee Lane – 5 Days of Nature Study

Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning – Homeschooling my final 4

Christine @ Life’s Special Necessities – Yes! You Can Homeschool Your Special Needs Child

Sally M – Tell the Next Generation – Tips for Homeschooling Struggling Learners

Kim @ Good Sweet Love – Last Year of Elementary

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Deals and Freebies

Back to School Bundle Sale going on now!! Back to Homeschool Online Course Bundle

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month! Buy One year get One Year FREE! We use this for several of our courses and one price covers all the students in your home for as many of their over 400 courses and you would like to use.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

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Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

SoTW Ancient History Week 1 and a few other fun lessons!

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We eased back into our homeschool routine this week after enjoying some summer fun last month. While not perfect, I was pleasantly surprised at how the transition went. It can be really hard for my children to transition from the freedoms of break to the more structured ‘school days’. I intentionally kept this week just a little lighter and shorter to help ease the transition and we were finished most days by lunch time.

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For our first week of volume one of Story of the World we did the introduction lesson. This is a shorter chapter that explains history and archeology. This was very much a review for my older children and we kept it fun and simple. I read the chapter aloud and then we did a fun chocolate chip cookie archeology activity.

My four year old helped me bake cookies with chocolate chips and pecans in them. Then each child was given a cookie, a toothpick, and a pastry brush. They used the ‘tools’ to excavate the cookie and count how many chocolate chips and how many pecans were in their cookie. Then we snacked on cookies and milk! The activity was a big hit but if I had it to do over again I would have purchased some small paintbrushes to use instead of the pastry brushes just to have the sizing work out better.

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Then one night this week we settled in for a family viewing of The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells. This fun and lighthearted show has a great explanation of archeology and had the children laughing while they learned. If your children are new to these concepts, you might want to include some of the other activities from the activity book or our free lesson resources guide.

In other Story of the World news I have updated the book list through chapter 26! I’m hoping to work on it some more this weekend and I am still on pace to be finished by the end of September with all 42 chapters. Check it out and let me know in the comments if there are any great books that I missed.

Next we will dive into chapter one and learn about the earliest people and the nomadic way of life. I’m looking forward to letting them do a cave art activity. We will be reading the chapter and completing both the map from the activity guide and a Nomadic Life notebooking page. I am hopeful that the notebooking pages will be a good way for them to show me what they learned and help it ‘cement’ into their memories.

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In our Apologia Science text we were learning about gravity, friction, traction, and drag. This was a lot of fun and they are excited to finish the chapter next week. We had the chance to look at their bikes and the hand brakes that they use to see how friction is used to stop their bikes. In addition to a few other small science experiments that were included with that chapter, we decided to make a homemade slip and slide and test out what they had learned about friction and using a lubricant to reduce friction. It maybe September here but the weather is still quite warm so this was a fun way to cool off on a Friday afternoon and probably their favorite activity this week.

The preschooler had great fun learning about the letter A and doing chalk pastel art lessons on his trampoline! We have all been enjoying working through the Forensic Faith book that we are reviewing and I can’t wait to share more about that with you in a few weeks. The older children did a wind in the trees art lesson that turned out really cute. Just in case you think that our week seems to have gone too smoothly or easily, I will say that we lost a DVD that was integral to my son’s writing curriculum and my daughter is missing her science notebooking journal. There were also some moments where we had to work through issues with them, but all in all it was a good first week back and we are excited to see what this year brings.

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Deals and Freebies!

Free 5 Day Learning without Worksheets Challenge: FREE 5-Day Learning Challenge We have done several of her different challenges in the past and they are lots of fun and easy to implement.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Join Us For An Adventure Through Ancient History!

As many of you know we spent the last year focusing on US History. We are now ready to begin our second four year cycle through world history. We will be using Story of the World as our spine and adding in fun activities, literature selections, and lots of tasty food to make this a fun and engaging family study. I will have a 7th grader, 5th grader, and four year old tag-along this year as we work through Ancient Times.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

I have created a page of extra book recommendations. I have started with the first ten chapters but will be adding to that each week until I have finished all forty chapters of Volume 1 (and I plan to add the other volumes as we get to them). I have also created a resource list for each chapter that will include books, art, websites, food, movies, and other resources. At the end of this post you will find a free download of the resource lists for the first ten chapters. I will add the other chapters to the blog once they are finished.

We will begin Story of the World in September and I will be sharing with you the various ideas and projects that we use along the way. There will be extension ideas for the older children (literature, writing, research) and fun ways to include younger children. We will cover roughly one chapter per week, though there are a few chapters we will spread out over two weeks and a few that we will combine. In addition to Story of the World and the Activity Guide, we will be using some resources from The Productive Homeschooler,(formerly Notebookpages.com), You Are An Artist, and Home School in the Woods. I have also found many free websites, videos, and printables to round out the program.

You Are An Artist has a wonderful art curriculum that combines history and art together. We have the You Are An Artist Complete Clubhouse Membership that allows us to use both the history art lessons as well as dozens of other courses including maps, hymns, nature and more. However, if you just want art to go along with your history she offers a history subscription or the Ancient History Course. You can even try out the Coliseum video lesson for free!

This is our second time going through Story of the World and my two oldest children remember many of the lessons with great fondness. They loved making apple mummies, Lego pyramids, and cooking ‘ Elephant Ears’. We will repeat some of these activities but also look to go deeper into some of the studies. There are ideas and suggestions for a variety of learning styles. I look forward to sharing this Adventure through Ancient History with you and hope that you will join us in learning about ancient cultures and people.

Volume 1 Resources Chapters 1-10

Volume 1 Chapters 11 through 15

Volume 1 Resources Chapters 16-20

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Deals and Freebies!

You Are An Artist Clubhouse Memberships are now Open for enrollment!!

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$0.99 for 3 Months of Kindle Unlimted (limited time offer)

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Modern/Cold War (1953-80)

For the month of may we will be focusing on modern history through the Cold War from 1953-1980. This will incorporate the space race, Vietnam War, Kennedy Assassination, the Civil Rights movement and the building of the interstate system.

One of the things that I look forward to most with this more modern history is the availability of firsthand accounts. We are able to talk to people who served in Vietnam, people who were a part of the civil rights movement. Though we do not know anyone that worked with NASA we do know people that remember the build up and watching that first shuttle launch. My children have grandparents that can tell you where they were when Kennedy was assassinated and friends and neighbors that serves in Vietnam. This personal connection helps make history more meaningful to the children.

Based on our schedule we are going to first cover the interstate system and the Vietnam War. We have been studying Vietnam on the side because of Heroes Next Door so for us this will be the culmination of those studies. We have a bit of traveling to do this month so the children can get real world experience with the interstates.

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Then we are going to cover the Civil Rights movement and the Kennedy Assassination. There are some excellent books that talk about the Civil Rights Movement as well as an exhibit at the North Carolina History Museum. In this month’s resources there are some great YouTube videos from this period that include recordings of speeches and news coverage.

We will follow that up with a week of Space Exploration.This is always an exciting topic for the children to explore. Matthew has been reading Heroes of History: Alan Shepard that is a great biography to include in this study. There are fun science experiments that can be done to better understand space and some additional YouTube videos of news coverage. For a bit of fun you can watch these videos of children’s books being read aloud in space.

We will close out the month with a study of the Cold War. This can be a difficult concept for children but we are going to use The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss to introduce the concept. My son is very interested in spies so we are going to also include some books like The CIA and Other American Spies. I plan to use lots of pages from our NotebookingPages subscription to help them share and organize what they are learning.

For field trips we are planning on the North Carolina History Museum and the Eisenhower Historic Site. We will also do virtual tours of a fall out shelter and NASA. We will round out the month with some Astronaut Ice Cream and maybe a trip to Chick-fil-a which first opened during this time period. There are many other great movies, books, and television shows that I’ve included in this month’s resource list. Let us know how you plan to study this era in history!

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Victory Gardens and Ration Books

20180405_120333 — It doesn’t look like much now since the seeds have not sprouted but hopefully by the end of the month it will have beautiful plants.

World War II changed the fabric of the United States in ways that are unthinkable to us today. How do we help them understand what life was like here on the home front during the World War II period? I really wanted my children to understand the sacrifices that were made by both our military and our civilians during World War II. This week we have been focusing on life on the home front. In addition to conversations about what it was like we planted a Victory garden and started using our simple version of ration books.

For the Victory garden, the children first researched what types of foods would typically have been planted in a Victory garden as well as the types of seeds that could be planted in our climate this time of year. Then they had to till the soil and remove any weeds. Once the soil was ready they went through and found seeds that were appropriate and planted the seeds. Over the next few weeks they will tend to the garden and hopefully get to enjoy some of the ‘vegetables’ of their labor.

If you do not have enough space or have other restrictions that do not allow for a full garden a few small containers can still give you a hands on experience. My three year old wanted his own so we cut off the top of a milk carton, filled it with potting soil and planted lettuce. You can make something simple like our milk carton planter or purchase indoor gardening kits like this farmers garden window sill kit or these herbs in a jar.

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Rationing can be a difficult concept for children who have been blessed to never live through it to understand. So we created a simple ration sheet and chose three things to ‘ration’ in our house for the month of April. We are rationing chocolate milk, candy, and kindle/computer time. Real ration books had removable stickers that you turned in to procure your goods. However, in the interest of simplicity ours is more like a check sheet that will get marked each time they use one of those items. Once all the boxes are checked for an item, they do not get any more of that item until May. If this is something you are interested in, you can find a copy of it with the items left blank in the free resource library (you can sign-up for access at the bottom of this post). The children are very excited about the project, but I’m not sure how they will feel when they run out of something before the end of the month. I’ll keep you updated in our history updates.

We also watched a few video shorts from training and propaganda videos for World War II. These were popular cartoon characters that were used to encourage support for the war or train soldiers. There are many of them but some of them may not be appropriate for all ages due to crude humor. I have shared some links below to some that we found were good examples.

I have also found a few recipes that were designed for making foods using rations and limiting ingredients that were hard to come by. We are going to try a few of those recipes over the next few days. If they are enjoying that, I may challenge them to modify some of our favorite recipes to be more ‘ration’ friendly and see what they can create.

I have included some links below that have great information on Victory gardens and rationing. I would love to know if you try any of these ideas or if you have other ideas for helping children understand what life on the home front was like during World War II.

Victory Gardens

Rationing

Videos

When you sign up for our free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

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Deals and Freebies!

As someone who is trying to balance a six week old, homeschool, blog, and all of the other things life is throwing at me and still be consistent with my daily walk with God this webinar really appeals to me. I also happen to love Jami Balmet and have done several of her online workshops.

Want to learn how to find God in the middle of your busy life? Jami Balmet and Ultimate Bundles are hosting a free webinar called Finding God in Your Busy Day (creative ways to grow your faith when you don’t have time for devotions). Jami will teach you where to find unexpected pockets of time for God and devotions, where to find Bible Study resources, and what your Bible study time should consist of. Register for the webinar.

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Our new middle grades historical fiction novel, Heroes Next Door: Hornet 24 is now on Amazon available for pre-order with a release date of April 10th! We are super excited about this and would love to have you share it with your friends!

The Gilded Age: Biltmore Estate

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Our family went to Biltmore Estate back in September even though we knew it was out of order for our history journey. We wanted the chance to go during their homeschool days. The theme for that session was Farm to Table, which is a concept that is near and dear to my heart. We make a concerted effort to teach our children where their food comes from and to buy local whenever possible.

Biltmore had a variety of activities set up for the children to participate in and learn more about food and where it comes from. These activities took place at Antler Hill farm which is on the estate property. They were able to see farm equipment from the early 1900s, watch a blacksmith and a carpenter at work, see a bee keeper and his equipment and participate in a variety of hands on activities. They played farm to table matching, made corn husk flowers, carrot seed tapes, learned about and matched up a variety of foods with different methods of preserving them, and other fun activities. They also had a chance to see and pet some farm animals. My three year old particularly enjoyed an activity where they used a variety of vegetables to paint pictures showing different patterns and textures.

My eleven year old son enjoyed seeing the blacksmith and the carpenter at work. My daughter loves anything crafty, so the corn husk flowers, bean seed magnets, and painting were favorites for her. They also sent us home with several activity sheets that the children could work on at home and we had a packet of education activities that they could do before and during our trip that incorporated Biltmore and the Farm to Table theme.

Biltmore raises part of the food for their on-site restaurants. They were able to show and talk about how they use hydroponics for lettuce and sprouts, raise their own beef cattle and pork, as well as eggs from chickens and other crops.

We spent our morning going through the activities over at the farm and then having a picnic lunch. After lunch we drove over to the actual home for our tour and a chance to see the gardens. The tours are self-guided and self-paced. There is information in the handout about the rooms on the tour and some of the rooms also have employees available to answer questions. They also offer a scavenger hunt/information sheet for the children. I highly recommend this as the house can be a bit overwhelming for children and this helped to keep them focused.

You do not see all of the rooms in the house but there are a good variety on the tour. You see bedrooms, kitchens, pantries, laundry, living areas, the library, and much to the children’s pleasure the pool and bowling alley. While I truly have no desire for a house that big, I have to admit that the wonderful walk in pantries did make me a tad jealous. I can’t quite imagine having a kitchen that large with so much storage area around it. The children all wanted the indoor pool. I really enjoyed the tour but do think that the highlight of the day for the children were the extra activities and the waterfall at the lower end of the bass pond.

Once we had finished the tour we went on a walk through the gardens and green house area. This was beautiful with many roses and other flowers still in bloom. On the far end of the garden is a bass pond and a small waterfall. That was a fun chance for the children to run, play and get a little energy out after a long day. It is a great deal of walking so you want to be prepared for that, especially if you have small children.

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All in all this was a great chance for them to learn about agriculture as well as how the wealthy would have lived during this time period in history. One of the unexpected connections and ‘take-aways’ that the children had was that the games they demonstrated, Graces and hoop and stick, were essentially the same games that they played during colonial times. In today’s world of new games and toys every year it was interesting to see the longevity that toys had in past times.

If you are not already signed up to get our monthly list of history resources as well as all of our other freebies, sign-up below. I’ll send you an email every other week letting you know what new stuff we have on the blog and in the library.

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Week 2: The Industrial Revolution

This week was a lot of fun. My husband helped the children out by giving them a list of food companies that got their start during this time and are still in business today. Then the research began. They had to look up each company and see what they were selling then and how it compared to what they were selling now. Amazingly enough some of them are still selling very similar products. For example, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and Dole canned pineapple. We narrowed down their choices a bit to make a bit more practical list and let them help me find the items to purchase for their industrial revolution tasting party.

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Making a meal out of the tasting was a little interesting and some of the products we talked about were put aside for another meal (like the Corn Flakes) but they enjoyed Campbell’s tomato soup, saltines, sliced pepperoni and dried beef, and pineapple for lunch. They washed that down with a rare treat of Pepsi. Then for dessert they had Cracker Jacks, Oreo’s, and Hershey’s chocolate. They explained each one as we talked at lunch to show when it was first produced by the company and how the industrial revolution had influenced that food.

The children worked together to build a Lego display depicting the reconstruction of the south. They had to present the display and explain what each part was and how it represented reconstruction. While it may not look like much without an explanation, they were able to talk about rebuilding homes, replanting farms, new railroads, and steamships.

lego reconstruction

In addition we found a few clips from a Modern Marvels episode on YouTube that discussed Henry Ford’s assembly line approach. It was really helpful for the children to be able to see the assembly lines and understand the process.

Next week we are going to study Theodore Roosevelt in honor of Presidents’ Day and spend some time on my favorite subject for this time period, The Wright Brothers! We have a read aloud, a model, and a few other activities to go along with the Wright Brothers.

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