History Year in Review (Grades 8, 6, 3)

Slavery and the Civil War

When we started back to school last August, we started a big unit on Slavery and the Civil War. We started with a study of the Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, Songhai in West Africa. I shared the books we used for this part of our unit and a free packet about West Africa here:

In our unit, we went over three main topics:

1. Slavery – a bit about the history of West Africa, the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Middle Passage, and slavery in America
2. Territorial Growth – As America acquired more territory, the issue of slavery became more divisive. We spent quite a bit of time looking as the slow growth of America — from  late 1700s with the Mason-Dixon Line and Northwest Ordinance which banned slavery north of the Ohio River… through the various compromises of the 1800s Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850 and the War with Mexico/Mexican Cession
3. Civil War – We talked about the difference between the North and South, which states joined the Confederacy, the North and South’s plans for winning the war, some of the major military and political leaders, and learned some of the highlights of the major battles.

• Slavery Books and DVDs we Used
• Slavery and the Civil War Packet – This is a 75-page packet about slavery, territorial growth & the various compromises, and the Civil War.  At this post you will also find a list of some of the books, documentaries and movies we used for this unit.

We also drove to Gettysburg spent a 3-day weekend there.  If you can manage a trip there, it is *definitely* worth it! It was a powerful weekend.

Highlights from our trip to Gettysburg:

This took us right up to November.  Instead of switching to studying European History (we had left off with the Renaissance from the previous spring), I had my older two do a research paper.

China Geography Packet

When we came to the first chapters on Ancient China, I wanted to go over some basic facts about China including the geography, government and some of the well known landmarks and features. This was the geography packet I made to cover some of these well-known sites:

The girls both did map projects on the Great Wall of China using project blocks (affiliate link)

You might want to check out our free Ancient China Packet which has notebook pages for studying the dynasties of China.

Reformation

The previous spring, we had studied the Renaissance and Reformation with Martin Luther.  We stopped there.  In January, we jumped back in to some studies about European History… picking up with some English history and the English Reformation under Henry VIII and his successors.  We watched a number of documentaries and movies… A lot has been created about the Tudors!

You can check out some of the resources we used as well as our notebook pages here:

You might want to check out the geography packet on famous British landmarks. It has some famous sites like the Tower of London and more! You’ll find the link to this packet here:

Age of Exploration

We spent quite a bit of time studying the Age of Exploration from the 14 and 1500s through the early 1600s.  We talked about the competition between Portugal and Spain as well as the growing role England had in the exploration and colonization of the New World.

Biography Resource Packet:

If your kids do any Biography Writing Projects, you might want to check out this free resource:

U.S. Presidents

In February around President’s Day, we usually take the opportunity to focus on our American Presidents.  Each year we have spent some time learning about an individual President.  Last year, for example we talked about Ronald Reagan.

These are some of the U.S. Presidents Resources I use with the kids. We’ve been singing the U.S. President song for quite a number of years now… and they know almost all of the Presidents in order now!

This year, we spent some time talking about Dwight Eisenhower. You can pick up those notebook pages here:  free notebook pages about President Dwight Eisenhower

Civics & Government

Each year, I try to spend some time talking about how the U.S. government works.  We spent time reviewing that material again this year: Civics and Government – 3 Branches of Government. This was good review for my older two.  My youngest has a better grasp this year, but we’ll need to go over the material again at some point next year, though she has most of the civics cards down. 🙂

Types of World Governments and Societies:

This year, though we started talking about the various types of world governments.  This is the first time we’ve talked about many of these concepts: Anarchy, Dictatorship, Totalitarian, Junta, Single- Party Rule, Republic, Representative Democracy, Theocracy, Monarchy, Parliament, Republic, Federal Government, Capitalism, Communism, Socialism.  Types of Governments Worksheets – World Leaders (Currently Free)

We also talked about some of the current world leaders (and what type of government their country follows).

We’ll definitely need to continue going over this material in the coming years.  This is pretty tough stuff!

Age of Absolutism
We had started talking about the Age of Absolutism and spent quite a bit of time talking about King Louis XIV of France.  We’ll probably pick up with that next year.  From there we’ll move into the

Age of Enlightenment

French Revolution