Homeschool History Units – Year in Review (Grades 9, 7, 4)

Oregon Trail

When we started back to school, I worked with my oldest quite a bit on Physics (more about that in the Science Year in Review post).  In the meantime, my younger two kids did a unit on the Oregon Trail and the Donner Party. They really enjoyed that unit!!

The girls read two “Dear America” books about the Oregon Trail (and the Donner Party). They are both written in a “journal” style.  The first is called The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds: The Donner Party Expedition. (affiliate link) It is the (fictional) journal of a young man on the Donner Party.  It really does a great job of explaining what it was like, who they encountered, dangers they faced, and introduced the kids to some of the “real” people who were on the ill-fated Donner Party. It touches on the sad ending but is not gruesome (I found it appropriate for my 9-year old.)  The other book is one we read years ago called Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell. (affiliate link) Again, it was a big hit. My girls really loved both of these books. Our family highly recommends these!They then did a lapbook project about the Oregon Trail and the Donner Party. They enjoyed this unit!

You can find out more about our Oregon Trail Packet here.

European History 1500-1800

Late in the fall, we finally started back to our study of European History.  We had left off with the Renaissance & Reformation (including the English Reformation – Henry VIII and his successors) and the Age of Exploration back in the spring of 2017.

This year, I wanted to get through several inter-connected units: the Age of Absolutism,  the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment. These radical ideas led to the American Revolution (which we studied a couple of years ago) and the French Revolution (which we studied this year).  We also spent time learning about Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars.

When we studied the Age of Absolutism, I had the kids choose one of the absolute monarchs of Europe and do a Power Point Presentation and speech about one of the rulers.  My kids really enjoyed this process. I gave them some guidelines (They had to do a minimum of 15 slides. They also had to include some animation. Plus, I had some guidelines about the type of content I wanted too.)  They all learned a lot and DD, my middle daughter, especially loves doing this kind of research and presentation.

Age of Absolutism: After sharing what they had learned, we spent quite a bit of time fitting it all together so the kids had a broader understanding of what happened in Europe. We talked quite a bit about the deadly Thirty Years War and about the Partition of Poland, the fate of Alsace, etc.

Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment Period: From there we went on to talk about many of the well known philosphers and thinkers of the period. Again, the kids did research projects and power point presentations on one of these figures.

We wound up playing many, many rounds of history bingo. 🙂  The kids really enjoyed that and it helped them to remember this information. My goal was to have them familiar with the material, not necessarily to remember that Montesquieu believed in the separation of powers and three branches of government!

We ended this long unit by watching a documentary about the French Revolution and Napoleon.  We read a number of books and history resources about the French Revolution.

These materials will be available later this summer (when I can get to it!!) 🙂