History Revealed and Resources

So our family has really gotten into learning history with more enthusiasm with the curriculum by Diana Waring: History Revealed. This is very interactive and hands on curriculum. Kids can choose from so many ideas or create their own to demonstrate their knowledge.  

Dive into three categories that you can start in middleschool and complete in highschool. It comes with teacher and student book, companion cd's and maps booklet.

  Ancient              Middle Ages          Modern   

 When we did Ancient Civilizations curriculum we also used books from the library (for visuals) and the Drive thru history DVD's. We also celebrated easter (passover) at a synagogue to get a Biblical experience. 
We are doing American history and here is the lesson plan: US history
Romans, Reformers, and Revolutionaries has the acronym "RRR" and World Empires, World Missions, World Wars has the acronym  "WWW".
Following are resources to enrich the experience even more for the modern history and the books:
Resources for teachers
Charlote Mason schedule

Movies we have watched alongside this curriculum:
Amazing Grace
First knight
Pride and Prejudice
The Patriot
Little Women
John Wycliffe

Yet to watch or to review:
Liberty Kids
Drive Thru: History American History
Monumental
Brave Heart

Days  to Celebrate:
Reformation Day
4th of July
Veterans Day
Memorial Day

Links to explore:

Timeline of English history


SAT personalized track Khan Academy

Sign in into your Khan Academy account. Then go to the following mission practices:

Math 
Reading
Essay

Spanish Resources

They loved it! My two oldest completed going through the entire course and had a blast following along this full of suspense drama series that teaches Spanish in a very interactive manner: "Mi Vida Loca"  The setting is in Madrid, Spain and this journalist is running away from the mysterious pursuer to keep her away from doing her work.



Now onto another recommended program: Destinos. Its like a "telenovela" style but it also comes loaded with vocabulary and practice exercises.


An idea I have is to get movies in DVD form  the kids have watched and set the language into Spanish. Ask them to write a few words for vocabulary build up.

Trying to make sentences and using what they learn is essential to getting a better grasp of the language. 

Computer Science

One fun way that my kids have gotten involved into computer science has been using scratch. It is geared towards kids ages to 8-16 and grades 3rd grade to high school. It uses a visual programing language. If you think that learning  Chinese and Hebrew is hard then you will find it hard to start to learn computer languages. But the best way my kids have enjoyed computer science is by using this visual programing language. They also take Khan Academy's computer programing free classes. Javascript is a programing language that is used in one of their favorite video games-Minecraft. Khan Academy's Javascript lessons are fun. If you are child is able to be in dual enrolment at the college your student  can take computer science classes for free while in highschool.


Check out:

  • Scratch  (create an account)
  • Khan Academy (create an account):

 Computer Programming  My kids have taken this one.
Pixar in a Box My kids have taken this one too. 

  • Check out dual enrollment at the college for free courses during highschool. Student has to pass the PERT test to be able to be dual enrolled. Check out free PERT classes and practice tests here
  • W3schools  lessons  from left menu or click next. Follow lesson all the way through the end. Lots of practice here. This website is great as a resource and cheat list.
  • Code.org 
The following are online resources where you pay  a fee for computer science courses but you can do them at your own leisure and pace.  Jquery, HTML 5, ASP,  Cloud Computing, Python, C,  C++, Javascript,  PHP,  SQL, web and app development are all part of the world of computer science.
  • Coursera offers online computer science courses for a fee
  • Codecademy free to a certain extent. I  have tried this one myself and I really enjoy it. I have done some PHP, Javascript, and HTML classes with them (their free ones). I would pay gladly if the level requires it.  Not there yet.
Animation:

Blender It is as professional as what Pixar uses for their animations only difference it is free. This program uses python and you can tell by your favorite animations and movies that use visual effects that software like this  can really be an amazing tool. We have taken tutorials online. I figure with 50 tutorials you shoulg get the hang of it,

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