Are you homeschooling through summer? Or are you taking a break? Either way, at some point, you'll probably be looking for some activities to occupy your kids. Unit Studies are a great way to take a break from the regular routine of schoolwork. You can find studies on pretty much every subject under the sun, so whether you're hitting the amusement parks while off of school, or vacationing abroad, there are a myriad of studies that can be researched.
We happen to be a family that takes a break from most schoolwork for June, July, and a part of August, but there are plenty of days where we just need something to cure the boredom. Silverdale Press LLC came through for us and provided some excellent White House Unit Studies for us to review. There are six studies in this set, and may be used with ages ranging from 5 years, to 18 years, or in other terms, K-12. Conveniently, there are two options for these, an elementary option for the younger ones, and then an option for junior/senior high school students. That's great news for those of you with kids of varying ages.
How does your family celebrate holidays? Have you ever truly considered the history behind these special days, or are you content to put up a few related decorations, and go through the motions? Perhaps we know a bit more about the major holidays, but what about the origins of Labor Day, Veteran's Day, and yes, maybe even Thanksgiving? There are fascinating details to learn about the origins. We decided to tackle two of these studies, and kind of get an overview of the material, with our intention being that we will bring them back into our studies at the appropriate time during this next school year (meaning, when those holidays come back around). As we chose Labor Day and Veteran's Day, they are still patriotic, so with Independence Day approaching in July, they still fit in well for the this time of year.
The Labor Day study consists of 3 lessons:
Lesson 1 - Labor Conditions and Eleanor Roosevelt
Lesson 2 - The First Labor Day, Pullman Strike, and President Cleveland
Lesson 3 - A Holiday Declared
I love how the lessons are clearly outlined. You are told what the lesson is, the necessary materials, learning outcomes, and how long (approximately) the lesson will take. This Unit Study is so simple to follow. Read the directions, and do what is says, that's it. Everything is laid out for the student and teacher. There are introductory questions to pose to your kids to get them thinking, and spark a conversation. A fantastic feature of these White House studies, is the use of actual photos and primary source documents. I know that I appreciate that aspect more than my daughters at this point, but it's great nonetheless.
For this study, we looked at, and read an article by Eleanor Roosevelt about child labor, read speech transcripts from President's Cleveland, Roosevelt, and Reagan. I must say, one of the coolest parts of that lesson, was listening to the actual transcript by Franklin D. Roosevelt from September 6, 1936, from his fireside chat on drought conditions. We were able to read along from the part that we have in the study, for the last few minutes. THAT WAS COOL. You can listen to, by checking out this link: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/collections/utterancesfdr.html
This study explains how the holiday was instituted, and includes speeches on Labor Day from recent president's as well, right up to our current, President Trump. Fantastic, it's a fantastic study. I like the writing style of these lessons. They are intelligent, interesting, and easy to read. There are discussion questions that follow up the study.
Seeing that we are on a relaxed schedule, and that my girls are older, I had the girls read each of the articles, and transcripts (except for the Roosevelt's fireside chat, which we listened to together) independently, and then we discussed the questions together. When the next school year begins, I think that we'll incorporate more writing to the work, but I haven't decided yet. This way worked well, and the girls had no complaints, so we'll see. All in all, it was a study that I LOVED, and that my girls at least found interesting, which in 8th and 9th grade terms, is actually high praise.
Lesson 1 - President Woodrow Wilson and the Story of Armistice Day
Lesson 2 - Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
Lesson 3 - The Story of Dwight Eisenhower and How We Got Veteran's Day
Activities for the Veteran's Day included a crossword puzzle, photos of government posters of that era, as well as those of presidents. Once again, we answered the questions orally, and I had the girls do the readings independently. We enjoyed an interesting discussion about members on my side of the family, and my husband's side of the family, who were in the armed forces, and which of those family members had served in wars. We enjoyed this study as much as the Labor Day study. I cannot wait to not only revisit these two that we have worked through, but to include the others in this set.
We have done a few Unit Studies here and there, but I love the detail and richness that Silverdale Press LLC provides here. I love the content, the activities, the documents, the photos. No fluff here. I'm excited to include these in our junior high and high school curriculum. Check them out, you won't be disappointed.
We'll be working through the following studies as well...
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Other Crew members reviewed these Unit Studies, as well as a writing program from Silverdale Press LLC called, Persuasive Writing and Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers . Read all about them by clicking the banner below!
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