Victory Gardens in 2013

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Homemade Salsa

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{Written by: Samantha and Hannah}

We grew our own tomatoes, green peppers, and hot peppers last year. We also had a pot of our own grown spices and herbs filled with cilantro, basil, and rosemary. A friend gave us an amazing salsa recipe. The salsa was flavorful, frugal, and we know exactly what is in it. The salsa tastes great in chili, and you can omit the spicier ingredients to make a fantastic spaghetti sauce. Since canning last fall, we have been eating salsa all winter, and we still have 24 quarts left!


Here is the recipe for our homemade salsa:

12 cups of peeled and chopped tomatoes
3 cups of chopped celery
3 cups of chopped onion
1/4 cup of salt
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of vinegar
2 tablespoons of red ground pepper
2 tablespoons of mustard seed

Boil these ingredients above for 10 minutes. After that is finished, add these:

2 12 oz. cans of tomato paste
2 cups of chopped bell pepper

If you want a more mild salsa add 6-8 chopped jalepeno pepper, and if you want a hot flaming salsa you can add more.
Note: If you have only 2 1/2 cups of chopped celery or 3 1/2 cups of onion, it will taste fine. You can experiment until you find a combination that you and your family enjoys.

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Homeschooling History, Spelling, & English

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In third grade public school, I was still reviewing two and three letter words. For a while, I was actually discouraged (from teachers) from reading chapter books because they were too "hard", yet when tested in third grade I was at a high school reading/comprehension level. The only history, geography, and vocabulary I knew were because I went home, read, and studied all of the US states, capitals and locations.

I loved books, and never did history until my first year of homeschool - and I used textbooks. I wish I would have known it was possible to create a curriculum with books. Because I would have devoured that curriculum.

Here are three free ways to homeschool history AND language arts AND spelling and vocabulary in elementary and middle school...without a ton of printables!!


Use books and the library

You can homeschool through books and know much more than a textbook could ever teach you. (And I'm not talking just dry-biographies.) I believe a well-written historically-accurate fiction novel can teach you more (historically) then a long and boring textbook. I mean, with a textbook, you can study it and if you're like most people, forget everything you learned after the test. But books stay with you long after you've read them.
VISIT YOUR LIBRARY'S WEBSITE. Use Worldcat.org to see the closest library with the book you want. See if your library offers free Inter Library Loan. Search online for age-appropriate historical biographies/memoirs/fiction and check them out at your local library.

"Historical fiction? Why would I waste time on fiction? It probably has a lot of inaccuracies."

Frankly, a history textbook is not error free.
Some of my favorite books are fictional biographies. Fictional biographies are true stories with some fiction drama or dialogue mixed in. In order for the biography to be INTERESTING, it has to have dialogue and little details. Since the author cannot go back in time and hear every word the person says, they use their imagination, while trying to stay as accurate as possible. (i.e. "She gasped, immediately posting the picture of the sinking Titanic on Facebook." would not be found in a historical fiction)
You might see a little-known piece of history in a book, and that might lead to an intense Internet research and boom! That boring biography just got more interesting from that exciting work of fiction.


Books also have two advantages to textbooks:

• In a textbook, you are limited to the views of the author and what the author thinks a student should know about history. You cannot go through every time period thoroughly with a textbook. For example, a textbook may dedicate a page, maybe less, to World War II. You go through a bunch of boring dates about Pearl Harbor, D-Day, and the Atomic Bomb. But what about the courageous men and women who risked their lives resisting the Nazis, smuggling secret information, helping Jews? With a textbook, WWII just becomes another boring time in history.
• Books make you THINK. Textbooks are just fact-fact-fact. Books have plots, characters, and what-if's.
• Books bring history to LIFE. Therefore, are easier to remember because facts are interwoven with the story.

You can combine spelling/vocabulary, language arts, and history into one subject. Look into what your child should be learning in a particular grade. Diagram simple sentences in the book you are reading. Point out verbs, adjectives, nouns, and prepositions. If a word you are unfamiliar with pops up in a book, there is your spelling and vocabulary words for the week! For older students, book reports, character analysis', and other essay reports are appropriate.

Use historical movies, docudramas, and documentaries

This section is more for upper middle school, junior high, and high school, rather than elementary school.

The 2012 Oscar Best Picture winner Argo (an amazing movie!) is getting bashed for a few Hollywood drama fictional elements, and Spielberg's Lincoln is getting bashed for a few historical inaccuracies. Some are not saying history should not be taught with Hollywood movies. I disagree. Take the movie Pearl Harbor, for example. On IMDb, there are 47 historical goofs listed. However, through the flawed Pearl Harbor, we learned about the very-real Doolittle Raid and that led to an intense Internet search on James Doolittle. Again, you cannot go that in-depth with every subject in a textbook. It simply isn't possible.

Docudramas are probably my favorite type of movie/documentary. Normally, a docudrama includes a narrator(s) and/or facts that pop up during the film. They combine historical footage/pictures with a dramatization. They are definitely more accurate than movies.

Documentaries are probably the most accurate. The History Channel and National Geographic has some really interesting ones, and a lot of them are available free YouTube, Hulu, or their respective websites.

Most historically-accurate movies, docudramas, and documentaries would not be appropriate for young children for obvious reasons.

Act it out

If your child would rather move around than sit and read a book, that's fine too. Live like kids during the 1900s for a day. Visit a historical museum. Bake a dish that was popular in the 1860s. Turn the living room into Ancient Egypt and act out the biblical story of Moses. Listen to 1940s jazz for a day or draw your own 1950s dresses after finding inspiration in Pinterest. Watch classic movies such as Sergeant York (1941, for older students) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney, made in 1937) or a Charlie Chaplin film.

Examples/Ideas

*Younger elementary means grades 1-3

*Older elementary means grades 3-6

Being said, you can easily homeschool multiple grades with this technique.

MAGIC TREE HOUSE SERIES - YOUNG ELEMENTARY

For readers a little too young to read the American Girl series on their own, the Magic Tree House series is geared toward children in grades 1-3. The stories are filled with the adventures of two siblings, Jack and Annie and their travels back in time and around the world. This series is immensely popular, and libraries will often have the entire series. Some of the books even have non-fiction supplements that go with the book. I would recommend the 29 first books, because the rest of the series (The "Merlin Missions") are more fiction/adventure than historical fiction.

AMERICAN GIRL SERIES - ELEMENTARY

If you have elementary-aged girls who love reading, the American Girl series would definitely be a great choice. Each American Girl has six books, featuring stories of girls ages 9-11 in important times in American history. The books are clean, yet historically accurate. Since the series is fairly popular, most libraries will have all of the books. There are eleven historical characters so far, so you would be reading two books per week to stay on schedule. Each American Girl has 6 books as well as cookbooks and other activity books. Your local library may have some.

The American Girl website has free lesson plans for all of their historical dolls on their website.

Learning guides: http://www.americangirl.com/corp/corporate.php?section=new&id=3

Scholastic Lesson Plans for Kit: http://www.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=258

DEAR AMERICA - OLDER ELEMENTARY + MIDDLE SCHOOL

The Dear America series is a set of fictional historical diaries written by various authors. The books are set in both major and minor events in US history. Subjects include everything from the Lattimer Massacre in 1896 to the sinking of the Titanic, to the Mayflower in 1620. I don't really think boys would be interested in this series. A spin-off of this series is called The Royal Diaries - featuring fictional diaries of teenage royals. Here is a complete list of all of the books in this series.

Note: I have only read one book in this series (A Coal Miner's Bride) and I enjoyed it.

MY NAME IS AMERICA - OLDER ELEMENTARY + MIDDLE SCHOOL

The spin off of Dear America, the My Name is America series is journals by boys in iconic time periods in history. Subjects include Pilgrims, immigrants, soldiers, and Newsies (during the Newsie Strike in 1899). These books are more for boys. Although the series discontinued in 2004, the series relaunched back in 2012. Here is a complete list of all of the books in this series.

Note: I have only read one book in this series (The Journal of Finn Reardon) and I enjoyed it.

Follow Passions

Finally, follow passions. If one child has a passion for music, listen to music that was not available in the last 40 years. If another child is obsessed with clothes, look up historical clothing or WWII clothing rationing in the US (a very interesting subject). If you have a baseball lover, study the history of baseball, how it became popular, and certain people who made baseball into what it is today. A major advantage in homeschooling is the ability to follow your passions.

If you liked this post and/or found it helpful, please comment below (anonymous comments allowed) and please share it! Thank you so very much!