Historical Movies For Kids (ages 6-12)

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Free Apps for Middle & High School

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Why All Homeschoolers Should Garage Sale

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I love garage sales. I think I should start a GSA: Garage Sales Anonymous. :)  But then I would just go to Goodwill...but ANYWAYS!


I made a mental list of things I need next year for school. Along with curriculum, notebooks, binders, sticky notes and index cards are on this list.

My TI-83+ graphing calculator!

Recently going to a garage sale, I came across a $100 TI-83+ graphing calculator for $20. I knew it was an EXTREMELY expensive calculator, and the best deal online is about $50. I also knew with Saxon Algebra 2, I needed it. Well, the calculator didn't work. I mean, the batteries were dead. BUT I wasn't quite sure if it worked, and I really didn't want to waste $20. I asked the lady if she would take $10, and she said yes. Despite being surprised, I was also thankful when I came home and the calculator worked.




My little sister (Olivia, who will be in kindergarten next year) got her homeschool for free. The value was over $160, with the books being A Beka. My mom bought a red tablecloth at a garage sale and told the lady it was for our homeschool books so we wouldn't scratch the table. The lady asked which grades, and then GAVE my mom a ton of A Beka curriculum. When my mom insisted on giving her some money for it, the lady declined. She said a lady gave it to her, and so she gave it to us.

Saxon Phonics 1- new - for $20

At another garage sale, we came across the Saxon phonics curriculum, valuing $160. The lady priced it at $20. She hadn't used it, but she had stapled and cut everything that needed to be stapled or cut. She had put it all nicely in a box. It also had two unopened CDs. Of course, we bought it and thanked the lady and God a million times. Between Pinterest and the Saxon and A Beka books, Olivia will be prepared for school this year and possibly next year.

Here is why I believe all homeschoolers should garage sale and Goodwill:

homeschooling supplies - all from various garage sales

1. It's fun. Plain and simple! :)
2. You can get SUPER cheap clothing, home decor, and homeschooling supplies.
3. You can get homeschool curriculum for dirt-cheap.
4. Garage sales are cheaper than Amazon, eBay, etc.
5. I cannot tell you how many perfectly good (or still-in-the-package new) pencils, binders, folders, notebooks, and sticky notes we have found at garage sales.
6. You will learn how to bargain and haggle. 
7. You will find lots of good books and movies!!
8. It's tax-free. (in most places)

Tips for going to Garage Sales:

1. Where I live, clothing prices for decent clothing are typically $1 or less for regular brands and $2-$4 for name-brands such as Justice, Ann Taylor, or Gymboree. Anything more than that is going to get haggled down. If a Justice shirt is $7, no matter the condition, perhaps ask for $5. Yes, Justice is a very expensive brand. `
2. If you buy ten shirts and your bill is $27, you can normally ask if they'll take $25 and most will say yes. (This also works vice versa: If you're having a garage sale, low low low!)
3. Know your brands. If those Ann Taylor pants are mar

   

   Some of our sticky notes - all 25 cents or less from garage sales

   ked $5, it may be for a reason. $5 Ann Taylor pants are a VERY good deal!
4. Don't go to one garage sale and expect to hit the jackpot. Yes, it may happen. But it is RARE. Note it is not even June yet and we have gone to over 60 garage sales this year. We started March 1, and it is currently the end of May. If we would have went to one or two, we wouldn't have got the deals we have gotten. It takes time.
5. You may go to ten junky garage sales before coming to a golden one. BUT when you find that person whose child has the same size as yours....priceless. 
6. Go to neighborhood garage sales. Memorize the ones that have your kids' sizes.
7. Dig. Dig through piles of books and clothing.
8. Need something? Pray! 
9. Don't give up!!! If you're on the hunt for size 8 clothes, don't give up until you find them! 

What are your best garage sale deals? 

Why do you like going to garage sales?

9 Reasons Why I Homeschool

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{Written by: Samantha}

What about socialization? Do you have friends? Do you have to take tests? Do you see other homeschoolers? Will you go to college? How do you get a diploma? Will you take the GED? How do you graduate?

I don't mind questions about my education, like "How do you graduate?". What I can't stand; the Socialization question. And, the Socialization question is one of the reasons I homeschool. Although we are a proud Christian family, we do not homeschool for religious purposes, although I know a lot who do.

Why I Homeschool

1. I can personalize the education and curriculum.

Think of it this way: You have a six year old. What would be better: buying clothes of your average six year old, or trying clothes on, and seeing what works best for HER, not your average six year old? The answer, of course, is option 2. The six year old may be size seven, or maybe size five. Every child is unique and different. With homeschooling, you can adjust curriculum and even grades to fit the educational needs of our child. This is why some homeschoolers aren't in a specific "grade". They may be in fifth grade science, sixth grade mathematics, and eighth grade English. 

I can adjust curriculum according to learning styles. I, an analytical visual learner would learn best by watching a video, whereas my young sister, a kinesthetic learner, would get bored with that and would rather be doing something with her hands.

2. It takes less time.
I am a very fast learner, and waiting for an entire class to learn something and me doing nothing (especially when teachers wouldn't let me read in between!) is very irritating for me. On the other hand, if a student struggles in a subject, they may get need more one-on-one time to complete something than another student. In third grade public school, a spelling test with five three or four letter words took about 20 minutes. In homeschooling, I can take a spelling test with 20 words in five minutes with just me and my sister.

3. I learn so much more.
I learned nearly nothing in my four years of public school. Sure, basic stuff, but as I look into what I should have known, I am fairly certain I wouldn't have known most of the things I should have known. The stuff I did know? You can thank my parents and the world around me. I mean, in the beginning of fourth grade, I actually thought Europe and Denmark were in western USA somewhere. Partially because I had never done History or Geography prior to homeschool.
In my four years of public school, I only did Math and Language/Spelling, no science, history, or any of the other main core subjects. I had the same teacher for grades 2-3, and she was AMAZING. During math class, she would let me watch Geometry videos (in third grade) and let me study Latin/Greek prefixes and suffixes instead of the easy spelling words. During reading comprehension, she bumped me up to the highest level, high-school level. Of course, she was the rarity. My lack of education was one of the reasons I wanted to homeschool. Besides, isn't the whole point of school an education?

4. Socialization
You (or your kids) spend 8 hours in a building for 180 days with children the same age and maturity; and you wonder where I get socialization? When you think of teenagers, what comes to mind? Drugs, underage drinking, teenage pregnancy, disrespect. Why would I want to "socialize" with that? How am I to gain maturity if the majority of my time is spent around peers?
Homeschoolers have an advantage; they socialize with the people of the real world and of different maturities. You are only with your peers for so long. When you get our of school, you're in the real world. You will be socializing with adults. And since homeschoolers aren't confined to four walls for eight hours in the day, they get to explore this world! Believe it or not, homeschoolers are actually better socialized than their peers. They socialize with young children, peers, adults, and the elderly.
Besides, you go to school to LEARN, not socialize.

5. My education is unlimited.
In first grade, my young sister, in public school, was not allowed to write her name in cursive "because that's not what first graders do". Since I was in third grade at the time, of course I wanted to teach my little sister cursive writing! Who says a first-grader can't write cursive? Who says a third-grader can't read chapter books? Who says I have to study more about American History than African history?

6. I get more time to read.
I don't think I have ever read a science fiction or romance novel, and I read all the time. The last time I read a piece of contemporary fiction was a mystery book about nine months ago. Before that, I don't remember. My thirteen year-old sister Hannah just finished Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera, and I am currently trudging through Great Expectations.

7. Delight Directed Learning.
If your son is interested in baseball, you can design an ENTIRE curriculum that is centered on baseball. English? Baseball sentences. History? The history of baseball. Science? Science project on baseball! It is personalized and is something that child would be interested in. This method is called Delight Directed Learning and I believe it works the best because it's about the KIDS, not a standard curriculum. One of my favorite quotes is from this article."Schools are built for the adults that work in them, not the children." 

8. I learn about interesting people in history. 
In public schools, you learn through textbooks. Textbooks lists boring dates and names.  BUT living books, documentaries and movies bring history TO LIFE. My extensive study of WWII in the past two years has taught me my family a LOT - both historical and lifeskills. Who knew Adolf Hitler survived FORTY-TWO assassination attempts?? Or there were nearly 14,000 Gentiles who risked (and sometimes lost) their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust? It's not a textbook's fault; it can't include everything. I am interested in the 1940s, but my sister prefers studying the American Civil War. I mean, everyone knows who Harriet Tubman is, but what about Sarah Emma Edmonds - one of the many female cross-dressing soldier heroes during the American Civil War? And you may know what the Vietnam War was about, but what about Dieter Dengler - who escaped from a prison camp in Laos and posthumously survived in the jungle for over three weeks?

9. I enjoy spending time with my family.
I will not write "it is always fun! We get along perfectly!" we fight, we get mad, we yell and scream and tattle. But, ultimately, I am glad to have four great sisters and I love it.


I am not going to sugar-coat it. Homeschooling is not easy, and it is certainly not for everyone. There are some days when I want to throw my Algebra book across the room, or when the toddlers are fighting over a Barbie doll, or when I'd rather be reading or writing then spending hours researching curriculum and searching for the best prices. But, I definitely wouldn't change anything and I am so blessed with the opportunity to homeschool.

These are a few of the many reasons why I homeschool.

Why do you homeschool?

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.

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