Ancient History Archives - The Crafty Classroom

Heritage History Giveaway!

September 29, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 187 Comments

UPDATE: THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED AND THE WINNERS HAVE BEEN DRAWN!

First Winner was comment #160: Ann R. who said, “My girls enjoy the Little House books. My son enjoys books about knights and the Lord of the Rings.”

Second Winner was comment #67: Melody Lunsford who said, “Christian Europe and British Middle Ages would go along with our Mystery of History Vol. 2 material. Thank You for having a giveaway!”

Congratulation to both of our winners!

Don’t worry if you didn’t win, you can still take advantage of the
FREE Curriculum CD Offer below, but do note that it only goes through the end of October.

It’s time for another fantastic giveaway from our sponsors!

But First, Write Down This Code!

valerie7

It will get you a Free Curriculum CD from Heritage History.
You can read about the offer here

Now, on to the giveaway…

When I first learned of Heritage History,
I was a bit confused as to what products they offered,
and what would be the best fit for our family.

So I wanted to take a second to show you the different ways
Heritage History can become a part of your daily learning:

1. Read pre-1923 books online for FREE.

You can choose from hundreds of living books, and search by author, genre, title, and even civilization. If that weren’t enough, they have color coded them by reading ability.
Bookmark or Pin this page, you’ll love it.

For those of you interested, you can read the Worldview
Heritage History uses to selected each title.

2.Order single E-books based on your current studies.

The benefits of ordering a book can make all the difference in how you access the resources.
When you order an e-book you receive a PDF version and two different e-book versions.
This allows you to print multiple copies to use in your classroom,
and to save the book to your personal computer or tablet. Also the formatting of a purchased book
has been handled with detail. The captions, tables and other parts of the book have been preserved.
You can download a FREE e-book here to see the difference!
(instructions for loading it to your tablet can be found here)

3. Order a Collection of e-books surrounding a theme or topic:

Heritage History offers TWO different types of CD Collections:
Classical Libraries
Classical Curriculum

These collections of e-books have been specifically chosen to help ease the burden for homeschooling families. With these selections, you can easily provide your children with living books that compliment your current studies.

As with the single e-books, each CD comes with a PDF and two e-book versions of each title.
There are on average about 50 different titles for each collection,
and the price of the CD’s range from $19.99 to $24.99

Last month Heritage History has sent us a CD copy of
Early America from their Classical Library Collection

I was happy to see that it was filled with over 80 titles covering the American colonies to the First World War.

The American library focuses less on politics than many American History curriculums, but includes biographies and short stories about explorers, settlers, inventors, military heroes, writers, presidents, and Indian leaders. American Indian history is treated thoroughly, with over sixteen books on the subject. American Negro and Spanish American histories are also covered thoroughly.

My children are still considered early readers (green books)
so I was happy to see this series by James Otis:

It made me giggle because these are like the original Dear America Journals.

Storytelling just never goes out of style,
children love to read personal accounts of a living history.

We will be using these alongside our American History studies through out the year.

You can read more about the James Otis series here.

See all the 80+ titles included in the Early America series here.

So now that you know all about Heritage History,
are you ready to WIN some classical titles for your classroom?

Heritage History is offering up winner’s choice
of one Classical Library CD, and one Classical Curriculum CD!

There will be TWO Winners!

How to Enter:
1. Check out the Classical Library CD’s, and the Classical Curriculum CD’s.
Come back and tell me which title from each that you would want.
(If you’re the winner, you’ll get BOTH your picks, so choose wisely!)

Additional Entry:
2. Leave me comment with your children’s favorite History story.

Contest ends Friday, October 4, 2012 11:59pm.
Winner will be drawn at random, and this post will be updated.

Disclaimer: As an affiliate of Heritage History I received free product for review purposes, and a percentage of sales is credited back to me. All opinions are my honest thoughts about this product.

You can read our review of the Young Readers Collection here.

Heritage History

May 20, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 2 Comments

Last year I wrote a post entitled 10 Things I bet ya didn’t know about me.

I posted 10 because it’s a nice round number, and it seemed like a good place to stop.

But if I had to write a #11, this would be it:

#11. I love to read.

As a child I would read anything and everything that I could get my hands on.

Sometimes this was not such a good thing.

*ahem

Flash Forward 20 years and you’ll see that my 9 year old daughter shares my passion for reading.

Christmas and Birthdays are easy for this little girl.

Her stocking is filled with little brown rectangles and she cherishes every single one.

With her I hear, “Can we go to the library” more often then “Can we go to McDonnalds?”

What could be better right?

Well, if you have an avid reader you probably already know that
keeping the bookshelf stocked can be a bit of a challenge.

And if you’re a homeschooler you know how wonderful it is when you find an appropriate book….
a Classic even that teaches your children about important facts in a fun, and memorable way.

I believe the term for these types of stories are called Living Books!

“Putting the story back into History-
Heritage History promotes traditional narrative history. Our online library contains biographies, legends, adapted literature, and introductory histories. All were written for the general reader and are easy and enjoyable to read.”

So here’s the deal with Heritage History:

Isn’t that neat?

Heritage History has over 400 titles, and you can purchase a single book, or an entire collection!

We were sent the Young Reader’s Curriculum

Every book in this curriculum was written pre-1923
You can check out theYoung Readers Book List here.

The Young Readers library is one of our largest collections, with over eighty books to choose from. Many of the books in this collect are simple enough for a fluent reader to complete in only a few hours, so avid readers may be able to read dozens of books from the collection before moving on to more challenging curriculums. Reading a few dozen of these books will expose students to hundreds of famous historical characters and will be an excellent foundation for future learning.

Ok.

Stop right here.

I HAVE to tell you that I was a bit worried when I saw that these were pre-1923 books.

Wait….Wait….Wait. Back up even further here.

Let me just say something here:

We are not KJVer’s.

I simply can’t get through the thee’s and the thou’s and the thy’s
without spitting all over myself
and that never makes for good worship.

Anyway, when I saw that a lot of these books had that old world ring to them,
I was a bit worried.

Read:
A bit worried was I that my eldest would find the text
a daunting reversal of mirrored context, neglecting to partake
in the fanciful pleasure of each winnowed passage.

(I’m 74% sure that actually makes sense.)

In short, I wondered if it was going to be too much for my little 9 year old girl to handle.

Would she get all tongue twisted and frusterated?
Would she just skip over the seemingly backwards sentences and simply go for the general idea?

Nope. She read them.
She understood them.
She enjoyed them.
She wanted more.

(And of course I secretly took Homeschool Mom credit for providing her
such a wonderful resource that I knew she would like)

Ahem.

Actually all of the stories in the Young Readers Collection are chosen
because they are told in a “child-friendly, easy-to-understand manner.”
You can read them online to get an idea of the tone.
(Green books are for Young Readers)

Quite a contrast to fact drilling, public school, History books that i grew up on!

What a great way to learn!

Just as a side note here: I believe I remember a certain someone
who used easy to understand parables in His teaching as well.

Just Sayin’

Anyway,I really love that Heritage History is providing these classic stories in an updated format, making it easy for today’s homeschooling families. You can easily print multiple copies, and reuse your teaching materials for your upcoming students. Some of the more difficult passages make excellent read alouds as well.

There are also additional resources like Teacher Guides, maps and clipart for you to use alongside the books.

(I smell a Notebooking project)

You can pick up the Young Readers Collection for $24.95

There are quite a few other collections for older children as well, and right now if you purchase multiple CD’s Heritage History is running a special deal you can take advantage of!

Be sure to check them out on Facebook, and subscribe to their newsletter.
(Which enters you in a giveaway for a Kindle Fire!)

Overall, I’m really excited about having this resource at my fingertips. I know that I’ll be putting our new books to good use, and tying them into all of our unit studies over the coming years.

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this product for review purposes. Check out what other TOS Crew Review Bloggers thought of Heritage History!

Moses Bible Printables

January 5, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 5 Comments

This week we’re studying the life of Moses.

Using The Mystery of History as our guide, and reading directly from our family bible, we have spent our afternoons immersed in the life of this interesting, and very human man named Moses.

My children (and I) have been enraptured by the way God revealed himself to Moses, and the amazing miracles that were witnessed by so many. It is the ultimate adventure story.

I whipped up a few notebooking pages to go alongside our studies, and I’ve added them to our History Visuals pages.

Click Here for our Life of Moses History Printables

These are listed as the newest additions to our History Printables.

I’ve also made a few NEW file folder games that would go perfectly alongiside a Moses unit study.

Click Here for our Preschool Moses Printables
Click Here for our K-5 Moses Printables

And for your little tots, here is a simple bible verse and new vocabulary word to introduce.

Click here for our John 14:15 Bible Verse Printables

It’s my hope that you’ll be able to put these resources to good use in your home too!

A Family Bible….

December 29, 2011 By Valerie Mcclintick 5 Comments

Can I tell you something about our family?

We own WAY, WAY, WAY to many bibles.

I know that sounds like a backwards statement,

But it’s true.

I think if I stacked up all the bibles in one pile it would tower over my two year old.

It’s almost as if we keep purchasing them in HOPES
that they will somehow, by sheer volume,
touch our lives and bring us closer to God.

I believe I’d already said that we have the same misconceptions about cleaning products too….
more cleaning products = cleaner house

Of course it’s obvious that the missing ingredient to that formula is ACTUALLY USING them.

Well, today I wanted to share with you one that actually does get used….by our entire family!

The Illustrated Children’s Bible
By Tommy Nelson Publishing

It’s quickly become our Go-To bible.

The one that gets opened.

The one that gets read.

The one that gets put way high up on the shelf because little peanut butter fingers so desperately want to feel the pages.

This bible sells for about $35.00 so it was a thoughtful purchase for us.

Actually,it was the first bible I prayed over before I even took it home.

I wanted so much to have a “Family Bible.” I prayed that God would lead me to just the right one.

Something we could all sit around and read together.

One that held a keepsake quality, while still engaging my young children. (CEV version)

One that could also serve as our Classroom Bible during our history lessons.

I wanted to share in case you too were looking for a little jump-start to your new year.
This would be a great time to start reading a bible reading plan with your little ones!

Here is a chronological reading plan to get you started.
(You can also find one on YouVersion)

Bible Printables: Abraham

November 1, 2011 By Valerie Mcclintick 8 Comments

This post has been a long time coming.

You might already know that we’re using
The Mystery of History this year,
(you might be annoyed of all my posts about the program),
but the program is amazing and has quickly become the CORE
of our homeschool days.

It’s that good.

I quickly found myself scheduling art projects, crafts, and even reading and writing assignments to surround the weekly themes that are outlined in the curriculum.

(Here’s more on that)

With the MOH program you spend one lesson on Abraham,
but we soon found that we were enthralled by his story and decided
to turn it into a month long lesson.
(Wow. The joy of homeschooling!!)

First we learned about the lineage of Christ, as mentioned in Matthew. There is also a lineage in Luke, but this one started at Abraham, and since we learned about the promise that many would be blessed through Abraham we chose the one in Matthew.

There is also a book with a CD called The Ballad of Matthew’s Begats.We listen to it all the time and just learning it helps us keep track of Who’s who! This also goes from Abraham to Jesus.

We also learned that God’s promise was to be fullfilled through his son Isaac and not his son Ishmael. So I made this visual to help explain the lineage and for my children to copy the specific promise from the bible.

We also learned about Lot, and Sodom and Gomorrah. So I made this visual to show the children what “raining sulfur” might look like.

After reading about Abraham, we watched this great video that takes children from the first calling of Abram, to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. I have quite a few of the videos in this series, they have been wonderful teaching tools over the years. If you have Netflix you can order them too.

To wrap up our study I made this Bible File Folder Game called, “God’s friend Abraham.”
Included are four sheets of questions you can use to help children review facts about Abraham and the people around him. This is a great way to quiz children on what they remember from the lessons as well.

We had a fantastic time learning about Abraham, and I ended up creating a TON more printables, crafts, and worksheets for our sister sites.

You can find the Preschool resources here on ChristianPreschoolPrintables.com

And the K-5 resources here on BibleStoryPrintables.com

I hope you find these helpful for your own bible studies!

Mystery of History Activities

September 25, 2011 By Valerie Mcclintick 18 Comments

Have you solved the Mystery of His-Story?

We’re knee deep in our new History curriculum,
and loving every minute of it.

It’s The Mystery of History!
And it’s one of my favorite purchases this year,
and it was really worth every penny.

Before I got this curriculum I was a bit skeptical,
the price is what really stopped me,
but I found a great deal on ebay and decided to give
it a try.

Boy am I ever thankful I did.

If you’re not familiar with MOH, just looking at the program can be a bit daunting.
Initially I was pretty confused as to what programs I actually NEEDED, and what
parts were complimentary to the program.

(Thanks loyal FB followers for all the guidance!)

Since we’ve been using the program for a little over a month now,
I thought I’d post about what parts we are actually “Using”
and what parts aren’t getting used as much.

I purchased my set on ebay, and it included quite a bit of materials in the package.
You can get these (and more) individually from Bright Idea Press as well
I listed what we ended up with, below;
The products that we use the most have a little **star **

**MOH Curriculum Book**
(We use this book the most of course)

MOH Audio Curriculum
(I really thought we’d use this more, but not so much)

MOH Craft Pack CD
(Don’t use at all)

MOH A Crash Course from Creation to Christ by Linda Lacour Hobar on CD
(Don’t use at all)

MOH Printables & Reproducibles CD
(Semi-helpful, but I’ve got a copier at home)

**MOH Timeline Pieces**
(LOVE this set. Worth it)

**MOH Timeline Suggested Placement**
(This is quite helpful, not necessary but helpful)

MOH Coloring Pages
(Used for first couple of weeks, but kids weren’t interested

I also picked up a
**Blank Timeline from Miller Pads and Paper**

We are also using the Illustrated Children’s Bible when the lesson
coresponds with something that was recorded in the bible.
And here’s how we’re using the program:

Each week holds three lessons. So we are using
this program three days a week,one lesson for each day.
However because it’s VERY adaptable
we can expand a lesson to cover an entire week if needed.

Also for each lesson there are suggestions for follow up activities
that are age realated. We do these activities about 25% of the time.

For each lesson we are building up a timeline
(during which my children *graciously* take turns applying the glue stick
to the image and placing it on our timeline.)

As I mentioned before, I opted to pick up a cheaper brand of a blank timeline,
I’m not sure that it’s exactly the same size so we might run into problems later,
but so far we’re loving this aspect of the program, and with a $30 price difference
I’m sure we can figure out a way to make it work.

For the rest of the time we are using our own craft/activities
and our own notebooking visuals:

The notebooking visuals are just pages that help remind my children
some key facts that we learned. I’m big on visual memory techniques,
and we use these images during our lessons, review, and our oral quizzes.
I’m amazed at how much more information is retained when my little students
have something visually stimulating alongside the lesson.

If you want to follow along or print our MOH activities I’ve posted the first
three weeks here on our main site.
Again these are more like Visuals as opposed to notebooking pages, but they do
have small spaces throughout for children to customize the information.

(Note: There is actually a MOH notebook and lapbook for purchase too,
I didn’t pick one up myself, but the sample pages look great!)

Anyway, We are really excited about this program
I’m working on the next three weeks right now
and I”ll post them as soon as I finish!

Stay Tuned :)