Archive for November, 2007

The False Prophets of Secular Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007

Here’s just one more reason not to send your kids to school, even if you’re not homeschooling for religious reasons: In Maryland public schools, the story of the Pilgrim Thanksgiving is being perverted to meet a political agenda. “We teach about Thanksgiving from a purely historical perspective, not from a religious perspective,” claims Charles Ridgell, [...]

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History At Our House Program Update: The European Background

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

In last week’s installment of the History At Our House Program Update I wrote about the Age of Discovery–the course segment I had most recently completed–and offered pedagogical tips on how to organize the presentation of that story for students. This week, I’m going to track back to the material that I presented to students [...]

Posted in American History, Education, History, History Homeschooling, Homeschooling, Homeschooling Curriculum, Pedagogy | No Comments »

Homeschooling History Book of the Week

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

This week’s HistoryAtOurHouse book of the week features a method of visual presentation, seen below, which is its unique selling point. The above map illustrates the author’s interpretation of the true (collective) state of geographical knowledge up to the point in question: The Magellan/Del Cano circumnavigation.  Everything in white has been directly observed by some European explorer; all that [...]

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Secular Homeschooling Magazine Launched

Monday, November 19th, 2007

A new resource for homeschoolers is now up and running.  “Secular Homeschooling Magazine” has published their first issue.  Check out their site, and purchase the first issue to encourage them to keep working. Also, their site has a “call for materials,” so if you’re up to the task and have something to share that can be of [...]

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History Through Art Program Update: Columbus at Salamanca

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

The HistoryAtOurHouse program features a unique History Through Art component.  The purpose of this component is two-fold: to help enliven student’s experience of history by seeing it presented through the unique medium of visual art, and to give students an appreciation of what great visual art is. Recently students worked through an analysis of the [...]

Posted in American History, Art, Columbus, History, Homeschooling | 4 Comments »

Textbook Patrol: The Contested Legacy of Pocahontas

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

If your student(s) are working with the textbook American Pageant, they will need a lot of help.  Like all textbooks I’ve seen, this book is riddled with problems, starting with the fact that it’s five times too long, and yet still manages to miss presenting crucial information. Sadly, another of this textbook’s major flaws is [...]

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Homeschooling History Book of the Week

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

My homeschooling history “book of the week” is the visual biography of Christopher Columbus by Susan Heimann (available at Amazon.com). In this book, Heimann’s presents the story Discovery of America in a forthright, accessible, and compelling narrative.  What historians don’t really know for sure, she explains.  When a term is used that requires explanation, she provides it.  And, every [...]

Posted in American History, Book Recommendations for Homeschoolers, Columbus, Education, History Homeschooling, Homeschooling | 1 Comment »

History At Our House Program Update: The Age of Discovery

Monday, November 12th, 2007

HistoryAtOurHouse students recently completed their second major course segment in American history: The Age of Discovery. In this segment, we briefly touched on the story of the Vikings, the Crusades, and the travels of Marco Polo as background elements to the most dynamic period of exploration in human history, which stretches approximately from 1415 to [...]

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New History Resources on the Way

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007

In a bid to make HistoryAtOurHouse more useful to a wider audience, including folks who are not homeschoolers but who desperately need to get more value out of history, I’m going to be adding some new regular features to the blog. First, for homeschoolers above all, but really for everyone, I’m introducing the “HistoryAtOurHouse Book of [...]

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