MamaWit Haven: Homeschooling Choices for 2019-2020: History & Geography

Good morning and Happy Friday, everyone! I cannot tell you how excited I have been to share this post with you! This is the first post in a collaboration series that I am co-hosting with 3 other homeschooling mamas. They are YouTubers Ingrid at Mommy & Mia Homeschool Chronicles and Kim at The Homeschooling Grammy; and fellow blogger, Stacy at DyerTyme. Please make sure and check out Ingrid's and Kim's channels, as well as Stacy's blog. They are each wonderful ladies who love the Lord, love their children, and love homeschooling! And I am honored to be co-hosting this collaboration with them. ❤️

What is this series all about you ask? Well, a couple of months ago, some of us shared and reviewed what curriculum we had been using for the past school year in our homeschool. Starting today, we are getting together to share what our curriculum choices are for the upcoming 2019-2020 school year. Today, we will be talking all about homeschool history, social studies, and geography. And I gotta tell you, I'm excited to see everyone's contributions! I will put a playlist at the end of this post, and I will also list other blogger's posts that come my way. So make sure you check that out when you're done here.

Outside the Box

In my last post, I shared about how I came to make some changes in our homeschool. So, I won't rehash that here. I will say, though, that after 13 years of getting most of what I need all in one box every year, it was a little nerve-wracking for this mama to piece things together, even though I had a guide to help me! But I had a ton of fun, too! Shopping around for the best prices, getting lots of little packages spread out over a period of time, and watching my "next year" book shelf fill up was way more fun than unpacking everything out of one box for a half an hour and then you're done! LOL!

I joke, but seriously. How am I going into my 14th year of homeschooling and I just. JUST! found out about ThriftBooks.com 2 months ago??? Anyways... 😏

Just Get to the Curriculum Already!

Being new to going full-on CM, I appreciate the History/Bible/Geography guides put out by Simply Charlotte Mason. They give you suggested booklists for family-together learning, plus lists for each age group you will be teaching. The guides also help you schedule those books throughout the year. Some books you can order through SCM, others you will have to find on your own; you either buy them, find them online for free, or check them out at the library. Unlike what I'm used to, they don't sell nice, tidy packages of these books. But that's okay, because you can absolutely substitute with other living books of your choice if you want...it's totally customizable for your needs and family! Being this is my first year "on my own," I decided to stick with the suggestions. They all look wonderful! There has been excitement on ALL fronts as the books come in. And that, I love.

Since we are working on finishing up the period of Rome to the Reformation from MFW in history this current year, I ordered the Early Modern & Epistles guide for next year. This covers Early American History (2 days per week), World History going on at that time (2 days per week), as well as North American Geography (1 day per week). They also cover in-depth Bible study 1 day per week, but I will cover that in another post. These guides also break down what to read each day and helps guide you using the CM method. In that aspect, as long as you have collected everything you need, it's still open-and-go. And I really like that, as it makes things less overwhelming for our first year!

Geography

All of the Geography is done together as a family (myself and both of my homeschooled kiddos). Our main spine for this is the book Visits to North America, by Sonya Shafer of SCM. Each child gets their own copy. These books include mapwork, learning the countries, states, and provinces in North America, as well as "visits" with families in different areas of North America as we study them. These visits are done using the books Material World and Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, both by Peter Menzel.

In addition, I purchased the following books to round out our Geography study through the year:
Hey Canada! by Vivien Bowers
Paddle-to-the-Sea, by Holling C. Holling
Minn of the Mississippi, by Holling C. Holling

Plus, there are other suggested books we will be checking out of the library.

*By the way, on the Simply Charlotte Mason site, in the description of each of the guides, book lists are included. So, I'm not violating any copyrights by sharing the books we will be using out of those guides.

History

Below, I will list all of the books that are scheduled and will be read this year for our History studies. Under "Family," are the books we will all read together. Under the separate ages for my sons, are additional books that they will either read on their own or I will read to them, as scheduled, and they will narrate after each episode (reading session).

Family

Stories of America, Volume 1, by Charles Morris and Sonya Shafer of SCM (our main American History spine)
Stories of the Nations, Volume 1, by Charles Morris and Sonya Shafer of SCM (our main World History spine)
The Stuff They Left Behind: From the Days of Early Modern, from SCM. This is a portfolio containing high quality pictures of historical artifacts from the period we will be studying.
Master Skylark, by John Bennett. This is a read aloud we'll be doing on our World History Days. (I found this for free for my Kindle.)

13-Year-Old

My Book of Centuries, by Christie Groff & Sonya Shafer of SCM. This is his own personal timeline book that he will keep for the rest of his homeschool years, and fill in on his own as we study history.
Poor Richard, by James Daugherty (American History)
The World of William Penn, by Genevieve Foster
Amos Fortune, Free Man, by Elizabeth Yates
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham (American History)
Diary of an Early American Boy, by Eric Sloane (American History)
Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes (American History)
Hearts and Hands, Volume 4: Chronicles of the Awakening Church, by Mindy and Brandon Withrow
The Story of Modern France, by Helene Adeline Guerber
The Year of the Horseless Carriage, by Genevieve Foster

10-Year-Old

Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare, by Diane Stanley
Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England, by Diane Stanley (getting this from the library, since we don't need it very long)
Along Came Galileo, by Jeanne Bendick
The Landing of the Pilgrims, by James Daugherty (American History)
The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare (American History)
The Ocean of Truth: The Story of Sir Isaac Newton, by Joyce McPherson (on my Kindle...it was either free or 99 cents, I can't remember at the moment)
The Story of Napoleon, by H.E. Marshall
A Young Patriot: The American Revolution as Experienced by One Boy, by Jim Murphy (American History)

Extras

By no means, do you need to add anything else for History and Geography. But there are a few things I found that I think will be fun and helpful.

National Geographic Kids Ultimate Globetrotting World Atlas. It adds another way to study maps, and it contains fun activities as well.
A small American desk flag to put out on the table for our American History days. It will be a helpful visual reminder, so that we don't confuse American and World history.
American flag stickers. These are for my 13-year-old, when he makes entries into his Book of Centuries that are specific to American History. Unfortunately for my son, the only flag stickers I could find that would be small enough to work for his book were hearts. 😂 He's not thrilled about that, but he relented, "I love all American flags, so, oh well!"
U.S.A. floor puzzle. I found this at our church garage sale even before I had any serious thoughts about changing around our curriculum. But, since I knew we'd be studying American History and geography the next 2 years in our sequence, I snatched it up! This will be a fun way to remember where the states are.
Finally, I bought new maps! Yes, I'm probably a nerd, but I really don't care. I had a world and U.S. map tacked to the wall for quite awhile. I like having the boys point out where we're reading about. But, being the maps weren't laminated, they've ripped and torn and have been re-tacked over the years. So, I decided to splurge and purchase a couple of nice, new, laminated maps for our new adventure.

Is that it?

I think I covered everything! Maybe? At any rate, that's all I've got for now. That covers what we'll be using for our 2019-2020 homeschool History and Geography! We are all super excited to be embarking on this new adventure!

Thank you so much for reading! And I hope you enjoyed my tour of next year's homeschool History & Geography choices. Now, I'm off to go check out what my co-hosts and other participating mamas are sharing! Don't forget to check them out as well! I will post the YouTube playlist here below, and as I receive blog post links I will post them below that.

Have a great weekend everyone!