Archive for colonial america
July 25, 2008 at 4:17 am · Filed under colonial america, books
You know how once you’ve accomplished a task, often the details of it disappear from memory? When I saw the photos of the abacus on Kelly’s blog, I thought, “cool!” before I realized that the project idea came out of Tools of the Ancient Greeks. (Hey, it’s been awhile!)
Over at Pass the Torch, Kelly has a few great pictures of the abacus that her son made, as well as a post about cracking codes and the cipher out of Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself. If you’re like me and appreciate pictures of projects, head on over to take a look.
Kelly’s giving away a copy of each of these books in the next week - I’ll post a link when I have it. Kelly, by the way, has a book of her own due to hit shelves within the next month or so, titled Empowering Youth.
January 12, 2008 at 2:24 pm · Filed under colonial america, home education, history, fun stuff
Robin and GB over at Martinzoo are going colonial and their latest project is one from Great Colonial America Projects - building a miniature wattle and daub house. Robin has great photos of the entire process (including a minor injury), but no matter how cool it looks, she says that GB is too disgusted to be a colonial kid.
November 20, 2007 at 7:34 am · Filed under colonial america, history
Robin’s starting her colonial unit and posts today about making wampum from Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself. With pictures. Way cool.
UPDATE: I just discovered via comments in another post that Dana is using Great Colonial America Projects, too! Cool beans.
October 31, 2007 at 12:24 pm · Filed under colonial america, stuff to make, publishing, curriculum, history, books
Robin recently mentioned that she’s going to be using my book, Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself to supplement her upcoming unit on colonial America. I just thought I’d mention that the book is available as a FREE download, here. Seriously. Free. What are you waiting for?
May 14, 2007 at 7:22 am · Filed under colonial america, home education, history
Weekend America features a gruesome look at Jamestown and just what the settlers endured to survive. In an eight-minute segment, Nate DiMeo tells the less-told side of the story.
Today is the anniversary of the founding of the first permanent colony at Jamestown. Take a minute to make sure that your kids know just how this colony came to be, and how difficult it was to move from colony to country.
Blog Nod: Boing Boing
May 8, 2007 at 7:11 am · Filed under colonial america, home education, history
Interesting Facts about Jamestown and Colonial America
(adapted from Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself )
• Four hundred years ago, the first permanent British settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia on May 14, 1607.
• The winter of 1609 is known as The Starving Time. During this time more than 80% of the colony’s 500 settlers died.
• Colonists used special candles made of uniform width and marked with equal bands to tell time. As the flame melted the wax, each melted band indicated that an hour had passed.
• The average colonial family used about 100 candles a year. Most families went to bed when the sun set to save candles.
• A dress in colonial times contained about eighteen yards of fabric, and was as valuable as a mini-van is today.
• Up until the age of six, young boys had long hair and wore dresses. After six, both girls and boys were considered small adults.
• Colonists only bathed a couple of times a year.
• Husbands were responsible for their wife’s behavior. If a woman committed a crime, her husband received the punishment!
• Before 1775, there was no postal service, so letters were simply passed hand to hand as people traveled about the colonies, until they reached a ship headed in the right direction.
• In winter, some schools required children to bring a stick of wood for the fire each day. Any student who forgot that essential contribution sat in the seat farthest from the warmth of the fire as punishment.
May 7, 2007 at 8:38 am · Filed under colonial america, home education, history
Craft a rag doll
Colonial recipes - from the Monroe Historical Society
Colonial America for Kids - my Amazon listmania book list
Make a reverse glass painting - from Old Sturbridge Village
The New England Primer - scans showing a common book that students learned to read from
May 6, 2007 at 9:08 am · Filed under colonial america, history
An excellent article about the impact that colonization had on the North American natives by Gabrielle Tayac.
May 5, 2007 at 7:44 am · Filed under colonial america, history
I don’t think there’s a more mysterious person in colonial American history than Pocahontas. NOVA is presenting Pocahontas Revealed on Tuesday, May 8th.
For four centuries, Americans have adored her as a romantic fairy-tale heroine, but who was the real Pocahontas? As the nation’s birthplace marks its 400th birthday, NOVA celebrates with an illuminating new view of this legendary figure - and gives television audiences their first look inside the recently discovered sacred village of Werowocomoco (”Place of Chiefs”) in present-day Virginia, where the longhouse in which Pocahontas first met the colonial leader John Smith in 1607 is being unearthed.
May 5, 2007 at 7:13 am · Filed under colonial america, history, book reviews
I woke up this morning to this comment on my very old post about receiving my colonial book. Needless to say, Robin is my very favorite person today!
I finally got your book the other day! I was SO impressed. It was so much more than I was expecting. I thought it would be just about a few projects and crafts that you can do with your kids to give them some impressions of Colonial life. I had no idea it would be so well thought out, with so much Historical fact. I really got the feeling that I had learned SO much more about how the Colonists had lived, in an everyday-type of perspective, after reading your book. GB and I are getting ready to start a Colonial History Unit and I am so excited. We are going to start reading the book together and do the projects as we go.
Next entries »
