History

General

  • Erin recommended this site that has links to dozens of sites that you can use in this year-plan.  There's everything from Sectionalism to barbed wire!
  • Have you chosen the Spielvogel books as a spine?  If so, click here to find more teaching helps!  To navigate through this site, you'll want to click on the picture of your text, or one similar, to find interactive quizzes, internet activities, and more!
  • Another massive site: teacher's use, probably, initially, although you'll use it to find sites for your children to read.  If they want to read the originals, here they are!
  • All ages will love this site on US Government.  This site transcends unit boundaries.
  • Several books assigned for literature, and some not assigned but interesting to Rhetoric level students (like works of Voltaire and Darwin) are found here.
  • The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Van Loon is now online: read from the screen or print to your heart's content.
  • Eyewitness History is GREAT! It has first-hand accounts, graphics, and a wonderfully user-friendly interface. Bookmark today and use it all four years! I recommend that you start by clicking on "index" and then scroll through, noting upcoming topics in your Year-Plan! Enjoy!
  • Documents for the Study of American History:  scroll down to find many from the 19th Century.  Very helpful site!  Recommended by Dana W.
  • Use this site for great pictures when making lapbooks.  Contributed by Sue.
  • Today in History
  • Renee recommends books by Lamplighter Publishing.  Click here to see their chronological listings.

Timelines:

Presidents:

  • Do you want pictures only?  Click here for a picture gallery.
  • Another excellent site for studying the Presidents:  POTUS (Presidents of the United States)
  • Coloring pages of every president for your Lower Grammar kids
  • Make a full color book on the Presidents.
  • Site for inaugural addresses of the presidents

States:

  • Use this site as you are making your deck of state cards.  50states.com
  • This site shows the dates that each state entered the Union.
  • Contributed by Susan in LA:  I found the following link for downloading and printing out flashcards for the 50 states. The front has an outline of the state, a picture of the state flag, the state bird, and a small map showing where the state is located in the region. The back has info about the state.
  • Whitman Publishing sells state stickers for $1.95.  In their search engine, type in "Us, State Seal Flags."  These would make a great addition to your state cards.

Want to suggest a resource or link? Email Dana.


Unit 1

Week 1: When John Adams Was President

Week 2: Napoleon: The Man and His Career

Week 3: Early Industrial Revolution

Week 4: Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase

Week 5: Jefferson and the Supreme Court

Week 6: Madison and the War of 1812

Week 7: Reshaping Europe and South America

Week 8: South America in Transition

Week 9: Monroe and the American Hemisphere

Want to suggest a resource or link? Email Dana.


Unit 2

Week 10: John Quincy Adams and Political Realignments

Week 11: Jacksonian Democracy

Week 12: Revolutions in Texas & Europe

Week 13: President Jackson

Week 14:

Week 15:

Week 16: Manifest Destiny

Week 17: Mexican-American War

  • Mexican-American War
  • This website has fun games, some printables, as well as information about the Alamo.  Click on "just for kids" to begin.  Contributed by Caryl.
  • Start your study of Harriet Tubman here.  Quizzes, games, maps, pictures, and more are available!  Recommended by Cindy.

Week 18: European Unrest: Revolutions of 1848. Communism. Telegraph, Pony Express, and Gold Rush of '48

Want to suggest a resource or link? Email Dana.


Unit 3

Week 19: Hudson Taylor, Opium Wars, and the beginnings of European/American Imperialism.

Week 20: Crimean War, Sardinia, and the Unification of Italy

Weeks 21-23: The Civil War

Week 24: Transcontinental Railroad and Reconstruction

Week 25: Plains Indians

  • OUTSTANDING resource: timeline of Plains Indians, with all kinds of great hyperlinks to people and events.
  • An Eyewitness Account by the Lakota Chief Red Horse recorded in pictographs and text
    at the Cheyenne River Reservation, 1881.  Click on the various episodes on the left to see great images!
  • Plains Indians and horses.  Scroll down and find some nice pictures.  Text is Dialectic up, and a little hard to read.
  • Gallery of paintings of Plains Indians.
  • Culture of Plains Indians co-operative site.  Nice pictures for younger students.
  • The Plains Indians and their dependence on buffalo.  This site encompasses art and history.  A Native American artist created this tapestry and kids are encouraged to think constructively in order to understand its meaning.  Explanations and online matching activity are provided.
  • HUGE gorgeous site with all kinds of links to follow up.  Westward Expansion is only ONE part of this site on the Gilded Age
  • Cyrus McCormick home page: bio of him at Dialectic level; pictures for all to enjoy.  Inventor of the reaper and several modern business practices that revolutionized farming in prairie lands.
  • Plains Indians Link contributed by Pam.

Week 26: Edison and Bell. German Unification and Prussian Wars

  • Encarta on Otto von Bismarck (good for Upper Grammar students, for whom I've found no good resources in book form).
  • Very short bio with good picture of Bismarck.
  • Quotes from Otto von Bismarck: good dinner topics!
  • Clara Barton again!
  • Art prints on the subject of the Franco-Prussian wars, and other wars of the late 19th Century.
  • This link is from The Henry Ford museum site.  It includes information about Edison's Childhood, The Menlo Park Laboratory, The Lab Comes to Greenfield Village, a listing of his Inventions and Patents, and Edison Chronology.  Use this link again in Year 4.  Contributed by Kathy.

Want to suggest a resource or link? Email Dana.


Unit 4

Week 27: African History: (please see Geography page for other great maps for key items in this unit!)

  • Directory to all sorts of great online aids for this two-week mini-unit.  Click here and then explore!  Teachers and students (with supervision).
  • Country by country listings for mini-reports. Do not miss the "factbook" entries for each country!  Also pictures of flags.  All ages; with supervision and help.
  • Mary Slessor
  • David Livingstone

Week 28: Nineteenth Century Imperialism specifically

  • Award winning Imperialism site covering ALL aspects of Imperialism.  Lots of connected sites.  Teachers, initially, and then Upper Grammar + will enjoy, with supervision.  For upper Dialectic and Rhetoric Level students, do not miss the discussion of Imperialism using Kipling's famous poem "The White Man's Burden" as a jump off point.  Response poems and articles referenced in the question posed in the Student Activity Pages (and reprinted in part in the Teacher's Notes) can be found here.
  • Helpful, basic site on Imperialism.
  • One last good site on Imperialism.  This site also has a helpful map.

Week 29: Queen Victoria and the British Empire

  • Short bio of Queen Victoria with links to other sites.  Upper elementary; please supervise following those links!
  • Queen Victoria's empire was dependent on the Royal Navy.  Click here to learn more about it!  (See pictures of her ironclad ships!)
  • PBS on Queen Victoria.  There are lots of helpful resources at this site.
  • Beautiful site on life in the Victorian era.

Week 30: The Gilded Age

Week 31: Immigration, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty

Weeks 32-33: Robber Barons and Trustbusters

  • HUGE gorgeous site with all kinds of links to follow up.  Robber Barons and Tycoons are only ONE part of this site on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
  • Read about the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
  • And now, for the other side of the story, read this BIASED site about the ills of trust busting.  Note: moms, some art work used on this site may be objectionable to some female teens.  (Not on this linked page, but elsewhere in the site.)  This page relates Standard Oil to the current Microsoft case.
  • It is safe to read this page from the same site as immediately linked above: again, notice their bias in this definition and discussion of monopolies.  Do you agree?  Why or why not?
  • From the same site, this would be the absolute PRO-Laissez Faire statement, without using the term.  If you don't know French, can you guess what "Laissez Faire" means?  Do you know where the term comes from?
  • HINT: Click here to find out! (From a more balanced source, whew!)
  • For a kinder, gentler (more sane and balanced) view, go to this site: Foundation for Economic Education and poke around.  (Adult supervision, please, I've not been everywhere in this site). 
  • Free market economics (chapter 1) soundly and simply explained... for an 11th Grader and up.  LOL.  Want more?  Here's the link for Chapter 2.
  • Visit (virtual or actual!) the "summer cottages" of the rich and famous tycoons of the 1800's.  See the Newport Mansions!
  • PBS site on the Rockefellers.
  • PBS site on Andrew Carnegie.
  • Ellis Island: take a virtual tour and learn how immigrants were processed here.

Week 33: Organized labor/problems labor faced

Week 34: Gold/Silver standard controversy

Week 35: Problems of Urbanization and the Christian Response

Charles Spurgeon:

Week 36:

Want to suggest a resource or link? Email Dana.