If you've been reading my blog, you'll know that we like celebrating crazy things. National days commemorating things like yo-yos, ice cream sodas, cheese balls, and sea serpents are some of the fun we've had. The kids love it. They'll often ask, "What national day is today?" Not only is it a fun something to do, but it's also a good way for us to study various topics we might not otherwise.
Another great way to study specific days is using This Week in History by A Thomas Jefferson Education. This was perfect for us and our celebrating special days. It gave the kids (6, 4, 2) something exciting to look forward to every day. (I should say it gave them something else exciting to look forward to every day, because getting to stay at home and school with Mommy is pretty exciting in and of itself, right???)
I cannot even begin to explain the plethora of information that is on this site. Seriously, you could spend hours just browsing through the resources (books, cds, audio downloads), researching the Classics, watching videos, studying about each day in history, and checking out the freebies.
For $9.99 a month, you'll get access to the entire website and an email every week with all the information for that week. It tells you what happened each day, gives the history, includes pictures, and offers many, many other resources and ideas to further your learning. It's not just history though. You'll learn science, math, language skills, geography, art, and more. Say you want to find a day about a specific topic because that's what
you're already studying. Not a problem. The content is searchable by
date, topic, and key words. Or what if you have a child who is obsessed with Legos (I have a few of those myself) and just can't wait until March 20th to learn about them? You can also go to the archived weeks on the website and it'll take you right to the resources. You can use the entire archived section to plan ahead . . . or just because you find the information fascinating. I never like learning about history in school, but I've been drawn to it as an adult. I want my children to enjoy learning about it as well. And what better way than to make it fun?
Some of the topics for July and August are as follows:
- Learning about the Leaning Tower of Pisa and building a block tower
- Learning about Earth's magnetosphere and conducting experiments with magnets
- Learning about Disneyland and drawing your own Mickey Mouse
- Learning about Oscar Hammerstein and watching The Sound of Music
- Learning about Silly Putty and making your own
Not only is the content in depth, I really like the philosophy of A Thomas Jefferson Education, too. They live by 7 Keys of Great Teaching or principles of successful education. When they are applied, learning occurs for any learning style or interests. When they are ignored or rejected, the quantity and quality of education decreases. You can read about these principles in detail here.
- Classics, Not Textbooks
- Mentors, Not Professors
- Inspire, Not Require
- Structure Time, Not Content
- Simplicity, Not Complexity
- Quality, Not Conformity
- You, Not Them
They want your children to succeed. They want them to thrive. And they make it easy for that to happen. I've talked about how fun this is - my kids are little, they need fun - but truly, there is so much to learn. This Week in History has made it incredibly simple to do that. All while having fun.
You can see what other Crew members thought about This Week in History HERE.
* Disclaimer - I received a subscription in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
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