3-5 Year Old
- 3-5 Year Old, Interest Led Homeschool, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way, Theme, Tot School, Unit Study
Tot School: Cave Theme
I’m not sure exactly when my daughter became interested in “caves”, but it happened. All she wants to do after her bath, was for her dad (or me) to join her in the towel cave. In the morning, it’s the sheet cave. “Come on, dad. Come on, mom. Get in the sheet cave!” I’m trying to think of themes that are interest led, so of course, we had to do caves. What I found astounding, since I know lots of kids love pretending to be in caves, is there are not a ton of cave activities online. Even on Pinterest! Lots of bear activities, hibernation activities, but no cave ones.…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: African Folktales
[This is a subtopic of Africa and also part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Lower Grades (K-3) The Adventures of Spider: West African Folk Tales-Arkhurst (4.4/1) The Amazing Tree-Kilaka (3.7/0.5) Anansi and the Box of Stories-Krensky (3.2/0.5) Anansi and the Magic Stick-Kimmel (2.4/0.5) Anansi and the Pot of Beans-Norflolk (2.9/0.5) Anansi and the Tug o’ War-Norfolk (2.7/0.5) Anansi and Turtle Go to Dinner-Norfolk (2.7/0.5) Anansi Does the Impossible! An Ashanti Tale-Aardema (3.2/0.5) Anansi Goes Fishing-Kimmel (2.3/0.5) Anansi’s Party Time-Kimmel (2.0/0.5) Beautiful Blackbird-Bryan (3.7/0.5) Brother to the Wind-Walter (3.4/0.5) Calabash Cat: And His Amazing Journey-Rumford…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: Africa
[This is part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] There are a limited amount of English historical fiction books about Africa, so I included some modern and generic ones that help explain the culture, tribal life, animals and geography of Africa. And due to the oral tradition of Africa, I thought that I’d include a separate page for folk tales since they can show the culture and religious beliefs of Africans. Lower Grades (K-3) Africa Brothers and Sisters-Kroll (3.1/0.5) Africa Calling-Alderman (2.5/0.5) Africa Dream-Greenfield (2.5/0.5) An African Princess-Edmonds (3.0/0.5) Akimbo and the Baboons-McCall (5.3/1)…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: Traveling West
[This is a subtopic of The West and also part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Lower Grades (K-3) The Adventures of Laura and Jack-Wilder (3.5/1) Aurora Means Dawn-Sanders (4.1/0.5) (1800, OH) Black Cowboy, Wild Horses: A True Story-Lester (4.5/0.5) A Book for Black-Eyed Susan-Young (3.5/0.5) The Buffalo Storm-Applegate (4.3/0.5) Chub-Sargent (4.0/0.5) (Santa Fe Trail) Covered Wagons, Bumpy Trails-Kay (2.0/0.5) A Cowboy Named Ernestine-Rubel (4.3/0.5) Diary of a Pioneer Boy-Massie (3.5/1) The Elephant Quilt: Stitch by Stitch to California!-Lowell (3.5/0.5) A Fourth of July on the Plains-Van Leeuwen (4.0/0.5) Going West-Van Leeuwen (3.5/0.5) Going West-Wilder (3.6/0.5)…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: Lewis and Clark/Louisiana Territory
[This is a subtopic of The West and also part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Lower Grades (K-3) Bad River Boys: A Meeting of the Lakota Sioux with Lewis and Clark-Sneve (4.6/0.5) The Crossing-Napoli (3.6/0.5) Mack-Sargent (4.4/0.5) My Name Is York-Van Steenwyk (4.4/0.5) Sacagawea’s Strength-Deutsch (4.6/2) Seaman’s Journal: On the Trail with Lewis and Clark-Eubank (4.4/0.5) Middle Grades (4-8) Bold Journey: West with Lewis and Clark-Bohner (5.5/6) The Codfish Musket-Hewes (7.3/20) Cross-Country with Lewis and Clark-Smith (4.0/3) Girl of the Shining Mountains: Sacagawea’s Story-Roop (5.5/6) John Colter: The First Mountain Man-Boga (3.2/1) The Journal of…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: Texas Revolution/Mexican-American War
[This is a subtopic of The West and also part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Lower Grades (K-3) Grady-Sargent (4.1/.5) Francisca Alvarez: The Angel of Goliad-Egan (5.3/0.5) Middle Grades (4-8) The Alamo Cat-Kerr (4.4/1) All for Texas: A Story of Texas Liberation-Wisler (5.3/5) At the Battle of San Jacinto with Rip Cavitt-Carter (4.1/2) Blood in Water: A Story of Friendship During the Mexican War-Dell (5.8/1) BSpirit of the Cimarron: Bonita-Duey (5.7/3) Clouds over Texas-Matthews (5.2/5) Davy’s Dawg-Matthews (4.9/1) A Fair Wind to Glory-Townsend (5.9/7) The Giant Rat of Sumatra: Or Pirates Galore-Fleischman (4.5/4) Girl of…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: California History
[This is a subtopic of The West and also part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Lower Grades (K-3) Amelia’s Road-Altman (4.1/0.5) Astro: The Stellar Sea Lion-Harvey (4.5/0.5) Barrio: Jose’s Neighborhood–Ancona(5.6/0.5) Boom Town-Levitin (3.7/0.5) Brothers-Yin (3.1/0.5) Calling the Doves-Herrera (4.5/0.5) Chang’s Paper Pony-Coerr (2.8/0.5) Cehlonia: Return of the Sea Turtle-Navarro (4.7/0.5) City of Angels: In and Around Los Angeles-Jaskol (7.9/1) Condor’s Egg-London (3.2/0.5) The Day Roy Riegels Ran the Wrong Way-Gutman (2.5/0.5) A Day’s Work-Bunting (2.7/0.5) Dust for Dinner-Turner* (2.4/0.5) Earthquake in the Early Morning-Osborne (3.3/1) Earthquake! A Story of Old San Francisco-Kudlinski (3.7/1) Fish for Jimmy:…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: Gold Rush
[This is a subtopic of The West and also part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] This does not include California’s gold rush, that is under California History. Lower Grades (K-3) Adventure in Gold Town-Hopkinson (3.9/1) Crazy for Gold-Wishinsky (3.5/1) Gold Fever-Kay (2.4/0.5) Gold Rush Winter-Murphy (3.1/0.5) Klondike Gold-Provensen 96.0/1) Sailing for Gold-Hopkinson (3.7/1) Sitka Rose-Gill (4.1/0.5) Stinky-Sargent (4.4/0.5) Middle Grades (4-8) Bonanza Gold-Berton (7.1/3) Fire and Snow: A Tale of the Alaskan Gold Rush-Gunderson (3.2/0.5) Gold Fever Trail-Hughes (4.9/3) Gold in the Hills: A Tale of the Klondike Gold Rush-Ransom (3.6/2) The Gold Miners’ Rescue-Jackson…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: The West
[Part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] The following are subtopics of The West: Traveling West Lewis and Clark/Louisiana Territory Texas Revolution/Mexican-American War California History Gold Rush (Not including California) Transcontinental Railroad Life in The West/Manifest Destiny 1700’s-1930’s Lower Grades (K-3) The Adventures of Rose & Swiney-MacBride (3.7/1) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer-Kulling (3.3/1) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: The Best Fence Painter-Nichols (2.0/0.5) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: A Song for Aunt Polly-Nichols (2.1/0.5) Animal Adventures-Wilder/Peterson (3.6/1) Apples to Oregon-Hopkinson (4.1/0.5) Araminta’s Paint Box-Ackerman (5.2/0.5) Arbor Day Square-Galbraith (3.2/0.5) Arizona Charlie and the…
- 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Preschool, Science, Teaching, the Give Way, Theme, Tot School
Tot School: Beach and Ocean Theme
The great thing about themes is that any academic subject fits into them. There’s no need for objectives at this age, because she has such a limited knowledge of most subjects, totally immersing ourselves in a theme results in her knowing a lot more than she did at the beginning. There are a ton of things out there to do for this theme, but I stuck to things that involve the least amount of prep and work on my part since 2 year old’s (and most kids) are notorious for not being interested in things we plan for them. 🙂 We did all this in about four weeks. Books (what…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: Immigration to the U.S.
[Part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Lower Grades A Gift for Gita-Gilmore (2.8/0.5) All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel-Yaccarino (4.2/0.5) (Ellis Island) The American Wei-Pomeranc (2.7/0.5) An Mei’s Strange and Wondrous Journey-Molnar-Fenton (3.8/0.5) At Ellis Island: A History of Many Voices-Peacock (4.0/1) Brothers-Yin (3.1/0.5) Candy Shop-Wahl (2.5/0.5) The Castle on Hester Street-Heller (3.6/0.5) Cooper’s Lesson-Shin (3.9/0.5) Courage to Fly-Harrison (3.6/0.5) Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty-Glaser (5.5/0.5) (1883) Goldfish and Chrysanthemums-Cheng (3.2/0.5) Grandfather’s Journey-Say (3.6/0.5) Grandfather’s Story Cloth-Gerdner (3.4/0.5) Hannah…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: Asia (1 CE to Present)
[Part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Multiple Countries Middle Grades (4-8) Between the Dragon and the Eagle-Schneider (4.8/4) (100 CE) Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan-Kang (5.4/6) (630 A.D.) Daughter of the Mountains-Rankin (6.1/8) Goodbye, Vietnam-Whelan (5.2/4) Bali Lower Grades (K-3) 1. Go to Sleep, Gecko! A Balinese Folktale-MacDonald (2.3/0.5) Borneo Lower Grades (K-3) Operation Orangutan-Lumry (4.6/0.5) The Mystery of the Monkey’s Maze-Cushman (3.7/0.5) Middle Grades (4-8) Other Echoes-Geras (4.6/5) Rainforest Rescue-Burchett (4.2/2) Upper Grades (9-12) Deep Dream of the Rain Forest-Bosse (7.2/9) Burma Middle Grades (4-8) Adoniram Judson: God’s Man in…
