Advice for Homeschool Newbies

(https://www.facebook.com/nche1984)

What curriculum is out there for Canadian history?

The question of "What curriculum is out there for Canadian history?" has been popping up in the Facebook groups lately, so I thought I'd share the answer I've been giving, in case it's helpful for anyone :)

So let's talk about options: :)

• Donna Ward (Northwoods Press) is one of the most popular ones. She offers history / geography / social studies for kids from like Gr 2 - 8, depending on the program that you use. Her programs are available in print or digital download. Her history program, Courage & Conquest, (for example) uses the video series Canada a People's History, along with both historical fiction and non-fiction resources, mapping activities, timeline, and worksheets (that you can photocopy out of the book), etc. It's divided up into 30 lessons. Price wise, her books are ~$30 and require you to get the additional books / videos she recommends however works for you.

• The Great Canadian Adventure company is pretty new to the scene but have put together a program for history that's very hands-on and interactive. There are 3 kit options (geography, history, and general Canadiana for littles) You get a kit in the mail each month for ~$20 that includes a huge pile of paperwork and activities. As you work through the resource, you create what's known as a "smashbook" - kind of like a scrapbook of what you've learned along the way.

• The Canadian Homeschooler (which *full disclosure* is me...) offers a geography and history program. These are both completely online programs, meaning that you have to log into the website to access them. The history program is called My Canadian Time Capsule and each month you do a unit study of one moment in Canadian history. It includes activities like recipes, role-playing, art, music, writing, reading, web research projects, videos, etc. (it varies per topic). You either do the activities online or print them out. It costs ~$10/month.

• CreekEdge Press offers Canadian history task cards. You print out the cards and work on one at a time. There are 30 cards in the set and each one has ~6-10 tasks. These are things like mapping, timeline, reading, activities, etc. Your child picks (or you assign) what you'd like them to accomplish for that lesson. It costs about ~$25.

• Headphone History is a little different. It's an audio history (so you listen to a digital download or CD) There is only Vol 1 right now, but it covers pre-history through to New France. There are 4 CDs in the volume. You can also get printable worksheets to go along with the audio recording - these are things like questions and answers, wordsearches, colouring pages, etc. It's ~$52 for both the CDs and the worksheets.

• ACE Canada - Admittedly, I am not very familiar with this program, but I believe they have Canadian social studies for some of the older elementary grades, using their PACE workbooks.

I am sure there are more, but there are some options for you - particularly about history!

Reposted from The Canadian Homeschooler: https://www.facebook.com/thecanadianhomeschooler/posts/2427055010673696

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