Silverdale Press {Homeschool Crew Review}

I've always enjoyed celebrating holidays in our home school, especially when it includes history or even geography. For this reason, I was pleased with the opportunity to review the White House Holidays Unit Studies, from Silverdale Press LLC.

These homeschool unit studies have lessons and activities divided into two grade level ranges: K-6 and 7-12. Since SJ is in the latter category, we focused on those lessons.

The unit studies cover six different holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. day; Valentine's day; Labor day; Veteren's day; Thanksgiving; and Christmas. During the review period, we focused on Veteran's day and Labor day.

The Veteran's Day unit study begins with learning about President Woodrow Wilson, the Great War and Armistice Day. Your student will learn about the events that led up to the Great War, and how President Wilson wanted to stay out of the war. But events occurred that soon brought the US into the war, and in April 1917 Congress passed the Selective Service Act.

Also discussed is how President Wilson raised money for the war, by raising taxes, and that the US Treasury sold war bonds. Your student will also learn what various former and future presidents were doing during World War 1: Theodore Roosevelt; Herbert Hoover; Franklin Roosevelt; and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Then Armistice was declared, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month (November 11).

Another lesson discusses Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech.

Then there is a lesson which discussing President Eisenhower's roles during World War II and the Korean war, and how Armistice Day became Veteran's Day. There is a list of suggested activities your family can do to observe Veteran's Day.

I look forward to going over this unit study again next November, and incorporating some of the suggested activities into our observance of the day.

The lessons for the elementary grades cover the same information, but the activities for them are more hands-on. For example, your younger children will make a paper poppy flower. SJ enjoyed working on the crossword puzzle at the end of the first lesson in the upper level.

The Labor Day unit study begins with a lesson on the labor conditions during the Industrial Revolution, the final decades of the 1800s and first decades of the 1900s, especially in factories. Also discussed are the living conditions in the tenements in New York City in particular, and how Eleanor Roosevelt became involved with the Consumers League, which fought against sweatshops and child labor.

This is followed by history of the first Labor Day celebration, labor unions, and Grover Cleveland and the Pullman Strike. There are also speeches by various presidents about labor conditions and ideas of how to help American workers.

Again the activities vary for the two grade levels. The upper levels require writing, whereas the younger levels use hands-on activities, such as creating posters for the first Labor Day parade.

I look forward to using all of these throughout our next school year as these holidays come up. I plan to have SJ do more of the hands on activities from the lower levels, since writing is such a struggle for him. I think these are great resources for any family to use. Oh, and I'd really like to see one of these unit studies for Independence Day. It would be great!

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