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White House Holidays Unit Studies (Silverdale Press) {Review}

White House Holidays Unit Studies (Silverdale Press) {Review}

While I consider myself to be a Classical Christian Education homeschool in our methods we often like to throw in a bit of eclectic tastes from time to time including unit studies for random and interest-based learning. White House Holidays Unit Studies from Silverdale Press LLC are a neat way to keep learning on trekking while taking a break from regular history studies. Through the Homeschool Review Crew, I have been introduced to a new-to-me company in Silverdale Press and was blessed to be able to sample a few of their unit studies and answer keys. We had a solid six week with the files and while I didn’t print them this time as I often do with PDF unit studies, these were huge files! My daughter’s first request and the main one we are spending time with for this review period is White House Holidays Christmas Unit Study. This file, itself is over seventy-eight pages! What a wealth of information! As this is for a review period, it is a bit different to focus on Christmas during the month of June, but I think this would be a great study to start right before Thanksgiving and give the regular schoolwork a break as you explore and learn about what the American First Ladies have done over the years to celebrate our nation and the birth of Jesus celebration holiday of Christmas.

How we are using these unit studies:

We have used a variety of different ways to go about our reading, either together or my oldest daughter alone reading quietly. We’ve studyied Christmas around the world before in brief, but this is the first time we have ever touched on what goes on behind the doors of the White House of the American President’s family and traditions. My daughter (currently age 8.5) is finding it all very interesting. The unit study is filled with full-color and typical time era black and white photos with details and descriptions that are bringing history alive.

White House Holidays Unit Studies

Christmas Unit Study

We are able to compare and discuss traditions we have in our own family at Christmas and what we have seen in films and what we are reading about in the White House. We have pulled out the read aloud picture books and different versions of The Nutcracker and listen to the audio online. While it’s off season to go to a performance, this would be an excellent additional outing for families going through this study during the appropriate season. We have been listening with great musical appreciation intent to music featured in the typical Nutcracker performances.

Our Bible has come out as we have read the Luke passages and our art supplies have made more than one appearance as my own little artists try their hand at recreating what they deem to be a lovely way to remember the story of Jesus’ birth each year. My daughter is loving discussing Giotto again and talking about how well he portrays Saint-like figures within his art pieces.

The poetry read aloud has livened the mood and fits perfectly as one is creating Christmas smelling wonders that permeate the air from the kitchen craftiness in progress as guided by the unit study. We went through the lessons as desire poked us, but one could definitely make organized and structured lessons with the information and materials provided. Most everything is within the unit study, although one might wish to go online for a video or music note to enhance the exploration and study. The discussion questions were most involved by my oldest daughter as the unit study did not hold the interest of my 6.5-year-old or 3.5-year-old students. The Christmas study has four lessons and could be done at the rate of a lesson per day. Our activities worked best for the two oldest girls, but again it was most enjoyable by my oldest. There are so many activities, some we have done before and do every year, and some completely new that my daughter was eager to talk about and plan to tackle this Christmas season with an eye to instructing her siblings.

Labor Day – 3 lessons
Veterans Day – 3 lessons
Thanksgiving – 5 lessons
Christmas – 4 lessons with 6 activities per lesson
MLK – 5 lessons
Valentine’s Day – 5 lessons

White House Holidays Unit Studies

Valentine’s Day Unit Study

In addition to the Christmas unit study, we enjoyed loosely going through the Valentine’s Day Unit study. In years past, we have read a few picture books on Saint Valentine, made a few heart shaped decorated papers for family and friends and called it a day. With this 64-page unit study we were able to see from a picture window standpoint some of the romance behind the First Families that have passed through the White House.

As a child, born in the era of Reagan, I’ve always been a fan and through this study I was able to introduce my daughter a bit more to the idea of Valentine’s Day and these incredible and inspiring people. The pictures included through out are priceless and the letters with all their words just make a smile impossible to hide from one’s face. My daughter is loving learning about these real people and how such a holiday actually has meaning in the world.

There has been so much that I have learned through going through these unit studies with my daughter. We still plan to go through the Thanksgiving Unit Study together. (My favorite holiday!) While I am not ready to discuss war with her and have thus just myself only looked at Veterans, MLK, and Labor Day unit studies, I do see where in the future they will be extremely beneficial to our studies. I am impressed with these materials from Silverdale Press and would absolutely look forward to reading more unit studies in the future. They are well researched and very interesting.

Silverdale Press

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Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers & White House Holidays Unit Studies {Silverdale Press LLC Reviews}
Homeschool Review Crew

 

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The Creative Madness Mama also known as Margaret is a Christian Stay-at-home Mama, married to the Enginerd, quilter, cross stitcher, avid reader and book-a-holic. As book blogger for various publicists, she loves to share the latest and greatest about books coming out as well as her needle art and other crafty projects with some pictures of her fourteen-year-old AppleBlossom, twelve-year-old OrangeBlossom (the Princess), nine-year-old Almond Blossom (the Rascal boy!), six-year-old (red) Mermaid Warrior, the four-and-a-half-year-old Viking Dragon, and Huckleberry (due in June 2024!) in between. Homeschooling, cloth diapering, breastfeeding, babywearing, bone broth brewing, tea drinking, list making mama full of a little creative and a lot of madness.

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