The Johnson Crew!

Do you like learning about history or did you just click on this video because you're hoping and praying for a less boring way to teach some history to your kids either way you found the perfect video I definitely used to fall on the camp of not liking learning about history in school it was always about just cramming in facts people places events dates and memorizing that for a test and then right out the door it went right without ever learning the ideology behind why these wars began or why people did what they did when those things are way more interesting

And way more important to learn about if we want to understand human nature any better and understand how to avoid making those same mistakes enter the Tuttle twins history book America's history from 1215 to 1776. this book is awesome it is intended for young readers but trust me even as an adult you will find this book interesting and highly informative it covers the major events figure years and ideas that have shaped the founding of our country the book emphasizes the principles of individual liberty free enterprise

And limited government that have made America a unique and prosperous Nation this book is written by Connor boyak who is a Libertarian known for his work promoting free market ideas and individual Freedom you may already be familiar with him if you've heard of the Tuttle twins that book series has taught me more about economics the free market the US dollar and principles of Liberty than I ever learned in school we're a big fan of those books so I'll leave a link to my review of those books down in the description box below

So you can see the different titles that are out there so when I said that they were coming out with a history book meant to serve as a curriculum I bought it immediately knowing that it would be way more beneficial for my kids than what we were already using so I want to show you inside the book and explain more about why we love it so much but first don't forget to like this video And subscribe if you want to hear more about homeschooling tips

And tricks and resource reviews and all that good stuff I really appreciate you one of the most unique things about this history book is that it is written as a story it's written about these two kids and how things that they're doing relate to things in the past and it also shares how an older friend of the family is teaching them things about history and so it's not just let me just give you what happened in history you're actually learning It Through The Eyes of kids

And so I feel like immediately that helps kids to have more interest in it because they're like oh here are some children who are interested in learning about history perhaps it's not so obscure for me to learn about it as well and then it puts it in a story form which is automatically more engaging than just spitting at them facts for them to hopefully memorize and it just makes it so much more interesting so the story opens up and you get to know the Tuttle family a little bit

And they're playing Marco Polo in the pool and and that leads them to talk about Marco Polo and the Silk Road and things like that happen all throughout the book where they're relating it to things that they're doing and I really like that you get to see the twins reactions to the different things that they're learning about because I feel like that helps to spark our own children's thoughts and opinions where they're seeing other kids their age have a thought about this historical event and that can Inspire them to think of their own thoughts

And opinions about these events and it's written really well where it's easy for them to understand but I will tell you I have learned so much from this book myself so it's pretty interesting for adults as well which is a win-win in my book there's nothing worse than having to read a snore Fest to your children that's just like no thank you another really great thing about this book is that they will have discussion questions in there for you to go over with your kids which is just a great time to get them to actually critically think about what you just read about which number one helps to actually reinforce what you just read

Now that you're going to discuss it and think about it and then it also gets them to think about things on their own instead of just simply telling them what happened they get a chance to say whether they think that that was right or wrong and we can discuss all of that and I feel like that's such a huge value to homeschooling in general is those conversations like I want to have those conversations with my kids and I feel like if they were away at school all day

And we were busy with other things like I would not likely take the time to discuss their school stuff with them not to this level at least and so because I am the one teaching them during the day it gives us that opportunity to work in that conversation and I want to be the one to help mold their opinions right not anyone else and the book really emphasizes the principles and value that have helped make America such a prosperous Nation such as individual liberty free enterprise

And limited government things that are not really being talked much about in the public school shocker and I think the book does a great job covering major events figures and ideas that have shaped the founding of America and that helps to give our kids a much more well-rounded understanding of our country's past another cool feature is I feel like you get sort of some bonus subjects out of this book like economics political science and philosophy so you're really getting a lot out of the time that you're spending reading this which is great because I know us homeschoolers are always like we have a million things that we want to do with our kids

And then we feel like we run out of time so this is like a Time Saver thing for me I feel like the visuals in this book are really great too they have these sections where they will specifically talk about key people and just give you more information about that person and this is a really random side note but something that we like to do while we're reading it is when they have the dates of when the person lived I'll tell the kids like okay Martin Luther was born in 1483 died in 1546 how old was he when he died

So working a little math into our reading time but the reason I do this is because then we can see something that they did or when an event happened in their lifetime and we can see how old they were when that happened and I find that really relatable when you can actually put an age on that person when they did something it just makes it so much more tangible just better understanding who they were how old they were so we really like to do that they have let's see illustrations of the twins they have timelines drawn in

And maps and it just all helps to bring the story to life now this book can be used as a standalone curriculum it's 229 pages long so it's a great length to not feel rushed throughout the year and to not feel like you have to read it every single day in order to work through it so I think this is actually a great size for your school year or you can certainly just use it as a supplemental resource to whatever else you're doing I just think it is a great book to have in a homeschooler's home

And we were actually doing a different history curriculum when I bought this and I immediately paused that one and we started reading this and so what we would do is after we finished breakfast we sit down on the couch together and just be comfortable and I'll just read this aloud to them showing them all the pictures and then we'll discuss things together and they've really enjoyed that sometimes we make it through more pages than other days you know depending on how antsy the little ones are

But typically they like to listen to it too so it's it's written really well some of our main goals of teaching history to our kids is building a basic knowledge of key historical events figures and ideas that have Shaped America and our culture we also want to cultivate a lifelong love of learning and a passion for learning history and then most importantly we want to Foster critical thinking and the discussion questions in this book and just the way it's written really helps support that goal because we want them to think on their own we want them to be problem solvers we want them to not just take something on face value we want them to dissect it think about it for themselves

And so this is really helping to support that goal that we have they actually just came out with the second part of this book so we have purchased that and are excited to start that next school year while you're thinking about whether or not you want to get this book for your homeschool I've got this video about the Tuttle twins mini book series for you to watch next I'll see you next time thanks bye