Silverdale Press LLC was a new company to me, and I wish I had known about it when my kids were younger, because their White House Holidays Unit Studies can be used with children from 5-18! Because these studies are split into two levels, elementary and jr./sr. high school, they truly can be used by everyone...and *you* don't have to do the adapting!
There are six unit studies in this series: Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Valentine's Day. Each unit, as mentioned, contains two different levels. Although all of the unit studies are similar, I'm going to talk specifically about Veteran's Day, as that is the one that Mary-Catherine (13) completed, doing one lesson per week. While the lessons can certainly be done faster (you could actually do a lesson a day), to me, the entire point of a unit study is to really engage and marinate in the material - to take every opportunity to go as in depth as possible, even to use the unit study as a jumping off point for further study.
What sets these unit studies apart from many others is their academic quality. I could tell right away when reading through the studies that whoever wrote them knew what she was talking about. There is so much more to these studies than what you could get off Wikipedia. It turns out that Jill Hummer, the author, has taught history and political science at the college level and has a PhD in Government. In other words, she's my soul sister (for those who don't know, my undergrad degrees are in history and political science, and I have a PhD in political science). She wrote the unit studies that I would write for my own children. How often do you get that in a product? Oh, and as a bonus, her husband was a former college debater! Yes, I want to support this family's company!
For reasons I can't necessarily articulate, I have always been fascinated by Veteran's Day. Maybe it's because in the old-time radio shows I listen to, it's still called Armistice Day. Maybe it's because of the poppies and their significance. Whatever the reason, when I saw the array of studies, I knew that Mary-Catherine would be beginning with Labor Day and that I would have her spend some quality time with it. Regardless of which level you use, the unit study has similar lessons: K-6 Lesson 1 - President Woodrow Wilson and Armistice Day, Lesson 2 - President Wilson and Food Czar Hoover at War, Lesson 3 - The Story of Dwight Eisenhower and how we got Veteran's Day. Grades 7-12 have the same first and third lesson titles, with Lesson 2 being Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points. As soon as I saw that K-6 got to study the issue of food in WWI, I knew that Mary-Catherine would be doing (or at least reading) this lesson, too. This lesson is so full of amazing information, and even includes the vintage WWI posters and propaganda that I have used in my own work creating materials for students. I absolutely LOVE the use of primary source materials like these. There is no substitute for them.
As I indicated previously, there are so many places to "jump off" in this unit study! The very first lesson suggests talking about family members who are veterans. Thanks to my mom and her wonderful genealogy research, we have photos and relevant documents of my relatives, including both my grandfathers and then going back further. It's a wonderful way to bring personal family history into the study of veterans.
Mary-Catherine (13) had this to say about the unit study: "I thought the information in this unit study was very interesting! I like the pictures a lot. Doing it made me excited for the next study, which we are almost through now."
What she said!
The next study we tackled was Labor Day. Again, it followed the same format as Veteran's Day. The lessons for the younger kids focus primarily on crafts and picture study type activities. The older kids do primary source analysis, primarily. I actually love this study even more than the first one we did, if possible. The way that Dr. Hummer displays the primary source and then asks questions about it mirrors exactly projects that I have created myself. This kind of work is so effective for older kids! Dr. Hummer also suggests students listen to original speeches and discuss them. With my obsession with old-time radio, you'd better believe this is something I have done with my children before.
Other Crew members worked both on this unit study and on others, but some members reviewed another product altogether, Silverdale Press LLC's Persuasive Writing and Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers.
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