I'm
a teacher, homeschool veteran and American history reenactor. I teach a 1700s-era dame school(here's a model one at Thursley in Surrey,
England) at our local history museum "Feast of the Strawberry Moon"
encampment. Here are free printable
hands-on early American history lessons and historical crafts and free printable colonial America lesson plans.
Teach
about school history. Explain that education wasn't compulsory in the U.S. colonies till 1852 and then
only in Massachusetts. Kids might be taught in "dame schools." Then
only basics. Women weren't deemed capable of teaching boys. They taught
handicrafts, reading, writing and ciphering. Higher education was taught by men
to families who could afford it. Here are free printable history lessons and historical
crafts from Kidipede
linked to the main page for the whole collection.
Reading
in Colonial America. In 1647, reading, writing and Bible was
mandated, under the Old Deluder Satan Act. The New England Primer was used
starting in 1760. MacGuffey Readers came out in 1836. But that was the
colonies. The Michigan territory was settled by Catholic French. Education came
from missionaries, like Quebecois Ursuline nuns under Marie del Incarnation.
Catholic or Protestant, instruction was religious and moral. Here are free printable selections from the New England Primer. Teach kids the famous alphabet poem beginning:
"In Adam's fall." Here are morecolonial early
American history lessons.
Colonial
America ladder school. Teachers grouped students by age and ability. In math,
the first row, the youngest, worked on counting. The next row, basic addition.
The next, subtraction and so on. Spelling, reading, and handwriting would be
taught this way, too. D emonstrate this with students. If students are
agemates, assign some to play older kids and some younger. Arrange seats or
benches in rows (ladders). Here are sample free printable early American history
lessons like those teachers would
have used.
Make
homemade books. Vellum was a costly paper-like material made from animal
membrane. This could be scraped down and reused. Few could afford it. But they
would have saved and reused everything. Teach kids colonial America frugality.
Make books from paper grocery bags (similar to parchment or butcher paper). Sew
pages by punching holes and weaving with pieces of twine, rope, yarn or leather
cording. Have students write the New England Prime Bible poem and illustrate.
Here are other free printable colonial early
American history lessons and historical crafts.
Hands-on
math games: Give children pebbles for counting. Kids transfer one pebble from
hand to hand as they count. Demonstrate simple operations: addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division. I've used beans, but tell kids these
were food stuffs and wouldn't have been wasted. Shells, feathers, sticks would
likely have been used.
Writing in early American
history. Make slate pencils. Children in early American history used slates and
a stylus made of rocks. Gather rocks. Scratch on pieces of rock tile. Ask local
rock or tile dealers for samples. See which kinds write best. Make quill and
ink. Cut the end off the feather at an angle. Heat in flame to make a nib. Ink
would have been too expens
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