Eccentric Eclectic Woman: Silverdale Press LLC White House Holidays Unit Studies Review

Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog. My family had the privilege of trying White House Holidays Unit Studies - ages 5-18 (there are two options in each study, one for elementary ages, one for jr/sr high) from Silverdale Press LLC for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Silverdale Press LLC offers high quality curriculum for unit studies, history, social studies, and writing for homeschooling families. These are made by experts in these subjects. Most of these are for middle school and high school students.

Silverdale Press LLC was founded by Joshua and Jill Hummer. They are homeschooling parents of four children. For over a decade Jill has taught college classes in history and political science. She has also written a book, and various articles and journals. Joshua has been practicing law for over 11 years and was homeschooled as a child.

White House Holidays Unit Studies are digital downloaded curriculum and come in PDF format. These studies are designed with 3-5 lessons, with each lesson intended to be done in a day. All of these studies start out with an introduction about why studying holidays is important, how to use the curriculum, and a table of contents. Each lesson has an "Introduction & Overview for Teachers" which usually tells what the lesson's activity is, materials needed, learning outcomes, estimated time the lesson takes, lesson plan. This should be read before the lesson by the teacher to prepare the lesson. After this is the actual lesson and the lesson's activity in detail. There are activities geared for grades K-6 and activities geared for grades 7-12. The content for younger students is shorter and the activities are visual and hands-on. The content for the older students is more detailed and the activities call for more reading, writing, and thinking. Primary source documents are all included and materials needed for activities are mostly things that you would normally find around the home.

White House Holidays Unit Studies (six unit studies so far)

Labor Day (plus the answer key) - 3 lessons
Veterans Day (plus the answer key) - 3 lessons
Thanksgiving (plus the answer key) - 5 lessons
Christmas (plus the answer key) - 4 lessons with 6 activities per lesson
Martin Luther King, Jr. (plus the answer key) - 5 lessons
Valentine's Day (plus the answer key) - 5 lessons
They will be adding more unit studies to this series in the future.

The Labor Day unit study consists of 53 pages of three lessons for grades K-6 and three separate lessons for grades 7-12. There is one activity per lesson. The lessons and activities geared for grades K-6 are in the front. The lessons and activities geared for grades 7-12 are in the back.

Labor Day Lessons for K-6th Grades and 7-12th Grades:

Lesson 1: Eleanor Roosevelt and Child Labor/Labor Conditions and Eleanor Roosevelt
Lesson 2: McGuire, Maguire, and the First Labor Day/The First Labor Day, Pullman Strike, and President Cleveland
Lesson 3: President Cleveland and the Pullman Strike: A Holiday Declared/A Holiday Declared

The Veterans Day unit study consists of 49 pages of three lessons for grades K-6 and three separate lessons for grades 7-12. There is one activity per lesson. The lessons and activities geared for grades K-6 are in the front. The lessons and activities geared for grades 7-12 are in the back. For the third lesson, “Get Involved on Veterans Day,” the activities are the same for each age group. Each lesson has a text portion to read aloud. You can do all of the lessons on Veterans Day. Or you can do one lesson per day, or even one lesson per week, leading up to Veterans Day.

Veterans Day Lessons for K-6th Grades and 7-12th Grades:

Lesson 1: President Woodrow Wilson and the Story of Armistice Day
Lesson 2: President Wilson and Food Czar Hoover at War/Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points
Lesson 3: The Story of Dwight Eisenhower and How We Got Veterans Day

The Thanksgiving unit study consists of 78 pages of five lessons for both grades K-6 and grades 7-12. Each lesson has a text portion to read aloud. The lessons also have a follow-up activity or activities. There are also related activities set up a bit differently with parts (A, B, and sometimes C) designated for the different grades or all grades.

Thanksgiving Lessons for K-6th Grades and 7-12th Grades:

Lesson 1: The First Thanksgiving: Freedom, Peace, and Provision
Lesson 2: From Harvest Festivals to the Founders: The Roots of a National Holiday
Lesson 3: Sarah Josepha Hale Persuades President Lincoln
Lesson 4: From Franklin Roosevelt to the Presidential Turkey Pardon
Lesson 5: Ike and Mamie Eisenhower and American Thanksgiving Traditions

The Christmas unit study consists of 78 pages of four lessons. There are a total of 24 activities for this unit study, 6 per lesson. This allows families to complete an activity during each December day, leading up to Christmas. These lessons should be worked on in order, but it is totally fine to skip or double up on activities if needed. These lessons cover a historical White House Christmas theme. Each lesson has a text portion to read aloud. These lessons and activities are geared towards both grades K-6 and grades 7-12 and can be worked on together. Your student will be learning a variety of subject areas in: history, government, art, literature, music, nature study, and more! There are also fun recipes and community service activities throughout.

Christmas Lessons for K-6th Grades and 7-12th Grades:

Lesson 1: Jacqueline Kennedy, The Nutcracker Suite, and the White House Crèche
Lesson 2: Betty Ford, Handmade Folk Art, and the Gingerbread House
Lesson 3: Barbara Bush, a Story Book Christmas, and the White House Tree
Lesson 4: Michelle Obama, Simple Gifts and Military Families, and Christmas Cards

The Martin Luther King, Jr. unit study consists of 64 pages of five lessons. Each lesson has a text portion to read aloud. These lessons are for all grade levels. Some of the exercises and activities are designed for kids of all ages to do together; others are tailored to the grade levels K-6 or 7-12. These lessons should be worked on in order. The first activity for each lesson includes a timeline, map points, key terms, and video links. The timeline at the end can be printed and used throughout the curriculum. The map at the end can be used to plot important places of MLK's life and work. The last lesson is recommended to be done on the actual holiday.

MLK Lessons for K-6th Grades and 7-12th Grades:

Lesson 1: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Early Life
Lesson 2: Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Eisenhower
Lesson 3: Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Kennedy
Lesson 4: Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Johnson
Lesson 5: How Presidents Have Preserved King’s Memory

The Valentine's Day unit study consists of 64 pages of five lessons. Each lesson has a text portion to read aloud. These lessons are for all grade levels. Some of the activities are designed for kids of all ages to do together; others are tailored to the grade levels K-6 or 7-12. These lessons should be worked on in order. The last activity in each lesson includes Internet links to videos, articles, and other resources you can use for further study. It is suggested to complete one lesson per day leading up to Valentine’s Day, saving the last lesson to complete on the actual holiday. This unit study can be done at any time though. Your student will be learning a variety of subject areas in: history and government; literature, poetry, and writing; music and art; and even baking skills. This unit also has a breakdown of course credits that would count.

Valentine's Day Lessons for K-6th Grades and 7-12th Grades:

Lesson 1: The Love Letters of John and Abigail Adams
Lesson 2: The Love Letters of Ronald and Nancy Reagan
Lesson 3: The White House Wedding of John Tyler and Julia Tyler
Lesson 4: The White House Wedding of Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom Cleveland
Lesson 5: Valentine’s Day 1962 and Jacqueline Kennedy’s Television Tour of the White House

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
I did the White House Holidays Unit Studies with my two daughters, Zari who is 7, and Teela who is 10. We have done a lesson a week focusing on Thanksgiving and have done lesson 1 of the Christmas one for the last week. We will be going more in depth into these studies closer to Thanksgiving/Christmas time.

These homeschool unit studies were very educational. I even learned a lot. They had a lot of information I didn't know. I think these are great for the whole family to study and do together.

The Thanksgiving White House Unit Study teaches a lot about the American holiday's history and traditions from the Pilgrims to the present-day presidential turkey pardon. Each lesson seemed to have questions to answer about things we read and vocabulary with definitions to learn as well.

In the first lesson we were taught about: freedom, peace, provision, William Bradford, King James I, Scrooby, Pilgrims, Leyden Holland, Mayflower, New World, Plymouth Massachusetts, Mayflower Compact, Chief Samoset, Algonquins, Chief Massasoit, Wampanoags, “general sickness”, Squanto, The First Thanksgiving, Edward Winslow. We read first hand eye-witness accounts from both William Bradford and Edward Winslow and my daughters answered questions that they had in the study guide. Then they made a poster of things for each category of freedom, peace, and provision.

In the second lesson lesson we learned about harvest traditions, festivals, and celebrations; when and how Thanksgiving was made a holiday, George Washington, Thanksgiving proclamations, Henry Alford, “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” hymn. There were more vocabulary words, questions to answer, and a hymn to sing.

Pictures made from The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day” by Lydia Maria Child.

In the third lesson we learned about Sarah Josepha Hale. We also read “The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day” by Lydia Maria Child and learned about it, then my daughters made pictures of one stanza each from it. There were things to read and answer questions from as well.

In the forth lesson we learned about President Roosevelt, The Great Depression, Four Freedoms speech, Norman Rockwell, and the annual presidential turkey pardon. We read a document and looked at some art and answered questions about both. We will watch the Turkey Pardon this year when it happens later.

In the fifth lesson we learned about Ike and Mamie Eisenhower and their Thanksgiving. In this lesson there are recipes from Mamie herself. We didn't get to try these, but we are excited to test them out for next Thanksgiving!

The first lesson in the Christmas unit study was nice. We learned about Jacqueline Kennedy and her traditions in the White House, The White House Crèche, The White House Ornament, etc. We even made Hillary Clinton’s Chocolate Chip Cookies! Yum! We can't wait to get into this more later more during December.

We highly recommend these! They are very educational, super packed with information, and fun. These are great for homeschool unit studies and are great in addition to any studies about the Presidents, White House, Politics, Holidays, etc.

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