• American History
• Ancient History
• Civics
• Geography
• People
• World Culture & History

American History

American History
Participate actively in the history of the United States of America.

Indian Peoples of the Americas
Native culture, past and current. An introduction for children.

Pilgrims
How Squanto helped the Pilgrims. The first Thanksgiving at Plimoth Plantation.

Colonial Times
Life in early America was both tough and fun, and these sites show you why.

Pirates of Colonial Times
If you want to hear stories of pirates, galleons, lost treasures, horrendous deeds, and gallant heros, this is a place to find them.

Salem Witch Trials
One theory that has come out recently is that the girls had been traumatized by earlier events: Indian massacres of families familiar to them.

American Revolution
Causes, events and people of the Revolution presented in formats intriguing to children.

Lewis and Clark
200 years ago these brave men led an expedition up the Missouri River, across wild mountain ranges, befriending Native Americans through the help of the Indian woman, Sacagawea.

Pioneer Times
In the early 1800s people headed across the western plains and mountains to settle in Oregon and California.

Civil War
Coloring pages, recipes, craft projects, reenactments and songs make the Civil War come alive for kids.

Modern Times – 20th Century
This page takes you from rural America at the turn of the century, through the mid-century battles, and to the advent of the technological society.

Ancient History

Prehistoric Man
Find out the truth about cave men, women and kids, as well as the lovely art they created.

Ancient History
Kids have fun exploring ancient cultures within these links.

Ancient Egypt
Wander through the mazes of ancient tombs to discover the secrets of ancient Eqypt.

Ancient Greece
Travel back in a time machine. Contribute stories. Find out about original Olympic games.

Ancient Rome (Italy)
Play the games that ancient Roman children played. Find out about daily life.

Civics

Activism 4 Kids
Participate actively in solving the world’s problems.

Civics
Governments of the United States, Australia, Canada, and the UK explained to children.

Economics for Kids
Learn about economics through these fun interactive sites just for kids.

Iraq Conflict For Kids
Read current events about Iraq Conflict. Lesson plans, ideas. How to help the children. Support Peace. Support the Troops.

News 4 Kids
Keep on top of current events. Write your own news stories.

Geography

Habitats
Visit the earth’s Biomes which are areas with very different geology and plant and animal life: deserts, rainforests, tundra, taigas, temperate and grasslands.

Maps
Really good maps and atlases online to help with geography and history studies. Treasure maps, too!

United States Geography
Each and every state of the union has interesting and unique features for kids to explore through these interactive links.

World Geography
Participate actively in geographical quests and meet kids all over the world.

People

Biographies of Famous People
Read the stories of famous people and villains who have gone this way before.

Genealogy – Family History
Find out about your family members and create a family museum of scrapbook.

Women In History
Famous and outstanding women throughout the world and throughout time.

World Culture & History

World Culture & History
Fun sites with ideas for social studies in general. Learn about people all over the world.

Age of Exploration – 1400 – 1600
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries two nations, Portugal and Spain, pioneered the European discovery of sea routes that were the first channels of interaction between all of the world’s continents.

Canadian History
From the Children of Eagle and Raven to modern times. Resources for Canadian children and others to study Canada.

Flight History
Since early times, people have been fascinated with the idea of flight. Learn how these dreams of flight came true.

Inca Culture
The Inca society was very organized. Everyone understood his or her position in the social pyramid.

India
Come explore India, its mysterious past, games, culture and language.

Mayan Culture
Mayan stories, activities and virtual tours help you learn more about this ancient culture.

Medieval Times
Find out about Castles, Happenings, Heraldry, Kings & Queens, Knights & Ladies, Organizations, and Plays.

Renaissance for Kids
Are we still in the Renaissance Period today? Come decide for yourself.

Vikings
What is myth? What is fact? Learn about Scandinavian history, play games, and explore with the Vikings.

The post Social Studies for Kids appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.

We visited a museum up near Tahoe. It had an exhibit of Indian things from the Wahoe tribe. I became interested in an Indian hand drill. It was not easy to use, but I practiced and learned how to use it. I wanted one of my own, so after we got home, we had fun making and using it.

By Scott Zeise, September 2, 1994 (Age 9)

Here is how we did it

First we got some stuff at the hardware store and around the house:

• a 3/8″ dowel
• 1/4″ x 1″ piece of a pine stick
• some sandpaper
• some thick cardboard
• a drill and 2 bits big enough to make a small holes for the shoelace and a big one in the base of the stick for the dowel to go through
• a nail
• a leather shoe lace
• glue
• hammer
• heavy duty cutter

Sawing and Sanding

• Take the flat pine board and saw it 14-15″ long. Sand it, especially the edges.
• Saw the dowel to about 20″ long. Sand the ends. Save the bits removed for the fly wheel.

Drilling

Next you need to drill some holes.

• On the dowel, about 1″ from the top, drill a hole just big enough for the leather shoe lace.
• On the flat pine board, drill 2 holes the same size as before, about 1″ from both ends.
• In the exact middle of the flat board drill a large hole so the dowel can fit through. We had a problem with this as we didn’t have a bit big enough, so we drilled lots of little holes and sanded a lot. The dowel must fit through this hole loosely, but not flop around.

Making the Cardboard Fly Wheel

From some thick cardboard, cut circles about 4″ in diameter across, or bigger. This is needed to cause momentum. It will not work well without this part. We put little pieces left over from the 1″ stick between the cardboard pieces like a sandwich, to give some weight and thickness. Poke a hole with the dowel through the center of the cardboard disk.

Adding the Leather Shoelace

• It will look like a sailboat when you get done.
• Thread the leather half way through the hole at the top of the dowel. Make sure you have two equal parts of lace on either side.
• Slide the flat board on the other end of the dowel up about 5″ from the bottom.
• Thread the ends of the leather lace through the small holes on the ends of the flat board.
• Tie knots on the underside, but for now leave extra lace dangling until you see if it is just right. Trim later.
• Even up the laces on each side.

Finishing Touches

• Last, if you want, color the cardboard fly wheel so it will change colors when spinning. We don’t know if the Indians did this, but it looks pretty spinning.
• Slide the disk up to 1″ below the flat board. Glue it there to the dowel. Wait for it to dry.

We tried it without the cardboard circle, but it needed to act like a fly wheel to give it circular momentum. Something spinning wants to keep spinning. the leather makes like a screw or inclined plane that you make go up and down. You’ll see.

• Finally, hammer a nail in the very base of the dowel to make the “bit.” Trim with a heavy duty cutter so only about 1/2″ sticks out from the dowel. We cut it straight across. See what happens if cut at an angle. It might be sharper.

Working the Hand Drill

• Drill into an old piece of wood, not your Mom’s table! Be careful not to touch the nail bit after drilling: it gets hot from the friction.
• First you spin the stick, and when it winds up as tight as you can get it, have one hand hold the stick near the dowel, so it won’t unwind until you are ready.
• Put the other hand at one end of the board, then quickly put the first hand at the other end of the board. and push it up and down. It kind of works like a yo-yo.

Wow! History and physics and art and you wind up with a tool you can really use.

Only one question I had: How did the very first hand drill get made since it needs a drill to make it?

The post How to Make an Indian Hand Drill appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.