 Hey guys, my name is Brittany and welcome back to my YouTube channel. You guys in today's video, I am going to be doing a lesson from Blossom and Root, a River of Voices History Curriculum. So I'm really, really excited you guys to finally show you how we utilize a River of Voices inside our homeschool. So if any of you guys are new here to my channel, again, my name is Brittany. I am a homeschooling mom to three girls ages 10, four and two, and I'm in my third year of homeschool. So you guys, we started our River of Voices back in October. So we have been utilizing this curriculum now for about two months and I am really, really enjoying a River of Voices and I cannot wait to share with you how we actually utilize this curriculum. It's a lot of moving parts. And when I first got this guide, I was a little bit overwhelmed by seeing all of the activities and all the things that you can possibly do with this history curriculum. But once I started to use it and incorporate it in my homeschool, I just found out how simple it was and I haven't seen that many videos on Blossom and Roots of River of Voices, their early American history, just on YouTube, just showing and explaining how it works to flow and everything like that. So I'm really excited about today's video to be sharing how we utilize a River of Voices in our homeschool, how I keep it very, very simple. And sometimes I follow the minimalist plan and sometimes I do all the books in the bookbasket. So before we get into the do a lesson, I will give you guys a brief flip through of the lesson we're going to be doing, the books we're going to be reading, and I'm going to show you all the extras and all the things that a River of Voices from Blossom and Roots has to offer. Okay, you guys, this is Blossom and Roots of River of Voices, United States history for elementary and middle grades. This particular volume is actually going over the first European colonies to 1791. So you guys, this is not going to be like a full flip through of this curriculum. If you want me to make a separate video of a full flip through, I will, but I'm just going to show you how I utilize this curriculum and how easy it is to incorporate it in your homeschool. So as far as scheduling goes, you can really pick and choose how you want to do this curriculum. I am doing the traditional schedule where we're going to be covering this over a 36 week period, doing history twice a week. So she has something for everyone, you guys. She has portions where we can do oral narration, written narration. We can do scrapbooking. We can make a timeline. So it's so many different optional hands-on activities that we can incorporate in each week, or we can just keep it simple that week. So I really love that flexibility where me as parent, I am picking and choosing how I am going to utilize this particular curriculum. So you guys, the main spines in this particular curriculum that we are going to be using in the standard pathway, which is the pathway I'm going on in this curriculum, is before Columbus, we're using a kid's guide to Native American history, a kid's guide to Latino history. And this is the last reference book, which is a thousand and one things everyone should know about African American history. So these are the main spines we are actually getting the meat of our curriculum from. And then in each lesson as we go through it, she has some book basket suggestions where we will incorporate our picture books. So you guys, I'm going to go ahead and flip to today's lesson that I'm going to be doing a lesson with you guys in just to show you what we're actually going to be accomplishing for today. So in today's lesson, we are actually going to be talking about Squanto. So here is the portions where I went ahead and I highlighted what we are going to do. So we are actually going to be utilizing our reference book before Columbus. And this lesson, and we're going to be reading chapter five. And it's about why did the Europeans succeed for our picture book for this particular lesson? We are actually going to be using Squanto's journey. I already had this picture book we read it last year. So I think it will be a great reread for us to do. And as far as our visual lesson that we're going to be using for today, I am going to be using the clickable links that she actually gives when you order her downloadable PDF to go ahead and click some of the videos of my choosing. She does suggest the parents to pre-screen the videos before allowing your kiddos to watch just to make sure that the information you feel that it's appropriate for your kiddos to watch. So we will be watching the capture video by 1614. And then we will do the discussion question. We are going to skip the Notebooking page for this week. And we're just going to do the discussion questions. But if you would like to do the Notebooking pages, you can do the Notebooking pages for each lesson. But again, the Notebooking pages, they are optional. She does have mapping and different where you can draw pictures of whatever you talked about. They're really, really cool Notebooking pages. Sometimes we do them and sometimes we don't. I have another activity that we're going to be doing at the end of this lesson. So we're going to just do the discussion question and skip the Notebooking page. But I do utilize them as well. So you guys, let me stop rambling. And we're going to go ahead and do this lesson. If you guys do want to see a more flip through and in-depth view of the River of Voices, just let me know in the comment section down below and I will make a separate video giving you guys like a flip through and my initial review of this curriculum. OK, you guys, we are actually about to go ahead and start off our River of Voices lesson. We are actually on lesson six and we are going to be talking about Squanto today. So in a River of Voices curriculum in the beginning, they suggest us to always start off our new lesson by watching one or several of the clickable video links that they have for the standard pathway. So I picked out one of the videos. This is just a two minute short video. We're going to be watching this video is called Capture 1614. So we're going to kick start by watching this quick video. And then we are going to go ahead and listen to Before Columbus. And we're going to read our bookbasket book today, which is Quanto's Journey. So let's go ahead and we're going to start off our video today. The same story appears over and over again in history books about the European conquest of the Americas. Time after time, a small group of Europeans defeated a much larger population of Native Americans. Why did the Europeans always win? OK, you guys, I just wanted to let you know that we have been utilizing audible a lot when it comes to a study in history. I'm finding that it's so helpful for me to use audible, especially as we are in the Indigenous people and Native American unit. It really is helping us get a better understanding. And we're not so focused on the pronunciation of these tribes and of the names of the group. We really can understand and grasp the knowledge in this book before Columbus. And it's really, really been a great addition to our home school, adding in audible. My story is both strange and true. I was born in the year of the English call 1590. My family were leaders of the Ptoxic people. And I, too, was raised to lead. But in 1614, I was taken to Spain against my will. You guys, this is my favorite part of the curriculum when we get an opportunity to choose one of the books from the bookbaskets. All the selections are so great. And sometimes I cannot just choose one, but I do my best to try to at least choose one or two. I also have been really enjoying the discussion questions that I'm having with my daughter. I really love hearing her opinions and her views on history. And I love creating this safe space where she can vocalize her opinions. And I really, really have been enjoying this portion of this curriculum. OK, you guys, we are actually all done with the lesson. We actually listened to Before Columbus. We read Squantle's journey and we did the discussion question with Brielle. We watched our video. And right now, we're actually going to work on one of the bigger projects for this first part. We didn't get an opportunity to do like most of the other big projects. So today, Brielle is going to be making her own longhouse. So I'm going to show you guys some of the materials that we picked up from the Dollar Tree. And we're just going to watch her try to construct this longhouse. And I'm really, really excited about this. OK, you guys, this right here is my American History of Visual Encyclopedia. And I just have a reference point of a longhouse for Brielle to kind of like look at as she is trying to construct her own. But we went to the Dollar Tree and we found this cute little tray that could be like her base for her longhouse. And then let me see, Brielle, what else do you have? I've got some moss. We've got some moss from the Dollar Tree and fake wood. We have some fake sticks from the Dollar Tree. And then what else we have? And we also have some popsicle sticks. So this week, I'm just going to let Brielle take her time and kind of construct her own type of longhouse and kind of see how it goes. I'm going to give her a few days on this project because I just want her to take her time and kind of like have fun in making this longhouse. And we might watch a few more YouTube videos about more structures of longhouses and things like that as she is making her own little mini model. So are you excited, Brielle? Yeah. This one's really, really cool. So I'm going to go ahead and let her get started. So, you guys, I know you're going to ask me the question, how long do we actually spend on a River of Voices history curriculum? And we spend anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes today. Brielle actually spent a lot longer because we kind of went on this rabbit trail on longhouses. And I thought she was going to spend a few days on this longhouse, but she just kept on asking more and more questions. And she was constructing her longhouse. My time lapse actually stopped as she was doing it. But this is her final product. And I really, really have been enjoying the hands-on approach to this history curriculum as well. OK, you guys, I really hope you enjoy watching me and Brielle do a lesson from Blossom and Roots, a River of Voices. I really, really, really have been enjoying this curriculum. I love the discussion. I love all the books that we're reading and incorporating in our homeschool. I just love the laid back approach of this curriculum because we can really go all in one week or we can just really keep it simple. I love that flexibility that it offers. I am so, so, so enjoying just hearing all these different perspectives and using all this great living literature to study history. It's really been great. I don't have anything negative to say about this curriculum. Like I am in love. I really feel like I'm past the honeymoon phase. And I really, really have been thoroughly enjoying it. And I really love this approach to history that I am going on with my daughter. So you guys, I really hope you enjoy today's video. I really hope you enjoy watching us do this lesson. And I really hope you are enjoying coming more inside of my homeschool and kind of seeing how we are utilizing our curriculum and how we're utilizing all the resources for this school year. So you guys, thank you so much again for watching today's video. I appreciate every single one of you. And I will see everybody in my next one. Bye.