This Week in History is a weekly subscription website with an amazing variety of historical content for each day of the year highlighting what happened on a given day in history. It is a subscription area of the very informational A Thomas Jefferson Education website. Whether you subscribe to the Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy or not, this is not a resource to pass by.
Over the years I have seen many lists of what happened in history but none have been as well done as This Week in History. Most of those lists are just that- lists. This Week in History is so much more than a list of dates. Rachel DeMille has taken the time to find famous as well as more obscure things that happened in history. All of the days she highlights are relevant to a homeschooling family. For example, one day in July she highlighted Carlo Lorenzini’s birthday. Lorenzini is better known as Collodi or the author of Pinocchio. Following several pictures and a brief explanation, there are quite a few resource links on the topic. Some resource links are informational while others are activities or coloring pages. She then has a section of possible discussion questions. My favorite part are the rabbit trails that sometimes follow the topic. In the case of Lorenzini, she finishes with “What do you know about crickets?” and then takes the readers on a rabbit trail about crickets including more resources for exploration. The items DeMille highlights cover all subjects. One day might be mostly literature, the next science, and the next the history of a state or a nation, still the next might cover music or a fun trivia like “National Lasagna Day” or “Friendship Day.”
This Week in History is not just a website with the current week’s materials. There is an archives available as well. The archives are searchable by date, keyword, or topic. Although many of the topics will be brought back in a year, DeMille is always checking, updating, and editing her resources so the list is not stagnant. During the time of the review, the email was sent out for the end of July through beginning of August. A few days later, we received an updated content email with more resources for one of the days as well as a new topic. In addition to the archives and website, there is a weekly email sent out with the week’s information so you don’t even need to log into the website to access all the great resources!
I have been overjoyed with This Week in History. A few weeks ago in the resources section, it highlighted a video I had never heard of that was of high quality about the Constitutional Congress. I was able to check it out from my library and watch it with my children. Another day my son went on a scavenger hunt about a state. I think as we get back into out normal school routine this will become an even greater resource for our group time.
This week in History is a monthly subscription for $9.99 and can be used by any homeschoolers no matter what the philosophy or grades. It is well organized and run and customer service was excellent. I loved This Week in History, maybe you will too!
Please be sure to check out what other crew members thought.
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