17th Century World History Homeschool Curriculum

17th Century History

After a few years with Sonlight (which I loved and highly recommend), I decided to “wing-it” with history in our homeschool. For the past 2-3 years I have created my own curriculum, and finally decided to share it with you! Read my full post on Our History Curriculum to understand how we use it.

The 17^th Century is such an exciting time to study! The Renaissance is wrapping up, exploration of the world is still exploding, modern science is growing, and new worlds and civilizations are being born. We will cover Shakespeare (whose main works and his death were in the 1600s), the beginnings of America (my FAVORITE part of history!), Galileo, Isaac Newton, Pilgrim’s Progress, Pirates, and many other notable historic people and events.

How we do it: Using this timeline, I read through Story of the World (SOTW) and other history books, stopping for videos, literature, and hands-on activities as they arise.  For this century we are adding a more formal History Timeline/Notebook/Smashbook which will include a timeline and sections for History & Geography, Science, Literature, and The Arts. Costumes, food, and field trips round out the fun!

Resources: The main list of books is listed below, and then additional resources are listed with each topic. Some are books for purchase, some are links from around the web. This list is not at all exhaustive, but it covers the main points discussed in Story of the World, Volume 3 and The Light and the Glory, as well as a few extra events I wanted to cover with my children.

Ages: This list includes resources for the whole family. My current students are 5, 8, 10, and 15. These are widely varied ages, I know, so the approach to each topic will be different depending on the student. Since my oldest student will graduate in a couple of years, this will be our last time to cover the 1600’s to modern era, so she will study more in-depth than the younger children.

Timeframe: There is no set time limit on this study. For us, it took a little over 3 months.

This post contains affiliate links. My website is my job and helps to support our family. So if you decide to buy something you see mentioned here, we would be so grateful if you clicked through my links. Thank you!

Main Resources:

• Main History Spine: Story of the World Volume 3, and Activity Book
• Story of the World timeline figures from Tending Our Lord’s Garden
• The Light and the Glory (for high school) and The Light and the Glory for Children (for the elementary age)
• Usborne Book of World History for younger students – my kids like the comic-book style
• Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History for older students – good for older elementary and high school
• History of Britain – for high school
• Draw and Write Through History: Pilgrims, Pirates, and Patriots – all ages

 Setting up the time period:

• Usborne IL Encyclopedia: p. 296-297, 304-307
• Usborne Book of World History p. 146-147

Any time during this study, I highly recommend attending a renaissance festival in your area.

• List of Renaissance Festivals to visit
• Medieval, Renaissance, and Pirate Faire Directory

Music – Baroque

• Baroque Music – A Beginner’s Guide at Classic FM
• Music Periods Lapbooks (including Baroque)
• Layers of Learning has some great printable Baroque Cards (plus links to YouTube Baroque music videos)
• These cute Baroque Composer Finger Puppets are great for little fingers ($2.50 download)
• Coloring and Fact Sheets: Baroque Composers ($2.00 download)
• Wikipedia has an entire list of Baroque Composers with links to futher info about each one

William Shakespeare- 1564-1616 

 (Read my full post here on teaching Shakespeare at home)

• Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare by Usborne – I assigned a couple of well-known plays to my elementary-aged kids from this book
• Shakespeare Lesson Plans at About.com/Education (free) – Good for all ages if Mom reads aloud
• The Shakespeare Encyclopedia by A.D. Cousins – My favorite!
• Great Scenes from Shakespeare’s Plays (Dover Coloring Book) – The kids chose their favorites and I made copies

• A Shakespearean Tale by S. A. Cranfill – fun, short, historical fiction for the younger kids
• How to Talk Like Shakespeare at Writers Write – see if the whole family can talk like Shakespeare for a whole day!
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare online at Many Books (free)
• Teaching Shakespeare to Kids at Kids Love Shakespeare
• See an example of a Globe Theatre replica
• Shakespeare Plays with modern translation series – for high school, the perfect way to read a play and actually understand it!
• The Play’s the Thing board game
• YouTube Video: Animated fly-through 17^thCentury London

• Lego Hamlet on YouTube
• Lego The Tempest on YouTube
• Alan Rickman reciting Sonnet 130 on YouTube
• Romeo and Juliet paper doll costumes and here
• Try to watch a live play, or at least a movie of a play (original scripts!)
• There’s lots more on my Shakespeare Pinterest Board!
• Shakespeare’s Life and Times Activity Book

Galileo 1564-1643

 Along Came Galileo by Jeanne Bendick

• Galileo learning ideas from Teach Beside Me
• Galileo For Kids book on Amazon
• Movie Learning Guide from Teach with Movies
• Galileo’s Telescope children’s books
• Draw a Telescope from Draw and Write Through History (Vikings, Middle Ages, and the Renaissance)
• This is a good time to talk about (or jump all in to) Astronomy
• Other topics include the thermometer, pendulum clock
• The New Way Things Work pgs 42, and 186-189

Usborne IL Encyclopedia p. 314-315

The New World

• 1600: History/Literature: Sackett’s Land by Louis L’amour – historical fiction coinciding with Jamestown and Plymouth
• Read my post on teaching history with Louis L’amour here
• 1602: Dutch East India Company Formed

Usborne IL Encyclopedia p. 310-311

Culture and Fashions of the Time:

• Elizabethan Men’s Fasion at DeviantArt
• DIY Coffee Filter “Ruff”
• Make a snood
• Sewing patterns for Elizabethan costumes here and here and here and here and here and here
• Elizabethan Era paper dolls and paper men

1603 Queen Elizabeth dies and King James VI of Scotlandbecomes King James 1 of England

1605 – Australiais discovered by the Dutch

• Australia mini-unit at The Pinay Homeschooler
• Usborne Book of World History p. 156-157
• Usborne IL Encyclopedia p. 326-327

1607 – Jamestown

1608 – Champlain

1610 – Hudson

1611 – King James Bible

1614 – Pochahontas marries John Rolfe

SOTW3 – Chapters 1 – 3

Light and the Glory (regular and kid’s versions) Chapter 4: Jamestown

SOTW: Chapter 7 – Jamestown, Tobacco, Slaves

• (Colonial America coloring book p. 28)
• Usborne IL Encyclopedia p. 34-325
• Hudson and Champlain: Colonial Coloring Book p. 26
• American Family of the Colonial Era Paper Dolls by Tom Tierney
• Life in Colonial America Coloring Book by Peter F. Copeland p. 2-3,11-12,

Pocahontas

• Pocahontas by Ingri & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
• Pocahontas paper dolls
• Movie: The New World – available on Netflix DVD
• American Indian paper dolls

Usborne Book of World History p. 148-150

Usborne IL Encyclopedia p. 320-323

1616: Sir Walter Raleigh searches for the New World

1620:Pilgrims Sail to America

• The Light and the Glory (all versions) Chapters 5-6
• The Light and the Glory activity book for all
• Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford (actual account of the Pilgrim’s journey and life in the New World – HIGHLY recommended)
• Reclaiming History (Pilgrims) Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 on this blog
• My blog post What the Pilgrims Did
• My blog post Character of the Puritan Fathers

 Culture and Fashions:

• Costume Patterns for Pilgrims and Colonials here,
• Costume Patterns for Indians here,
• Make a Paper Pilgrim Bonnet, A Paper Pilgrim Hat, and Indian Headdress

More Pilgrim/Puritan Resources

• Keep the littles busy with this Pilgrims PreK printable pack
• Thanksgiving printable timeline for younger students
• The Worship of the American Puritans by Horton Davies
• Make Marshmallow Pilgrim Hat Cookies
• Thanksgiving Activity from No Time for Flashcards
• Virtual Field Trip: Walk Through Plymouth at Scholastic
• Pilgrim Stories by Margaret Pymphrey
• If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
• Sarah Morton’s Day by Kate Waters
• Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims by Rush Limbaugh
• Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas
• The Thanksgiving Primer
• Focus on the Family Radio Theater: Squanto
• Dover Coloring Book: Life in Colonial America
• Dover Coloring Book: The Story of the Pilgrims
• First Thanksgiving Sticker Activity Book
• Blue Feather’s Vision
• Visit MayflowerHistory.Comfor a wonderful list of Mayflower passengers, primary documents, and much, much more.
• Visit Plimouth Plantation

1620: To the Far Blue Mountainsby Louis L’amour

1620s: The Warrior’s Path and Jubal Sackett by Louis L’amour

Rembrandt’s Art Career 1626-1660

See our Rembrandt Study HERE

• Rembrandt: Art History for Kids on YouTube (great for the very young student)
• Gallery of Rembrandt’s Art
• Rembrandt: Art Lessons for Children at Hub Pages
• Art Masterpieces to Color: Aristotle Contemplating Bust of Homer (great coloring book to use througout any history study)
• Liberty Hill House has a good lesson plan with an art lesson
• This is a great YouTube painting lesson – paint a copy of one of Rembrandt’s self-portraits

1624: SOTW Ch 6 – Manhattan Island

• Life in Colonial America coloring book p. 9
• Usborne IL Encyclopedia p. 310-311

1628:

• Light and the Glory (both versions) Ch. 8
• The Worship of the American Puritans by Horton Davies – good for high shool

• SOTW Ch.12 – Oliver Cromwell, Puritans
• SOTW Ch.8 – Middle East and Persia(Ottoman Turks)
• Usborne Book of World History p. 142-143
• Usborne IL Encyclopedia p. 298-301

1618-1648:

• SOTW Ch. 8 – Thirty Years’ War
• Usborne IL Encyclopedia: p.308-309
• Usborne Book of World History p. 144

SOTW Ch.10 – Japan, China

• Make a Zen garden
• Japan paper dolls and paper men

SOTW Ch.11 – India/Taj Mahal

• India paper doll costumes
• Usborne Book of World History p. 152-155

1650’s – 1660’s – Vermeer Artist Study

Short children’s video about Vermeer:

•  Masterpieces to Color: Girl With a PearlEarring
• GREAT round-up of activities for a Vermeer study at Hub Pages

Diego Velasquez  1599-1660

• Masterpieces to Color:  – Infanta margarita
• Visit this website dedicated to Velasquez

1660-1730 – Golden Age of Piracy

• Pirates- Costume patterns here, here, here, here (we’ve made this one twice),
• See Inside the Age of Pirates
• DK Eye Wonder Pirate
• Connections: Pirates (unit study at Homeschool Share)
• Pirates of the Carribean (movie)
• Pirates Unit Study at The Homeschool Mom (approx ages 8-13) –
• Ch 4 – Landmark History of the American People (How British Laws made Smugglers and Pirates)
• Ch 6 – True Stories of Pirates – Captain Kidd
• Pirates Theme Pageat Enchanted Learning
• 1575 – Cervantes brothers escape Corsairs (True Stories of Pirates)
• DoverColoring Book: Pirates and Bucaneers
• DoverColoring Book: Blackbeard and Other Notorious Pirates
• Draw and Write Through History: Pilgrims, Pirates, and Patriots
• Usborne Book of World History p. 161
• Make Spanish Dubloons (SOTW Activity Book ch. 1)

 1664 –Plague in England

1666 – Great Fire of London

1667 – Paradise Lost by John Milton

SOTW Ch.13: Louis XIV, Cardinal Richelieu

• Usborne IL Encyclopedia p. 312-313
• Usborne Book of World History p. 158-159

1687: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare (audio version here)

1675: SOTW Ch 15 – King Phillip’s War

1675: NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY and RESTORATION OF MRS. MARY ROWLANDSON By Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

• The Light and the Glory Ch. 9

Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyon – 1678

• The Family Pilgrim’s Progress by Jean Watson
• Intoxicated on Life has a great post on the Essential Lessons You and Your Teen will Learn from Pilgrim’s Progress
• Lots of great extras for reading Pilgrim’s Progress at ThielAcademy
• Pilgrim’s Progress lapbooks and other resources at Delighting in His Riches
• HubPages has a great list of links and printables to use HERE
• See this map of Christian’s journey, and this circular one

Music – Harps begin to be used in orchestras and the recorder becomes popular in England

Isaac Newton- 1643-1727

 

Read my post about our Issac Newton study HERE.

• Isaac Newton by John Hudson Tiner (Sower Series books)
• Isaac Newton: Men of Science, Men of God at Institute for Creation Research
• Newton’s Laws of Motion Word Search at Education.com
• Isaac Newton Unit Study at Garden Of Praise
• Newton’s First Law of Motion animated video by Smart Learning for All
• See Newton’s Principia Mathematica online
• Explore Physics with this fun book: Issac Newton’s Physics for Kids
• A History of Scientists Who Were Christians: Isaac Newton on YouTube
• Physics101 – The 101 Series

John Locke 1632-1704 (Influenced the American Revolution)

1673 -Anton van Leeuwenhoek

• Antony van Leeuwenhoek: Creation “Magnified” Through His Magnificent Microscopes
• Leeuwenhoek microscope pictures

The Light and the Glory Ch. 10-11

1682 SOTW Ch.17 – Russia/Peter the Great

• Usborne IL Encyclopedia p. 316-317
• Usborne Book of World History p. 145

1683 SOTW Ch.18 – Ottoman Turks March West

         SOTW Ch. 19 – British in India

• Usborne IL Encyclopedia p. 328-329

1692 – SalemWitch Trials

The Light and the Glory Ch. 12

The Scarlet Letterby Nathaniel Hawthorne (we listened to this one on Audible)

Check out my World History: 17^th Century Pinterest Board for these and many more links! If you have any questions, please comment below.

This list is a perfect illustration of how I teach history in our homeschool. This method will work with other “spine” history texts besides Story of the World.