This Week in History- A Thomas Jefferson Education {Schoolhouse Review Crew}

Perhaps you’ve heard of A Thomas Jefferson Education {TJED}, as I had. Although I had been to the site and even receive the newsletter via email, I had forgotten that they offer the resource This Week in History {TWIH}. Being a history inclined individual, when this resource came up for review from the Schoolhouse Review Crew, of course, I raised my hand high to be able to review it! I’ve graciously been given a one-year subscription to this resource.

TJED focuses on the 7 Keys of Great Teaching:

1. Classics, Not Textbooks
2. Mentors, Not Professors
3. Inspire, Not Require
4. Structure Time, Not Content
5. Quality, Not Conformity
6. Simplicity, Not Complexity
7. You, Not Them

This resource is geared to students and teachers from about age six or seven on up (I think it is adaptable to any age). This is a subscription service that is accessed online from A Thomas Jefferson Education put together by Rachel DeMille. The cost is $9.99 per month (billed monthly). And the amount of content is well worth that cost, imho.

Benefits of TWIH (from the website):

• relieves fear, stress and burnout
• energizes your kidschool
• fills in the gaps
• cultivates cultural literacy
• facilitates state or provincial compliance
• correlates resources for co-ops, classrooms and family learning
• harnesses the power of technology in a classical leadership education
• harmonizes with Unschooling, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Trivium/Quadrivium, IEW, eclectic, etc.
• delivers new ideas and areas of learning to you and your child
• instigates discussions and projects that expand wisdom and understanding
• connects the subject areas–from music to math, from geography to world religions, from hobbies to science projects, etc.
• motivates you and your students to greater excellence
• delivers Face to Face with Greatness
• empowers you to mentor your students in the classics
• enlivens the 7 Keys of Great Teaching
• activates Phases of Learning

“The focus of This Week in History is to help you ‘Inspire, not Require.’ (Rachel DeMille)”

Each day includes a massive amount of information that it most definitely would still be a great resource without the internet. They include discussion points, images, photographs, poems, recipes, printables, and so much more (not every day has every aspect that I gave)! Each week includes many website links, this is heavy on internet use. I don’t see how this can be utilized fully without using the internet. Honestly when I received my first email with the week in history, I felt overwhelmed. The range of topics included for the week in history is very broad; you can choose what you need to fit in with what you are currently studying or take it in a totally different direction!

See sample weeks of TWIH.

Some ways that are put forth for using this resource (Rachel DeMille):

1. A week or two in advance (since you have it all together and you like to see how everything is going to shape up before it happens) you review the coming week's resources and consider how they fit with your interests, your kids' projects, etc., and plan how to use it

2. On the day of (since your week has been nutty and you haven't had time to plan what you're going to do), you get up and review that day's resources, print out a few pdfs and preview a few topics, and then invite the children to discover with you

3. In the moment (since you're an adventurous, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of girl/boy), you bring up the site and wander your way through it like a treasure hunt

4. Review the archives (available at the bottom of each week's article, or by searching by date or keyword) to explore for a date of interest, like a child's birthday, your wedding anniversary, or even some random date chosen by your child-of-the-day, and explore what is notable about that date

I chose to use primarily the email edition. The emails are sent out a few days before the week starts. From there I looked at what was presented for the days. If there was something of particular interest, then I could share it with the kids. If there were activities and other resources, whether online or not, I could utilize those as I wanted. Something I knew but seemed to forget while having this for review is that you can see past TWIH by viewing the archives at the website (#4). This I found, later than sooner, to be quite useful. Also, the search option is quite nice. This way when we were studying a particular subject, person or event, I could search previous weeks to find some great resources.

My thoughts:

Great resource that is well worth the cost. As is mentioned on the website, for pennies a day, you have access to an incredible amount of information. I highly recommend this as something that can be used across the curriculum. 

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You can read more about TJED at their website. They also offer books and other resources for “any educational setting, and for any student, age, and/or phase of learning.” Don’t miss the freebies page on their website, where you can find free audios, samples to the books they offer and also can sign up for the newsletter.

Contact:
Website: http://www.tjed.org
Discussion groups, contact page, twitter, facebook, etc: http://www.tjed.org/contact/

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Read what other reviewers have to say about this resource by clicking on the image below.
***Disclaimer: I received the above subscription from A Thomas Jefferson Education via the Schoolhouse Review Crew free in exchange for an honest review. No compensation was given. All opinions stated are my own. I only recommend what I feel would be truly beneficial to others based on my personal experience. See Disclosure/Policies.***