Eyewitness to History is, as the site proclaims, “Your ringside seat to history – from the Ancient World to the present. History through the eyes of those who lived it.” This site contains a multitude of first-hand accounts of people and events throughout history, and could be a terrific resource to really make your specific historical studies come alive for your students.
Caveat: This is a general history site for readers of all ages, and is NOT specifically a homeschooling site. Some of the articles on the site would not be suitable for your students – such is the nature of history – so some parental supervision would be suggested. Also there are ads on the site you have to navigate around.
Here’s a sample from just one of the hundreds of articles, videos and audios on this great site, on what it was like when Teddy Roosevelt & his family moved into the White House in 1901. We loved this one:
Just shy of his forty-third birthday, Roosevelt was the youngest president to move into the White House. He, his wife and six children brought an energetic enthusiasm and vibrancy previously unknown in the presidential mansion. Along with the family came a virtual menagerie of pets – including dogs, birds and a pony. The Roosevelt’s soon completely occupied the place making it their home and stamping it with their own unique imprint. Leaving the White House in 1909, TR remarked: “I don’t think any family has enjoyed the White House more than we have.”
…One of the favorite stunts of the children was to crawl through the space between ceilings and floors where no living being but rats and ferrets had been for years. They took delight also in roller-skating and bicycle-riding all over the house, especially on the smooth hardwood floors. Practically every member of the family, with the exception of the President and Mrs. Roosevelt, had a pair of wooden stilts, and no stairs were too well carpeted or too steep for their climbing, no tree too high to scramble to the top, no fountain too deep to take a dip, no furniture too good or too high to use for leapfrog and horseplay, no bed was too expensive or chair too elegantly upholstered to be used as a resting place for the various pets in the household…
CLICK HERE to go to the site