US & CA History & Geography Supplement to SOTW

[Literary Mom]

I'm doing SOTW 4 with my upcoming 4th grader, but in the Well Trained Mind, she discusses supplementing with more American history (even though we had some in SOTW 3) because 4th grade is the year when it's normally taught. She also recommends covering state history for the same reason.

 

I'm looking for books and/or curriculum(s) that are compatible/complementary to classical/WTM/SOTW that could be taught to multiple ages. I won't be including my 2nd grader and K'er in SOTW 4 (except read alouds from CHLL), so I want them to participate in this to some extent.

 

Ideas so far:

 

Road Trip USA

Elemental US History

Beautiful Feet - American and/or California History

 

Your input is greatly appreciate! :)

[Literary Mom]

Bumping...c'mon guys! :confused:

[Literary Mom]

 

This thread, which I had bookmarked previously, is somewhat helpful, but does not have any formal curriculum recommendations.

[carlamom2ansnm]

I have a 4th grader in Cali too. This is our first year, so we were starting with SOTW1, however I've decided to take the year off of that and go with just American/Cali history this year. We're going to use TruthQuest with the Binder Builder and Notebooking pages for American, and BF for California. Bringing my 1st grader along for TQ, but not for BF.

[WeeBeaks]

I found some California history units on Rainbow resource we will be trying this year. They aren't here yet so can't comment too much on them until I at least see them in person let alone use them.

 

I have a 4th grader too in fall and will be doing SOTW4, folding in a 1st grader and pre-K wherever possible.

[Literary Mom]

Thanks - I appreciate these leads :)

[Carol in Cal.]

The standard state textbook is really pretty good, although it's quite meaty for 4th grade. I have a friend who teaches that grade in a public school, and she selects certain chapters to teach, and is selective about the ancillary lessons as well. I think it would be a good book to use in its entirety in the 5th grade or so. I ended up not using it because a local teacher I like very much built an entire semester class around CA history from a living books perspective, and I sent DD to that and called it good, while simultaneously teaching SOTW.

[Tam101]

I'm using Studies Weekly to add some state history this year.

[Literary Mom]

I'm thinking about doing Beautiful Feet Early American History for the primary grades with all of them and BF California History with my 4th grader.

 

Hoping to find a lot of books in the library, as it would be expensive to purchase all that, in addition to our other curriculum.

 

I'm also not sure I can manage so many read alouds (what with SOTW 4 with my 4th grader and the Classical House of Learning Literature), but I could field out some of the California literature (and maybe even some of CHLL) to my 4th grader to read independently, as she's quite the bookworm, though she's fussy about what she'll read on her own, and if it's classic literature (apart from illustrated books), it's generally like pulling teeth to get her started. I might start it to whet her curiosity...

 

I'll also be doing less reading for science since we're taking a break from Apologia this year and doing Elemental Chem and Physics which is more experiments than reading.

[Ellie]

My favorite California history is His California Story, by Lesha Myers. Lesha used her own support group as guinea pigs, so you can be sure that every activity, every...everything, has been field tested by actual homeschooled students. :001_smile: She includes many source documents to back up everything she writes. Oh, and I helped proofread the first edition. :D