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What are the options for Jr. High 1-yr. American History study?


julikins
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I'm looking for American History study for my daughter who will be in 8th grade.  We have done the history cycle and used MOH for the last two years, but I'm not sure I want to continue with that.  What else is out there, I'm not even sure.

 

I've researched some about Notgrass America the Beautiful, I've heard about American Odyssey (is that with K12?).  What else?  I do have all the books from the Sonlight Core 4+5 (I believe that was it) from several years ago, but I don't have time to do Sonlight with her.  She does much of her work independently. 

 

So what else is out there for that age that a child can use independently?  Oh, and we are going to be back over seas, so it can't be heavily library dependent.  Thanks!

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I don't have time to do Sonlight with her--it will take up her whole day!  She reads well, but not super fast, I don't think, and Sonlight is so expensive!  Do you guys really like Hakim?  I've heard mixed reviews.  Isn't here anything else out there?  There's so much for elementary or over two years, but 1 year for jr. not so much?

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I ran into this with our oldest two.  Ended up writing my own and designing my own timeline notebook to go w/ it.  Anyway, I will tell you what sources we used that we really liked.  Maybe you could use some of them with Hakim? 

 

All three of these are by Walch: 

U.S. History Map Activities

Short Lessons in U.S. History

American History Challenge (quiz game..."jeopardy-like"...she could even quiz herself)

 

By TCM:

Take Five Minutes:  A History Fact a Day for Editing ( I put them all in chronological order ).

 

By Barchers and Marden:

Cooking Up U.S. History Second Edition (dd loved to cook...younger brother didn't mind either :thumbup: ) This book has wonderful book, CD, and DVD lists, categorized by genre.  Each time period has its own vocab list as well.  Each time period has at least a whole page of "library links"...questions for research about the time period, people, etc.  The recipes are wonderful and are not all edible (ie. berry ink, hand soap, candles, etc.).

 

I also pulled from the Lessons from History Guides and Lessons from History the Art Part (really fun addition) because I had them all on my shelf already. 

 

We also used an awesome resource called, Learning with the Movies.  I'm assuming with you being overseas that this one would be out, but I include it here for others that might be peeking in with the same questions.  Anyway, I found the movies through our interlibrary loan system and had a movie form they would fill out afterwards.  They also took notes during the movies.  Both kids LOVED this part of the curriculum. 

 

I also had our oldest work through the 8th grade geography course:  America Land I Love & Western Hemisphere.  She actually said she really liked it and learned a ton from it.

 

Both kids read and reported on several books I different genres...on their individual reading levels.  I used the list in the cooking book as well as Lessons from History and Reading Through the Ages. 

 

So, the first two books and the cooking one would be easy for you to coordinate...she could actually do that herself and they are independent studies.  You could also require she choose a certain number of books to be read and reported on from certain genres (from your SL core 4/5) and then she could read them along with the appropriate time periods.  You could pack them up and take them with you.  Plus, if SHE chooses the books...within your guidelines....and not having "too many"....I'm sure she'd enjoy the reading more and sort of "own it"...kwim?  Not sure how you feel about A Beka, but that one can easily be done independently as well.  This was our first actual "textbook" and at least with our dd...she liked it.  She too is a very independent, "check-it-off-the-list"  learner. :001_smile:

 

Good luck to you!  Hope you find the perfect "fit"!  Sorry if I just confused you MORE! :blink:

 

 

 

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