Middle School with Tykes 2.0

[Gil]

If you have a young elementary aged child (5-8) who is doing middle school level work, then what are you using that is working really well for your tykes? The boys want to study subjects and they want more organized work for the content areas, so while I'm compiling book lists to read I also need some sort of assignments to go with them.

 

We have math, Spanish, writing and reading covered but we want  to study U.S. history, civics, economics and science. Labs are not a desire or an option right now. We are on friendly terms with textbooks.

 

The boys have no desire to 'unschool' the subjects and they are out of patience with "relaxed" also. They feel our current approach (tons of non-fiction library books) wastes too much time, is disorganized, needs improvement. They would much rather have their library reading supplement and support textbook based study.

 

I can't seem to ever find anything for civics or economics that would suit us, so I'm especially all ears if you have a book to recommend.

[EKS]

The concise version of A History of US (from K12) is excellent for early middle school kids.  I can't stand the original version though.  We did not use the accompanying K12 courses, just the books.

 

We also used the Science Explorer books with reasonable success.  Another science program to look at might be CPO.

[kiana]

For civics/economics -- it's pretty hard to find ones that are written for middle school that aren't either written from a conservative Christian point of view (some of them bordering on theocratic) or completely based on pictures.

 

So this might sound crazy, but you might actually consider some of the texts aimed at PS special needs high schoolers. For example, this economics text -- http://www.christianbook.com/understanding-our-economy-revised/richard-churchill/0825137705/pd/137705-- is very affordable and includes questions for them to fill in, which it sounds like they would enjoy -- if their handwriting is not up to the task it would be very easy for them to either dictate answers or type them on a separate sheet of paper. There is a substantial sample so you can check and see if it would fit what you are looking for.

[SeaConquest]

We too plan to start the History of US next year, but I decided on the audiobook version. You might also look at K12 Human Odyssey for world history. For Science, we use Holt Science & Technology textbooks as a spine.

 

For econ, I have compiled a few books in an Amazon wishlist that may be helpful for you (I believe I made the list public): http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2985V3G6Z9OGU/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go_o?

[EndOfOrdinary]

We used A People's History of the United States (not the Young People's, the real People's history), Blessed Unrest, and Powerful Words for U.S. History. However, due to our families ethnicity on both sides, traditional history does not work for us. We did US History as a learning about social responsibility and covered founding documents as a way to discuss response to tyranny, freedom vs responsibility, power dynamics of oppression, and social heirarchy being supported by cultural norming.

 

Using the literary periods to discuss the timeline of cultural response to various events really helps as well. There are distinct shifts in point of view which correspond in writings. These we largely used as readings which accompanied and we discussed the same themes. This ran the years 6 through 8. Then Ds became fixated on Ancients ano we have not left yet.

[chiguirre]

Prentice Hall Science Explorer is a series of short, topical textbooks that are very interesting. You can pick and choose what you want to cover, in what order, but still have the layout and accompanying workbook of a textbook series. Here's a link to a random book on Amazon:

 

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0132011565/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

ETA: We loved the Joy Hakim original 10 book History of US. The audiobooks are excellent, too, if your library has them.

 

 

[Dmmetler]

I haven't used Galore Park science, but it may fit the bill. Galore park, in general, seems good for textbook loving, just the facts kids.

 

Another option for science would be something online like Uzinggo middle school or IntoScience (middle school, AUS standards). My DD does things like this As something portable and fun for waiting or doing long drives, so I'm not sure I'd consider them a full curriculum.

[Momontherun]

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding

[Runningmom80]

following

[SanDiegoMom]

I second the Concise History of US- we are doing US history and tried the 10 volume set and finally switched to the one volume. We supplement with John Green's Crash Course US History Youtube videos. I'm not sure if there's a teacher guide with questions and assignments to go along with the book, though. We are starting BFSU in the fall, along with some of Ellen Mchenry's units.

[mathnerd]

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding

This is my recommendation for science as well.