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Am. History Curriculum Fail...Please help me salvage the year!


Meadowlark
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So, I took a gamble on a curriculum that I'd been drooling over, but had negative reviews. Well, it backfired. I'm 6 weeks in and it is crazy disjointed, unorganized, chronologically doesn't even make sense. We barely survived the first 6 weeks with no help from the program. I basically shelved the teacher's manual and made up my own curriculum. Kids are 4th/3rd/K/PreK/ and 3 year old tagging along.

 

The problem is, I spent a lot of $$$ on this and need to find a way to supplement so that I can still use it, rather than ditch it completely. What I need is some kind of American history spine, simple curriculum, etc. to get me through the rest of the year. I have plenty of really good books, and some notebooking pages, but that's about it. The time period is Civil war on ward.

 

Can anyone suggest an inexpensive curriculum, comprehensive book to use as a spine, or anything else that could get us through the year in a  non-stressful and fun way? I'd like to add a few meaningful hands-on projects and notebooking. I need to cover from the CW on..think westward expansion, the 2 world wars, inventions, space age, civil rights movement, etc.

 

Thank you!

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When I did Am. History, I had a lot of curriculum and books around, but mostly I used in my own way. I assigned a major topic to each month. Then we read lots of books, encyclopedias, did field trips, and did all of the other skills work I like to include around history around that topic each month.

 

So for Civil War we did one month on Civil War (I think ours was Dec=Jan, since Dec is a short month.) Then we did February as Civil War in our State and reconstruction with a bit of westward expansion and inventions/technology. Mar was WWI and the aftermath, April was WWII, May was as much after WWII into civil rights as we could get in.  I would use one book from the library as our main text each month, but I had stacks of picture books and encyclopedias and projects from all of our other books to add in. They colored as I read. I read from several different books each reading session. They did maps and projects as they came up. (for us I had a couple big ones for the year planned. One each semester.)  I picked projects from activity books as they came up each month. I had planned that we would do a big project in which months, but didn't really have a clue what they would be until closer to. Rabbit trails led us to them, and the kids get a say in what they want to do based on our readings.

 

We covered state history on top of Am. that year, so we did a class weekly at co-op, plus two other outings a month around state history and several large projects which overlapped and reinforced our Am. history studies at home. We created a state history scrapbook for the year on top of our Am. history stuffs for at home. It was our biggest history year to date.

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Okay, it's WinterPromise AS 2. I drooled over it, went back and forth for a LONG time, and finally went with it. Sigh.

 

The books it uses are good, quality books. I'm happy to have them in my library. Some of the projects are good, some of the notebooking is good.

 

The problem is, the guide is a mismatched, disjointed mess. We read about some random person (sometimes 20-30 pages of VERY detailed info) and then do a project about something else. They have us doing a Civil War project, with NO Civil war reading or spine. They have us putting timeline pieces up even though we've never even learned about that person. It's just a mess. It COULD be so beautfiul but at this point, I'm having to put together all of my own stuff. It wasn't a huge problem for the Civil War (except that I paid a great deal for this and that irks me of course...) because there is so much on the Internet. But for this next period of time..the curriculum has us going backwards into the era of the Oregon Trail. Unless I'm really missing something, it doesn't make sense. I expected to go forward with the reconstruction, etc. So I have these great books and just need some kind of simple, inexpensive spine that goes IN ORDER so that I can piece things together. Hopefully that helps!

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I would buy this: http://shop.creekedgepress.com/American-History-Task-Card-Set-AH.htm

You can see samples here: http://creekedgepress.com/Gallery.php

Use the books you have, use the cards in order (they're mostly chronological, though we found one out of order in a different set), and substitute activities when you come across a topic that you have the materials for.

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Okay, so you're wanting something chronological instead of more of unit study? Could you just construct your own around the resources you like? Encyclopedia, atlas, reading selection, filling out timeline? That's essentially what you're looking for anyway, and it's not a ton of work if you use your readers as the inspiration for deeper study of time and place.

Edited by Arctic Mama
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Cheap - a used copy of the Complete Book of United States History

 

I really like A Child's First Book of American History, but it ends way before you want it to and isn't quite as cheap as the above spine.

 

Hands down, for the price, if you are just looking for a spine to wrap everything else around, go with the Complete Book. 

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At those ages, I would just use the books you have and read through them in an order that makes sense. Do oral and written narrations. Look up locations on a map. Memorize states and capitals and the presidents for the oldest 2. Use Sheppard's Software to learn locations in North and South America.

 

That's a perfect American history year for that age in my opinion. Find additional library books if desired.

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Awesome! I just put in an order for the Complete Book of American History-even got a used copy from Amazon for super cheap :-) 

 I can't wait to get it and start planning! Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

 

I was just going to chime and suggest this then I read the replies and see you ordered it :)

 

We like it so far. It's nothing fancy, but it is chronological and gives us a good jumping off point for reading other good books about the topic. Hope it works for you!

 

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