Julie in MO Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Hi, Thanks in advance for the help I know the hive will give. We use TOG year 1 for history but got a very late start because we did civics (and studied the election in a lot of detail) for the first semester. Here's the question...I have a 5th and 7th grader. Since there are 10 volumes of the Hakim series (although I don't have them all yet), I thought it would be fun to start reading them together with DH in the evenings (even though we're technically in ancient Egypt in our history study). I thought it would be nice to work through the books rather slowly and for enjoyment for a couple of years. DH thought that without some kind of reinforcement activity, they probably won't retain what we read (which I've seen in other subjects). We lapbook what we do for TOG, but I don't feel I can add another big project in. I didn't see tests/quizzes anywhere for them (but did see the Oxford study guides). Tell me...how do YOU use the History of US series? Thanks, Julie in MO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quad Shot Academy Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 There is an assessment book: http://www.amazon.com/History-US-Assessment-Book-Books/dp/0195153480/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231732169&sr=8-3 It is very pricey. I have never seen it, so I am not sure if it is worth the price. My son is just reading through the series, so I am interested to hear other's answers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 We're using it with Biblioplan. I think we have volumes 2-5 this year (year 3) and the rest next year. I read it aloud to dds. No other written activities with it (I don't think it's necessary for our first time through--they'll get it again). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyAberlin Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 hewitt Homeschooling has a syllabus to follow as well. So does sonlight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunaLee Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Just keep in mind that the Hewitt syllabus has the schedule set for 1 book in the series to be read every 2-3 weeks. If you have readers, it might be great for them, if not it might be overwhelming. The syllabus also calls for them to do 1 project per week and gives ideas like make a time capsule, or record yourself giving a speech...stuff like that. It does come with a 2 page test for each volume, which is nice. I used to have the study guides and I don't think they come with any kind of pre-made worksheet type things. The study guides do however have questions about the reading, as well as offerings for projects, map work, and essay type questions. If you are going to read the books over several years, then it might be doable to get the Oxford Guides which I do think are an excellent, if pricey, resource. There are blackline worksheets available, or used to be, which have about 2 worksheets per chapter in each book. I would check with Oxford for those though. I wanted DD to use the History of US last year when we did US History but we buckled under the pressure of trying to do so many in a year and went to something else. Unfortunately, we only made it to pre-Civil War in our studies last year, and forged ahead to Ancients this year. Over our semester break DD decided she was really bored with Ancients, having already studied them in PS in depth as a 6th grader, and requested to go back to US History where we left off. She chose to use the Hakim books in conjunction with the History Portfolio for Modern Times and some Dover coloring books. I figure we can comfortably do 1 book every 4-6 weeks. When I do this again with ds in a couple of years, I might just save my money and go with the Sonlight plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 I created my own schedule, but I use it for upper grades (essentially 9th & 10th). I added literature into it. . . Sorry, I actually have 2 schedules for it. . .one I put on my blog and the other I used at home (there were some copyright issues that made it so I couldn't share my full schedule). Right. . . Okay. So, I have the history schedule up, which includes extra reading. My personal schedule was a combined history, Am. Gov't and Am. Lit., but most publishers did not wish to have their product schedules combined with another product. (So, I had to seperate them on my blog.) ***************** However, the idea of reading in the evening with DH is a good one. And, I wouldn't worry too much about re-enforcement activities. A good portion of stuff they will go over again in their world history studies. I do have quizzes that went with the books. Each one is 15 multiple choice. . .it was a waste of money. There are some other guides, that are much better, much more expensive, and even then, I wouldn't even use 1/2 of them. (They are very directed to / for a classroom teacher -- but they have good short answer / essay questions. Wish I could just get the questions!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhondaM. Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 I pieced together SL 100 several years ago and my son hated Hakim. Rather than dump the entire program I've just added Hakim to my son's history in small chunks. This year my son and his friend are both reading the last two books. They read the books, we discuss the questions orally and then I read the SL notes. We have some nice discussions this way. I am also breaking up the reading about halfway through each book to read other non fiction. My son enjoys Albert Marrin so we are reading books by him that go with this time period. Plus some literature selections as well of course. It has taken several years but as of this year he will have finally read all of them. I wanted to go through them only because of the SL notes though. I think that SL brings out interesting notes that other books leave out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNC Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 I was thinking about getting this assessment book for the 10 vol. set. Has anyone used it? http://www.amazon.com/History-US-Assessment-Book-Books/dp/0195153480/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3GWULAV4H6EPQ&colid=2R25179TXRPON Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 I used it as a read aloud along with all the other read alouds. I skipped all the boxes unless I thought it would add something particularly important. We read it over two years when we were in the last two years of the history cycle. My son was in 5th and 6th grades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 I was thinking about getting this assessment book for the 10 vol. set. Has anyone used it? http://www.amazon.com/History-US-Assessment-Book-Books/dp/0195153480/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3GWULAV4H6EPQ&colid=2R25179TXRPON This is the quizzes with 15 M/C questions / quiz, that I was not especially fond of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MO Posted January 12, 2009 Author Share Posted January 12, 2009 I do appreciate these comments. I'll look at the assessments. I'm leaning toward reading the series for "fun" and doing American History with assessments in high school. Thanks again, Julie in MO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myra Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 We're doing it this year. I'm using the Hewitt Syllabus (which basically gives a checklist with the dates and chapters to complete the 10-volumes in one school year) and their chapter tests. They do give many ideas for projects, but I'm not using that list....but the price of the Syllabus was so little that I didn't mind buying it to get me started. Each week my kids read the assigned chapters independently then on Friday we cut-n-paste pictures from the internet & put them on a timeline (Millers Paper Supply) while discussing the material. But my favorite (and my boys', too) is the Teaching Company Lyn Thompson DVDs that we watch weekly. They are great as he dresses up in characater on each 1/2 hour lesson while talking about the topic - Early American History up through the 49ers. Excellent! Hope this helps! Myra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myra Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Oh, I forgot. My oldest is doing Lightning Literature that is over Early and Mid-American Literature so it really blends in and rounds out his history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest reallyked Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 We used this assessment book when our older son read Sonlight's History of US. It was great and I recommend it highly. In fact I misplaced our copy and now am looking for a copy to buy for our second son. Be careful though. The one you want is 71 pages and has multiple choice tests for all ten 3rd ed. books in one volume. There's also a set of 10 assessment books, one book per Hakim book. I know because I accidentally bought assessment book 10 from Abe books thinking it was the assessment book which covered all of the books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judy in AZ Posted August 28, 2010 Share Posted August 28, 2010 My now 12 yo ds and 9 yo dd read all 10 of Hakim/s books two years ago. They read them aloud, either at home, or when we were driving. Both kids LOVED, LOVED, LOVED these books! My son frequently checks one out of the library, as one of his "free read" books. Both kids retained an amazing amount of information, and frequently mention some aspect of history they read about in the series. I must also say that I often have trouble paying attention when people read aloud, but found this series to be very interesting and engaging. I learned a lot (or re-learned what I had forgotten) about US history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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