Did you use these two together or separately, each as a complete history course?

Thanks a lot, Lori D. I will definitely look at the crash course videos and other books you mentioned. I am now listening to Great Course audio. 30 minute lecture is really LONG! I got interrupted and then went back to listening and it seemed to take forever. I'm really not sure about Great Course now. It's easy to zone out and not retain much.

After reading reviews, I am definitely getting PJ's book, I tried the audible. The narrator is a British lady. I will ask my son if he likes her voice and style. I do like her. I will have him listen to the book starting in the summer. I will get both the book and the audio. I am leaning towards using Great Courses Turning Points in American History with shorter 48 lectures. I plan to use Reading Like a Historian simply because it's both free and easier online. We'll add a few movies from FundaFunda. So there will be no worksheets. He will do a few essays.

I just created an account and looked at a few. Really nice and easy to use, not busy work like at all. Thanks a lot! I will add some to my plan.

So glad to hear this. Thank you for the thread. I was able to ask TCB many questions. I wondered what you decided to do. Glad you chose the two resources. I might follow your suit. Please let me know what your impression of PJ book is. I am definitely more and more interested in the book.

Yes, the CCP 两会Two Big Conferences happening means things are really under control. Considering the tracking power they have, second waves won't really be waves, just very small outbreaks here and there. However, even 3 cases may put a place on "highest alert" and strict lockdowns of the immediate surrounding ensue. CCP wants full control of Hong Kong. They deem the ruling of Hong Kong's autonomy till 2047 to be not binding anymore 🤷‍♀️. Law is subjective in China. It changes according to whoever has the power, the money, the influence to change it to fit their needs. Just like Xi Jinping changed the law to make himself chairman for life. I saw the cluster of cases in Jilin and Heilongjiang today too reported by Bloomberg, WaPo, and Reuters. Longer incubation and longer sick time, Ug! https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-a-new-virus-cluster-in-china-is-triggering-alarms/2020/05/21/cfe13dc4-9b47-11ea-ad79-eef7cd734641_story.html

Do you just use the student book or also teacher's guide?

And again, I want to repeat that investigating the origin helps prevent another pandemic if there is one. SARS happened 17 years agao. SARS-COV-2 aka COVID-19 happened in late 2019. I bet no one wants to deal with SARS-COV-3 or COVID-any-number down the road, right? This virus is so new we need to learn as much as we can about its origin. The scale of this pandemic and the 327k who died from it call for the investigation.

Considering the history of China, that in late 1950s and the whole 1960s, at least 60 million Chinese people lost their lives to the Communist government, something like this is not beyond what that government is capable of doing. We, a good number of Chinese, believe it was possibly an intentional release to distract from the increasingly tough Hong Kong protest and the trade conflict with the US. It would take an insider deflector to reveal the destroyed evidence. But just as June 4th Tiananmen Massacre of 1989, the truth (of how many students were killed) may never be revealed officially by China voluntarily.

Excuse me, are you time traveling or what? What happened first?

Exactly!

Critical Thinking sells these as e books. So no more in print. ☹️

TCB, never mind, I found the critical thinking books on Amazon. I am excited. I hope ds will enjoy this course. We will try to schedule movies.

TCB, ds will have a heavy load for three honors class, PreCalc, advanced composition, and chemistry. He does things slowly, so I am afraid this US course is pretty heavy. I do think the movies add a lot, like reenactment of the time periods. I don't think will have time to fit in the Paul Johnson book. We will have to do a reduced load. Yes, to me, Notgrass seems very dry and just states the facts kind of textbook. I don't think I will enjoy history this way. Another great course American course is a shortened version called Turning Points in American History or something like that, with 48 lectures with very good reviews. But it definitely is not as comprehensive. I will show ds the options, the transitional textbook of Notgrass, or Great Course and let him have a say. Is the critical thinking book a separate book? Also the essays, are they included in the booklet with the Great Course American History?

Ds will do Notgrass Government twice a month at our co-op, I wonder if this is too much to add; however I do feel Grat Courses will provide a solid US history education for ds. My eldest son did Notgrass American history. I am now looking at Notgrass books and just feel they are very dry and uninspiring. I am really afraid that ds will feel bored and not learn much. He told me when he reads textbooks without a teacher directly teaching him, he doesn't retain much.

Ever since I found FF schedule, I've been thinking and looking at Great Course American history. Did your dd watch the video or listen to the audio? I hear that the video does not have visuals like maos or picture, just the professor talking. With Paul Johnson's book, Lies my teacher told book, and the movies to watch, this seems like a lot. Can you estimate how many hours she spent a week? I am really drawn to this and I believe the movies add a lot to the course, but to find enough time is a challenge. I'm thinking of starting it this summer, like in July.

This is science, not politics. A pandemic this devastating deserves to be independently investigated to get to know it better and to prevent future pandemics. I applaud Australia for initiating this, backed by 116 countries so far.

Kassia, is this through your state? My state only allow two years of DE total, for 11th and 12th grade only. I have not heard of four years of DE options until yours. Amazing!

For your son, I can see gap year is the best. Physical environment at home has to be quiet and peaceful with not much distraction to make at home online classes work. I definitely think everyone benefits from in-person learning, even my introverted son. I just hope the competition for 2021 graduates won't be too hard. Ds does have a very high ACT score. I am so glad he took it at the beginning of his junior year. But he may not be able to finish his Eagle Scout rank. And with nothing else to show for his extracurricular achievement, I feel the pressure to push him to get Eagle so he won't look weak for his application. On the other hand, doing an eagle project now is very challenging and I don't want to push him over the edge.

Kassia, Wow, 85 credits! Amazing! She must be a really efficient and hardworking learner. My son only got 24 credits for his junior PSEO year. He will cap at 52 most probably. Does the 85 credits include any AP? I can't imagine 85 credits for two years of dual enrollment.

I am researching for a one year 10th grade US history. I checked out Easy Peasy high school American history. Unfortunately it takes two years. It looks good in that the lesson is all there and easy to read and finish, every day with a short, detailed plan. Another option I am considering is having ds listen to the Great Course 84 American history lectures, but I don't know what to do with discussion or worksheets or evaluation. Please share your thoughts if you have experience with these two or a good one year US history course you have used. Thanks!

I do understand that even in May schools/colleges can predict somewhat how things will be in September. This virus is not going anywhere. Effective, fast-acting treatment need to be found (I do not put my hope in a vaccine when so many coronaviruses before this SARS-COV-2 are yet to have a vaccine). With Americans' freely moving about and cases still going on, an outbreak in any school will surely mean school close. That's why I am pulling my younger son (will be 10th grade) out of an expensive private high school to homeschool again. This school year is the only year that he is outside schooled. We are grieving for the loss of a wonderful community due to e learning. The small private college my eldest son is doing PSEO at already told students that the fall semester will be online learning.

I am struggling with ds15's 10th grade US history choice. I have an older edition Notgrass American history, but I feel it is dry and may not be a good fit. I have been looking at Great Courses 84 lectures. Considering he will have 6 90-minute live online classes, I would prefer that he doesn't watch so many video lectures, especially these without maps or pictures, just professors talking. I am considering audiobooks if I use Great Courses. Lori D, and other veteran honeschoolers, can you please help me? Ds will take Potter's School's live online honors advanced composition, honors Precalculus (2x/week), honors chemistry, and Spanish 3 (2x/week). He will take government at our homeschool co-op twice a month. I feel these are challenging and can take up a lot of time. So I do not want US history to be super hard or time consuming. If I use Great Course, how should I evaluate him? What other American history courses are solid, engaging, but not overtly time consuming? And by the way he studied Notgrass America the Beautiful for 6th and 7th grade. I didn't check his workbook closely though, so he kind of studied loosely. Thanks!

Then that is different. Having jobs to do makes a big different for the gap year.

EMy son took ACT last October and did very well. He used the library books and some online practice tests we found. Sorry I did not save the online sites. You can find a lot on your own. At first he and I thought he would probably have to take it two or three times to get a satisfactory score because he generally does not test well for the Iowa standardized tests and also he only got a 26 for both PreACT he took in 9th grade and also in April last year, 6 months before he did the full ACT. We were literally shocked how well he did. So he is not going to take it again. Oh, I forgot that I did buy two books for him. One is English and the other is for science. Let me see if I can find the Amazon link. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-ACT-English-3rd/dp/0997517883/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=ACT+English&qid=1589945236&sr=8-4 https://www.amazon.com/Love-ACT-Science-innovative-standardized/dp/0996832203/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=ACT+science&qid=1589945367&sr=8-3 we used this book from the library: https://www.amazon.com/Official-2019-2020-Practice-Online-Content/dp/1119580501/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=ACT+prep&qid=1589945524&sr=8-3