4th grade history?

[gingersmom]

I had planned on doing a year long geography unit with my son for 4th grade. We were going to cover all 50 states and learn about each state.

 

Now I am re-thinking and think we will do it for about 4-5 months.

 

So now I am debating what to do for the rest of the time. He is a history buff and would love to learn about everything. We have done unit studies in the past but I am trying to find a book (series of books) that would take us in chronological order for the next year or two or three.

 

I am going to be using Joy Hakim's A History of US with my 12 year old but feel he is a little too young for it.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

[Jen+4dc]

We just finished 2 years of American history with SL's cores 3 and 4. My dc (12 and 10 now) have loved it. We did add in one of Hakim's books (the one on the Civil War) because my kids were super interested and I felt SL's coverage was not enough for them. Ds10 understood it fairly well, we did it as a read aloud and discussed just about everything. That's probably too much work for each book, but I wouldn't hesitate to give Hakim a try here and there if he just falls in love with a certain topic and can't get enough.

 

SL uses Landmark History of the American People as the spine. We rather enjoyed it, although it's more of a cultural history with a little political stuff thrown in, FWIW.

 

HTH

[Carol in Cal.]

If so, you might like "The Story of the 13 Colonies" and "The Story of the Great Republic." Kate in CA recommended those to me, and I have been very impressed with them. There are a ton of great living books about US history. The Sonlight catalogue will give you lots of titles.

 

He could either read both of those, supplementing with a few biographies or historical fiction novels, or he could read until he got really interested in something and then pause and study that for a few weeks.

 

AAH volume 1 is pretty dull, and the vocabulary would be pretty tough for a 4th grader. Volume 2 is better written and easier, but you would miss a lot of background if you went straight to it, I think. All in all, not a great fit.