HELP for American History

[jeh]

I would love to know the materials/methods you have used to study American History. I will be covering the Middle Ages next year with all my kids, but I would like to have my 8th grader studying American History simultaneously to enhance his knowledge in this area. He is an excellent reader and works well independently.

 

Thanks!

:bigear:

[Cedarmom]

We read William Bennett's America:The Last Best Hope, you can also buy an internet teacher's curricullim to accompany it.The curricullim is called Road Map. The book is great, very engaging told in narrative style. The Road Map has lots of great teaching ideas. We enjoyed the study.

[Kathy in MD]

We used A History of US with the primary source/index volume (11?). We also used the A History of Us Assesment Book put out by Oxford.

[carolinagirl710]

I am teaching an "American Heritage Studies" this fall using Bennett's book and website. I've enjoyed reading the book on my own and my dd is thankfully I chose it instead of a textbook.

[Kareni]

If you are considering having your child do the entire sweep of US History, you might be interested in the syllabus that Hewitt Homeschooling sells for the Joy Hakim History of US series. It is a junior high level syllabus. Here is a link.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Chris in VA]

You could have him read thru the Landmark history books. Sonlight 3/4 uses two bound as one volume. It's not that complicated, but contains some good detail.

Or, you could use Hakim.

[Carolfoasia]

I would love to know the materials/methods you have used to study American History. I will be covering the Middle Ages next year with all my kids, but I would like to have my 8th grader studying American History simultaneously to enhance his knowledge in this area. He is an excellent reader and works well independently.

 

Thanks!

:bigear:

 

This is my evaluation of our year using what we used written from a blog post. The kids learned much of their history through their American Literature class. So, I am including that curriculum as well:

 

HISTORY - Big score with a combination of Biography of America from Annenburg Media, the CLEP US History I book, The History of US by Joy Hakim (we listened to it on tape) , and the history component of the American Literature class. My kids are studying for the CLEP now. We only got through Reconstruction, but we are good with that. We tried to follow along with the American Literature timeline, and she really spent a very short amount of time after Reconstruction.

 

Here is what we covered in American Literature through http://www.thelmaslibrary.com:

 

AMERICAN LITERATURE - Big score here too. Thelma English is the bomb. I was able to edit out her tangents on the lectures, have the kids take the quizzes in the quiet of their own homes, and leave enough time for a little more freedom for the two hour class time as a result. We all learned so much about the different eras of literature. My kids really loved it. They especially liked reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and Huckleberry Finn. Two thumbs up.

They read author biographies and syllabus (300+ pages), and books. Here is a list of the "works" they read:

 

"Mayflower Compact"

"Arabella Covenant"

"How to Spend a Day with God"

"Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson"

"Narrative of Jonathan Edwards"

Declaration of Independence

Constitution of the United States

Anna Bradstreet - To My Husband and Other Poems

Thomas Paine- Common Sense

Benjamin Franklin – Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Ralph Waldo Emerson- "Self Reliance" and "Nature

Henry David Thoreau – "Civil Disobedience"

Henry David Thoreau – Walden; or, Life in the Woods (Just 25-35 pages)

Frederick Douglas – Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas

Louisa May Alcot- "My Contraband" and "A Night" (they thought they were boring)

Mark Twain- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (loved)

Mark Twain- Humorous Stories and Sketches (loved)

Great American Short Stories (including Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart, Melville's "Bartleby", Harte's "Luck of Roaring", London's "To Build a Fire", Hemingway's "The Killers", Fitzgerald's "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown", Crane's "Open Boat" and "Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", Steinbeck's "The Red Pony".)

101 Great American Poems (Just Poe's "The Raven", Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!", Crane's "War is Kind", Dickinson's "Stop for Death".)

O’Henry- (W.S.Porter) The Gift of the Magi

Harriet Beecher Stowe - Uncle Tom's Cabin (their favorite)

 

This class included 18 quizes, 3 quarterly exams, 1 final, and 32 lectures that included history and literature interwoven. I highly recommend this class for understanding American History and Literature!

 

 

ENGLISH/WRITING - The kids had fifteen writing assignments for the American Literature class.

[jeh]

Can you tell me how old the kids are that did this? It looks great!

[Susan C.]

We did Hakim History of US in 8th grade for dd. She loved it. I just had her read 2-3 chapters a day, we discussed, that's it. No need to test when you are discussing everything IMHO.