If you do chronological history ...when do you do American?

[blessedmom3]

With SOTW there is only a brief history of the USA . Do you stop one year between the cycles and do USA history or ... how?

I like the idea of chronological history and it makes sense to me but I also like how Sonlight integrates the 2 years of USA history in 3rd and 4th.

[OnTheBrink]

We've been doing MOH as well as reading from History of US. Since MOH 4 is a long way off (:glare: ) we're stopping world history after this year. DD will be up to 1850 at the end of this year, so next year, we'll do only US history from 1850 on.

[Chris in VA]

Well, we are only in Sotw 3, but we just flesh out as we go. Since we live in VA, we get the chance to visit several important sites--Jamestown was a highlight of our October!

I think, actually, that there is enough early American history in SOTW 3 for us, with just a little extra thru reading historical fiction, and, as I said, field trips. We occasionally do Story of The USA, too, just for a summary.

 

I do plan on probably doing Sonlight 100 or at least reading thru several of the Hakim books as we enter logic stage.

[LauraGB]

We are in SOTW4 right now. Whenever America comes up, we veer off for a few weeks to explore the situation. For instance, we just spent 3 weeks just studying the Civil War daily (instead of 3x a week like we do with the spine). We are also doing some books on cd from that time while we pick back up where we left off in SOTW4. We also did this when America came up in SOTW3, although its more frequent in 4.

 

FWW, we are using Hakim's The Story of US for our US History spine, as well as SWB's lit suggestions when we do study the US exclusively.

[Firefly]

We are in SOTW4 right now. Whenever America comes up, we veer off for a few weeks to explore the situation. For instance, we just spent 3 weeks just studying the Civil War daily (instead of 3x a week like we do with the spine). We are also doing some books on cd from that time while we pick back up where we left off in SOTW4. We also did this when America came up in SOTW3, although its more frequent in 4.

 

This is what we do, too. We also throw in local/state history now and then.

[Amber in SJ]

We do something similar to what has already been said. When we get to SOTW 3, I supplement the Jean Fritz books, which are US history focused, for elementary ages and History of US for middle school and up at the appropriate chapters.

 

For modern history I keep my littles in SOTW 4 and move the bigs into History of US and add in the SOTW 4 chapters I think they need. It sounds muddled but it really isn't.

 

This is our 2nd time through the cycle and we are on SOTW 3. I have to say, I learned so much from SOTW 4 that I didn't know. I must have slept through history! The last time through we struggled through SOTW 4 with my very sensitive dd who was 11. She just cried and cried through the wars and atrocities. My next dd will be 13 when we do it next year and I hope that those extra years will make it easier on her. Really good historical fiction helps.

 

Amber in SJ

[Jean in Newcastle]

I do a little bit of American history every year. We study all the continents in this manner.

 

In Ancients - we study the Mississippi civilization in the midwest.

We study some of the theories of how the native peoples got to the continent.

We study the Mayan and Toltec civilizatons, I think.

 

In Medieval times - we study the Inca.

We study Leif Erickson and his voyage to the New World.

We start studying some of the explorers at the very end of the year.

 

"Age of Discovery" - we study the Spanish Explorers and the Inca and Mexico etc.

We study Columbus.

We study Jacques Cartier. . .all the French explorers and settlements.

And the English explorers and settlements.

We study the slave trade.

We study the Revolution.

 

 

Modern History - we study America's involvement in the major wars, etc.

We also do a decade by decade look at culture from 1910 onward.

[asta]

12th grade, essentially.

 

He got the discovery of the American continent by the Vikings this year. He got Mayans and Aztecs last year. We'll have indigenous (north) American peoples interspersed next year.

 

As to what most people consider "American History" - eg: history of the United States - that showed up rather late in the historical timeline. The US is a very young country. For all intents and purposes, it is kind of at the "end" of what I'll be teaching him prior to college.

 

 

a

 

(shoot - I should have just agreed with Jean LOL )

[Narrow Gate Academy]

We do just American history for years 3 and 4 the first rotation through. I figure they can catch up on the world history the second go round when they can actually connect the events. HTH

[Aubrey]

We're spending 3 yrs on SOTW 3 & 4, so we hit American Hist as last summer began & spent the summer reading Jean Fritz books, watching Liberty's Kids, etc.

 

Now we're hitting Tx hist about Christmas time this yr, so we'll break from SOTW for about a month to read around that & for the holidays. That way, it doesn't take much time away from curric, & it keeps the kids busy during what would otherwise get to be a boring break, & we have time for the cultural fascination they have with the places they live, lol.

[LunaLee]

We are doing early american history (Oak Meadow 5) between SOTW Volume 2 and Volume 3, and then because we started out of sync I'll have an extra year in 8th grade where we will devote an entire year to US history with Hakim's books and Oak Meadow's 8th grade civics.

Edited November 23, 2009 by LunaLee

[Garga]

I do American history separately from World history. We have two history classes a day.

 

DS 7 seems to understand the shift in time. We study some American history, then do some math and handwriting before we delve into world history (to keep the time periods clearly separated in his mind.)

 

We are currently in 2nd grade right now and so far it's been working well.

 

1st grade: Columbus' discovery to the end of the revolutionary war

2nd grade: end of revolutionary war thru end of Civil War.

3rd grade: post Civil War to the world wars

4th grade: post WWII to current events.

Edited November 23, 2009 by Garga

[Mrs Mungo]

We do extra activities in the fourth year of the cycle in the chapters of SOTW that pertain to American history. In the 8th year of the cycle (the second time they cycle through modern history) we add on American history, using The Story of US as a spine. eta: We'll probably do American history as an extra subject again in the 12th grade.

[KarenNC]

I've incorporated American history into SOTW. We are on our first go-round, in SOTW 4 now. Last year I added in things like Liberty's Kids, the Jean Fritz books, field trips to local spots, historical fiction from the Sonlight list, etc. Partway through the year I picked up the Story of the USA workbook series that Sonlight uses and have used this in conjunction with SOTW. This year I've been more deliberate about it (well, about all of the subjects, really) and planned out a schedule to make sure I pulled in all the things I wanted to include.

 

For SOTW 4, I made a chart listing all the chapters of SOTW 4 and the activities/extra reading I want to do from the activity guide. Then I took the Story of the USA workbook and put in those chapters where they fit, adding material like movies, field trips, historical fiction, websites, Brainpop episodes, etc that I wanted to be sure to include and when to use them. This lets me be sure to put the things from the library on hold in time to use them (last year I did a lot of scrambling to find things). It also helped me to see where I had a lot of material already and where things might be a bit thin (or could be thinnned). This has been incredibly helpful.

 

I also have an older state history textbook that I picked up a while back and I am incorporating some of that material into history as it comes up. A lot of that I am doing along with geography, however (we've covered states/capitals, our state symbols, things like that).

 

It's a fluid document, so I alter the schedule as we go, adding or deleting material as appropriate and depending on what else is happening in our lives. For our second go-round, I think I will be doing something similar working between k12's The Human Odyssey for world history and Hakim's Story of the US for American history.

[Quad Shot Academy]

I treat American History as a separate subject entirely. We start in PK with fun picture books. By first grade they are reading more fun books and watching Liberty's kids TV show. I increase the number and difficulty of books each year. We mostly use living literature books until the Joy Hakim series. I also have them read A True Book about most states.

[teamturner]

We did American Story (Winter Promise) when my kids were 3rd and 2nd grade. The year before we had finished SOTW2. So we just did American history last year and we loved it. This year I'm doing SOTW 3 leaving out the chapters that deal with American history and covering the rest of the world. Then next year the kids will be 4th and 5th and a little more mature for handling SOTW 4.

[Peela]

Weve always done our (Australian rather than U.S.) history as a parallel stream- however not every year. Since we didn't start from the beginning though,so our 4 year cycle was not ever going to be perfect, and next year will probably be my last with my dd15 at home- I think I will do Australian and Modern history together. Then with my son, go back to the 4 year cycle the year after.

[6packofun]

12th grade, essentially.

 

He got the discovery of the American continent by the Vikings this year. He got Mayans and Aztecs last year. We'll have indigenous (north) American peoples interspersed next year.

 

As to what most people consider "American History" - eg: history of the United States - that showed up rather late in the historical timeline. The US is a very young country. For all intents and purposes, it is kind of at the "end" of what I'll be teaching him prior to college.

 

 

 

Similar here. We're saving it for 11th and 12th grade and will do a very thorough job before he heads off into the world. :) I wanted to wait until I felt sure that ds (and subsequent kids) could really discuss the development of our country and compare it to the history of the past. Kind of that "last thing you learn sticks in your brain" sort of thing. LOL

[katilac]

I just supplement the way I do for any other chapter I deem extra-important in SOTW. There is just soooooo much 'incidental' American history that kids are exposed to that I haven't found it neccesary to do a completely separate study - - will probably do one in high school.

 

By incidental exposure, I mean that American history is hard to escape (if you live in America, of course). There are so many biographies and books that any regular of the library will have trouble avoiding them, :D, there are shows like Liberty's Kids, they learn about holidays (even if you don't do so formally) - - it's just very PRESENT, and a lot of it gets absorbed by osmosis.

 

If you have an avid reader, biographies are a great, informal way to add background on events/time periods you aren't studying in depth.

[Veritaserum]

We pause when we hit American topics in SOTW and read several books on the subject (Civil War, etc.) before we move on with the next chapter of SOTW. I like this way because it keeps the perspective of when US events happened in the context of our world's history. :)

[bettyandbob]

First cycle, I just do SOTW. If a great field trip pertaining to American History comes up we do it, no matter where we are in history. I may assign a dvd or library book which matches the time period and is specifically American. Second cycle, one of spines I use is History of US. My ds is in public high school taking honors classes, in a very competitive school district. He knows more history American and world than anyone he's encountered--besides his teachers. So, I think my approach of mostly sticking with the 4 year cycles worked here.

[usetoschool]

We do 4 years of SOTW then take a break and do a year of strictly American history then go through the 4 year cycle again and then do government and economics and specialized history of interest to the students at the end of high school.