Suggestions on using the Joy Hakim History of US books as a high school US history...

[Joanne]

curriculum. It's ok with me if it takes 3.5 years (my oldest students are in 9th grade right now).

 

Are there suggestions, sites, resources, supplements, lesson or reading plans? I scored almost a complete set at a local used bookstore today. I've been wanting them for a long time and got them on trade!

[Stacy in NJ]

Sonlight uses the Hakim books in one of their high school cores. The teachers manual probably includes a study guide.

[Susan C.]

I used Hakim's as a spine (read all of them) with Beautiful Feet Senior High US & World (bfbooks.com). We didn't read all of the books, but did do the Marrin books. We bailed from a textbook and only had a year. It went well.

[Julie in MN]

My dd used Hakim for her high school American History. She read all of books 2-10 and I think she got a LOT more information than any high school textbook I've read. She has retained a lot of it -- we ask her about American History details at times!

 

She used:

- Sonlight questions

- A little feedback from my reading of the Sonlight teacher notes (such as sticky notes in some areas or a conversation)

- Oxford quizzes all the way through

- Oxford student worksheets on a rare occasion when I wanted her to explore something further or map something -- I could have done more but she didn't like being interrupted for these.

- For her English credit, she was reading some books to fill out a few areas -- Ben Franklin's autobiography, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc.

 

I will say that she didn't get a lot of in-depth analysis with these materials. It was more a focus on understanding the events, sequencing, etc. However, I think by learning so many details chronologically, she figured out for herself some of the issues involved. I could have added more materials to analyze issues & political choices & such, but this dd did better focusing and going through systematically, rather than jumping around in history. And it was only one year's history credit, after all. We did that kind of eval. in her Bible study instead.

 

Julie

[MIch elle]

if your dc likes listening - check your library system.

[Carol in Cal.]

Since you're teaching in a group, they would be a great supplement.

 

They introduce original source material and teach how to evaluate it. They pose the question, "How do we know what we know?" and also introduce students to the fact that source material is often contradictory. I think that it's important for students at this level to realize that they must treat supposed facts with a grain of salt sometimes.