American History for 3rd grader?

[Halcyon]

We're going to spend a bit of time on American History and would love resources for an upcoming third grader.

 

Thank you for suggestions!

 

ETA: for those of you who are following SOTW, when do you 'insert' this-do you just take a break from SOTW and focus more time on American History? Not up to SOTW 3 so not sure how it would work.

Edited April 16, 2010 by Halcyon

[littlebug42]

 

http://www.guesthollow.com has an excellent two year american history program and the curriculum is free. You just have to piece together the books by purchase or library but she has so much in there, you can pick and choose what you need. We will be using some of it next year.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

 

Drive Thru History It says 6th grade and older BUT I have had several friends do it with 2nd and 3rd graders and they did AMAZING with it! The children LOVED it and the retained so much! I am one who doesnt put a limit on age and grade. Kids really retain so much more than they are given credit for and I have several friends who are the same and it really works great! Just my opinion though! :001_smile:

[hmschooling]

Heart of Dakota has a great American History program for 3rd graders (BIGGER). My dd is loving it and so am I. You could pick and choose from their book choices or just do the whole program. If I were just picking and choosing books, I'd look at both American History programs (Beyond and Bigger).

[King Alfred Academy]

I did Am. Hist. with my 1st and 3rd graders this year using the Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers CDs. We had a great time. I added in a bunch of books, but used the CDS as a great "timeline" of sorts. We're finishing up the Revolutionary War and I'll be planning next year using the Early 19th Century cd as a spine. :001_smile:

[Halcyon]

thanks!!! meant to add-looking for secular :)

[Halcyon]

www.guesthollow.com has an excellent two year american history program and the curriculum is free. You just have to piece together the books by purchase or library but she has so much in there, you can pick and choose what you need. We will be using some of it next year.

 

This looks wonderfuL!! Now I am thinking hmmmm, do we drop SOTW for a while and focus on this?? Looks so.....enticing!!!

[littlebug42]

This looks wonderfuL!! Now I am thinking hmmmm, do we drop SOTW for a while and focus on this?? Looks so.....enticing!!!

 

For my 3rd grader next year, I am planning to go with a SOTW kind of course but spend extra time on the American History stuff using the resources from Guest Hollow. I recognize the value of the world history but I think more time should be spent with the American History so that is what I plan to do.

[Karen in CO]

What time period are you thinking of? You can do the whole pilgrims to civil war, or just the early Americans, Exlporers and Settlers, or you can do something in between. Since you are in FL, it would be cool to start with the first settlers and Spanish colonies. St. Augustine is a great trip. Ponce de Leon wandered through those swamps for a long time looking for his fountain. There are several tribes of native americans that lived in FL. With young kids and new to FL, I'd try to focus on regional American history because it is so rich. Then next year or mid-year come in and start a full chronological study. The American Story is a good jumping off book. The If You Lived .... books also make good additions to the study for young kids. Jean Fritz is another author I like for this age and time period. Cheryl harness is probably my favorite author for American history.

 

 

 

I haven't found a good, secular homeschool American history for young kids yet, and I probably wouldn't follow it if I did, but there are plenty of terrific books and resources available.

[Halcyon]

What time period are you thinking of? You can do the whole pilgrims to civil war, or just the early Americans, Exlporers and Settlers, or you can do something in between. Since you are in FL, it would be cool to start with the first settlers and Spanish colonies. St. Augustine is a great trip. Ponce de Leon wandered through those swamps for a long time looking for his fountain. There are several tribes of native americans that lived in FL. With young kids and new to FL, I'd try to focus on regional American history because it is so rich. Then next year or mid-year come in and start a full chronological study. The American Story is a good jumping off book. The If You Lived .... books also make good additions to the study for young kids. Jean Fritz is another author I like for this age and time period. Cheryl harness is probably my favorite author for American history.

 

 

 

I haven't found a good, secular homeschool American history for young kids yet, and I probably wouldn't follow it if I did, but there are plenty of terrific books and resources available.

 

Thanks so much Karen-awesome ideas, and we're within driving distance of St. Augustine. And The American Story looks wonderful-i might just order that now! We've done some If You Lived books, and they're great as well.

 

Are you doing SOTW? I was thinking I'd like to do early Amerian History to start-discovery, the war on the Native Americans, Revolutionary period.....but I neither want to short shrift the information nor do I want to get too off-track from SOTW? I know that's the beauty of homeschool but not sure what to do.

[Karen in CO]

I actually do two streams of history so that I can do them slowly (and because I could never decide which I wanted to do first). We took two years to do SoTW1. I'm only up to about chapter 12 of SOTW3 which we started last fall. We are taking a detour in Tudor England right now and enjoying getting to know lots of royals. We probably won't get any further than Elizabeth this year. We're doing the American Revolution (or Colonial Rebellion) in American history right now. We started with American Indians last year, pilgrims and colonies in the fall, and now we'll probably be parked on the revolution for the rest of the school year.

[Amy in KS]

We stumbled across The Complete Book of American History mid-year. I only bought it because I found it for $7 and I thought it might make a good supplement. My kids and I really enjoy it! Honestly, it surprised me. It's written in a narrative style (somewhat like SOTW). I also used the history sentences from CC cycle 3 (their American History cycle).

 

You can flip through some examples here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=toMAcrWyDigC&printsec=frontcover&dq=complete+book+of+american+history&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Halcyon]

That does look nice, thank you!!!

[robsiew]

I've been contemplating similar things as we will do SOTW 3 next year. My plan is to follow SOTW, but take breaks for studying more in depth the American History things. Being that this is our first time through the sequence I'm not overly concerned about every. little. detail. I figure if we take a week out here and there and pull in more US history as we go, it will take us longer to finish SOTW, however I see that as a pretty easy, painless way to get US history in as well. I'm a pretty chronological type gal though!:D

[Crimson Wife]

:lurk5:

 

I have decided on From Sea to Shining Sea from Ignatius Press as our "spine" but am looking for activities and literature to go along with it.

[AngelBee]

I actually do two streams of history so that I can do them slowly (and because I could never decide which I wanted to do first). We took two years to do SoTW1. I'm only up to about chapter 12 of SOTW3 which we started last fall. We are taking a detour in Tudor England right now and enjoying getting to know lots of royals. We probably won't get any further than Elizabeth this year. We're doing the American Revolution (or Colonial Rebellion) in American history right now. We started with American Indians last year, pilgrims and colonies in the fall, and now we'll probably be parked on the revolution for the rest of the school year.

I would love to hear more about how you do two streams of history. :bigear:

[EppieJ]

I'm sort of making it up as I go along. I purchased a couple of timelines to guide us and we'll be reading lots of books. I also have ordered some Brown Paper School books that look interesting. They have narrative text and project/activity ideas that look pretty good. Another one I'm getting is from the American Kids in History series that has a similar format. I've just discovered the Time Travelers series which also looks great and i feel myself going into "curriculum junkie" mode again! :drool5:

 

History Pockets also has some American History project books that you may want to take a look at. They're nice for an introduction to the subject and it would be easy to add books to make the study more in depth. http://www.evan-moor.com/

 

As far as SOTW goes, we use the audio books and ds listens at his leisure. Those don't even get scheduled in our school days. He listens to them on his own, quite frequently. I will eventually have him listen in order again, and give him the quizzes as he goes along, to check for retention/understanding, but other than that....

Edited April 20, 2010 by EppieJ