Been thinking of taking a year off my history rotation (gasp)

[plain jane]

and focusing on US history. I always figured we'd cover this later one, but there's not time like the present, right? ... So- I thought I'd ask what others have done. :)

 

How do you do this? I mean, how do you fit that extra year in there? :confused::lol:

 

Also, I don't want to use SL but I would like something that is all planned out for me. What are my other options?

Edited April 29, 2010 by plain jane

[OnTheBrink]

I'm doing the same thing. We're stopping US history in the middle to take a year to do civics from Oak Meadow. I'm doing this for two reasons: One, I think it's very important for dd to understand out government and how it's supposed to work, and two: I want her to be a bit more mature before we dive into US history from the revolution on. I want to really examine this topic with her and want her to be able to understand the events and their implications.

[teamturner]

We did this last year. My dc were then 2nd and 3rd grade. We used Winter Promise American Story 1. There were many things I liked about WP, mostly I liked that it was all planned out and I had all the books sitting on my shelf. My dc liked the paper crafts which is all we had time for. The notebook pages could sometimes drive me crazy but w/o them the story isn't complete. The book choices were excellent. We also liked the movie recs.

 

So we did Ancients in K/1st, Middle Ages/Renaissance in 1st/2nd, American History through early 1800's in 2nd/3rd. This year, which is 3rd/4th we're doing the same time period as Amer. History thru early 1800's but the rest of the world. This year has been great because we are seeing what the rest of the world was doing while America was being settled, the revolution, and the expansion west. I'm using Biblioplan 1600-1850 and I'm skipping all the weeks that have to do w/America and focusing on the rest, which has made this years history study so simple and enjoyable. We were busier last year w/WP but it was a good thorough study. Next year we are doing the Late Modern period using SOTW 4 and I'm thankful that my dc will be a little older for this study than they would have been if we hadn't taken a year to just study Early American History.

 

I'm a little LCC in my planning and scope and sequence so I'm not expecting to cycle through every time period 3 times. At this point I'm planning to only go through the history cycles twice and go a little more slowly the next go around.

[Annabel Lee]

Here's what I'm doing: I simply left the history rotation to do US history. My oldest homeschooler is in 3rd, so a 2 year US History means we can return to the rotation in 5th; just in time to start over w/ ancients (which is all we got done before US Hist. in the first place).

Currently I'm using WinterPromise's American Story 1 and planned to use AS 2, but the cost is killer. www. guesthollow. com has free US history plans (pick & choose from to create your own - don't try to do it all unless you've got 4 years) and even nice neat SL/WP-esque schedules for FREE. You choose which resources to use, then which to buy or get from the library. That's what I'll be doing, HTH.

[TC5]

I am interested in how others have done this, too.

 

We are using SOTW 2 right now, and I am thinking we will take three years to get through SOTW 3 and 4, so I can spend lots of extra time on U.S. history and government. I don't know yet how I'm going to do it -- probably lots of different resources. Maybe more of a unit study approach for parts of it (we normally don't use that method) and more projects. Maybe just lots more library books. I need to start planning all of that very soon, so I'll be watching this thread. :D

[TC5]

I just looked at Winter Promise American Story 1 -- very briefly -- and it says it is for K-3. My oldest will be in 5th-6th grade when we study U.S. history. Any more ideas?

[teamturner]

WP has American Crossing which is for 4th-7th grade and All American Set 1 which is a blend of American Story and American Crossing to use with a wider age range of students. I don't know about these programs but there are some WP users on the board. The other thing I really liked about WP that I forgot to mention earlier is their literature study that you can use to compliment your history study. I bought the books and schedule for the literature study for the two grades I was teaching.

[TC5]

Thanks, Michelle. I'll check that out.

[Annabel Lee]

Something I should have mentioned: guesthollow (the site I referened above) has their American History program divided up by topic. If you want to expand on something you can look it up there by topic and it will list tons of great books, projects, movies, websites, and sometimes printables. It's modeled after WP. I plan to refer to SL, WP, etc. for booklists and hope to use mostly what we have at home & what's in our library system.

[Sue G in PA]

Jane, guesthollow.com does have a nice schedule for American History and I believe is designed to be used with 3rd/4th gr? I used a portion of it this year with my 3rd grader. It schedules a lot of books and uses some of the History Pockets. Best thing? It's FREE! Another option is Beautiful Feet, which my neighbor used this year with her girls (3rd, 1st and PreK). They really enjoyed it. I was going to borrow it from her if I hadn't decided on HOD for next year! That also looks at American History using lots of great books and activities. HTH.