American History

[Ohio12]

Sorry, I have asked a few questions about this already, but if anyone can help..I would appreciate it. Is there something like SOTW..only for just American history and not too long. I have a just second grader and I want it to be chronological and easy to read like SOTW. Also not too too long. I am going to look at History of US by Hakim, but it may be a bit too advanced and a bit textbooky. thanks!

[Mert]

:bigear:

[PeterPan]

CLP has a bunch of books for that age.

If you want to spend a year of it, you can read him the abeka4 text and use it as a springboard for topics.

WP AS has a spine you could get.

VP has lower level recommendations to go with their two years of american history.

Eggleston (all his stuff is good)

BF

MFW Adventures

Rainbow Book of American History by Daugherty (hopefully I have that title right, I'm tired!)

He might take to CSOA, but my dd did better with it with a bit more age on her.

 

Any of those would work. Indeed, Hakim is overkill.

[Shelly in the Country]

Sorry, I have asked a few questions about this already, but if anyone can help..I would appreciate it. Is there something like SOTW..only for just American history and not too long. I have a just second grader and I want it to be chronological and easy to read like SOTW. Also not too too long. I am going to look at History of US by Hakim, but it may be a bit too advanced and a bit textbooky. thanks!

 

Sonlight uses The Landmark History of the American People as a Read-Aloud for Cores 3 and 4. It is kind of longish and not exactly like SOTW in tone, but I thought it had a pretty good narrative flow. My dd liked it at the time.

[H0MEFree]

I like the CLP stuff and I like the MFW Adventures. I have used them both so I can speak from experience.

 

CLP is VERY inexpensive. A huge bonus in these times. I actually would pay more for it though because I like it so much and love the focus. You can make it more "exciting" (like MFW or SL or something) if you choose by incorporating some neat projects, lapbooking/notebooking or living literature. But it was great by itself.

 

MFW Adventures is spendy. My kids ASKED TO DO SCHOOL when we did this program. That has never happened before... or since. That alone is a fantastic recommendation!!! Two things about the program I did not like- the science was too "young" and too light (so we did our own thing instead) and the history is shared too much with learning about each state. IMHO, individual state info is not so important. But that is just me.

 

HTH!

[justasque]

A good approach at that age is to use a lot of historical fiction read-alouds, roughly by time period. It gives a sense of the essence of each era, without being overwhelming. As you will likely do Hakim later on, think of it as laying groundwork for that future study. If you can go to a few historical festivals or reenactments, perhaps do a historical play or two with friends, go on some field trips, and do a few hands-on activities, you will foster interest in the topics. I would do about a month per topic, on: -- native americans --early European settlers --colonial times --revolutionary war --westward expansion --Lewis & Clark --slavery/underground railroad --civil war That should provide a good foundation for later study.

[mlktwins]

My boys are young, but we are starting our study of the Presidents and states. I'm going to use age appropriate read-alouds to cover some of the important events that happened as we run across them in our studies. I'm starting SOTW 1 next year, but wanted to get some American history in this year.

 

Good luck!

Mendy