Early elementary spines for American History

[LNC]

I'm going through Truthquest American History for Young Children 1 next year along with SOTW3 to provide more American focus. Some additional spines I'm considering for grades 4th and 2nd are:

 

1.Light and the Glory for Children series & workbooks (I like that there are workbooks, but I've heard some negative reviews of this series...)

2. This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall

3. Guerber, Story of the Thirteen Colonies (I've been reading these for Ancients and Middle Ages but saving them for the logic stage for the kiddoes)

4. Hakim's History of Us series (my older daughter is an advanced reader and these look really engaging. I'll definately read them myself, and save them for logic stage if they are too advanced.

5. Carson's Basic History of US 6 vol. series ( I was considering this for myself, any recommendations for this set?)

6. A Child's Story of America (Christian Liberty Press, recommended by Veritas), with the tests.

 

I have a boatload of chapter and picture books on my Rainbow and Amazon wishlists that my library doesn't carry. This is getting expensive, but I LOVE history, therefore the children must too - right?? :)

 

Which of these would you choose?

[abbeyej]

My 4th grader and I are doing Hakim this year, and I love it. My 1st grader just hates them. She ends up reading the supplemental literature we have, but I don't force her to listen in on our Hakim lessons...

[chai]

We used Guerber's books last time we went through American history. I added it in with SOTW. It is a lot of reading, but we really enjoyed it.

 

I'm saving the Hakim books for our next stage. I think that the reading level is similar to Guerber, but, I believe, there are more options for logic-stage discussions with these.

 

I didn't want providential history, so I did not choose Light and the Glory.

[Trivium Academy]

We have The Child's Story of America from Christian Liberty Press, although we're not using it. Do you want it? I'll sent it to you free, just email me.

[Robin Hood]

My 4th grader and I are doing Hakim this year, and I love it. My 1st grader just hates them. She ends up reading the supplemental literature we have, but I don't force her to listen in on our Hakim lessons...

 

I have Hakim's books but haven't yet done American history. How are you going about it? Are you squeezing it in with world history, taking a break from world history, or not doing world history in TWTM manner? What does an American history class look like in your house? My girls will be in 4th grade next year, but we are only in the beginning stages of book 2 in the SOTW.

 

What I have done for American history is purchase a slew of biographies and made them read them during our breaks over the last 2 years, which sometimes go on for months because of our lifestyle. They have quite a bit of knowledge on who is who but only a little history of how it came about.

 

My educational history "plan" has not materialized due to monkey wrenches, personality types, and the previously mentioned lifestyle. I was hoping to finish SOTW in 4th grade which would've included American history, along with CA history. I am considering just moving forward with said plan and let it fall where it falls, finishing by 6th grade, but isn't there a law in CA that missons have to be covered in 4th grade, along with CA history? I was going to place CA history in with American history. Even the private umbrella school we use does missions and CA history in 4th grade, as did the private school I attended as a child. Since we weren't that far along in age yet, I have only paid slight attention to legal requirments. But we are there now.

 

You are pretty up on all that CA law aren't you? I am going to look into all this pretty soon, but this post is helping me to formulate how to go about it all.