Favorite History

[Denise Allen]

Looking for good American history to use for 8th grader. What do you like??

[Susan C.]

In 8th grade, my dd did Hakim's History of US. Just read and we discussed. For 11th grade, we are doing All American History, Vol. 1 & 2. If you want to go indepth and slower, you could do All American Vol. 1 in 8th grade, and Vol. 2 in 11th grade.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

We are using All American History over two years. We did AAH1 for 7th grade last year and are doing AAH2 for 8th grade. We both love AAH. I have a supplement list for AAH1 if you would like to look at it. There is also a fairly active Yahoo group for AAH.

[Nicole M]

We're doing a funky civics/history hybrid, using the Calvert 8th grade civics course with the Teaching Company's American History lectures and the Lightning Literature American lit program. I tried many different things with my oldest, and really didn't like any of them. I tried to like All American History. Really, I wanted so badly to like it. Couldn't. Same with Hakim. So with my youngest, we're venturing into new territory, ditching all the standard things. So far, so good. :D

[Denise Allen]

Thanks for the helpful info. I will look into All American History.

 

Nicole- what was it you didn't like about it?

[swimmermom3]

We're doing a funky civics/history hybrid, using the Calvert 8th grade civics course with the Teaching Company's American History lectures and the Lightning Literature American lit program. I tried many different things with my oldest, and really didn't like any of them. I tried to like All American History. Really, I wanted so badly to like it. Couldn't. Same with Hakim. So with my youngest, we're venturing into new territory, ditching all the standard things. So far, so good. :D

 

Swimmer Dude and I will be anxiously awaiting your lesson plans for next year...hand-delivered, of course.:D If it passes your household test, it will work well here.

 

Seriously, when I did American history with Staff Sargent in 8th grade, we started with SL's Core 100 but quickly began modifying. We replaced the Civil War book in Hakim's series with Ken Burns' series for which PBS has some great classroom activities. When we covered the explorers, we spent time on navigation (combined with science) and a neighbor lent us a copy of Dava Sobel's Longitude. We read The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing and discussed for hours the moral ramifications of the book. The problem with many of the open-and-go American history curricula is that they are dry to the bone and fail to capture American spirit in all its gritty glory, for better or for worse. The good friend who inspired me to homeschool in the first place, told me that after I started homeschooling I would appreciate American history so much more. She's right, but it takes following the rabbit trails, and digging deeper. FWIW:tongue_smilie:

[Denise Allen]

I don't like a textbook for history either actually. We have not used one before. But I am worried about leaving out important points in history so I thought I would use a text (as interesting as I can find) as a spine and then supplement. I want to make sure they see the overall picture and not just a series of different "events". If anyone has any good suggestions I certainly welcome them. My kids LOVE history (as do I). I don't want to bore them with a dull textbook. I hated history growing up because of that.

[Denise Allen]

If you have any wonderful books, videos, whatever that you love for U.S. History- please share! :D

[mom31257]

Dd is doing SL Core 100 this year. It is American history in one year, and schedules the Hakim series along with the equivalent to about one novel per week in literature. It includes reading schedules in several Christian books as well for the Bible element of it.

 

There is a writing assignment every week, almost always from the literature selection. There is not much writing instruction, so I'm assuming the program assumes you've had it earlier in their cores. Dd has had a lot of writing instruction, so now we're down to experience and fine tuning.

 

I think dd has enjoyed it overall. She's not enjoyed every novel, but that's to be expected.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Loved Clarence Carson with Truthquest and some living books.

Can't wait to do it again with 2nd child.

[Nicole M]

Swimmer Dude and I will be anxiously awaiting your lesson plans for next year...hand-delivered, of course.:D If it passes your household test, it will work well here.

 

Seriously, when I did American history with Staff Sargent in 8th grade, we started with SL's Core 100 but quickly began modifying. We replaced the Civil War book in Hakim's series with Ken Burns' series for which PBS has some great classroom activities. When we covered the explorers, we spent time on navigation (combined with science) and a neighbor lent us a copy of Dava Sobel's Longitude. We read The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing and discussed for hours the moral ramifications of the book. The problem with many of the open-and-go American history curricula is that they are dry to the bone and fail to capture American spirit in all its gritty glory, for better or for worse. The good friend who inspired me to homeschool in the first place, told me that after I started homeschooling I would appreciate American history so much more. She's right, but it takes following the rabbit trails, and digging deeper. FWIW:tongue_smilie:

 

Oh, these are good ideas, Octavian & Longitude. I love Dava Sobel, and have read parts of Galileo's Daughter to the boys, but didn't think about Longitude. With number one son, we watched several Ken Burns documentaries, but that was a long, long while ago.

 

Denise, I just don't care for the writing in All American History. I like the visually clean text but did not find the writing engaging. I also think that one sentence about native Americans is not quite... sufficient.

[Denise Allen]

Thanks, Nicole. Yes, I agree- there should be much more coverage of the native Americans.

 

Thanks for the good ideas everyone- I will be checking them out.

[Kareni]

My daughter did a three year chronological sweep through world history in 7th through ninth grades. She's a pretty avid reader so I bombarded her with books both fiction and non-fiction. In 9th grade, she covered the time period 1700 to 2000. One of the spines I had her read that year was this: E-Z American History. (Well, it was called American History the Easy Way when she used the earlier edition.) It's not an exciting book, but I did feel that it covered the important bases. And she did have all those other materials to add interest.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[fischerl]

Another vote for Truthquest and living books. History comes alive and makes sense with Michelle's commentary weaving together events and people.

 

Oh, and we just watched "Desperate Journey" about the Separatists and 'Strangers' who sailed over on the Mayflower in 1620. I thought it was very well done!

[smilesonly]

Another vote for Truthquest and living books. History comes alive and makes sense with Michelle's commentary weaving together events and people.

 

Oh, and we just watched "Desperate Journey" about the Separatists and 'Strangers' who sailed over on the Mayflower in 1620. I thought it was very well done!

 

Curious. How do the authors of TQ handle the Native Americans? Also, did you find the books easily at your library or ILL?

 

TIA!:001_smile:

[J-rap]

Hakim's History of US is excellent. We supplement it with history-based movies and books. Ken Burns' Civil War DVD's are also excellent.

[swimmermom3]

I forgot our favorite supplement: The Landmark History of the American People. This book will provide great rabbit trails for research papers and essays.