Robin in DFW Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 Ds has been slogging through the Story of US by Hakim. The first book was entertaining, the second book tolerable, the third book painful...you get the idea. Anyway, we are going to move on after our holiday break. We would like do some unit studies for the major events in American History. Are there unit studies (secular, please) that we could do over 2-4 weeks each? It would be nice to have them all planned out so we could just dive right in starting in January. What 8-10 major events would be musts to get the nuts and bolts of American History covered. We would like to start back at the beginning since ds has not remembered anything from the Hakim books except for the device used to stifle the gossipy women back in the day :D... Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbabe Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 We are experiencing the same thing with my 5th and 8th grader. We will be moving to unit studies in January. I have a huge list of living books, both fictional and non-fictional to read. Then I've been looking at some things on line, trying to decide what I want to do. Here are some of the links I've been browsing. http://www.konos.com/histheroes/whatshistheroes.htm http://www.learning-adventures.org/Volume_Two/volume_two.html http://www.amazon.com/American-Revolution-Kids-History-Activities/dp/1556524560/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292529712&sr=8-1 (this one is a whole series of books. ie. Civil War, George Washington, Ben Franklin, WWII, and lots more) Maybe that can give you a start. I'll be checking back to hear what others recommend. Thanks for starting this thread.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin in DFW Posted December 16, 2010 Author Share Posted December 16, 2010 they have background information and activities and they look awesome...even for a middle school aged kid. I was thinking one of these for each major event...and I mean major...Hakim went into too much trivial detail...bored us to death. Along with a literature book related to the time period and I think I'd have both history and literature covered. Add in narrations, a report or special project (or two) and call it good. Thanks for the list... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbabe Posted December 16, 2010 Share Posted December 16, 2010 They have the "for kids" series at my library. They are definitely for middle school age. There is a lot of information in there. Not all of the activities are of 8th grade caliber, but they are great books. I will be purchasing them. I've used them before when I created a history club for my sons. We read biographies and did projects based on the people/events we read about. But that was 3 or 4 yrs ago. Wish life hadn't gotten so crazy and I could have continued teaching my boys with unit studies. But now, it's time to get back to that way of teaching. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin in DFW Posted December 16, 2010 Author Share Posted December 16, 2010 Just thought I'd share a couple of resources with you... I have the DK Smithsonian Children's Encyclopedia of American History. It is similar in layout to the Kingfisher, which we have used for years for World History. The DK book has all the major topics plus many others, but in a great format that won't take forever to get done. I also have several activity books from Edupress called Hands on Heritage---they are for all ages. They have crafts, activities and tidbits of background information. I already have the Map Trek maps from Knowledge Quest for U.S. History and am printing those as I type. We bought this really cool long, narrow art pad (I think it is a cartoonists art pad) to use for a timeline...I have the Hold That Thought CD with timeline figures. I think we are set. Ds will read a chapter each week to week and a half, outline or narrate one section within the chapter, his choice, do the above add-ins. I will try to use literature that ties in as well...he will do study guides if availabe, if not, he will just read and do summaries. I will try to get a research report in there somewhere. Sound okay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbabe Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 Oh I own the MapTrek too. Glad you mentioned it, I had forgotten. Thanks for the list of books. I will spend some time perusing. Your ideas sound wonderful! I hope it all goes smoothly. I'm excited to start doing unit studies again! Happy homeschooling! As a side note, I looked at the link for Learning Adventures (the one I posted above). She has a TOC that lists the activities that she does for each unit. I browsed the TOC for Colonial Life and just googled some of her ideas. I found lots of fun stuff to do. She mentions studying simple pulleys, levers etc. as a science extension for Colonial Times or electricity for Ben Franklin. There are some good books at Tops Science that could extend those science units. Also, I got recipes for fun things like succotash, blueberry fritters, and more that were listed in the TOC. I also found some fun activities about making Rube Goldberg inventions to tie in with Ben Franklin's knack for inventing things. I don't have them right now, but could share some links if you're interested. I love the idea for the timeline. Could you share a link as to what art pad you bought? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin in DFW Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 http://shop.hobbylobby.com/art/multimedia-and-art-pads/marker-and-comic-pads/ It's the 300 Series Strathmore Bristol...third one from the left, top row. We got it at Hobby Lobby, although I'm sure other art stores would probably have it as well. I'll have to look at that TOC for ideas. I hate to incorporate too much...we already have an awesome science program...Exploration Education...my ds loves it and he makes the neatest projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unity Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 These are 2 books full of handouts and lesson plans to accompany any US history spine, specifically targeted at 8th grade. http://www.centerforlearning.org/c-62-us-historygeography.aspx I've toyed around with using these with Drama of American History. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angjune Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 but I'm using Prentice Hall America History of Our Nation with my 8th grade daughter. She enjoys the material and we supplement with videos, etc. My husband is the history expert in our house so I usually defer to him as far as which chapters we should skip and those she should cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbabe Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 http://shop.hobbylobby.com/art/multimedia-and-art-pads/marker-and-comic-pads/ Thanks for the link! These are 2 books full of handouts and lesson plans to accompany any US history spine, specifically targeted at 8th grade. http://www.centerforlearning.org/c-6...geography.aspx Oh no! More books to peruse! Thanks for sharing. She enjoys the material and we supplement with videos, etc. My husband is the history expert in our house so I usually defer to him as far as which chapters we should skip and those she should cover. Oh, how nice to have a historian in the house! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin in DFW Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 nt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paisley Hedgehog Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin in DFW Posted December 17, 2010 Author Share Posted December 17, 2010 I did order those, but never received them. I think I got in on the tail end of the deal and they probably didn't have enough to go around. I had planned on using those with our books...maybe that would have made a difference in our interest level...or maybe not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbabe Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 If you're christian, the Drive Thru History dvds are amazing! They would give good "highlights" in history to study. They are very well put together and we love to watch them. Even my 5 year old enjoys these. They are the best history supplement I've ever purchased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbabe Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 It sounds like you already have everything figured out. But I was going to suggest one more thing .... Did you happen to pick up the Story of US *dvd set* that History Channel was giving away for free this past spring? There were 10 or so episodes of that that could act as a nice springboard into your projects. I don't care for the Hakim books at all but I enjoyed watching the show. Where on earth was I when they were giving away free DVDs!?:banghead: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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