America the Beautiful

[Homeschooling6]

Now that America the Beautiful from Notgrass has been out for a year, anyone care to review?

 

My only concern with this program is it's schedule daily and it seems that with each lesson there is map work, timeline, vocabulary etc.

 

If I were to go this route with dd I would have her do the map, timeline and all the reading that is required. Instead of the creative writing assignments, I'll have her outline and summarize.

 

Even with doing the above it still seems like a lot for one lesson to be done per day. I'm thinking of stretching it out over a year and do two or three lessons a week. This way she can also do two or three lessons of science as well (using Apologia Flying Creatures of the Fifth day).

 

I guess my questions are, has anyone used this and would like to give it a review, anyone planning to make it last more than a year and lastly how many days of history are you requiring from a 6th grader???

 

Thank you,

[Homeschooling6]

:bigear: anyone?

Thanks!

[momof3treasures]

Yes, we are doing it over 2 years, three days a week. I will have a 7th and 5th grader. I am also going to do some of the notebook and lapbook activities from Time Traveller cds one day a week and a 50 state study one year and Ohio history the next. It sounds like a lot writing it out, but I'm hoping it'll work;0) I am excited about it! I love the looks of the writing assignments! Hopefully it'll make them think a little. I am not getting the workbooks though. I think they'll have plenty to do with all the other work. Oh, I'm also going to have them copy the bible verse at the end of each chapter.

[5LittleMonkeys]

My dd(8th) is starting this program tomorrow. I've read through a lot of the assignments and have scheduled 1.5 hours a day, 4 days a week, to include all required reading. I suspect that after we get into a routine we will be able to streamline and knock our work time down to closer to an hour. There are only 150 lessons for the year so that works out to 37.5 weeks. The timeline assignments are nothing more than writing an entry so that shouldn't take more than a minute or so. Many of the map assignments are very simple. Lesson 13 asks that you color the Great Lakes blue, Lesson 72 asks that you find Yellowstone and circle it in black, and Lesson 147 asks to color the Rocky Mountains gray. Again these assignments should take no more than a minute to 2 minutes. There are of coarse many lessons that have 5 to 10 steps per assignments and I would suspect that those may take between 10-20 minutes. Each lesson has a vocabulary assignment such as writing your own definition of each word then looking in the dictionary to confirm the meaning. Out of the first 75 lessons there are 32 creative writing assignments and many of those only require 1 to 2 paragraphs. There are many of the assignments that I will be skipping. My dd won't be doing the "Thinking Biblically" assignments either.

 

I hope some of that is of some help to you. If you have any specific questions about assignments let me know and I will try to answer your questions.

[Homeschooling6]

Thank you ladies, your replies are a big help.

 

I am hoping it really won't take two years to complete but at the same time to do history everyday seems like a lot. I guess I'll have to have the program in my hands to really figure it out.

 

My dd will be in 6th grade. I would like her to complete most of the assignments on her own, so I can focus more on the younger ones. Do you all think it's pretty independent for a 6th grader who reads well?

[5LittleMonkeys]

Thank you ladies, your replies are a big help.

 

I am hoping it really won't take two years to complete but at the same time to do history everyday seems like a lot. I guess I'll have to have the program in my hands to really figure it out. If you only do 3 lessons a week it will stretch out to 50 weeks. If you have a standard 36 week year then it would take you a little less than a year and a half. If history isn't a big interest for your dc then I think it will serve you well. If history is a favorite subject then I don't think it would sustain their interest to spread it out that far. Take into account we haven't actually used it but I have read through it and all of the assignments.

 

My dd will be in 6th grade. I would like her to complete most of the assignments on her own, so I can focus more on the younger ones. Do you all think it's pretty independent for a 6th grader who reads well? Yes, I think a 6th grader could do this on their own. The assignments are pretty easy and even the creative writing assignments aren't overly difficult. This program is, imo, not a rigorous history course. I choose it specifically becuase I wanted an easy overview of history for my 8th before she started highschool because history is her least favorite subject and not one she wants to expend a lot of energy on. I think it is best suited to 5th\6th grade.

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