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Overview of US History through 1920...in a semester.


Sue G in PA
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Ds13 will be attending the local public high school in the fall. :glare: It was my "compromise" with dh. :glare: Anyhoo...the Social Studies curriculum is US History 2 (1920s until present). So far in his homeschool journey we have covered mostly world history (ancients, rome, some US but not a lot). I'd like him to have "some" knowledge of the first part of US History...in sequence. Any advice for how to accomplish this in one semester? I have until September, obviously, so really about 7 1/2 months. I don't need projects or crafts or even extra "assignments". A good "spine" to read, perhaps? Oh, and if possible...from a Christian perspective. Thanks!

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Story of US by Joy Hakim maybe.

It's 10 volumes but you could skip a lot

of stuff like Prehistoric times.

Just have your dc read it straight through.

It's a little silly sometimes but very clear.

Your dc who is 13 would have no problem

whizzing through these. The reading level

is below 13, but it is very complete.

Sometimes it is too liberal for some people,

but as far as a quick and easy read, they

will probably do the job.

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I'd like him to have "some" knowledge of the first part of US History...in sequence. Any advice for how to accomplish this in one semester?

 

 

How about the Notgrass Exploring America? From a Christian Evangelical POV. Goes from first explorers of N. America in the 1500s, up through 2001/George W. Bush's presidency. Two volume history text, plus the 3rd volume of primary source documents. Laid out for 30 weeks, with the first 4 readings of each week the history, and the 5th reading of the week as optional Bible study/Worldview reading (using events/people/choices from the early readings of the week as the springboard into a Worldview discussion). You could also easily skip the supplemental Literature readings.

 

I like the way it is organized by Presidential administrations -- key events, cultural and social changes, etc., during each President's election campaign and administration. Since you would only need to get up to about 1920, that would be the first 20 weeks of the 30 week program -- that's just a little over one semester of work...

 

While DSs (then 10th and 11th grades) and I really enjoyed this program, and thought it was a great relief in the informal, conversational tone from the dry-textbook-y Spielvogel Human Odyssey that we had used for history the previous 2 years, others on this Board have said their children found it dry and boring. (There are only B&W illustrations/photos.) While at an 8th grade reading level, the amount of material in "Exploring America" is at a high school level.

 

If that is more material than you can comfortably cover in one semester, you were interested in, then I strongly encourage you take a look at Notgrass' middle school American History text, America the Beautiful. Again, it is a 30-week program, and you would only need to read through the first 20 weeks to get to 1920s (about 580 pages -- just about 21 pages a week for 18 weeks).

 

 

The Notgrass programs are NOT cheap -- BUT, they have VERY high resale-ability. ;)

 

 

BEST of luck in finding what is the best fit for your family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited by Lori D.
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Lori, America the Beautiful looks like a perfect fit for him! Now to figure out how to fit it in AND how to pay for it :001_huh: I've looked at All American History as well. I'm friends IRL with Maggie Hogan, owner of Bright Ideas Press, and I've emailed her to ask if she has a personal copy of AAH I could borrow. If not, I'm seriously considering American the Beautiful. Thank you!

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