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Adventures in America


Laura in MI
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We started using this program in September 2011. My kids really enjoy it. It's light and easy to do. We do extra reading just to spread it out more though. For afterschoolers, it's really great because it doesn't take up a lot of time and there are fun activities to go along with the topics.

 

I wanted to do it because we are doing SOTW and I wanted them to have a grasp of American culture sooner than suggested. They do gets bits and pieces at school, but I like that Adventures in America is a year-long program. It's easy enough for my 5yo and still holds the interest of my 8yo. There is a little bit of writing, but nothing overwhelming.

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We have it and we like it, but honestly, I'd wait to do it if I were you. It's perfect for my 7.5 year old, but my just turned 5 year old is only enjoying it for the stories and picture coloring, something I could do informally with picture books and free color pages online.

 

I think it's much more valuable as a history curriculum when the kids can actually do some of the copywork and narrations in their own handwriting, which reinforces the learning.

 

I'd recommend Adventure in America for around 1st-3rd grade, or even 4th if you add in enrichments and extra narration, dictation, and copywork for the recommended supplemental read-alouds, and have your 4th grader read them to you.

 

Just my 2 cents!

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I have just downloaded this and plan to start in this week with my 6 year old dd. So I am sorry I can not tell you our first hand experiences yet, but I can say I like the looks of it.

 

It is meant to be done 3 days a week - with the 3rd day being a quick state study.

 

There is a hands-on project recommendation for each week which is important for my dd.

 

I like that you really only need to purchase one book to go with it, all the other books, or alternatives that would work just as well, can be found at the library.

 

Honestly, so far the only thing I personally do not like is the state study portion. Although we have not done it yet, just looking at it I feel it is a bit lacking. There is one notebook page to complete for each state, however, it is only covers the capital, abbreviation, nickname and an interesting fact that you child chooses to write about. I personally would have like a bit more info on the states, but I guess at this point the point is just to expose them to how many states there are?

 

Sorry I couldn't give you any actual experience feedback yet, but there's my two cents .. good luck!!

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We started using AinA this fall, and I'm enjoying it. The chapters are easy to do, and I appreciate the review questions (Although I'm sure I could come up with them myself. Just glad that I don't have to. One less thing, ya' know. :D) I really like their reader suggestions. I've added in some extra art projects here and there and extra chapter books which are slowing us down a bit, but I don't mind if we go into the summer or next school year.

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Honestly, so far the only thing I personally do not like is the state study portion. Although we have not done it yet, just looking at it I feel it is a bit lacking. There is one notebook page to complete for each state, however, it is only covers the capital, abbreviation, nickname and an interesting fact that you child chooses to write about. I personally would have like a bit more info on the states, but I guess at this point the point is just to expose them to how many states there are?

 

Too funny, because the only part that works for us is the state study! The readings are too much for my young 5 y.o. without pictures. We probably would have been better off for the history going with picture books. We really like the state study because that spine has pictures and the state flag stickers are fun and it is just the perfect amount of info for a K'er to introduce beginning narration.

 

However, I'm not one that does a lot of history for K - once a week or every other week is perfect for us so just doing the state study one per week is working well here.

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Too funny, because the only part that works for us is the state study! The readings are too much for my young 5 y.o. without pictures. We probably would have been better off for the history going with picture books. We really like the state study because that spine has pictures and the state flag stickers are fun and it is just the perfect amount of info for a K'er to introduce beginning narration.

 

However, I'm not one that does a lot of history for K - once a week or every other week is perfect for us so just doing the state study one per week is working well here.

 

What age or grade is this for?? Would it be too simple for a 9 year old? I think I'll be using History Odyssey Medieval next year, but I know she'd love to learn about these historical people/places of the US too. I wanted to do something with the 50 states, and this might be even better with the history stories added in.

Can anyone tell me what recommended books go with this? I see the list of the 10 books that are used, but what is the "spine" that FairProspects is talking about?

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What age or grade is this for?? Would it be too simple for a 9 year old? I think I'll be using History Odyssey Medieval next year, but I know she'd love to learn about these historical people/places of the US too. I wanted to do something with the 50 states, and this might be even better with the history stories added in.

 

Can anyone tell me what recommended books go with this? I see the list of the 10 books that are used, but what is the "spine" that FairProspects is talking about?

 

I didn't end up getting it, but from looking at it, I felt like it would be too simple for my 7 yos, so I'm guessing it would be too simple for a 9 yo. But part of what I thought was too simple was the fact that it purposefully only covers the "easy" history. The Civil War gets skipped completely and it ends with westward expansion.

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The state study spine is "Smart about 50 States" and I think it would be too simple for a 9 y.o. in its current form, unless you had them do additional research and write a short report about each state or something. The book is actually a collection of reports from a 5th? grade class so it probably would be a good starting point if you added more to it.

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We have been using this for about 4 months now, and it has been great. My dd is in K, and I think it has been a perfect intro to studying history. She really loves learning about the states too! We are doing the whole program (states, narr, etc.), except we don't get to the projects all the time. :tongue_smilie:

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I e-mailed them and got a quick reply. She said:

Thanks for your interest in Elemental History. While this program was designed for use with younger students (K-2nd grades), there are many older students currently using it. If you use all the components (especially the read alouds and readers, if appropriate to your child’s reading level), then the program can easily be made more challenging. I would suggest having your student write their own narrations, and adding more details to the map work for the state study. For example, they could add major cities, landmarks, lakes and rivers in addition to the capitals.

I'm not sure what I'll do. But, I will consider it.

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