Notgrass America the Beautiful and Uncle Sam and You

[mothergooseof4]

I know you are all probably getting tired of my threads about history. I posted earlier today about ATB and I do like it although it is completely different than anything I have ever used. I have always done literature based curriculum, but as ds is moving into 7th, he needs to be more independent and all of the lit. based currucula seem to have a little reading from here and a littler from there. If overwhelms him. I think he just wants something straight forward. I still want literature as well, but I think he needs ONE piece of literature to read at a time since he will have a history book, science book, and Bible study/personal growth book. Plus he is doing LOF.

 

So, the only complaint that I have read about ATB is that it is a little light for a 7th or 8th grader so some are spreading it out over two years and adding in more literature. I was seriously considering this earlier today (yes, my brain has been in overdrive and my plan is constantly changing). Then, I looked at their new program, Uncle Sam and You. It is also for the 5th-8th crowd and I really like it. It is more of a civics course, but still has a lot of history in it in my opinion.

 

So, those of you that said ATB should be spread over two years and beefed up, have you looked at Uncle Sam? Do you think this would solve the issue by beefing up the totally middle grades study of the US?

 

I am seriously considering this! I have do ATB for 7th and Uncle Sam for 8th, but add in more/other literature since I think some of the books are sort of "young" for this age group.

[Donna A.]

I'm confused by your post. If your son is overwhelmed by the literature assigned in ATB (only one piece of literature is scheduled at a time in that course), why would you consider beefing it up with Uncle Sam or more literature? Maybe I missed something... :confused:

[mothergooseof4]

Sorry if I was not clear. I meant that my ds gets overwhelmed with other curricula. Example:

 

HOD's history for one day:

Reading about History

Story Time

Independent History

State Study

Then they have two boxes for science (science and inventors) and they are supposed to add literature for DITHOR (usually history based).

All of the boxes on the page look jumbled and overwhelming to him. He says he is doing several history assignments per day and wants to know why he can't do just one. I know that there isn't really MORE than what ATB has with it's questions, mapping, and timeline. It appears that way to him though. It is not more WORK than ATB, it is just that the set up of the guide is just visually overwhelming for him because they have each piece of the lesson broken down into a separate box.

 

MFW for one day:

In God We Trust, Exploring American History, Building a City on a Hill, notebook page, book basket, and reading(literature). The list looks like a lot to him. Yes, I know some of that is supposed to be read aloud to him, but he is really getting to a point where he prefers to go at it independently. Plus, many of the books are over the heads of my younger kids and, while I LOVE the idea of combining them all, it just doesn't seem to be working out for us anymore.

 

I am thinking that if I only had one lesson of ATB listed on his schedule (I wasn't planning to add Uncle Sam on top of it, but do ATB for 7th and Uncle Sam for 8th), then one book to be read as literature, that perhaps it wouldn't visually overwhelm him like the many assignments on the schedule pages of the HOD or MFW or other lit. based curricula do. When I said that I would add more/other lit. I mean that I would only have one book going at a time, but probably not the ones scheduled in ATB or at the rate which they read them since some of them seem a little young for him. He wouldn't be doing a bit from this book and a bit from that like other programs do. Instead he would do one lesson from ATB and then a longer selection from one piece of literature per day. Therefore, he could go through the lit. books at a faster rate.

 

In the long run, he wouldn't be doing less work than MFW or HOD. But instead of reading many bits of several books per day, he would read one book at a time until it is finished.

 

I don't know if that made any more sense or not.

 

Also, I notice that you have two kids using MFW and one using Notgrass. How do you like it? I have always used lit. based programs and am afraid that ATB will be a little too text bookish for me. I think ds is leaning that way though.

[crl]

Just wondering how this worked out since we are considering ATB for the same reasons.

 

[Guest]

I have a friend whose dd loves it. She is doing ATB in one semester followed by Unlce Sam the next. Not too religious, she says. Anyone know about the higher levels of Notgrass?

[VeteranMom]

We switched to ATB last year.  We had been using Tapestry of Grace.  TOG was overwhelming all of us.  I went ahead and used some of the TOG books to supplement ATB, since I already had them.  I do not use the ATB literature.

This year, we are doing the second half of ATB.  I've looked at the Winter Promise books and will use some of those with ATB.  Winter Promise uses some really nice looking books for their American History and American Culture curriculums.  My kids really enjoy using non-fiction with history.  We're doing a couple of the Memoria Press Literature guides this year, so I don't feel bad about skipping the historical fiction.

[....]

This year, we are doing the second half of ATB. 

 

It's going to take us two years to get through AtB!  There is a lot of reading.  Plus, I guess I add too much.  We've been watching videos to supplement the readings.  We've found so much on Youtube.  When we were reading about the Erie Canal, we watched videos of boats going through the old lock system.  We listened to Bruce Springsteen's version of the Erie Canal folk song.  We also watched some movies about the Civil War.  It is filling in all the gaps my daughter had in US history.  I think we had reached a point where she knew 10X more about world history than US history.  At least it's all coming together now.

 

About Uncle Sam and You...I was going to buy that, but I think I might buy the high school level and just work on that when we finish AtB or wait a year and start.  

 

We really like Notgrass.  I plan to use AtB and the US government course with the younger kids.  If I made a list of the top 5 resources that we've used over the years, AtB would definitely be on that list.   

[....]

Not too religious, she says. 

 

It's fairly easy to skip the religious content.  At the end of each chapter, there is a short paragraph or couple of lines about the reading and then a Bible passage.  There might be one religious-themed question after the passage.  

 

The only thing that's hard to skip is the titles to the chapters about a place.  I probably shouldn't say this (LOL), but my daughter has been laughing like crazy at the titles.  One chapter will be "A Nation Faces Growing Conflict" and then the next chapter will be "God Creates the Mississippi River".  So, my daughter says it sounds like the Mississippi River was formed in the mid-1800s.   :tongue_smilie:

I do like all the biographies throughout the text (I didn't mention that earlier).  Really, really like the pictures and portraits...

[SkateLeft]

My ds used ATB this past year for 7th grade. I think it's just fine, especially if you consider all the writing that's required. I think splitting it into two years would be lightening it up significantly unless you added a lot of additional resources.

 

I didn't use it as a literature course though, just history. He read the literature that ATB assigned, but that was more for enrichment than anything else. I assigned literature as a separate part of his English curriculum.

 

We're a science and math oriented family, so history isn't something that we build our entire homeschool around. 

[fourcatmom]

I know this is an old thread but has anyone used AtB and Uncle Sam in the same year, with an 8th grader?

[...................]

HOD is just plain overwhelming. I cannot imagine how students feel being stretched across that many subjects in a single day!  

 

Anyway, I personally prefer to just choose something that doesn't need beefing up. So,whichever option you feel would be complete...that's the one I would recommend.  Otherwise you are adding more work for yourself all year long, and more things for your child to "check off." 

 

:o)

[Murrayshire]

My history lover says that their wasn't enough history in ATB. We ended up supplementing with Hakim books with most topics & different literature. I look back now and wish we had just chosen Hakim instead of a mix of books. It still worked out but ATB was a lot of reading. We DID enjoy the We The People book.....I'll probably just keep that and sell the two text books.

 

I wouldn't attempt to use ATB and their Civics program all in one year, IMO. It may work to use the first half of ATB in the 1st semester.....then the first half of Civics (or whatever it's called) the second semester. Then follow the same pattern for the second year using the second half of both programs.

[fourcatmom]

My history lover says that their wasn't enough history in ATB. We ended up supplementing with Hakim books with most topics & different literature. I look back now and wish we had just chosen Hakim instead of a mix of books. It still worked out but ATB was a lot of reading. We DID enjoy the We The People book.....I'll probably just keep that and sell the two text books.

 

I wouldn't attempt to use ATB and their Civics program all in one year, IMO. It may work to use the first half of ATB in the 1st semester.....then the first half of Civics (or whatever it's called) the second semester. Then follow the same pattern for the second year using the second half of both programs.

 

That's not a bad idea but I I have heard it's not real rigorous for an 8th grader so I am not sure about spreading it over 8th and 9th. I guess that's why I was thinking of adding in the Civics course in addition to AtB. She has a pretty full schedule but my thought was to drop the mapping program this year and let her do it in 9th if I were going to add the civics. I was thinking with the holidays that are taught and the introduction to government it might be a nice compliment to American History.

 

I had decided to go with Hakim but then an opportunity to use AtB presented itself and that was originally what I wanted. I do already have alternate literature picked out (from when my plan was TOG!) :D  So we are sticking with those books. I have been around in circles a few times trying to figure out History this year! I am really hoping AtB is a good fit and meaty enough for her.

 

[Murrayshire]

That's not a bad idea but I I have heard it's not real rigorous for an 8th grader so I am not sure about spreading it over 8th and 9th. I guess that's why I was thinking of adding in the Civics course in addition to AtB. She has a pretty full schedule but my thought was to drop the mapping program this year and let her do it in 9th if I were going to add the civics.

 

You are right.....I wouldn't try to do the second half for 9th. I guess that 2yr combo would better fit 7th-8th.....just to give some variety.

There are 150 lessons in ATB....not sure about Uncle Sam but I am assuming it is set up about the same.

I know that with ATB I sometimes would schedule one lesson over two days b/c it was so long. I had her outline/take notes, too. Dd had history 4 times a week instead of five.

I would say go ahead and try what you are planning. You could always have her do ATB independently and then do Uncle Sam together on certain days.

As far as not meaty enough...... Yes, adding this and that and this and that can be tedious and seem like more work but does give different viewpoints of history. And since you have the opportunity to use ATB free, I would go for it and add videos with extra lit.

 

BTW, I bought a used copy of Oak Meadow's Civics instead of going with Uncle Sam. OM has 36 lessons so we are planning to add one lesson each week along with our study of the Middle Ages (dd's choice). The lesson's readings aren't generally long but we may do this all together anyway. We are planning a DC trip in the late spring so I would like to fill in with civics, like an elective, for all dc.

Have you seen iCivics? You may like that to fill in with ATB instead of another big program.

Good Luck!

 

Edit to add: DK's Encyclopedia of American History might be something you could add in with ATB for more meat. The reading would be shorter than Hakim books and your dc could outline and for reports, use SWB's lists for famous men & women. My dd never did the creative writing lessons in ATB.

[fourcatmom]

You are right.....I wouldn't try to do the second half for 9th. I guess that 2yr combo would better fit 7th-8th.....just to give some variety.

There are 150 lessons in ATB....not sure about Uncle Sam but I am assuming it is set up about the same.

I know that with ATB I sometimes would schedule one lesson over two days b/c it was so long. I had her outline/take notes, too. Dd had history 4 times a week instead of five.

I would say go ahead and try what you are planning. You could always have her do ATB independently and then do Uncle Sam together on certain days.

As far as not meaty enough...... Yes, adding this and that and this and that can be tedious and seem like more work but does give different viewpoints of history. And since you have the opportunity to use ATB free, I would go for it and add videos with extra lit.

 

BTW, I bought a used copy of Oak Meadow's Civics instead of going with Uncle Sam. OM has 36 lessons so we are planning to add one lesson each week along with our study of the Middle Ages (dd's choice). The lesson's readings aren't generally long but we may do this all together anyway. We are planning a DC trip in the late spring so I would like to fill in with civics, like an elective, for all dc.

Have you seen iCivics? You may like that to fill in with ATB instead of another big program.

Good Luck!

 

Edit to add: DK's Encyclopedia of American History might be something you could add in with ATB for more meat. The reading would be shorter than Hakim books and your dc could outline and for reports, use SWB's lists for famous men & women. My dd never did the creative writing lessons in ATB.

 

Thank you. I haven't looked ath the iCivics course, never really thought about offering one in 8th until I started looked at AtB and then Uncle Sam. I agree it if it was 7th and 8th it's a good plan but I think for 9th I want to focus on a really good mapping and Geography program for her. I don't think I will do much of the writing in AtB. She is going to be doing OYAN and I really want her writing focus to be there. It's hard to make a final plan without the books in hand so I will probably wait until they arrive and then make my final decision. I want to have everything ready and planned out but it's not going to work that way.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I have used your suggestions before and enjoyed them so I am glad you chimed in about AtB.

 

[fourcatmom]

So it looks like the Civics class is $105 and then you have to buy the TE as well? I have never used OM, are there samples anywhere online?

[Murrayshire]

I found my Civics student book on WTM Classifieds for about $20. I've seen them on Ebay, too.

I don't have the TM and don't plan to buy it.

Did you look through the 8th grade samples on OM site? There should be samples of the Civics portion.

[Murrayshire]

Oh hahaha.... Wait a minute! I do have the TM for Civics. It was on a completely different shelf....I thought I had it at one point! I would have been upset if I had forgotten about it this year!

Anyway, if you want me to take some pictures of several lessons of student and TM so you can get a better fill for it, I don't mind. Let me know and I'll message them to you.

[fourcatmom]

Thanks! Sorry I have been at testing for two days. I will pm you! Thanks again