SweetandSimple Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I know that I'm probably dreaming about finding this for next year. It just sounds as though it would be lovely to be able to combine this subject for my kids. Obviously, we haven't been able to combine anything else, but it would be so nice to have one thing that we do together. I keep looking at the Veritas self-paced Explorers course, and wondering if my 1st grader would enjoy that or if it would just be too far over her head. Does anyone have a young child who enjoyed this course? I've also wondered about just using The Complete Book of U.S. History along with some other interesting books. In the past, though, I've never been really pleased with any of the years that I've put together our own curriculum. I'm really hoping to find something that is all planned for me. I have no problem putting together reading lists, but then the reading is the only thing that gets done, and I don't feel as though my kids really "get" the history like they should. Secular or Christian is fine, and I'm not too concerned about the cost. I would love something that includes some worksheets or easy projects. Any ideas out there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meena Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I have children in 5th, 4th, and 1st. We are studying the first half of US History this year using a combination of Sonlight literature (Core D) and Veritas self-paced. My youngest likes Veritas but it doesn't always hold his attention. For instance, we are studying the Great Awakening right now, and conceptually most of that is too advanced for him. I'm fine with letting him opt out of those parts of Veritas because I know he will study this period two more times through the history cycle. This time around is for exposure not mastery. I'm using Complete Book of US History and The Light and the Glory for Children for the 1st grader's spines and K12's History of US Concise Edition (Hakim) for the older two. In my opinion CBUSH is not detailed enough in certain subjects to be a spine for a 5th grader. I'm using library books ("Colonial Days" by King and "Colonial Kids" by Carlson have fun projects) and Scholastic ebooks (I like the "Hands-On History" series by Gravois) to add hands-on projects here and there, but I'm not super crafty so we mostly focus on reading and discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarynB Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Sonlight's combined core D+E covers American History in one year. It has readers and worksheets for your 5th grader, with both kids listening in on the read-alouds? If you don't want the entire package, maybe you could buy the instructor's guide, which includes the worksheets + answer key, and buy the history books separately? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarynB Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I have children in 5th, 4th, and 1st. We are studying the first half of US History this year using a combination of Sonlight literature (Core D) and Veritas self-paced. My youngest likes Veritas but it doesn't always hold his attention. For instance, we are studying the Great Awakening right now, and conceptually most of that is too advanced for him. I'm fine with letting him opt out of those parts of Veritas because I know he will study this period two more times through the history cycle. This time around is for exposure not mastery. I'm using Complete Book of US History and The Light and the Glory for Children for the 1st grader's spines and K12's History of US Concise Edition (Hakim) for the older two. In my opinion CBUSH is not detailed enough in certain subjects to be a spine for a 5th grader. I'm using library books ("Colonial Days" by King and "Colonial Kids" by Carlson have fun projects) and Scholastic ebooks (I like the "Hands-On History" series by Gravois) to add hands-on projects here and there, but I'm not super crafty so we mostly focus on reading and discussion. LOL, great minds . . . posting at the same time! :coolgleamA: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna A. Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 My Father's World? Exploration-1850...has a younger sibling supplement package to go with it. http://www.mfwbooks.com/products/M50/40/25/0/1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paceofnature Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 What about Guesthollow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 We used This Country of Ours, plus lots of supplemental picture books, to do US history for multiple grades. Yes, I had to stop and explain things to the younger ones sometimes, but it wasn't a big deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetandSimple Posted March 22, 2013 Author Share Posted March 22, 2013 Thank you for all of the suggestions! I've been looking into all of those programs and trying to figure out if one of them will work for us. It is nice to know that somehow, I might be able to make this work out! I just know that we won't have many opportunities to combine, so I wanted to take advantage of this one. I have children in 5th, 4th, and 1st. We are studying the first half of US History this year using a combination of Sonlight literature (Core D) and Veritas self-paced. My youngest likes Veritas but it doesn't always hold his attention. For instance, we are studying the Great Awakening right now, and conceptually most of that is too advanced for him. I'm fine with letting him opt out of those parts of Veritas because I know he will study this period two more times through the history cycle. This time around is for exposure not mastery. I'm using Complete Book of US History and The Light and the Glory for Children for the 1st grader's spines and K12's History of US Concise Edition (Hakim) for the older two. In my opinion CBUSH is not detailed enough in certain subjects to be a spine for a 5th grader. I'm using library books ("Colonial Days" by King and "Colonial Kids" by Carlson have fun projects) and Scholastic ebooks (I like the "Hands-On History" series by Gravois) to add hands-on projects here and there, but I'm not super crafty so we mostly focus on reading and discussion. I'm glad to know that your youngest has enjoyed some of the Veritas course. Maybe that will work, too. Also, I hadn't realized that CBUSH might actually be too light for a 5th grade spine-- I'll have to make sure that I fill in with something meatier if we go that route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetandSimple Posted March 23, 2013 Author Share Posted March 23, 2013 Biblioplan is designed for K-12, with different booklists. Thank you for suggesting this--- it looks very, very good! I sent an email to the company asking for an estimate of what percentage of their Year 3 course is U.S. History-- I don't mine some world history, but I'm hoping for at least 50% American history. Thanks again for the suggestion. Biblioplan is one that I just don't hear much about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koerarmoca Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Raisingrefounders.com with library books has been going well thus far. And it's free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murrayshire Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 I've been using Complete Book of American History successfully with my 1st and 4th grader. To go along with that we use DK America's Encyclopedia, read - alouds & readers from SL, Beautiful Feet, Guesthollow, and right now she found "America's Pioneers & Patriots" from CLP. They watch docs, Discovery Education, and Liberty's Kids.....they timeline and notebook. This has been the easiest way for us to combine history. I will occasionally give dd4th reports and research to do on certain Americans or Events to broaden her view. Along with American History, dd4th is studying her state history and keeping a notebook for that. I made a State Study outline for us to follow and it's working nicely. You can find the outline on our blog. Here is a link to a post where we are talking about The Complete Book of American History.....and in my reply there is another link, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dahliarw Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 Thank you for suggesting this--- it looks very, very good! I sent an email to the company asking for an estimate of what percentage of their Year 3 course is U.S. History-- I don't mine some world history, but I'm hoping for at least 50% American history. Thanks again for the suggestion. Biblioplan is one that I just don't hear much about. I just finished going through BP mapping out next year, year 3. They give you the option to use The History of US by Hakim as a Spine. All but a few weeks have chapters from US noted. There are a few where nothing correlates. It's definitely 80% or more. And you could spread out some of the heavier weeks (you know, things like the Revolutinary War) to make them longer. Though year 3 only goes through 1850. If you want all of US History in 1 year, then you'd need to get 3 and 4 and figure out how you want to fit it in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetandSimple Posted March 24, 2013 Author Share Posted March 24, 2013 I am pretty sure it's mostly American History. They are very helpful and emailed me right back. :) I just finished going through BP mapping out next year, year 3. They give you the option to use The History of US by Hakim as a Spine. All but a few weeks have chapters from US noted. There are a few where nothing correlates. It's definitely 80% or more. And you could spread out some of the heavier weeks (you know, things like the Revolutinary War) to make them longer. Though year 3 only goes through 1850. If you want all of US History in 1 year, then you'd need to get 3 and 4 and figure out how you want to fit it in. Thank you so much for this information! I really do like the looks of this! Early American History is really what I'm looking for, so I think that Year 3 looks very good. I did receive an email from them, and the customer service is excellent! I'm a little disappointed, though, that the revised year 3 won't be completely ready for the fall of this year. They said that they are working on all of the revisions for high school first, so the "middles" cool history may not be done, and the "littles" cool history won't be ready for the fall. That is too bad, but I may just go ahead and buy the old version. It still sounds like it will work out nicely-- I don't mind using the Hakim books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dahliarw Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I bought the old version for that reason. :) I like to plan my whole year out at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlcc Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I think Diana Waring has an American History course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTJo1996 Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 If you like unit studies, Geography Matters' Trail Guides are awesome and easily could be tweaked to cover 1st grade. It is written for 3rd-5th and has expansion packs for 6th-7th. I know it's not the 4 year cycle a-la-SOTW but I think the approach is awesome. Just my 2 cents! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 BiblioPlan. Has the Companion, which is the "spine" for all ages, then maps, worksheets (cool histories), etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetandSimple Posted March 26, 2013 Author Share Posted March 26, 2013 Thanks for all of the suggestions. I've been having fun as I investigate everything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlcc Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 WinterPromise? Yet another one to investigate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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