What's available for 1 and 2-yr. middle school World or U.S. History?

[Annabel Lee]

I know of plenty of 4-yr. history curricula, but I'm in a bind. I've got 2 yrs. left until high school with one of my children, so I've got to decide how to fit in history and what to focus on. I'd love to hear what titles or curricula you know of for the following:

1) One-year world history (I already know of SL CoreW/Alt7, but not much about it)

2) Two-year world history (I already know of SL 2-yr. world hist. for middle school, but not much about it)

3) One-year U.S. history (I already know of Notgrass ATB & BJU's 8th gr. text, but not much about either)

4) Two-year U.S. history (I already know of All American History, but not much about it)

 

Can you tell me more about the curricula I listed above that I've heard of but don't know much about? Do you know of any other ones?

Thanks!

[Trish]

We found AAH exceedingly dry.

 

[SunnyDays]

If you wanted to do a two year sequence of Notgrass American... they have both America the Beautiful, and a newer one called Uncle Sam and You, which focuses on government.

 

Notgrass is Christian based, and the books have a lot in them... it appears that many people pick and choose among the recommended activities. They do seem like fairly interesting reading. I'm looking at doing both of these sometime before high school, but we'll see how the plan works out!! :)

 

Their website is www.notgrass.com if you haven't seen it, they have a fair amount of samples.

[TarynB]

AAH and History of US are being discussed in this current thread, if you want to keep an eye on it.

[mazakaal]

I used AAH with my now 15yo when he was in 6th grade. I wanted a one-year US history course so I squished both books into one year by just having ds read through the first unit on explorers (we had already learned about explorers in world history and didn't feel the need for an in-depth study on them), then going slowly through the rest of volume 1, doing the workbook and some of the extra writing, but not all of it. Then he was supposed to get through a good portion of volume 2 the same way, but we were set a bit off track at the end of that school year when my dad passed away and we spent a month with my mom. So he ended up just reading towards the end of the year. I liked the book overall, and really liked the workbook. It was just enough of a supplement to reinforce what ds had read without bogging him down in big craft projects or lapbooks that he wasn't interested in.

 

Since using AAH I noticed Notgrass and liked the look of it, but never used it. Another to consider might be Hewitt Homeschooling's Junior High Early American and World History. I've never used it, but did notice it recently. They use the Genevieve Foster books, which I love, as spines.

[Shannon in TN]

My dd is finishing up America the Beautiful this year in 5th grade. The textbooks (there are two) are nice and sturdy - the hardback versions are what's included when you buy the set. The reading sections are relatively short, with lots of beautiful pics and there are various activities at the end of each section that you can pick and choose from (as a pp said). There's a timeline to fill out - usually just one sentence to copy, various maps to fill out, plus the student workbook. You might consider getting the Lesson Review questions if your dc is older. I believe the questions/discussions are a little more challenging than the red workbook. The student workbook has a mixed bag of activities like crossword puzzles, word search, and fill-in-the-blanks. Honestly, if dd wasn't in a co-op, I would have considered switching from the red workbook to the green because she needed the challenge. There have been several instances where I would catch her doing the work without reading :glare: .

 

It's a pretty good overview of American History IMO. I'm hanging on to it for my ds to use later.

[Prairie~Phlox]

I'm using Trail Guide to World Geography and throwing in some readers that are related to history of each area studied.

[TarynB]

The 3 volumes of K12 Human Odyssey might be doable in 2 years, especially if you leave out the American history portions to study later. Just read and outline or something like that. Have you thought about what you want the high school history sequence to look like? That would be where I'd start planning, then work backwards to fill the gaps.

[3andme]

 

Veritas Press' Self paced online history would be worth considering. The last two years are primarily US history and would probably be most appropriate for middle school. Beautiful Feet is another option for more of a lit based history.

[mom31257]

BJU's 6th and 7th grade texts are Ancient and World history. Their student activity manuals have a lot of great activities, including maps and outlining. Here are links to 6th grade and 7th grade manuals. I plan to have my ds use all 3 of their texts for middle school (8th is American) and add in historical fiction and Kingfisher.