Pansen Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Hi all! I am looking for curriculum next year and have a pretty good handle on math and science (not sure about LA). History has always stumped me. We tried SOTW1 this year, but it was a lot more religious than we are wanting and had to discontinue using it. We are looking for a secular history program. For my 2nd grader, we can use Adventures in America, if that's any good? I'm stumped what to use for my 3rd and 4th graders though. We use a homeschool charter (with parent choice for curriculum), so we have to choose something. I really dislike history in general and find it boring. I am leaning toward giving up and getting the PS books just to make it easy to meet "standards", but I know it won't be engaging for any of us. Isn't there anything interesting out there that will keep us all interested? Help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Smith Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 I really like the human odyssey by K12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspasia Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 I had a similar reaction to SOTW. We basically stopped using it, mainly because it wasn't very interesting for us. What I've been doing instead is using the SOTW activity guide to kind of plan my own thing. First I use the Usborne encyclopedia as a general outline. Then I use the "supplemental" reading suggestions to make my own book list (someone did all the work for me to find a ton of awesome books--why reinvent the wheel?), and dd does notebook pages. I also incorporate some of the activities from the SOTW guide, even some of the coloring pages. Oh, and I hate the sequencing of SOTW (so confusing!), so we study one civilization at a time. So I guess you could sort of say that we do SOTW, but we're skipping the actual text, rearranging it, and using books that we actually find interesting. If you did that, you could limit religious content and just tell your charter that you're using SOTW. 'Cause you pretty much would be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 I like Human Odyssey as well, but I wouldn't use it in 3rd or 4th.Joy Hakim's "History of US" is secular (bordering on anti-Christian at times IMHO) and the concise version available through K12 might be a good option. https://ecomm.k12.com/ecommerce/public/itemDetails.xhtml?cid=9647 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 Is there a link to the Human Odyssey? And do Joy Hakim's books have workbooks or anything I can use as "product" to show the Charter school? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 I like Human Odyssey as well, but I wouldn't use it in 3rd or 4th. Joy Hakim's "History of US" is secular (bordering on anti-Christian at times IMHO) and the concise version available through K12 might be a good option. https://ecomm.k12.com/ecommerce/public/itemDetails.xhtml?cid=9647 Strangely, that link did not work. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Here is Vol. 1 on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/History-US-Concise-Edition-Prehistory/dp/B0064RXJ2OIf you're going to order it through your charter with the stipend, however, the cost is $60 per volume at K12.Amazon sells a test book, but I think it might correlate to the full 10 volume set rather than the concise edition: http://www.amazon.com/History-US-Assesment-Books-Assessment/dp/0195153480/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0KHTP7DY88WT7R6HT1JW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 The charter school uses a variety of sources to purchase materials, including Rainbow Resource. They do have Joy Hakim's books in their library, along with a teacher guide, to check out, so I requested it to look at... However, it says it's for grades 5-12. Would it be too complicated for my 3rd and 4th graders? The school could probably buy the test booklet. I think it looks easy enough, looking at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 I found this: http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Americans-Elementary-Student/dp/0199767300/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 I would suggest giving SOTW another chance. The religious stories that it covers are mostly in the first book, and the later ones don't have nearly as much. I think that it's pretty secular-friendly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 I believe you about SOTW, as I have heard the same from other people who have used it. I don't know. Maybe we will get the audiobooks and listen while traveling, but not use it as a spine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrale Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 The Complete Book of US History and the Complete Book of World History are workbooks with a good narrative. Kind of like a picture book. They have places to answer questions. Maybe this is enough for charter? And they are secular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 The Complete Book of US History and the Complete Book of World History are workbooks with a good narrative. Kind of like a picture book. They have places to answer questions. Maybe this is enough for charter? And they are secular. Interesting. The reviews say they don't actually have any workbook pages or places to answer questions at all. Looking more into this though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momma2three Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 We use History Odyssey. I believe it's on sale until the end of the month, too. It uses the Usborne encyclopedia as a spine, with readings from SOTW almost every week. However, it mostly skips over the religious chapters (pretty much lumps them all together as "optional" under the same 1-2 lessons). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 If you are looking for a short-and-sweet overview workbook for your gr. 3-5 students, you might check out the out-of-print Story of the USA 4-book series by Escher. It's been too many years since we looked at them them, but I am pretty sure they are secular: Book 1 = Explorers and Settlers Book 2 = A Young Nation Solves Its Problems Book 3 = America Becomes a Giant Book 4 = Modern America You may have to do a hunt on Amazon used books or Abe.com for remainders -- or try RainbowResource.com or ChristianBook.com You could couple those workbooks with the secular Complete Book of U.S. History as a reading spine; read some of the great American historical fiction and non-fiction books at the elementary ages, and do a few activities throughout the year for output and call it good. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrale Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Interesting. The reviews say they don't actually have any workbook pages or places to answer questions at all. Looking more into this though. You can actually look inside the books. Here is the US history one. There is a Show What You Know section that you write on a separate piece of paper. And there are some place where you write in the books. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-United-States-History/dp/1561896799/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396158915&sr=8-1&keywords=Complete+book+of+US+history Okay. I guess the World History one is different. We haven't started it yet. That isn't a deal breaker for me though. You could have your child write summaries of chapters, and look for activities online that could be fun. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-World-History-Books/dp/1561890898/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=17AJWCDJBT2VWYEE1GZS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 You can actually look inside the books. Here is the US history one. There is a Show What You Know section that you write on a separate piece of paper. And there are some place where you write in the books.http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-United-States-History/dp/1561896799/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396158915&sr=8-1&keywords=Complete+book+of+US+history Okay. I guess the World History one is different. We haven't started it yet. That isn't a deal breaker for me though. You could have your child write summaries of chapters, and look for activities online that could be fun.http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-World-History-Books/dp/1561890898/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=17AJWCDJBT2VWYEE1GZS Ah yes, the US history one is a bit different. It looks interesting, as well as the ones Lori D. listed above. That one and the ones she listed could work well together. I didn't expect you all to come up with such great resources, tbh. ;) Are Hakim's books at all interesting? I requested one to look at, but wondering which (program? Set of books?) would be better for real depth of learning, yet ease of product to show the charter school. We will not use the county library system here because it stinks, so all books to supplement a curriculum would either come from the school library or purchased by us. That is also a limiting factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deerforest Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 We have several items listed in the thread. I like Hakim but it wasn't quite right for what we needed in 3rd-4th. I am saving it for a little older. We have the full version, not the condensed one though. We also have the Complete Book of US History. Folks recommend it a lot but we were totally underwhelmed. DD finally begged me to stop it. She really disliked this one: http://www.rainbowresource.com/searchspring.php?q=Story+of+the+U.S.A. She said it was too simple and didn't teach her anything new. She hated the workbook format. So I made up my own curriculum for pre-Columbian through to 1900s. It was a ton of work but DD loved it. We read and read and read. Books like Brown Paper School US Kids History, Maestro, Fritz, "You Wouldn't Want to Be a..." series, "If you..." series, "Who was..." series plus so many, many more. We focused on social history, science, inventions, life. I spent most of 2nd just on Native American (all Americas), then from Columbus to American Revolution in 3rd and then the 1800s in summer and early 4th but I didn't cover Civil War. For the second half of 4th I went to Central and South America and focused on those regions from Columbus to early 1800s. We are still working on some of these topics. We went much more in depth than any of the elementary curricula did but it's what we wanted, and we both have loved it. For 5th I am moving to the ancients but we are using OUP and Human Odyssey as our spines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Are Hakim's books at all interesting? I requested one to look at, but wondering which (program? Set of books?) would be better for real depth of learning, yet ease of product to show the charter school. The 10-volume Story of US by Hakim is written at an upper middle school/early high school level and goes into a lot of detail. While a bit more interesting than many textbooks, it still reads like a textbook. If you are not that into history, and DC are still in the midst of the elementary grades, that series would definitely be overkill. I am unfamiliar with any other Hakim U.S. history materials. In looking at Amazon, each study guide for elementary ages appears to be for grade 5+ for use with one volume of the middle/high school set. Just a quick thought: you may find the subject of History to be more interesting than previously depending on the materials you choose. The Story of USA workbooks I listed above were… well, ho-hum, workbooks. Like the previous poster, deerforest, we did not make it very far through the first workbook as a workbook; we ended up just reading the text, and moved on to more interesting books after book 1 In the previous post, deerforest listed some very engaging books, great for elementary ages, that are frequently found at the library. You can make a list in advance of which ones you want to do -- one book a week or every other week (depending on length) would be fine -- and look for them over the summer for used prices, if your library is lacking. Check out the book lists for Sonlight cores D and E -- some esp. good works for the readers to match up with your History that you could use as part of your LA. For output for your charter, you can have your students do a brief narration paragraph a week and color a matching learning page while you read aloud. (There are books or you can download/print educational coloring pages from various websites). And once a month add to figures to a timeline, and then take 1-2 hours to do some sort of project or hands-on activity (make a food, make a craft, play a game that children in historical times played, do a dress-up recreation of an event you read about, etc.) and take a few photos. You could also include a U.S. geography map skill workbook, or other geography program/resources as part of the Social Studies output. The Complete Book of Maps and Geography would give you plenty of workpages -- enough to last 2 or even 3 years -- and there is a whole section on each of the states of the US. Modern Curriculum Press (MCP) Maps & Charts level D (grade 4) is on states and regions, and level E (grade 5) is on U.S. and its neighbors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 Thank you for the replies. I don't know that I am organized enough to put something together myself, and we absolutely cannot use the county library system here. We live in the country and can't get there often enough to avoid fines, plus their selection is pitiful. The school will purchase materials, however, and they have a decent school library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vida Winter Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 History at Our House recently made all elementary recorded lectures available for free - we have paid for this in the past and the kids enjoyed Mr. Powell's lectures. Several different periods of history are offered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Um_2_4 Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 History at Our House recently made all elementary recorded lectures available for free - we have paid for this in the past and the kids enjoyed Mr. Powell's lectures. Several different periods of history are offered. Do you have a link? I checked the site, but can't find them. Thanks! ETA: FOUND IT! Here is the link for anyone: http://www.historyatourhouse.com/main/2013-14/registration2013-14.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy in TN Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 We used America's History Land of Liberty as our spine. America's History: Land of Liberty by Vivian Bernstein is used for ESL high school students or adults working on their GED. It is written at about a 5th grade level and is definitely a step down in level from History of US Hakim (it's not nearly as long) or Young People's Zinn (not as intensely focused on everything that is wrong). It is appropriate in content and coverage for a sweeping first pass through of US history for a child who wants more than simple stories of "great" American people and events. Because it is for struggling or ESL older students, the language is simple, but the content has more depth than your typical elementary text. We added literature selections from SL 3+4, WP's American history programs, and additional selections that were on my bookshelf. HTH- Mandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 For my 2nd grader, we can use Adventures in America, if that's any good? Are you talking about Elemental History's Adv. in America? I think it is a pretty good program, though maybe a little light for a 2nd grader. The book selections listed are great... I just did not care for reading the history accounts from a teacher's manual. Each lesson has a summary of a historical person/event in the teacher's guide, then a small -- often very small and simple -- activity to go with it. The read-alouds and nicely laid out, though, and it schedules what to read when. We're also not big on notebooking/summarizing and copy work, and that program follows that style of learning. We'd rather make things (like cardboard viking ships, haha). We will be using The Complete Book of US History next year... but not on it's own. It is a good outline for me, and then I branched off and came up with TONS of library books and read-alouds to "flesh it out." Pinterest and activity books to come up with projects for certain topics. We are really looking forward to it! But as far as just the book by itself, it is a bit underwhelming... I'm still looking for a good world history to use when we finish this.... I'm tempted by Homeschool in the Woods Great Empires or the Project Passports (if they release Ancients by then). I have *no idea* to what degree this company is religious in their presentation of history. (We are religious, I just prefer to make my OWN connections to faith/etc... and not have it written in to our curriculum by someone else.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 We use History Odyssey with Usborne as the spine. We do not use SOTW or CHOW at all. After reading the indicated selection from Usborne and completing the map work, we read picture books, novels (or really long picture books) as read-alouds at bedtime, watch movies and complete a craft ever once in a while. We also use Evan-Moor history pockets when there is one that corresponds. (We do not write out the dictionary definitions from History Odyssey. Used to, but that killed the fun for us.) DD has responded very well to this approach and loves history. Having said that, ordering a massive amount of books from the library every couple of weeks is very time-consuming. It's great, though, because reading picture books (nonfiction and fiction) is sooooo much more interesting than reading a textbook. Textbooks for lower elementary particularly are so condensed that they are like reading lists of facts. There's little context so little sticks. http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Medieval%20Times - What we've done for Medieval Times this year, which is less intense than what we did for Ancients last year. We are ahead in the history/science cycle, so we are studying Early Modern next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Hi all! I am looking for curriculum next year and have a pretty good handle on math and science (not sure about LA). History has always stumped me. We tried SOTW1 this year, but it was a lot more religious than we are wanting and had to discontinue using it. We are looking for a secular history program. For my 2nd grader, we can use Adventures in America, if that's any good? I'm stumped what to use for my 3rd and 4th graders though. We use a homeschool charter (with parent choice for curriculum), so we have to choose something. I really dislike history in general and find it boring. I am leaning toward giving up and getting the PS books just to make it easy to meet "standards", but I know it won't be engaging for any of us. Isn't there anything interesting out there that will keep us all interested? Help? I second the notion of giving SOTW a second look. We are very secular in this house. I am an atheist and am pretty sure my kids are following in my footsteps. SOTW 1 does have some religious myths, but it was pretty easy for me to introduce it by saying "Oh, here's a story from Christian Mythology...." and continue. I would say the same thing if it were a story from Egyptian mythology or Greek. Once you get past SOTW 1, the myths get fewer, maybe even stop altogether. Religion is mentioned, as well as people being motivated by their religion, because that is part of history. People do things or try things or don't do things or try to stop things because of their religious beliefs. If you don't understand that you are going to miss a pretty big chunk of real history. It is hard to leave out. I attended public schools in the NE, so not an overtly religious area, and yet I had to learn about the Diaspora, Christians and the Roman Empire, the splitting of the Roman empire and how that affected church history, the power of the Catholic church in western Europe, the inquisition, Martin Luther, the role that desire for religious freedom had in immigration to this country, the Holocaust, etc etc. Those are real historical events involving religion and deserved to be studied. They will be in a public school text. I own Joy Hakim's series HOUS and religion is discussed throughout. There are the religions of the Native American groups, as well as the Puritans and the slaves and immigrants etc. It comes up as motivation for actions, as something that people organize around, as something that has power in the culture. One thing we appreciate about SOTW is that it also includes the non-western world in that story. So, the beginning of the Muslim religion and how it spread and became an empire etc. stories from Jewish culture and Asian cultures have been included. That is something I didn't get in the public school. One good thing about SOTW 2, is that you could have all your kids using it at the same time. It is pretty simple to use. I do hope you find something that works for you. It can be difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 A WTM Boardee has free curriculum guides and schedules on her website: GuestHollow. She has a 2-part American History that you could pick-and-choose your way through both to make a 1-year American History for all your elementary ages to do together, or to get a feel for how to "do it yourself": - American History part 1 - American History part 2 Guesthollow is Christian, but she she does say her schedule and discussion questions are adaptable for secular use. The output would be coloring pages and activities. Another WTM Boardee, Laura Lund, also offers free grammar stage and logic stage Literature schedules and student/teacher pages. She has two levels for the grammar stage: level 1 = Kinder/1st-2nd grade, and level 2 = 2nd/3rd-4th grade. Her materials are secular, and based on a 4-year classical model (Ancients, Medieval, Early Modern, Modern). Her website is Classical House of Learning. The output would be the student workpages. Classical House of Learning doesn't help you if you want to do all US History this year, but it would be another option for keeping all your elementary ages together this year for History/Literature. Gee, now we've probably thrown too MANY options at you! ;) BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 I big-pink-puffy-heart Guest Hollow. (And Lori D.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 There is a shortened down version of the Hakim book, called Freedom: A History of US. The previous version's intro was written by George W. and Laura Bush, who don't strike me as very liberal/anti-US/anti-Christian types. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umsami Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 The Complete Book of US History and the Complete Book of World History are workbooks with a good narrative. Kind of like a picture book. They have places to answer questions. Maybe this is enough for charter? And they are secular. Really like the Complete Book of US History but I can't find it anymore new. Amazon has some used copies, but I"m always wary of purchasing used workbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Joy Hakims History of Us is good. It does lean a bit towards being Christian imo but nothing like SOTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkyandtheBrains. Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Really like the Complete Book of US History but I can't find it anymore new. Amazon has some used copies, but I"m always wary of purchasing used workbooks. There are no actual work book pages to fill in, so used should be okay if not super worn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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