Elementary Modern History

[Ewe Mama]

I am trying to find a Modern History program for my younger four, age 8-11. I have been unsuccessful with finding something ready made, but have come up with a couple options. I am looking for Christian friendly, with some hands on activities, some notebooking, living books with a good spine, and map work. Doesn't sound too difficult, right?

 

I hear you all laughing out there!

 

 

Option #1. SCM's Modern Times history guide, using Stories of America Volume 2 and Stories of the Nations Volume 2 for the spines and some of the scheduled readers. I would switch out some and add in others that I already own/prefer. I would also add in the hands-on activities and map work correlating to the readings, probably via MapTrek. Basically I would rewrite the whole thing.

I like the flow of the SCM guide, but I would have to change the majority of it, thereby possibly ruining the flow

 

 

Option #2. Guest Hollow's timeline from roughly 1870 until present day. I am hesitating only because the spines are not my top choices for this age group. If they were a bit older, I could probably go with the SOTW 4 and Hakim, but I have serious reservation about how much they would absorb.

 

 

Option #3. Spend the next two weeks combining the best of both #1 and #2 and pray I don't sidetracked by something else, like Option #4.

 

 

Option #4 Wait for some awesome recommendation from the Hive and eat cupcakes and learn some Highland dancing in the interim.

 

 

What says the Hive?

[Syllieann]

Well, that all depends. What kind of cupcakes would they be?

[pitterpatter]

There is little-to-nothing for this age, especially if you want both world and American history. I spent all of last year and this past summer looking for this particular unicorn, although I was looking for secular. SOTW is just that. HO isn't strong in the American history aspect, particularly if you don't use SOTW with it. Beautiful Feet isn't my cup of tea. I ended up buying the BookShark teacher's guide out of desperation and wish I hadn't. I am cutting most of their program and rewriting the rest. The map work is blah. I may need to add something like Map Trek too. There's no fun output, no output at all besides comp questions. I guess we're using this book as a spine and will be adding in many of the books from BookShark's reading list, but will be adding picture books, History Pockets, etc. a well.

 

 

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. We're doing a large science block right now while I finish figuring out history.

[Ewe Mama]

Well, that all depends. What kind of cupcakes would they be?

Homemade from scratch with lemon frosting. Nothing fancy to look at, but oh so yummy!

[Ewe Mama]

There is little-to-nothing for this age, especially if you want both world and American history. I spent all of last year and this past summer looking for this particular unicorn, although I was looking for secular. SOTW is just that. HO isn't strong in the American history aspect, particularly if you don't use SOTW with it. Beautiful Feet isn't my cup of tea. I ended up buying the BookShark teacher's guide out of desperation and wish I hadn't. I am cutting most of their program and rewriting the rest. The map work is blah. I may need to add something like Map Trek too. There's no fun output, no output at all besides comp questions. I guess we're using this book as a spine and will be adding in many of the books from BookShark's reading list, but will be adding picture books, History Pockets, etc. a well.

 

 

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. We're doing a large science block right now while I finish figuring out history.

 

Special unicorn, indeed!

 

My eldest is actually doing the new BF guide. I guess I will have to bite the bullet and write my own. I just tend to overdo it and my child ends up begging for mercy.

[pitterpatter]

This is what happens to me. I about kill myself doing it. Modern Times is especially challenging because there's so many more books available than the other time periods.

 

Special unicorn, indeed!

My eldest is actually doing the new BF guide. I guess I will have to bite the bullet and write my own. I just tend to overdo it and my child ends up begging for mercy.

 

[Holly]

I'm planning on using SCM's Modern history when we get to it.  Have you looked at their Visits To... Series for mapwork?  I really enjoy the levels we've done.  

Honestly, my DC don't care for lots of history activities and extras, so SCM works great for us.  :blush:  I try to add in one or two fun things for the year (and an occasional notebook page), but that's about it.  

[Ewe Mama]

I'm planning on using SCM's Modern history when we get to it. Have you looked at their Visits To... Series for mapwork? I really enjoy the levels we've done.

Honestly, my DC don't care for lots of history activities and extras, so SCM works great for us. :blush: I try to add in one or two fun things for the year (and an occasional notebook page), but that's about it.

I do have a couple of their geography studies. I'm not sure if they updated the Modern guide since 2012 or not (that's the edition I own), but they have Some of the Holling books scheduled for US geography or a world geography option using the book WorldTrek. We are doing the WorldTrek option.