Who is planning US Govt for election year?

[Hilltopmom]

Who is planning to do US Govt for the election year?

 

We're going to re arrange our original history sequence to cover it (hopefully) mostly over this upcoming summer, then lots of current events & election coverage following in the fall.

 

A plus of doing the book work this summer is it'll free up some space in ds's next year schedule for DE classes too:)

 

I was hoping to have ds also volunteer for a candidate locally, but he's not thrilled about that & he's pretty busy, so maybe not.

 

I know there are lots of past threads about US Govt resources, but if you want to share what you're planning to use, that's good too!-

We've got the Idiots Guide for Govt & Politics book (& an Uncle Eric book somewhere) and I have access to Notgrass, but not sure if he'll use that or not.

Edited December 26, 2015 by Hilltopmom

[laughing lioness]

Ds 15 is taking Gov now in Challenge 1. He's going to TP as alumni this year and we'll probably be involved in elections coming up. 

[merylvdm]

I have just been coerced into teaching it at our co op. Will add it as an online class too. My dd has gone to public high school and is doing AP Gov there and it is SO boring. She offered to help me create the class - doing it the way she would like to have been taught. 

 

One place to find resources is icivics.org. And there are Crash Course videos.

 

I will come back and post about things she is finding online - I am paying her to do the research work for me as she has more idea than I do as to what needs to be covered.

[Faithr]

We were thinking of doing Government next year.  My son will be in 12th grade and my dd will be 10th.  My dh taught it to our older kids as well as a couple other homeschool kids who joined in .  However, the history teacher at our local high school homeschool group (not really a co-op as we pay the teachers) is wonderful  She is a former poli-sci professor at the local university and now homeschools her kids.  My kids are taking her history course this year, are learning a ton and are really enjoying it.  Next year she says she'll teach gov't and economics, so they really want to enroll in that.  Dh is a little disappointed not to be teaching because he is a constitutional law geek and his major was econ so he really loves this stuff.  But the kids said he could help them with their homework, so he was happy.  LOL!

Edited December 26, 2015 by Faithr

[quark]

DS will take US History in spring and Intro to Government in fall, both timed to coincide with the elections. Both courses will be via DE and therefore, not a lot of assignment planning for me but at home, we will use these resources to supplement:

1. Cycles of American Political Thought and maybe 1 or 2 more from the Great Courses (I'm thinking of this set)
2. US citizenship materials
3. icivics (he started using it about a year ago)
4. The Economist magazine (we subscribe to the print edition via StudentMags)
5. American History magazine (subscribe here)
6. Continue balanced news coverage from a variety of channels

Open to suggestions too!

[regentrude]

we are, with DS who will be in 12th grade.

No detailed plans yet.

[almondbutterandjelly]

Me!  We'll be reading See How They Run http://www.amazon.com/See-How-They-Run-Campaign/dp/1599908972/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1451153198&sr=8-3&keywords=see+how+they+run 

and some Cartoon Nation books.

 

I plan on filling out an election poster, like How We Voted! Chart http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/023663 . 

 

And we'll go through Power Basics American Government text.

[foxbridgeacademy]

We will be doing a standard U.S. Government in the fall but I plan to start a Poly Sci type course-"Electing a President" in January.  We'll only do a couple hours a week ramping up as we get closer to November (maybe only 1 hour per week through the Summer).  After November we'll switch focus and do a more current events type class with writing and maybe some debate.  So 1-2 semesters of basic Government and 2 semesters of Poly Sci. (President/Current Events).  This is actually something I can see DS enjoying, he's always listening or watching Youtube videos from obscure political nut jobs then doing his own research to see if what they say holds up.  

 

For US Gov. we'll be using Power Basics.  Not sure about the Poly Sci, I think I want it to be be more of a natural progression that can inspire hope (for both of us) in what the future holds, so maybe some books from the library, do some research on past pres races, etc...

[GoodGrief]

We did that in 2012! It was good timing. Used Thinkwell's AP US Govt and Politics course, and my daughter got the opportunity to participate in the Close Up program in DC/NYC. She also did a course through our local peer-mediated juvenile justice program, which actually taught her a bit about law and the court system, plus allowed her to do some community service as an attorney in the program. It would have been great to volunteer for a candidate, but just did not have time to fit that bit in.

[Bristayl]

We are! We'll be using Sonlight's Government course in the fall (10th grade), supplemented by other materials to prepare for the Government CLEP.

Edited December 26, 2015 by bctnln1059

[laughing lioness]

DS will take US History in spring and Intro to Government in fall, both timed to coincide with the elections. Both courses will be via DE and therefore, not a lot of assignment planning for me but at home, we will use these resources to supplement:

1. Cycles of American Political Thought and maybe 1 or 2 more from the Great Courses (I'm thinking of this set)
2. US citizenship materials
3. icivics (he started using it about a year ago)
4. The Economist magazine (we subscribe to the print edition via StudentMags)
5. American History magazine (subscribe here)
6. Continue balanced news coverage from a variety of channels

Open to suggestions too!

 

One of my kids read The Economist for Gov his Sr. year and found it discouraging. 

Also, The Fourth Turning by Wm Strauss is very good. 

[hopskipjump]

We are doing Government this year--with plans to build upon that throughout this next year.

 

Just ordered Thinkwell's Government course through homeschoolbuyers co-op (since it's 45% off!). We've been using something else for government and it's been a bit snoozy, so hopefully this change-of-pace will make it more interesting (as well as provide some note-taking practice).