Activity-based American History for elementary?

[j_thurm]

Hi, I have looked at so much history curriculum!  I want a fun American History for my 3rd/4th grade child.  My child is an excellent reader but really wants some fun activities.

 

 My perfect curriculum would be:

 

1. very open and go with little planning

 

2.  I read out of some kind of a spine (prefer more of a living book than a dry textbook)

 

3.  Activity - not all workbook writing/paper things

 

4.  Book list of living history books that my child can read

 

Does this exist?  I know I could plan it but I really would prefer not to :)  I have tried HOD Bigger, BJU Heritage Studies, we have done BF Early American primary but very little activities

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

[j_thurm]

PMed you about the picture.  Excited to see it!  Thanks!

I used grade 1 bookshark and loved it. It's meets all your criteria except activities. We had no worksheets but it was all reading and questions based on the reading. There were also time line and map activities.

I attended a book fair last week and saw a fun US history program. It had galloping the globe books, which had geography related projects, and cookbooks with regional recipes which looked fun. I'm attaching a photo I took of the books, but I don't know who packaged the curriculum. Maybe you could figure it out from the booklist if it looks interesting to you.

 

[Bay Lake Mom]

Winter Promise sounds like it would be a good fit. They have a schedule similar to Sonlight. They choose awesome real books, not textbooks, and they have a lot of hands on activities. I recommend buying the WP guide and exclusives from them directly, but buy the books and readers from Amazon.

[j_thurm]

Thank you!  I always look at the site but they never have samples for the things I am looking at :(  I wish they did!

 

 

Winter Promise sounds like it would be a good fit. They have a schedule similar to Sonlight. They choose awesome real books, not textbooks, and they have a lot of hands on activities. I recommend buying the WP guide and exclusives from them directly, but buy the books and readers from Amazon.

 

[CAtoVA]

I have been using WinterPromise and find it's a little "light" for the cost $$$$. The documents are very pretty and there is a well laid out schedule. It may just be me but I always seem to need to supplement it though. There are activities but often times it is a fill in sheet. The booklists are great and the supplemental activity books recommended are fine as well but again, for the cost of the Teacher's Manual......hmmmmm.

 

You might look at Sonlight or Bookshark for good book lists and maybe http://www.guesthollow.com/ for a teacher schedule, book lists and activities. I have found that guesthollow is very comparable to WP as far as scheduling goes. If you can get WP for cheap on Ebay, homeschoolclassifieds, a used curriculum sale or the like then it may be worth it. I don't know why they charge so much for their Teacher Manuals!

Edited May 14, 2016 by chiefcookandbottlewasher

[KaceeM]

You could use Adventures In America from Elemental. It was originally designed for K-2 but it is really easy to use it for 3-4. All you really need to do is have them read the extra read alouds, require more detailed narration and possibly add another encyclopedia type source for them to read about the days topic in. It includes state studies as well.

[j_thurm]

I love all of these ideas!  Thanks!  Off to check them out more closely.

[MASHomeschooler]

We really enjoyed History Pockets as the base for our first time focusing on American History. It meets your points 1 and 3 only, though. There is not a spine text or list of supplemental reading. We did not have a spine with them, but I did keep a shelf of American History living books, from which they picked what to read. It included all of the American History books we own, plus library books I borrowed based on the current theme (it was really easy for me to just find that area on the shelves and grab whatever looked interesting).

[RosieCotton]

Maybe you've already seen these:  tons of fun activities and you can pick and choose time periods . . . Great for 3rd-5th!

 

I have found it super easy to combine this with my Kingfisher History spine, and add in tons of library books along the way on the battles, key people, constitution, etc.

 

http://homeschoolinthewoods.com/timetravelers.html

 

The kids asked to do these units almost everyday, so I know they enjoyed them. :)

Even the games were fun.

 

[calihil]

Sounds like MFW Adventures in US History.

[Haiku]

We liked Homeschool in the Woods' Time Travelers and Project Passport programs. It doesn't make use of a spine, but it would be very easy to pick something you liked and line it up with the lessons in TT.

 

One of the most fun things we ever did in school was the Civil War lapbook from A Journey Through Learning. We spent about 8 weeks on it and learned so much!

[anmom]

We use Guest Hollow and love it!

[j_thurm]

Thanks for all the great ideas!  Okay, so I can't just choose one...and I know this may take some planning :)  I am going to do Adventures in American from Elemental, tie it together to my DK Children's Encyclopedia of American History and choose any extra fun things from Guest Hollow.  

[newhsmom]

Another vote for Guest Hollow.  So many great ideas and it is free.

 

[TX Pilgrim]

We really liked adventures in America here. I will pull it back out next year and do it with the 8 and 5 yo. The books are just good reads and the 8 yo might read some of them to the little ( if he progresses that far in his reading). I think you'll enjoy it.

 

Missy

[j_thurm]

Thanks, Missy!  So glad to hear that!  I have been nervous about my choice and just really hoping it would be interesting and fun.  Thanks for the vote of confidence!

We really liked adventures in America here. I will pull it back out next year and do it with the 8 and 5 yo. The books are just good reads and the 8 yo might read some of them to the little ( if he progresses that far in his reading). I think you'll enjoy it.

Missy