US history my son can do mostly on his own, questions or tests for me

[ElizabethB]

With my daughter homeschooling high school I will have a lot more on my plate. I have figured out good options for almost everything else but need a U.S. history for my son that I can monitor and have discussions with, supplemented with some other resources I have on hand. I would prefer 6th through 8th grade level, he will be 6th grade but has a high reading level. (finally!!). Christian, non BJU. I will be going to a convention but want some ideas and don't want to waste a lot of time there looking for one subject, I need to look more a high school level things, talk to the dual enrollment colleges, etc.

 

I normally don't like workbooky things or CLE but may need something like that if the questions do not help me guage if he is reading it or not. (I plan to read the whole book, but over the summer so may have forgotten the details...)

 

I will be spending a lot of time with him on math and LA, working through AOPS Pre-Algebra together, he will not be neglected, just some subjects will need to be more independent for both of them than I have been doing.

 

Thanks!

Edited May 18, 2016 by ElizabethB

[Cynful]

How about Notgrass America the Beautiful?  Not my top, top fav but it's all laid out and easy to use and actually has interesting information in it.

[ElizabethB]

How about Notgrass America the Beautiful? Not my top, top fav but it's all laid out and easy to use and actually has interesting information in it.

That looks interesting, thanks. Not the kind of thing I would normally like, but that looks like it could work, and I don't expect to love anything that meets those parameters.

Edited May 18, 2016 by ElizabethB

[mlktwins]

I am starting this https://www.hewitthomeschooling.com/Materials/mItem.aspx?id=2852 next year with my soon to be 11 year olds. They will also be outlining the chapters. I am mostly using it for the tests, but we might do a project or 2 along the way. I am planning to do this over 2 years.

[Liza Q]

I want to second Notgrass America the Beautiful. I had my son use it for the 8th grade when we were having a lot of issues with one of our daughters and my mother was very ill. It worked very well for us.

[Farrar]

It's secular, but you could look at US History Detective from Critical Thinking Press. It doesn't have a strong bias from what I could see. It's a straight up workbook - reading and questions.

[Kassia]

It's secular, but you could look at US History Detective from Critical Thinking Press. It doesn't have a strong bias from what I could see. It's a straight up workbook - reading and questions.

 

We used this with my eighth grade daughter this year and were very happy with it.  They are coming out with the second version soon (modern U.S. history).  

 

Erica

[JessReplanted]

How about Notgrass America the Beautiful? Not my top, top fav but it's all laid out and easy to use and actually has interesting information in it.

 

This is what I have used with my 7th grader this year. It's been completely independent.

[mlktwins]

It's secular, but you could look at US History Detective from Critical Thinking Press. It doesn't have a strong bias from what I could see. It's a straight up workbook - reading and questions.

 

 

We used this with my eighth grade daughter this year and were very happy with it.  They are coming out with the second version soon (modern U.S. history).  

 

Erica

 

I have been looking at this for awhile.  Did you just have them do the workbook or did you add in supplemental reading?  Anything else with it?  My boys love workbook type things and we've done a lot of the CTC books.  I am thinking of lining it up with The Story of US and Hewitt questions.  I need them to be pretty independent in some things next year!

[Kassia]

I have been looking at this for awhile.  Did you just have them do the workbook or did you add in supplemental reading?  Anything else with it?  My boys love workbook type things and we've done a lot of the CTC books.  I am thinking of lining it up with The Story of US and Hewitt questions.  I need them to be pretty independent in some things next year!

 

This was our first year of homeschooling and we pulled our daughter out of ps abruptly after the first month of school, so I didn't have the time or experience to plan the curriculum well.  

 

What we ended up doing was using the Critical Thinking book for Early American History and then we switched to The Story of US books with the Hewitt questions for Modern American History.  I think it would have been better to combine the two.  I liked the Critical Thinking book a lot and so did my history-hating daughter, but I thought the Hakim books were more thorough (also more biased, IMO).  I would have liked to have included some historical fiction, Crash Course videos, etc. but my daughter resisted and she seemed to retain so much of what she was learning from the books that I thought that was enough for middle school.  But she did all of it independently and it was easy for me.  I wish Critical Thinking had the Modern American History book ready for my daughter since she really did like the first book.  

 

Good luck!

 

Erica 

[mlktwins]

This was our first year of homeschooling and we pulled our daughter out of ps abruptly after the first month of school, so I didn't have the time or experience to plan the curriculum well.  

 

What we ended up doing was using the Critical Thinking book for Early American History and then we switched to The Story of US books with the Hewitt questions for Modern American History.  I think it would have been better to combine the two.  I liked the Critical Thinking book a lot and so did my history-hating daughter, but I thought the Hakim books were more thorough (also more biased, IMO).  I would have liked to have included some historical fiction, Crash Course videos, etc. but my daughter resisted and she seemed to retain so much of what she was learning from the books that I thought that was enough for middle school.  But she did all of it independently and it was easy for me.  I wish Critical Thinking had the Modern American History book ready for my daughter since she really did like the first book.  

 

Good luck!

 

Erica 

 

Thanks so much!!!!  I think I will give the CTC Book 1 a try and see how it goes :-).  I have the summer before we start, so I will try and pick out a couple of extra books per quarter and take a look at those Crash Course videos.  I hadn't seen those before!!!  Since I am re-learning algebra a little earlier than I expected, I really need some things for my twins to do independently.  I think this will do the trick!!!

 

 

[kbutton]

Another vote for Notgrass. My son completed two of the middle school options, and he loves it. He likes doing it independently. It's not unusual for him to spout off something he learned via Notgrass, which is a big deal coming from him.