Recommendation For American History

[iamrachelle]

I have started looking ahead to next school year and would like to do American History with my DC. DD will be in 4th grade and DS will be in 1st. We have been working through SOTW 1 this year and really enjoy it. I'm torn between sticking with SOTW and working through year 2 or taking a break and finding a good American History curriculum. Does anyone have any recommendations on where I might start? The only American History stuff I've looked at was through Sonlight. Looks like it might be a little advanced for my first grader, but I'd like to keep them together as much as possible.

[PeterPan]

There are no wrong or right answers for that. I personally would keep going and do SOTW2 next year, just to keep the sequence, but that's me. If your heart isn't in it, move on to american. My guess is a 1st grade boy would really enjoy the Middle Ages, so that's another thing to consider. It's something easy to implement, right at a time when you're adding more load to your day.

 

To get in more american without doing american, you could get COFA's (Childhood of Famous Americans biographies). And by 4th she'll also be ready for some of the other collectible series (We Were There, Landmarks, etc.). You could chose the spine from one of the curricula you like and use it as a read aloud. For instance the 100 Stories spine used by WP AS1 would make a terrific read aloud, no strings attached, for them. So you'd be hitting american but keeping your sequence. My dd read a lot of american history alongside her Middle Ages stuff last year, so it works out just fine.

[Donna T.]

My sons are 1st & 4th graders this year. I am using SOTW 2 with Sonlight Core 2. Core 2 matches up very well with SOTW 2 for most of the core.

 

My oldest son started out with Sonlight but then I needed to do something else for awhile to let my younger son catch up a bit before we moved on to other cores. So, he used My Father's World Adventures program. It is a one year unit study on American history. It would work fine for a 1st and 4th grader, in my opinion. I think the standard answer from MFW is that it is not enough for a 4th grader, but I have a friend who is using it with her fourth grader. She adds an Abeka 4th grade American history text to give some extra material for the 4th grader.

 

I'm glad my oldest son had some American history before moving on with the time periods, but my youngest son will not have that advantage. It's fine. He (the 1st grader) enjoys SOTW and the books from Sonlight Core 2. The SOTW Activity Guide is wonderful! He can answer the comprehension questions that I ask him and he does narrations. He really enjoys the activities.