8th grade US history

[blue daisy]

I want to do an overview of US history with my upcoming 8th grader.  He has some basic knowledge but hasn't really studied it before.  (He went to public school through 5th grade, in which very little history was taught, then we did ancients and middle ages the past two years).  I just feel like he should have a good background in US history before high school.  Is Joy Hakim's series too ambitious to cover in a year?  I've been looking at the concise version although it doesn't seem much shorter than the original 10 book set.  Other recommendations?  (I'm going to have my 5th grader do it too, but over 2 years, so I was thinking the 10 book series would be good for him.)

[ktgrok]

Is Christian ok or need secular? Notgrass has a one year overview and the additional primary source book is fantastic.

[blue daisy]

24 minutes ago, Ktgrok said:

Is Christian ok or need secular? Notgrass has a one year overview and the additional primary source book is fantastic.

Secular is preferred but I am willing to look at others.  Thanks.

[MinivanMom]

We've used K12 American Odyssey for 8th grade. It's considered a high school level book, but geared more toward 9th grade so it's very accessible for academically strong middle schoolers. It's secular with straight-forward text, lots of photographs, and plenty of primary sources throughout. 

Another alternative, if you are wanting more of a fun overview, might the the Smithsonian Children's Encyclopedia of American History. It's secular with tons of pictures and photos. You won't get much depth or analysis, but it will give you a good overview of the sweep of American history. And you would have time for rabbit-trails into areas of interest.

[Kassia]

I think Joy Hakim's can be done in a year.  I also like Critical Thinking's U.S. History Detective books, but those might be too much for your younger child.  

[fourisenough]

We normally prefer secular publishers, but DD13 is doing CLE’s Changing Frontiers program this year. It is a HB text book paired with the Light Units. It’s one-year complete US History aimed at 8th grade audience (would likely not work for your 5th grader). My DD does it entirely independently aside from me grading quizzes and tests (I check daily work for completion only). We both love it so much. I sincerely wish they had a one-year high school world history class that was similar. It is VERY easy to secularize.

[Momto6inIN]

We've done the concise Hakim in 1 year and it was great! My 2 high schoolers still talk about what they learned in those books. They are definitely less reading than the 10 book set. The chapters are short, so maybe 4/week if I remember right? Then 1 day/week of discussion and a research paper and we called it good for middle school.

[blue daisy]

1 hour ago, Momto5inIN said:

We've done the concise Hakim in 1 year and it was great! My 2 high schoolers still talk about what they learned in those books. They are definitely less reading than the 10 book set. The chapters are short, so maybe 4/week if I remember right? Then 1 day/week of discussion and a research paper and we called it good for middle school.

Thank you, this is really good to know.  I was considering other choices, but Hakim is what I really want to do as long as it's manageable.  I don't need him to do much output at this point, I just want him to have some general knowledge of American history before we hit high school.

[blue daisy]

Thanks for the replies!  I have a lot of great options to look at now.

 

21 hours ago, MinivanMom said:

Another alternative, if you are wanting more of a fun overview, might the the Smithsonian Children's Encyclopedia of American History. It's secular with tons of pictures and photos. You won't get much depth or analysis, but it will give you a good overview of the sweep of American history. And you would have time for rabbit-trails into areas of interest.

We actually own this book (thank you library used book sales!) so while I do think I'm going to use Hakim's concise books, this will make a nice supplement. I had totally forgotten that it was on my shelf, so thank you!  :)

[Momto6inIN]

6 minutes ago, blue daisy said:

Thank you, this is really good to know.  I was considering other choices, but Hakim is what I really want to do as long as it's manageable.  I don't need him to do much output at this point, I just want him to have some general knowledge of American history before we hit high school.

I did get out my stuff and look at it and it looks like it was more like 2 chapters/day instead of 4/week like I said before. But also as I said, they are short short chapters and easy reading, especially for an 8th grader. We thought it was totally doable in 1 year.

[blue daisy]

2 hours ago, Momto5inIN said:

I did get out my stuff and look at it and it looks like it was more like 2 chapters/day instead of 4/week like I said before. But also as I said, they are short short chapters and easy reading, especially for an 8th grader. We thought it was totally doable in 1 year.

Ok, I think that will still work. Thanks for checking for me.