Open and Go secular Early US History for 8th grader

[Drama Llama]

Any suggestions?  

[Lori D.]

Maybe...

- Mark Twain publishers: American History series (workbook with very short readings + fill-in blank workpages) as the "spine" of your study, and flesh out with historical fiction & nonfiction books to go along, if he's up for more than simple short workbooks. (If interested in going this route, I'd be happy to provide some book title ideas for supplement and open-and-go reading.) Secular. Each is 128 pages.
1. Exploration, Revolution, and Constitution -- 1600s-1800
2. Westward Expansion -- 1800-1850
3. Slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction (122 pages) -- 1850s-1870s

or

- A History of US (Joy Hakim) -- 10 book series; you would only need the first 5, at most
Secular. Maybe  just read together and discuss as you go? The books (not the guides) are often in local libraries, so you may not even need to buy anything. If wanting discussion and writing questions and possible activities or extensions, you can also purchase study guides to go with each book. Each book is 192 pages. Perhaps reduce page count and just skim vol 1 and vol 5 if it they are beyond your time frame and include more than you need about those time periods?
   vol 1 = The First Americans (pre-History -1600)
   vol 2 = Making Thirteen Colonies (1600-1740)
   vol 3 = From Colonies to Country (1735-1791)
   vol 4 = The New Nation (1789-1850)
   vol 5 = Liberty for All? (1820-1860)

or

- All American History
Very Christian, although it sounds like there is an option for secularizing. From the Mystery of History publishers. Here's the Cathy Duffy review. No personal experience, so I can't quite tell how open-and-go this is. The middle school version might run on the too-young side for your 8th grader, as it is geared for grades 5-8. Divided into 2 volumes with each covering roughly half of US history. The first volume runs from 1600s-1820s, and is a set of student reader + student activity book + teacher guide.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Lori D.

[Kassia]

My daughter really liked U.S. History Detective (first book) by Critical Thinking.  Very open and go.  https://www.criticalthinking.com/us-history-detective-book-1.html

[Drama Llama]

1 hour ago, Kassia said:

My daughter really liked U.S. History Detective (first book) by Critical Thinking.  Very open and go.  https://www.criticalthinking.com/us-history-detective-book-1.html

That looks really perfect.  Do you think it’s the right level for a bright but not particularly academically talented 8th grader who works about on grade level?  This isn’t really the moment to be pushing him.  

[wendyroo]

9 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

That looks really perfect.  Do you think it’s the right level for a bright but not particularly academically talented 8th grader who works about on grade level?  This isn’t really the moment to be pushing him.  

My oldest did some of them last year as a 5th grader. They were...fine...and certainly not too hard, but we gave them up before too long.

The biggest drawback was that my son found them incredibly dry. To me, they seemed to take very interesting topics and turn them into gruel which students were supposed to plug their noses and gag down.

Another downside is that they felt very disjointed. I just glanced at one random lesson which was on Andrew Jackson and covered the Trail of Tears in a few paragraphs. The next lesson covered telegraphs, newspapers, P.T. Barnum and minstrel shows with actors in blackface, and then the next lesson jumped to textile mills. There is little or no effort made to connect ideas or events lesson to lesson.

Lastly, my son found the simple regurgitation questions patronizingly easy and some of the short answer questions torturously "creative". With all of the multiple choice questions pulled precisely from the text, and requiring the student to list what sentences support their answer, they do feel very test-preppy.  And while some of the written response questions are completely standard fair - "Use complete sentence to rate or evaluate the administration of Andrew Jackson in comparison with the presidents who served before him. Support your opinion with evidence from the lesson." - other ask for more creative license which stressed out my ASD kiddo: "Pretend you are P.T. Barnum. Write a paragraph for a 1840s newspaper in which you tell the public about a wonderful new curiosity you have on exhibit at the American Museum."

[Lori D.]

Here is a set of links to the Holt textbook for middle school U.S. History. Standard text with a variety of comprehension and discussion questions, plus extension activities built in -- do as much, as little, or none as fits for your student at this time. It looks like you would only need to do the first 4 units to cover colonial/early U.S. history.

Also super simple might be the Study.com videos with short online quizzes at the end. Just 21 lessons -- the first 10 would take you up to the Civil War. Here is the homeschool link to this same course. 

Edited November 7, 2020 by Lori D.

[Drama Llama]

Thanks I will check it all out.  I don’t really want dry but I also know that I am pretty overwhelmed right now, and that once I add back in my own full time job I think it’s unrealistic that I am going to be able to pull off anything complicated.

[Kassia]

2 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

That looks really perfect.  Do you think it’s the right level for a bright but not particularly academically talented 8th grader who works about on grade level?  This isn’t really the moment to be pushing him.  

 

2 hours ago, wendyroo said:

My oldest did some of them last year as a 5th grader. They were...fine...and certainly not too hard, but we gave them up before too long.

The biggest drawback was that my son found them incredibly dry. To me, they seemed to take very interesting topics and turn them into gruel which students were supposed to plug their noses and gag down.

Another downside is that they felt very disjointed. I just glanced at one random lesson which was on Andrew Jackson and covered the Trail of Tears in a few paragraphs. The next lesson covered telegraphs, newspapers, P.T. Barnum and minstrel shows with actors in blackface, and then the next lesson jumped to textile mills. There is little or no effort made to connect ideas or events lesson to lesson.

Lastly, my son found the simple regurgitation questions patronizingly easy and some of the short answer questions torturously "creative". With all of the multiple choice questions pulled precisely from the text, and requiring the student to list what sentences support their answer, they do feel very test-preppy.  And while some of the written response questions are completely standard fair - "Use complete sentence to rate or evaluate the administration of Andrew Jackson in comparison with the presidents who served before him. Support your opinion with evidence from the lesson." - other ask for more creative license which stressed out my ASD kiddo: "Pretend you are P.T. Barnum. Write a paragraph for a 1840s newspaper in which you tell the public about a wonderful new curiosity you have on exhibit at the American Museum."

Thank you for the detailed response.  My dd used the book five years ago and I can't remember much about it other than she really liked it (and she hates history).  This was the year we pulled her out of ps after one semester and I didn't know anything about curriculum and was just glad we found something that would check off a box and she actually enjoyed.  We also ended up using A History of US at the end of the year when she had finished the lessons in the Critical Thinking book.  

 

[Mommalongadingdong]

The Giant American History Timeline (book 1) and Hakim's History of US. 

[wendyroo]

20 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Thanks I will check it all out.  I don’t really want dry but I also know that I am pretty overwhelmed right now, and that once I add back in my own full time job I think it’s unrealistic that I am going to be able to pull off anything complicated.

Would he be interested in a Great Courses lecture? There is one pretty straight forward American History course (half hour lectures, plus discussion/short answer questions in the course guide, but no answers) and many diverse, niche American History courses which might catch his attention. We particularly liked The Skeptic's Guide to American History.

Maybe focusing on deep, interesting input with little required output would meet his needs.

[Drama Llama]

6 minutes ago, wendyroo said:

Would he be interested in a Great Courses lecture? There is one pretty straight forward American History course (half hour lectures, plus discussion/short answer questions in the course guide, but no answers) and many diverse, niche American History courses which might catch his attention. We particularly liked The Skeptic's Guide to American History.

Maybe focusing on deep, interesting input with little required output would meet his needs.

I don't think he's got the attention span for that right now.  He's really struggling. 

I think that if there's a chance that we're going to get through this, a workbook format is probably most likely to be successful.

[Sherry in OH]

If you are looking for basic, have you considered The History Channel's America the Story of Us?   There are both DVD and streaming options, including Amazon Prime.

Study guides are available (Scroll down to find guides for specific episodes.)

[Gobblygook]

1 hour ago, Sherry in OH said:

If you are looking for basic, have you considered The History Channel's America the Story of Us?   There are both DVD and streaming options, including Amazon Prime.

Study guides are available (Scroll down to find guides for specific episodes.)

I ditto this. I used the videos last year with my 7th grader and they were very engaging. I found the DVDs on Amazon very inexpensively years ago and now they’re also available on Amazon Prime. Used alone, they might be a little light but maybe add in some historical fiction that might be of interest to him? With all that you’ve been through, I don’t think you need anything rigorous but this might be interesting enough to be distracting. 

Edited November 8, 2020 by Gobblygook

[Miss Tick]

15 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

I don't think he's got the attention span for that right now.  He's really struggling. 

I think that if there's a chance that we're going to get through this, a workbook format is probably most likely to be successful.

Well then don't completely write off the Critical Thinking workbooks. My dc use them in middle school a few times a week. I consider it our "recreational" history since we are also going through the 4-year world history cycle at the same time. The workbooks cover all the main US history topics, including cultural aspects. The previous criticisms stand, but I'm out house it is independent work and provides exposure. Since we do history and writing elsewhere it doesn't bother me at all to skip some of the same short answer prompts. to make it a full class in the absence of other history study i would add fiction reading or a video series, whatever makes sense for your house.

[Drama Llama]

I don't think videos are going to work for us.

For one thing, we've spent the past year doing science, social studies, and literature mostly through read aloud, without written output, because we did those things. I don't regret that choice, but I do think that between now and the first day of 9th grade, he needs to get back in the habit of reading and writing a little in the content areas.   Or September is going to be really overwhelming.  I've toyed with the idea of calling this a "gap year" and having him repeat 8th grade next year, but I'm not ready to make that decision.   

He is also struggling with attention to things that he used to love, like video games, sports or music.  He wasn't a history fan before this, so I think it's unlikely that he'd pay enough attention to get anything whatsoever out of a history video.  If I was watching it with him and talking, maybe, but I'm going to be back at work soon, and I think I'm going to need to protect my limited outside of work hours to focus on meeting their social emotional needs.

The History Detective is looking like the best option.  It may not be perfect, but it seems like it might be good enough.  

Please don't quote this. 

[Lori D.]

(((((hugs)))))

[Drama Llama]

18 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

(((((hugs)))))

Thanks.  We are trying. 

[PeterPan]

Good enough is most certainly GOOD ENOUGH! 

 

[Kassia]

3 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Good enough is most certainly GOOD ENOUGH! 

 

Yes, this!  I hope it works for you.  We were happy with it as something that is "good enough" and it exceeded my expectations since dd actually liked it.  Hugs from me too...