DIY US History for Mixed Grades?

[Paige]

I want to combine my 9th and 12th graders next year in US History. Does anyone know of a good, flexible course or resource? I think I want a spine that will give basic, neutral info, and which will have some easy to schedule assignments or quizzes that correspond, but not too much because I want to bulk it up with my own stuff. If we were designing what I'm imagining for 3rd grade, for example, I would be happy having lots of nonfiction books and documentaries, projects, discussions, writing assignments, but then I'd add in a Spectrum workbook or similar once a week to keep us on task and make sure the basics are covered. Is there something like that appropriate for HS? Maybe an IB workbook? We have one for Econ that seems to do the job there.

We've done US History in elementary and middle school already so I don't want to just rehash the same things, always staying on the surface, for the millionth time. On the other hand, I know their memories are terrible and unless we actually do it again- at which point they'd roll their eyes and say haven't we done this 5 times?- if asked about some aspect of US History now, they'd probably say they've never heard of something! Also, they hate history. 

Side question- Could we cover US history from Reconstruction to present or modern history only and still give a legit US History credit? We've also done (or will do for younger DD) Civics in HS which reviewed quite a bit of early history already, and that was usually the focus in earlier years. I'm a little tired of early American history. 

[Farrar]

Oak Meadow might be a good resource for this. Easy to push through and skip a bit while adding your own resources. Very much a neutral, secular approach. You can pick your own textbook for it.

In terms of the scope of the course - you can do whatever you want. This is not like "Algebra I" or "Chemistry" where there's a recognized scope and sequence that you mostly need to follow. The vast majority of colleges just want to see "a" US history centered course, not "the" full history of the US.

[BusyMom5]

This year I'm doing US History using the Joy Hakim series as a spine. I'm planning Modern US History next year using Holt Reconstruction to Present (blue textbook easily found used for cheap).  This will probably be a half-credit and the plan is to get into a lot more depth, add a lot of literature,  and practice answering questions school-style and outlining with a textbook.  My 11th grader will them switch to DE, so my last History with her!  My History teaching style is a lot of conversation.  I read aloud the text,  encourage notebooking or a summary, documentaries and read alouds. Not a lot of questions with exact answers from textbooks.   Next year I plan to change that,  preparing for college style tests, questions, and self-study techniques. 

[Junie]

One of our high school history classes is America in the 20th Century.  

I use a series of books called America in the 1900s, America in the 1910s, ...  (example from ebay here)  The first time through I just borrowed the books from the library, but I liked them so much (and knew that I would be using them 5 more times) so I bought them.

We cover about one decade per month (you can shorten a few of the decades by a week if you need to get through it in 9 months).  We filled in with a lot of other readings -- particularly biographies -- according to each child's interest.

I also tried to find at least one movie from/about each decade and we listened to some music.

[Momto6inIN]

No quizzes or tests, but we have used and loved Great Courses History of the United States. We watch lectures together 2-3 days a week, take notes, and discuss them, then use selected Critical Thinking in US History lessons as output on the other days a week.

[SilverMoon]

I've used this plan with multiple ages. You might want to reduce some reading for the youngest. We LOVED all the movies tied in.  http://fundafunda.com/prodpage 

[mom31257]

Ds has liked the AP US history videos at Power Homeschool. I added in other activities, lit, writing assignments, and map work. There are AP type writing assignments that are optional, but graded by the parent. It's $10 a month for one course or $25 for up to 7 courses. 

https://www.science.edu/acellus/course/acellus-ap-us-history/

This is the teacher.  https://youtu.be/2NIcxU7u9K0

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by mom31257