Our USA history 2008-2009- a mid year review

A funny thing happened on the way to my curriculum plan this year. I had planned to study Geography with the kids but we ended up studying world history AND USA history and government instead. Hopefully this makes up for all the years we did double science and marginal history!

We've had a good time learning more about our own country. For the younger set we made a quick trip through Heart Of Dakota's Bigger Hearts for his Glory. This was a fun USA history curriculum. We didn't use it to full advantage since my kids are older but it did the trick for my younger boys. They needed more background in US history and they got it with the history readings and activities in Bigger Hearts. We didn't use much of the science component since I was already using the One Small Square series (which Heart of Dakota also uses) in my homeschool co-op classes, with my own children trying out the activities before co-op each week. Also we'd already read through A Pioneer Sampler a year ago so I didn't feel a need to use it again. Having said that, this was the history we needed this year and the reading in HOD's Bigger Hearts were perfect, not too short and not too long. My boys particularly liked the "Journeys Through Time" book and also "The Wright Brothers and Their Sister". It was a nice co-incidence that when the kids were assigned scientists to do a report on through co-op, Tristan happened to get the Wright Brothers. We skipped ahead to that unit in Bigger Hearts... and got all the info we needed for him to do his report. I love the way the TM is set up in the HOD guides too, it is very different than other teachers manuals I've seen. If you are interested in this curriculum you can look at a full week sample of any of the guides on the Heart Of Dakota website linked above.

For the older set I used a DVD course which was available through the library. The name of this set is Getting Ahead- US history.

It's a 4 disc set with each DVD being about 2 hours long. The first part of each DVD was a section about Our Presidents in History. Then there were several "We the people" segments which gave an overview of major historical happenings of the time period. We just finished the 4th DVD in this set and it was a BIG winner with my older two kids. This is suggested for ages 10-14 but I would say 12 and up would be better. My 9 and 10 year olds were bored by the first DVD so I let them sit this one out and decided it was just for the big kids. I learned a lot with these videos too and they were a God-send for my son with an autism spectrum disorder. He is highly visual and can not retain very much from long readings, read alouds or writing. To have a full USA history overview course brought to life on DVD's for him was perfect. In the first Getting Ahead-History DVD there is not much action type video because of course long ago there was no tv, video cameras or even still cameras to tape history as it unfolded. Still paintings and representations are used heavily for the early years of USA history. In the later DVD's there is more action.

To fill this out to a full course we added some books and a lot of conversations, watching and discussing the election coverage this past fall and studying the election process, reading Top Story a current events newspaper for grades 6-9 from God's World News, a Presidents lapbook and a few other select American history movies and educational DVD's. I will not hesitate to call this a 9th grade high school history and civics/government credit for this year after we complete a few more extras and finish the Presidents lapbook. With The Getting Ahead DVD's as a spine I was able to make this a full course that my child could retain rather than just something which is listed as a 9th grade course but is not composed of materials which would work for my son such as textbooks or high school length living books.

The Presidents lapbook we're making is from Homeschool Share I am using with all four kids. I can't even say how well the Presidents sections of the Getting Ahead DVD's go along with this Presidents lapbook, especially for a 6-9th grade level child. It's a very good combination.

Finally we are reading selections from The DK book Presidents,

and the DK children's encyclopedia of American History.

Book of these books are filled with not only information but also many pictures. Again ideal for the highly visual child.

We are not a history minded family but we have learned a lot and had fun with this combination of materials. For the second part of the year we'll be looking more closely at some of the wars in US history as per the boys' wishes!