I personally love the set, I love her style of writing, I love that it is secular, all of it. Now it is one of those programs type of book sets that you love it or you hate it. Not too many have an in between opinion about. Sonlight uses it with their core 100. http://www.sonlight.com/100-00CW.html Beautiful feet uses it also. http://www.bfbooks.com/Literature-Packs/U-S-World-History-Packs Here is a link with a few others views on it. http://welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170373&highlight=history+Hakim
I have and I still have it. Recently I have heard a lot of discussion about things that are incorrect in the series. That some things are inaccurate. I don't have any more information on it than that because I haven't looked into it yet - we are a ways from that yet, but you may want to check it out if you are considering purchasing them.
I love the style of writing. I don't like the fact that it is secular. I don't think that makes it all bad. I haven't found anything TOO contraversial, but I am not a history scholar, so I wouldn't recognize those kind of mistakes. I did however find a mistake in some statistics in one of the books. She was showing the growth in the population in the states and it went something like this: New York in 1890 population 100,000. New York in 1900 population 180,000. She then stated that it was 180% increase. This is actually and 80% increase. I sent an e-mail and she basically said she got the information from another source and that was how it was laid out. What can I say-I like math. I don't think it is a big deal, just pointing out...
Me to. We used it in conjunction with Biblioplan America and the World (1600-1850), and (1850-2000). We were also using other texts that weren't secular, as well as literature that included church history.
We've used it and love it. Hewitt has a syllabus you can buy to go with the whole set. I think it was like $8-10. HTH, Michelle
I have it, love it and my kids will use it in about 9th grade, I dont' feel they are ready for all of the detail of the books before then. I'm very happy that it is secular, not all of us homeschoolers are Christian.
Sonlight uses the books for their 9th grade American history. It comes with a daily schedule, questions, map work, etc. My son is in 9th grade and we are currently using History of US along with Sonlight. Since we are using Sonlight, I do not need to read the books. From the Sonlight questions, I have not found anything objectionable but have not read the books. At high school level, I can not also do all of the work, especially the reading, that is required of my son. I read slowly because one of my eyes does not track well.
It is a large series and so can end up costing quite a bit. I would advise getting one to see if you like it before buying the whole series. I really disliked it. The subject matter seemed appropriate for upper middle school or high school and the writing seemed appropriate for elementary. If it weren't for that I might have been able to use it as fodder for examining fact versus opinion, picking out info without automatically accepting the conclusions, and helping my children understand "populist" notions but I couldn't even use it for that. I still want something written the way public school textbooks are so my children will know what a large percentage of the population in America has learned and the manner in which they learned.I guess that means I should have kept it for that reason as I can't see high school textbooks being much better. I will say that it is written in a more story like manner than your average high school text books and I did like her additions of quotes that she put in the margins. Obviously I am the first one responding that thinks it isn't so great so if I were you I would get one or check one out from the library before spending big time cash on it.
I borrowed the books from my library and I still use them today ( with other books as well). I used them when my dd's were in 5th and 7th...didn't have a problem with the level and I read with them. We used K12 books with them ( bought at a library sale for $1 each). We are doing more in depth American History now for my dd's who are in 9th and 7th grades and I use the books for extras , not sole curriculum like earlier. I like the fact that its is secular and that I can use them for many years/grades. I like the side notes and quotes and I like that I can understand it too. Borrow from your library first to see if it will work for you and then maybe buy. I like them but never bought them because, well I'm too frugal ( hey its free from my library anyways) and 2 I don't have room for them on my bookshelves.
I haven't found any "texts" that I like. Right now my children read lots of biographies, history and historical fiction just to be familiar with a large variety of material. I actually prefer they learn that way because each author has their own take on things and often had special interest in the topic at hand which is why they cared to write about it. Of course there will be mistakes the author makes but that is the same with the textbooks except that you will spend a lot more time with one particular author's bias. I find that text book authors don't have very in depth knowledge of everything that they have to write about if they are covering the entire history of America or the WORLD. eeks! So it's an awful lot to expect from someone. This way we can read two books about a particular topic and see different facts are highlighted etc. I am looking for a good text book as I want my children to be familiar with the textbook format before college but haven't found them yet. It would be interesting to have one from a conservative viewpoint and one from a leftist and maybe one from a classical liberal view to compare arguments so I am keeping my eye out for suggestions.
