I am slowly going insane here... I have been looking and looking for a secular history curriculum and not found anything that covers more than a tiny bit here and there. I didn't like the look of SOTW since it is not supposed to be all that accurate, apparently. I have started to put together a curriculum for next year's history from scratch, there are lots of good books but being new to this, I would have loved there to be a "set" curriculum that I could follow for a few years at least. Will the books "what your _ grader needs to know" help tell me what is to be covered in this subject? Cause I am totally at a loss here.
Steck Vaughn has one that I really like called America's History Land of Liberty. We used that a few years ago and we are using their Geography now. My sis had recommended it to me so that was a selling point. It is written (if I remember right) at a 2nd to 3rd grade reading level but is suitable for even the higher grades for it's content. Their website is www.SteckVaughn.com. They also have a Social Studies that is for grades 1-6 but the reading level is for grades 1-4.
Oh good! But there are no pictures of what you get for 120$ Is it just a binder? Don't you get any textbooks?
I'll look at the site and see what I can find. I have the catalog in front of me and what I had only runs about $60 for the hardcover textbook and the teacher softcover books which was totally sufficient.
Ok, does it come with a workbook or do you just read it? I have seen Kingfisher during my search on Amazon, it looks impressive, but I don't know how it works in practice.
I never realized you can't look at the text. My sis passed hers down to me and we really liked it. She is using the America's Story for her 10th grader this next year.
you know we've just been reading the American girls books and the magic tree house books. I love reading them outloud.
It's an encyclopedia - you just read it. There are lists all over the net for resources (generally library) for activity guides and such. It's organized by culture, chronologically, so it would be easy to search at your library for "ancient egypt crafts" or something. (A great book for ancient egypt crafts is Pyramids! 50 Hands-On Activities to Experience Ancient Egypt.) It's like a textbook spine, and you'd need to add your own activities and/or living book selections. (Psst. This is ancient history; I was jumping on the assumption that since you'd looked at SOTW you wanted to study in chronological order.)
Ok, that is interesting, I correlated the index of the Kingfisher encyclopedia with a book I already own (in Norwegian) that is a world history for kids and it is about the same! I guess I can use that as a guide then and flesh it out a bit as needed. The book I have covers stone age to now. Thank you! I am just scared because I have not covered the American version of Social Studies so I am a bit at a loss as to what is required. US history and geography books seem to be easy to find, though.
what grade are you wanting to know about? I have what your 6th grader needs to know sitting beside me on the shelf?
Well, he is 11 and a history buff but I haven't homeschooled him before and have no clue about what he knows and what he doesn't so I guess I will just start from the beginning and work my way through. I am starting him in 3-4th grade in most subjects as that seems to be where he is at. He's of course had NO American history, so that will have to be from scratch as well.
There is some good stories of Us history not really christian but from a website that is ... http://www.christianbook.com/Christ...F&p=1030017&item_no=779950&session_id=1279423 These are stories wiht questions , there are teacher books if you want them but this is an easy read from the person who its about point of view taken from Diaries etc.
Thanks for the suggestion, but this rubs me the wrong way: "Each contains biographical information upon those people who changed America's course in history, with strong emphasis on God's hand in the nation's affairs." Sorry.
oh ya, I can see that sorry. I didn't notice a lot of God stuff when reading it with my ds, but I understand.
Yeah, and as someone who is not an American it kind of creeps me out a little, if you know what I mean. Hope I didn't step on your toes or anything, though.
thats a university level lesson lectures on history and other things, language etc. It sounds good, I am listening to a sample at the moment of US HISTORY.
no problem, I see it as part of our heritage but I understand your being from outside US that it would be different to you. NO worries! I am researching for world history for my going to be 11 yr old son and trying to find more history than Bible, I have been teaching my kids for so many years he already can take a scripture and explain it, so I want more from the time of AD on for him if y ou see anything out there.
