SOTW 3 with American History

[awanama]

My dd will be doing SOTW 3 next year (she'll be in 4th). I would like to supplement with American History and a state study. I was thinking of using either The Complete Book of United States History or The History of the U.S. by Hakim. I didn't know if Hakim's books would be to much for a fourth grader or not. Whatever we use will spill over into 5th grade with SOTW 4. Also, what could I add for the state study? We do history everyday and this year have gone through SOTW 1 and we are on 2 now. My goal is to focus on World History but give her more American History and memorize where the states are located. She is a very hands on learner and loves to be read to.
Thanks!

[profmom]

Erica, we used WP's American Story 1 as our main program at this point and only supplemented with the SOTW3 CDs. We really enjoyed the WP books, especially the read alouds. You could take a look for ideas.

Another idea is to use Abeka's 4th grade history text as an additional read aloud. The focus is on American History and you could either line it up with SOTW3 or not worry and read it alongside. The only other Abeka we've used was a handwriting book, but this history text was given to me and wasn't too bad as textbooks go.

[awanama]

Profmom,
Thanks. I will check out both of those ideas. I have used Abeka history way back with my oldest for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I'll check it out. I'll also check out Winterpromise. I've looked at it before but didn't think of it.

Anyone else have ideas?

[Pam in MA]

We've been reading A History of US along with SOTW 3 and 4 the last few years. My youngest is 4th grade this year and she's not had any problem following along. There is a list that correlates the chapters of Hakim with SOTW (I think it's on Paula's Archives) but it jumps around in Hakim a bit. We've ended up reading Hakim in order so you can keep the thread of her story. As far as states, we have done a few maps of regions and a big state map as each state joined the union.

HTH

[Mama Lynx]

I don't know if this will help, but we just stuck with SOTW. When we came to chapters on American history we stopped, and read living books, historical fiction, and nonfiction books on those topics until I felt that we'd learned a lot. Then we continued.

It meant that we gave some other SOTW chapters the short end of the stick, but I figured that by just reading through those other chapters the kids were getting an understanding of the rest of the world at the time, and a sense of where the U.S. was in relation to the rest of the world.

Hakim ... you might try it. It really depends on your child. It's above many 4th graders, but not all. My oldest could not have read it in 4th grade, but my current 4th grader uses it with no trouble.

[skimerinkydo]

This year for 4th grade we are doing SOTW2 and then stopping every now and then to study the state we live in. For our state I bought a short, simple book about our state that we basically use as an outline: Heinemann State Studies by Mir Tamim Ansary. I use it as an outline. We read, go on a field trip to a historical site that has something to do with what we read, then come home and make a scrapbook page about it. My family has lived in this state for 4 generations so we also include family history stories.

[Ali in OR]

We will be using it with SOTW 3 next year and dd will be in 3rd grade. It schedules several volumes of Hakim (I went ahead and got the whole series because I liked the library volume I checked out and more volumes are used the next year). Additionally, there are always readers and read-alouds scheduled that will beef up the American history side. I plan to do the Hakim as a read-aloud and I think dd will be able to follow along. Knowing her, she will start reading them on her own outside of school time!

[Arch At Home]

As I have a 3rd and 1st grader, I am supplementing with read the My America series as read alouds. The girls are getting a good feeling for the important time periods of US history and an overview of the others.

Arch At Home

[Kimber]

We're using Biblioplan this year with SOTW 4. It jumps around in SOTW and in the HISTORY OF US. But the kids are really enjoying it, and so am I. I know we can't cover everything, but with Biblioplan I can make sure we hit the more important stuff.

[Jenn in Mo]

I'm doing Hakim and SOTW 3 combined with a list I editted from online. It follows Hakim mostly in order, but jumps around with SOTW 3. My 2nd and 5th grader jump at the chance to read history, but I'm doing it as a read-aloud. To be honest, I jump at the chance to sit on the couch and read history as well. I have created my own notebooking pages for geography that we use each time we run across a new state to incorporate geography. There are lots of those online though, too. I've also created a column in my combo that lists books for the kids to read and books for me to read aloud to them that correlate with the topics we're studying in history. I can share it if you're interested. I am loving this schoolyear! But I say that every year - lol.

[Susie in CA]

There is a lot of American History in 3 and 4. We did not find it necessary to supplement all that much. :)

Susie

[ArwenA]

I'm not American but have read and loved A History of UsDD was just about to start 4th at the time and they were much loved read alouds over the summer.

[awanama]

I have created my own notebooking pages for geography that we use each time we run across a new state to incorporate geography. There are lots of those online though, too. I've also created a column in my combo that lists books for the kids to read and books for me to read aloud to them that correlate with the topics we're studying in history. I can share it if you're interested.

I would love to see this! Thanks

[mcconnellboys]

For American history, I like Hakim's History of US. Older versions (not that old) are available more inexpensively. Some libraries may also carry the books. Mine carries them by title, so they are not all housed on a shelf together, nor considered source material that can't be checked out.

For a state study, look at this website: www.statehistory.net
(How do we do links on here now, anyway?)

Joy Dean does all the state history stuff for Abeka..... I do think that these happen to be secular, however (at least the individual state ones).

Regena