An alternative to SOTW 1850-present......

[hmsch4me]

My 7th & 8th graders are starting the SOTW IV and both find it very boring. We've used the 3 prior books, but for some reason, they are struggling with this last one. I think they enjoy more detail and want to know more about American history. Any recommendations? We are actually right past the Civil War. I'm considering History of Us - any thoughts?

[WTMindy]

is a great US modern history book, (albeit with a bent towards liberal politics in the later books). My kids enjoyed it, although they also really enjoyed SOTW 4. I loved the world history that you get from SOTW and you won't get that in History of US. But, it is very readable for kids that age.

[Pam in MA]

We like the context of world history and then go into more detail with History of US. We also read plenty of books recommended in the AG, or others we find, so the actual SOTW text is only a small part of what we read. I think it might be a bit boring by itself.

[Blue Hen]

We did a similar approach to Pam's for my 8th grader; a little bit of SOTW 4, History of US and then TONS of books. There are just so many books for this time period; historical fiction, biographies, newspaper reports, historical living books,.... that it is easier to go down lots of rabbit trails and have this time period take years instead of one year.

[Lenora in MD]

I added in Truthquest for my year with sotw 4. It really gave a nice dose of American History in a really fun way.