SOTW 3 and American History

[Chris in PA]

Hi all,
I am looking to use SOTW 3 with my 11 yo ds next year. I would like to add in American history as well. Has anyone done this? If so, would you have some resources you would be willing to share?

TIA

[Jeanne in MN]

We are halfway through SOTW IV and have combined Am. history since SOTW III like you are thinking. We've supplemented with a book titled, The Complete Book of United States History.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-U-S-History/dp/1561896799/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1235951222&sr=11-1

Along the way, I find numerous books from the library, fiction and non, that fit in with our studies. It's been working out really well.

[Sheila in OK]

We are sort of doing this although my kids are a bit younger (5th grader and 2nd grader this year). We are using Biblioplan Year 3 and we are adding in A Child's Story of America and lots of library books. CSofA is just "okay" but the kids are really enjoying the library books. We've added lots of the D'ulaire biographies and "If You Lived . . ." books. Those may bit a bit young for your child but there are suggestions for books at all levels.

[chai]

I combined SOTW3 with Guerber's Story of the 13 Colonies and Story of the Great Republic. The Guerber books are great for adding much more detail about America, while SOTW3 brings in the rest of the world.

[Chris in VA]

Here are some books I'm going to add--not all are Am History

The Matchlock Gun
Robert Fulton
Skippack School
Naya Nuki
Ballad of Lucy Whipple
Sarah Whitcher's Story
Johnny Tremain
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
Calico Bush
The Journeyman
Swift Rivers
True Stories from America's Past (oops, this is the subtitle--it's called
American Adventures)
Jean Fritz' Ben Franklin
The Pioneer Sampler (activities)
3D American History Maps (just doing about 3 or 4 of them)
More Than Moccasins (activities)

We have already read some good books on the colonial time period--Sign of the Beaver, The Cabin Faced West (George Washington's time), The Matchlock Gun (goes fast, very exciting, but violent), and some of the My America Diaries (the Red Snow one was pretty good--dd is really into these lately as they are among the few decent books offered at school). I also really like CLP's Stories of the Pilgrims, as it gives a good look at their time in the Netherlands.

There's also a good book on Lewis and Clark with some activities, but I can't think of it--The Captain's Dog is supposed to be pretty good, too, and tells about the dog they had on the trip.

I like the Time Traveler CD's, too--we are going to do a little of the Explorer's one at the beginning of the year or maybe over the summer before we do SOTW, and add in a little of the colonial one, too. I also have some resources from Winter Promise, including a moccasin kit from Corps of Discovery (has a lot of neat stuff).

The American Girl website has some good activities with Felicity, and there's a Felicity's World book that's very accessible to young girls. The movie is fairly good and innocuous, too! lol

[Paula in PA]

We are using these: Children's Encyclopedia of American History (http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Encyclopedia-American-Smithsonian-Institution/dp/0789483300/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235960463&sr=8-1) and The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History (http://www.amazon.com/American-Story-True-Tales-History/dp/0375812563/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235960537&sr=1-1). We are spreading them out over this year for SOTW3 and next year for SOTW4. We go through each week's portion on Friday. We believe that these, along with what's already in SOTW and some additional reading from library books, is more than enough coverage of AH for the grammar stage.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Hi all,
I am looking to use SOTW 3 with my 11 yo ds next year. I would like to add in American history as well. Has anyone done this? If so, would you have some resources you would be willing to share?

TIA

If you like Hakim's History of US and don't plan on doing a separate study of American history using the series, here is a plan for combining it with SOTW. There is an additional plan for combining SOTW, History of US, and the VP cards.

http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/sotw3hakim.htm

http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/sotw3vphus.htm

Good luck!

[Chris in PA]

Thank you all so much for your responses. It really has me thinking. I stumbled on the CLP Exploring American History and it looks decent. Does anyone have expereince with it? I think I will use it with SOTW 3 and 4. Now my next question. What are some recommendations for historical fiction?

TIA

[Chris in VA]

See my post, above!! lol

[Sheila in OK]

For historical fiction, I am using the Sonlight catalog. The Core 3 books go along pretty well with SOTW 3.

We used Exploring American History when we used MFW Adventures a few years ago. My dd didn't get into it much, but I think she was kind of young for it (2nd grade). An 11yo would probably get much more out of it.