Gearing up for American History

We are in the final weeks of Sonlight K and I am putting the finishing touches on our new curriculum that I put together myself.

Because I am a huge nerd (HA!) and wanted to let my husband know what I was thinking of doing when I presented him with my ideas for the coming "year," I put together a little description similar to one you would see in a catalog. I titled our program Welcome to American History For Young Historians, and I thought I would share my description here so you can see what we will be exploring next!

Welcome to a year full of fun age-appropriate literature that is sure to whet the appetite of your young historians!

Explore the new world with Christopher Columbus, travel and establish a settlement with the Pilgrims and experience the world of our Founding Fathers. Discover what life was like for the Pioneer family, fight on a Civil War battlefield, ride with the Pony Express and learn the art of Victorian decorum. And end your travel adventure by experiencing the world of the 30s and 40s through the eyes of two young girls, eager to help their families through the turbulent Depression and World War II eras.

The year will be divided into eight unit studies. The first semester includes the following topics: Explorers, Voyage to a New World, and Revolutionary America. The second semester covers: Pioneer America, the Civil War, Nation Expansion and the American West, Victorian era, and World War II America.

Your children will become friends with real American Heroes and be exposed to concepts in a very gentle and enjoyable way. Literature selections rely mainly on D’Aulaire biographies, American Girlhood and Magic Tree House historical fiction and a variety of ‘I Can Read It’ selections hand picked to focus on real people and events to truly make American History come alive.

Hands on projects include notebooking, lapbooking, crafts, cooking period meals, field trips and more! Join us for the fun!

Of course I realize that most of you will not be able to physically join us on our adventures, but I will post our plans here, and if I can figure out how to do it, I will even post my 36 week schedule I put together.

The only difference between what I wrote and what we will actually be doing is that we will now be flip flopping the semesters. In putting together our homeschool budget, I decided to cut it in half in order to get the girls a Nickelodeon Netbook, which will be a huge hit but did cause me to have to make some decisions. Field trips are really important to me, but so are my biographies, so I faced the possibility of cutting out some trips. . . until I noticed that one of the local living historical farms will be having a Homeschool Day May 28th that will show time periods from the Pioneer days thru Victorian era!

While I am sure it could work to have them experience it first and then learn about it toward the end of the year, we decided to flip the semesters, so we will begin with the New Nation and Pioneers in a few weeks, go all the way through the 40s, and then do the "prequel" so-to-speak, and cover the beginning of American History. I am really excited!!!