The Well-Educated Mind Homeschool Update: History

I am pretty excited about this school year of history. So, I am going to write about what I am doing. I'll do the other subjects on the other days. Someday. LOL!

We are studying

US HISTORY!!!!!!!!!

We are starting off by using this:

A Biography of America

This is a 26 lecture film series put out by the Annenberg Media. Each lecture lasts 30 minutes, and it is FREE Video on Demand. It gives a good visual for what we are studying.

Here is the web address for this:

http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/index.html

We are also listening to Joy Hakim's delightful series A History of US. It is geared toward a younger audience, but we really like the interesting stories, and she isn't TOO politically correct for our sensibilities. She seems pretty fair and balanced compared to some other texts. We are just finishing up The Making of Thirteen Colonies.

We are supplementing this with two high school texts that are used in AP US History classes:

I like A People and a Nation too.

This is all being reinforced by our American Literature course that we are taking through:

http://www.thelmaslibrary.com/

She has a 400+ page syllabus where the kids are reading orginal documents like the "Arabella Covenant" and the "Mayflower Compact." It is great reinforcement.

This is all done with the goal of preparing for this:

The College-Level Examination Program

There is a great 150 page general overview of American History that we are using to review what we have learned in our studies of the above texts and American Literature.

Then, there are three computer-generated test to prepare the kids for taking the test at Linn-Benton Community College some time this year.

As we go, we are using the AP United States History Flash Cards.

We also use this website to help in our being ready to take the CLEP:

http://clepprep.tripod.com/ushistoryiclepexam/id1.html

If we get ambitious, I might also have the kids take the CLEP American Literature exam, but I haven't checked into that yet.

We are continuing with our Timeline Figures from Home School In the Woods too. GREAT thing. In addition, I am using the timelines in The History of US and having the kids paste the wording in the timeline book.