Who has trouble finding a homeschool history curriculum they love? I have… until now! I happened upon Masterbooks America’s Story and it looks fantastic! We will be using the second edition, which covers the 1800’s- the Civil War through the Industrial Revolution. Goodbye, boring history. Hello, fun learning!
Here is a video of my review, below.
Don’t want to watch the video? Here’s a recap in writing…
Versatile grade levels? Yes, please!
America’s Story history curriculum is by Masterbooks. It is a Charlotte Mason-Inspired curriculum and is Christian based. It is designed for 3rd-6th graders, however I’m using it for both first and fifth graders. This is a great curriculum that you can certainly adjust for younger or older students!
Like schedules? This curriculum does lay out a 5 day a week schedule for you! I like making my own schedule, so we will likely be using this 1-2 days a week and picking and choosing what we will be doing. I can’t help it… it’s the relaxed, eclectic homeschooler in me.
This curriculum contains two books: one student book, where all of the stories are, and also a teacher book, where all of the work pages are. My favorite part is it’s NOT TEXT BOOKY! It seems like the author, Angela O’Dell, is talking to you, which I really love.
For the students:
The student book, where all of the stories are, contains awesome, real pictures…
It has maps with each chapter…
…and it has Cultural Connections, linking the past with the present, in each chapter.
Each chapter has 10 pages: a title page, four pages of the lesson/story (with pictures!), 2 pages of maps, 2 pages of real pictures, and 1 page for the cultural connections.
For the teacher:
The teacher guide acts as more of a workbook for the kiddos. Here you’ll find your schedule and worksheets. Each week’s worksheets contain…
-Question and answers
-written narration for older students
-sketching (super fun! This if my kids’ favorite part)
-small writing prompts
-map work
-copy work
-and a timeline writing assignment along with a physical timeline
Sometimes the small writing prompts are replaced with other small activities, such as a word search.
Like I said, I plan to use this for both my fifth grader AND my first grader. My first grader will listen to the narration, then do the sketches (he’s an amazing drawer for such a little guy!…maybe I’m biased), map work, and the timeline. I do not expect him to do any of the writing, as it’s definitely geared toward the suggested ages of 3rd-5th graders.
America’s Story Homeschool History Curriculum
So that’s it! Is there something about the America’s Story history curriculum that I didn’t cover that you’d like to know? Let me know in the comments below!
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If you’re looking for more history and geography resources for your homeschool, click the image below!
I’m wondering about hands on projects. I see from the contents there is a list in the back of the book. Can you give me an idea of how often we could do one? Is there one suggested for each week and hoe involved are they?
There is only one additional project in the back of the book. The section that has it is also the section that has artist studies, and there are a handful of those.
I have 3 kids at the same grade level…would I want to get 3 teacher guides, (since you said that has workbook type stuff)? And only one student book to share?
I think that’s up to you. I had one of my kiddos do the same thing in a notebook that was in the book if that was doable (he was younger though, so this was technically over his grade level and didn’t need to do it all) I’m unsure of the copyrights for this particular book. Some curriculum companies are okay with you making copies just inside of your family. So, you can weigh your options and see if purchasing separate books would be worth it for you.
There’s a digital copy that you can purchase! That way you can print off for multiple children when needed.