I’m showing you how to create a creditworthy American history course with resources. Also, look at my page How to Homeschool High School.
Whether you want to create a standalone creditworthy American history course for your teen or you want to enhance the interest level of your current American history curriculum, you’ll love these tips.
Here’s a seasoned veteran tip.
Use lower grade level resources to put important topics in a nutshell.
To get a quick glimpse of major events, use what you have at the house or that you can get at a library to get a quick glimpse of major events.
Lower level resources can give you an easy starting point when teaching a new topic.
5 TIPS FOR CREATING A CREDITWORTHY HISTORY COURSE
Then, look at these 5 seasoned veteran tips that will make creating your own American History high school course easy.
1. KNOW YOUR STATE LAW.
Be familiar with your state homeschool laws so you can meet the requirements as you build an American history course.
A lot of states don’t have specific requirements, some do. Just be sure you know so that you can cover it.
2. TRACK YOUR TEEN’S TIME.
The rule of thumb is that one course credit is equal to 120 hours. Obviously one-half a credit is 60 hours.
What is not so obvious is deciding how to meet the hours requirement.
It also does not mean that all of the hours need to come from textbooks.
Also, look at my post Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School to give yourself time to learn more about how to truly count hours.
3. FOLLOW YOUR TEEN’S INTEREST. THINK OUT OF THE PUBLIC-SCHOOL BOX STANDARDS.
Don’t hem in your teen’s creative expression on how to meet the hour requirement.
If you have the control in your state to determine how to fill the credit requirement, then think beyond what public school dictates as traditional learning.
Look at this list of ideas to add to your course and ways to meet the time requirement.
Mix and match these activities to meet the needs of an American history credit.
- Read a textbook
- Read living books
- Essays
- Hands-on projects
- Prepare a speech
- Review primary resources
- Learn history through art
- Learn history through geography
- Learn about fashion of the period
- Apprenticeships
- Watch movies
- Cook a period recipe
- Focus on one or more history makers like Abe Lincoln or George Washington or Wyatt Earp. Look at my lapbook Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp.
- Learn history through music
- Take field trips like attending a play, music performance and art museum
- Do a lapbook on a period in American History like our FBI lapbook for high school
The fun part begins when you and your teen decide if he will cover only history for the whole 120 hours or if you’ll mix and match with other subjects.
4. DETERMINE IF THE COURSE WILL BE HALF-CREDIT, FULL YEAR CREDIT OR SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN.
The beauty of homeschooling is that you can adjust a course to a teen’s likes and passions.
For example, if a teen is a writer, then he can focus on writing while learning history.
So history could be a .60 credit and creative writing about history a .60 credit.
Alternately, if you want to add a literature element, then history may be a full 1 credit and literature could be a one-half credit.
If your teen is a budding artist and doesn’t like history so much, then he can cover history while doing art. You and your teen determine how to divide up the hourly credit.
5. IF YOU BEGIN IN MIDDLE SCHOOL YOU CAN STILL COUNT IT AS HIGH SCHOOL AS LONG AS YOU USE HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL RESOURCES.
By starting in middle school, your teen can go slower or take his time and dig deeper if there is a passion for history.
As long as the resource you’re using is high school level, then you can count the credit on the transcript.
American Homeschool History Outline
Although my teens had some say in the topics, they didn’t have the final say.
I wanted to be sure my teens were exposed to a wide variety of topics.
But it’s not necessary to cover all the events, people, or topics at the same depth.
I find that looking at the table of contents of any American History textbook can serve as a beginning point for an outline.
You can easily use it as a reference or make your own course outline.
AMERICAN HISTORY EVENTS AND PERIODS TO COVER
Look at one I created to get you started.
- Columbus
- The First People of America
- The American Colonies
- The American Revolution
- Creating the Constitution
- The Age of Jefferson
- The Age of Jackson
- Religion and Reform
- Manifest Destiny
- The Civil War
- Reconstruction
- Industrial Growth
- The Gilded Age
- World War I
- The 1920s
- The Great Depression
- Truman and the Cold War
- The Eisenhower Years
- The 1960s and Vietnam
- Present
5 American History Enhancements
As you can see you quickly can draft a diy American History course that your teen will be passionate about.
After doing American History several times with each of my grads, I mixed and match different resources.
Key to keeping it easy is to have a variety of resources at your fingertips.
Look at these 5 American history resources that you can use to enhance or flesh out your course. It’s not that hard, I promise.
I’ve listed living books, a hands-on history resource and even a book to us a spine in a story form which is how we prefer to learn.
5 History Resources for Teens
Laid out resources can help you put together an easy creditworthy American history course for teens.
Use this as a springboard for ideas. I loved this resource because it helped me to have ideas to include my younger kids while teaching my high school kid.
Too, I could expand an idea in the book to a high school level. Like it says, it’s a great big book of ideas to teach about American history.
Whether it's standing on the podium in Seneca Falls with the Suffragettes or riding on the first subway car beneath New York City in 1907, the books in Joy Hakim's A History of US series weave together exciting stories that bring American history to life. Readers may want to start with War, Terrible War, the tragic and bloody account of the Civil War that has been hailed by critics as magnificent. Or All the People, brought fully up-to-date in this new edition with a thoughtful and engaging examination of our world after September 11th. No matter which book they read, young people will never think of American history as boring again. Joy Hakim's single, clear voice offers continuity and narrative drama as she shares with a young audience her love of and fascination with the people of the past.
Genevieve Foster wrote this nearly fifty years ago. It resonates with perhaps more truth today. As a result of this clarion call we have sold many of her enduring "World" titles because of the timeless nature of her books. Her writing style is clear, concise and fluid with her greatest strength as a storyteller being her ability to bring her readers right into the minds and times of her characters.Abraham Lincoln's WorldGeorge Washington's WorldWorld of William PennWorld of Columbus and SonsWorld ofCaptain John Smith.
Use living books which bring history to life.
One of my son’s favorite authors is Albert Marrin. His books make it easy to cover
topics using a story format and avoiding boring textbooks.
Look at all of the ones for American history.
Paul Johnson’s History of the American People is like a history form of American History and covers major events and times. We used it like a spine or main resource. Then dig into further topics after that.
In addition, hands-on games bring a different element to the day and keep teens from taking all so seriously.
Add in hands-on games and fun if your kid loves hands-on.
Hands-on history is not just for the young.
If your teen learns best by hands-on then assign one or two projects as a grade.
I used Home School in the Woods projects to help me come up with ideas for my teens.
Include your younger kids too and the day can be fun while your teen gets his credit hours.
I love this format because if you have to teach American History a few times over, there is always room for a unique slant or perspective.
Avoid the boredom and blahs by using different resources.
What else do you like to include for your teen?
MORE CREDITWORTHY AMERICAN HISTORY COURSE ACTIVITIES
- Modern U.S. and World History High School Literature
- 7 Unique Ways to Supplement U.S. History for High School
- 10 Early American History Events that Happened in Fall for Homeschool Middle or High School
- How to Grade Hands-on Homeschool Activities and Projects (Free Rubric for Grading)
- Daniel Boone – North American Explorer Unit Study and Free Lapbook
- American Revolution and Free Lapbook
- 7 Things to Try When a Homeschool History Curriculum Isn’t Coming Together (Hint: Try a Primary Source or Two)
- How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History
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