We are using America the Beautiful this year. My daughter finally LOVES history! The information is presented more in terms of people and places and not all just facts and dates. We enjoy the pictures and sometimes research the internet to find more related to that day's lesson. The companion reading books are excellent choices. Our local homeschool group held our Curriculum Share this week and I brought America the Beautiful as my favorite for this year.
Since my bachelor's degree is in history, I am pretty choosy about what I use. I love this thorough and engaging history book. The full color pages are a huge bonus and the original source documents are very important. This is very simple to use and the literature tie ins and the Christian worldview are also great. America the Beautiful is also very useable with subsequent children with just a minor purchase of consumables. This really helps us frugal homeschooling families maximize our budget while still using high quality materials.
I love history, and this curriculum was definitely a plus. I love the colored pages because it kept my son engaged (he's very visual) and the content allowed for discussion. I loved the activities and the workbooks were easy to grade :-) I am planning on using it this coming year with my girls in 4th grade. Love love this curriculum. The only suggestion I would make, when it comes to the songs in "We the People" book, it would be helpful to have some of those there for ease of learning/singing; some people who I know have used this did not originally grow up here, so they are not acquainted with the melodies. :-)
My daughter was a little younger than the recommended ages for these materials, but she enjoyed using them. The curriculum is very flexible so we could adapt it to meet her needs. Her younger brother also enjoyed listening to me read the text aloud.
I really enjoyed this program I will say it is a little difficult for the younger ones but they really enjoy the beautiful pictures and stories. I also love the fact that involves the whole family . This is a wonderful curriculum
Grade levels used
3
6
Pros
LITERATURE based and very easy to use with multiple grade levels and includes the whole family
I used this program as supplement for my son who was learning about US History in Classical Conversations, Foundations. Even at age 7, he had no problems understanding the content, however, the workbook was a bit advanced for him. It is graded for 5th grade and up. I feel the program is very complete.
