Homeschool World Forum

OK, this is my problem. There is just too much information out there and my brain goes into overload and I just give up.

Since I have only very limited resources here in the ME, I have to rely on the Internet. I have followed many of the links found on this web site as well as found many of my own, but I don't even know what to do, or how to present the information. I find lesson plans, but can not access the books or activities or can not find the supplies to do most of the projects.....

How do you do this? Right now, I have my son sitting on the Internet playing the Map game (placing the states in their correct place on the map) while I look up information on the US. Would it be easier to start with individual states and skip the whole discovery of America? Shall I go right into WW II since we will be visiting Hiroshima in October? I just feel very overwhelmed and extremely under qualified to be doing this.

Any ideas?

Thanks~ Jenn
American in the Middle East

Honestly, I think America's overall history as a nation is way more important than learning about the individual states. You should be able to place all the states on the map, and you need to know your own state's history (assuming you live in the US), but there's no point getting overly caught up in minutiae.

Yes, I do think that visiting Hiroshima would be a good time to start learning about WW2 Just keep in mind that firebombings from regular bombs killed more people than the nukes did, and on purpose, while the nukes were targeted at Hiroshima and Nagasaki because those were Japan's primary industrial bases. Everyone focuses on the nukes and ignores the firebombings, when it should really be the other way around.

I agree, the discover of US and the history behind that is more important than individual states.
A good way to keep things straight and see how they all fit in to each other is to do a time line and as you visit places or find info that you want to teach you and your child are able to fit it into a time line in history.
Your visit to Hiroshima is a great opportunity to introduce WWII!!

Depending on the age of your son, some type of U.S. History would be great at this point, I think. I am in the process of completing a 9th/10th grade level U.S. History textbook, The Americans, and it is a great book which is perfect for children who already know the basics of United States History (such as the bare facts about discovery, development, etc. of early America.) It is in chronological order, and it features time lines at the beginnings of every chapter. It is labeled for grade levels 9-11, and it features both Early U.S. History (discovery of America-1850s) and Late U.S. History (1860s-present). You can find it on Amazon/eBay, and it also has a website featuring chapter crosswords and quizzes to go right along with the content of the textbook. I am very happy with it so far, and I am nearly finished. The latest 2007 version of the textbook has accurate, adequate information and it features atlases, glossaries, indexes, and such in the back of the book.

[color=indigo]I know about The Americans text book that Morgan was speaking about. It is by McDougal Littell and you can find them and order from their web site http://www.mcdougallittell.com/ml/ My son has used their texts for years and loves them. They have Social Studies texts for middle school and high school level, and they have a more multi-ethnic view of American History, covering European descendants, African Descendents and Indian Americans, as well as ethnic groups that immigrated to the United States in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s – eastern European, Asian, Latino, etc. And, there are many color photos and color diagrams on every page (even for the high school level). Nevertheless, their World History text is not hostile to Christianity, as it uses the terms A.D. and B.C. and it discusses Christian heroes like Martin Luther (Lutheran Church), the Christian protestant movement and historic American Christian revival movements. Nevertheless, because the book is really written for public schools, homeschool teachers cannot get the answer keys without being a certified teacher, but for History, you don’t really need them (you just read the text and the “answersâ€