US History has a massive amount of resources to choose from, so it can be hard to narrow down what to use. I know Care Bear loves history if she’s given the right resources, so the pressure is on to find the right thing!
I may have done a jig when I came across Hippocampus. I can’t count how many hours I spent trying to find free or frugal online classes to use this year! The various courses within Hippocampus are at varying quality, but the AP US History course is top-notch. The work is already divided up into weekly units (called chapters), with reading assignments, video presentation to watch, map activities, key terms list, writing assignments, and tests with answer keys. Really, it’s the entire package, just without the teacher support.
Weekly work
I’ve found that writing dates on each chapter helps both Care Bear and me stay accountable for keeping with the plan. I used the donnayoung.org quarter planner to type out each chapter in each week, labeled by date. The only thing I added to the lesson plan was mid- and end-of-term projects. Care Bear completes the reading, video, and easy work by Tuesday, and then has the rest of the week to work on her writing assignments and test. She grades her own test using the answer key and enters her grade in her gradebook we share on Dropbox.
Which book??
Hippocampus gives a list of five books that will work for the course, without any explanation of the differences between them. After spending hours upon hours reading online reviews of each book, looking at what differences there are in various versions, and just stressing over what book to choose, it ended up being pretty easy. I had a list of three books that I found acceptable for our use when I went to a used homeschool curriculum sale. I found one of the books on my list, one edition back, for $10! I was planning on paying $70 for the book from Amazon! From what I’ve read, all the books would be great. I know my daughter, and she likes the small pictures with captions, charts, graphs, and side topic blurbs to spice up the book a bit. She likes the pages to be rich with text, close to a DK Publishing or Usborne encyclopedia.
AP US History prep
This is the one AP test we plan to take this year. I’ve heard the Princeton Review books are the best for AP review, so I purchased Cracking the AP U.S. History Exam, 2014 Edition. Care Bear will review the information about the AP exam before finishing up the Hippocampus course, then when she completes the Hippocampus course, she’ll focus on studying the AP US History book to sharpen her knowledge. I love how the information is concise and easy to read in the Princeton Review books, making it easy to read through.
Since the AP US History likely has many names and dates – an area we have never focused highly on in our homeschool, we will get Barron’s AP US History flash cards, if needed. With the Princeton Review book, Care Bear can take the practice exam to determine if it is necessary.
With the names and dates, I imagine this will be a test that Care Bear may squeak by, but overall I feel pretty confident she’ll do well, in sha Allah (God willing).
Want the lesson plan already laid out for you? Here’s our lesson plan for the year, with a few weeks open at the end for focused study just for the AP exam!
- AP US History Quarter 1 (jpg version)
- AP US History Quarter 2 (jpg version)
- AP US History Quarter 3 (jpg version)
- AP US History Quarter 4 (jpg version)
This post is part of iHomeschool Network’s January Hopscotch. Please visit other great bloggers as they explain how they teach various subjects as well!
The rest of the series to check out!
- How I Teach Writing to Earn College Credit {Lesson Plan Included} (January 13, 2014)
- How I Teach Algebra to Earn College Credit (January 14, 2014)
- How I Teach Biology to Earn College Credit (January 15, 2014)
- How I Teach US History to Earn College Credit {Lesson Plan Included} (January 16, 2014)
- How I Teach Fine Arts (January 17, 2014)
I’ve enjoyed reading your series this week. I’m curious–what are the history projects you planned?
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the series! The first quarter project is to make a Powerpoint on the topic, “How did the past effect the philosophy behind the new American government?” and the third quarter is “The effect of urbanization on American culture.” You can download the full lesson plans within the blog post, too! 🙂
I’ve stumbled upon your blog through another blog and it’s been a enjoyable reading your series. My only question is where can I access your full lesson plans to get an idea of how you are covering the AP US History. When I click the link there is only an open class schedule, not the lesson plans. Thanks
Huh, I wonder why it isn’t working for you. I checked it just now and I got it to come up fine. Here are the links also:
http://www.middlewaymom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/AP-US-History-Q1.pdf
http://www.middlewaymom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/AP-US-History-Q2.pdf
http://www.middlewaymom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/AP-US-History-Q3.pdf
http://www.middlewaymom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/AP-US-History-Q4.pdf
I really appreciate your blog … we are trying to do something similar with our oldest son and daughter. Not long after I first read read your recommendations, I saw that Hippocampus no longer had access to all the UCal movies that made up a lot of their US HIstory and Biology collection. Sigh.
Also, I was wondering which 3 US History texts you zeroed in on, and which one you ended up using?
Thanks,
Scott
Sorry it took so long to get back to you! It took me a while to find the history book since it was packed away in our move. 🙂 We ended up using American Pageant, one edition back from the current one, but I don’t remember what the other two options were.
I was really bummed to find out that so many classes were being taken down from Hippocampus, too! I think ucscout.org *might* point to the same resources that Hippocampus did, but I’m not entirely sure. We did their Macroeconomics class for only $19 through ucscout.org, and they’ll send you the answers if you provide proof of homeschooling. We found the website a bit more clunky than Hippocampus, but still very useful and the price is hard to beat.
Thanks for your kind reply. We are going to use “A People and a Nation” (Brief Edition), mostly because it one of my top 3 and I already had it, but American Pageant was on my short list.
I did finally figure out that by paying the $19 per semester to UCScout.org we could have access to the same videos that were taken down from HippoCampus.
Thanks again, really appreciate all your info and encouragement.
Scott
Let me know how you like the class! We had mixed feelings when taking the Macroeconomics course, though for $19, it’s hard to complain. 🙂
Found your blog post while researching AP US History.. question when I click on the links for quarterly planners they just show a blank calendar? I saw in the posts above you had reposted them and they are also blank? Thanks for your help.. Thought at first it might have been while trying to open via phone but it is the same when trying on pc.. again thanks!
Bummer! I just included a jpg version as well, so while it isn’t editable, you can see how we spread out the class over the course of a year. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much!!