We are big fans of the Sonlight curricula. Last year, Kelly studied their US History. Of course, the literature books were fabulous as usual, but we struggled mightily with their choice of Joy Hakim’s A History of the USA. Sonlight acknowledges weakness in the Hakim books, but we felt those weaknesses are understated both in terms of the depth of coverage and the political correctness of the books. Kelly studied for the US History I CLEP test at the same time she studied the Sonlight curricula. We bought her the REA study book, History of the USA I, for the test. Even though the CLEP study book was not designed to be a history course, it provided a much more thorough coverage with somewhat less bias in the coverage of the material. Kelly is using the REA book, History of the USA II, to get ready for the next test.
Now, it is time to think about a US History curriculum for Christian. We know we do not want to use the Joy Hakim series, but we do not think the CLEP preparation books are adequate either. I am thinking about combining A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Discovery to the War on Terror by Larry Schweikart and Michael Patrick Allen as a read aloud for the whole family, John J. Newman’s United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination as a study text, and the Sonlight books from Core 100 as accompanying literature. I think that will give Christian (and the rest of us) a good overview of US History as well as prepare him to take the two CLEP tests. Of course Christian will also use the REA books for specific test preparation.
UPDATE: Found a VERY cool computer here.
We too see a departure from Sonlight in our future, even though we are big fans also. Right now, we are looking at the possibility of using the plan set out in the Well-Trained Mind for highschool level world history. But I am seeing a weakness there in covering US history. A Patriot’s History looks very promising, and we will be watching closely what you do as we are just a couple years behind you and get to benefit from reading your blog posts! Also I think the Omnibus III from Veritas Press is worth looking into. Some others I will be checking out are: America’s Providential History, the American Heritage Series, and Lies My Teacher Told Me. I really liked the U.S. and World History for Senior High Pack from Beautiful Feet Books until I saw that they too use Joy Hakim’s books for the spine. But if you found a replacement spine, the literature would be well worth it, with very little overlap of what Sonlight provided in previous cores. But ask me next year, or even next week, I’m sure it will all have changed!
Yes, Audrey, we are thinking just about the same way about this. I looked at “Lies..”, in addition to “A Patriots..”. It looks good. I am not a huge fan of the Well-Trained Mind. I read the book, like the concepts, have used The History of the World books in our studies, but the whole approach seems designed to train little lawyers. My hat is off to the Bauer’s, though, for an approach that works for a lot of people. We like Beautiful Feet, too! We did it in the first grade with Kelly. It was awesome. I am sorry to see they use Hakim’s books. We are excited to see what you guys do, too. It is too bad you are not ahead of us so we could use your ideas.
If you haven’t submitted your feedback yet, please do!
We’re always looking for ways to improve Sonlight, so any suggestions you have are very welcome. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here.
~Luke
Luke Holzman from Sonlight was kind enough to post a note on our website. I do not know whether it was a cut and paste note or not, because it just points to a “contact us” link, but I took the time to respond with a personal email to him explaining our thinking on transitioning away from the Sonlight US History materials.
I got a quick note back. Again, I do not know whether it was boilerplate but I am choosing to believe it was personal. I would love to see that they followed through on this.
Hola Ken!
Que bueno que te regresaron la contestacion!
Increible verdad?
L.
Asi es Lorena. La cosa es que no se si nos van a hacer caso o no. Espero que otra gente no tiene que aguantar los libros de Hakim.
Hello,
I Just found this post and am wondering what you ended up deciding was the ideal highschool US history approach. The book, A Patriot’s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Patrick Allen, seems to receive great reviews except for some factual errors. Did you end up using this book, and if so, do you know of an available errata. I don’t feel I know enough history to be able to find the errors on my own.
Thank you for your time,
Theresa 🙂
Hello Theresa, Thank you for your nice note. After giving up with Sonlight on US History we did several things. To assure that we were getting the breadth of coverage of the material the kids needed for college, we spent a year doing the two US History CLEP tests. In addition, we read A Patriot’s History of the United States aloud as a family, discussed that together as we went along, and read some historical novels in the mix. We are very happy with the result. Our daughter took and passed both the CLEP tests for college credit after use of this approach. Both of the kids function well both in history classes and when history is discussed in other classes now that they are in the community college. You can read a little more about this at our CLEP link here. There is a link to both of the US History exams that describes how we used test preparation to give a thorough history education. I am not sure this would work for everyone, but we very much enjoyed all of it. If I can be a help in any other way, please do not hesitate to ask.
Incidentally, my understanding is that some of the factual errors that appeared in the earlier editions of A Patriot’s History were corrected in subsequent editions. We were very, very pleased with the book.
I am so glad I stumbled upon your site. You have loads of information I am seeking! I am looking at high school for my soon to be 8th grader and all the hoops and traps involved. We are in CA and I just found out the UC system does not accept CLEP testing. Its frustrating trying to figure it all out.
Thanks again for sharing!!
Tina
BTW – Congrats on the upcoming graduation! Two days and counting…love it.
Thanks for the nice note Tina. I know the UC system does not accept CLEP, but I think most of the Cal State system accepts a few. I have not really thought about it a lot, but I think we probably would have done at least some of the CLEP test whether we got credit or not as a tool to assure the material was covered properly. Even here in North Carolina, the kids got way less credit at NCSU than the got at the local community college. The community college credit helped the kids place into higher math and science classes so they could start at a higher level when they got to NCSU after a couple of years. The reality is that both of the kids got enough credits in the two years at community college and big state U that they would have graduated without the CLEP credit. It is certainly an interesting problem. I am wondering whether there is a way for your child to take AP test and whether the UC schools accept them. They are made by the same company as the CLEP tests, and they are accepted in more places. I am looking forward to seeing how this goes!