All American History {Review}

Bright Ideas Press recently sent me All American History Volume 1 ~ The Explorers to the Jacksonians by Celeste W. Rakes to review as part of the Homeschool Crew. We were able to choose a product from the company and I requested this one knowing next year we are going to be covering early American history and I can use all the help I can get! I was only expecting the student text , but also received the teacher guide and student activity book that go along with the student text.

About the Curriculum

All American History: Volume 1 Student Text {$44.95} is a full year’s history curriculum that features 32 weekly lessons for grades 5-8. Volume 1 covers the time period from the early explorers til 1840 and includes European exploration, the colonies, revolution period, and the period of establishment and expansion. Celeste Rakes, the author, wants children to experience and know that history is NOT boring while providing parents and teachers with a helpful framework for teaching history to their children.

Features of All American History include:

• hands-on activities and ideas for further study
• an emphasis on the social and cultural history surrounding an event
• context for different events {each chapter has an ‘Atmosphere’ section}
• weekly summaries of the important parts of the lesson

Each week students read a chapter from the Student Text and use the Activity Book {$16.95} which contains forms, maps, review questions and activities for further study that go along with the weekly lesson. The Teacher’s Guide/Answer Key {$18.95} provides resources for each lesson, recommended books for further study, and additional options that can be used with each unit. The back of the book also includes the answers for the Student Activity Book as well as additional forms that can be used with students.

My Thoughts

You all are probably wondering how {because we’re studying world geography} we incorporated it into our curriculum. While we haven’t been going through American history over the last few weeks and using all the resources that came along with it, the book did come in rather handy when we were studying Spain and Italy, because several of the explorers we were learning about were covered in the first part of the book.

The text was a little above our kid’s level right now, but it can be adapted easily enough for children that are a little younger {part would depend on your child’s reading level also}. Instead of having our kids read it, I would ‘retell’ the story in easier to understand words. Next year I plan on using this to refer to often when we study early American history.

Find Out More

If you are interested in learning more about Volume 1 of All American History or seeing some of the other products that Bright Ideas Press offers, visit their website. You can view the a sample from the Student Text, see sample pages from the activity book, or see the table of contents from the curriculum. Each of the books I reviewed is available for purchase as follows:

• Student Reader, 443 pages ~ $44.95
• Student Activity Book, 312 pages ~ $16.95
• Teacher’s Guide/Answer Key, 268 pages ~ $18.95
• Set of all three books ~ $68.00