8th Grade Social Studies: Crash Course US History

My goal was to find one main curriculum source to use for US History this year that presented a well rounded view of event. Just one source. We’d follow it faithfully and chronologically, utilizing all the questions at the end of the chapters. Social studies would be a breeze to plan and we’d all live happily ever after.

The reality, though, is that most curriculum written for homeschool students is very heavily biased towards an ultra-conservative view. Public school textbooks tend to be too dry and often have subtle biases towards a too patriotic-and-sanitized version of events. We needed something in the middle that was engaging while presenting a balanced view – pro-America but not at the expense of the entire truth.

 

The best choice for my son was a YouTube video series by Crash Course. My son absorbs anything in a Crash Course video, no matter how complicated the material. The fast paced presentation of a large amount of information in a short period of time doesn’t seem like a likely choice to teach an 8^th grader. But, somehow, the explanations and graphics all add up to just what we needed. I also appreciate the fact that history is presented in all its glory and less-than-glory. Different perspectives are included as are primary sources. These videos provide the balanced, thought provoking learning experience I was hoping for my son.

Unfortunately, there are no curriculum aids to go with those videos and they are less than 15 minutes each. So, while these are the spine of our history curriculum, we still needed to add a lot more content from other sources: textbooks, historical fiction, timelines, map activities, and other videos round out this year. Yet another year of heavy planning in social studies, but the results will be worth it!