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A deeper look at American history suited for middle and high school students. You may wish to use this program, without modification, as the basis for teaching one or more children 12-16 years old; with modification, it may be used with children from 11-16 years old.
Curriculum Overview:
Core 100 is built on the foundation of Joy Hakim's award-winning A History of US series. Many homeschoolers use these books with younger students. The books' language is certainly easy enough to understand. But we have chosen to hold them for use at the junior and senior high school levels, first, because of the author's modern liberal bias,1 and, second, because of the books' overwhelming detail on matters that are simply not as important for early elementary students to think about.
For junior high and high school students A History of US provides what we believe is a delightfully broad and balanced picture of American history. The first volume, for example, concentrates on pre-Columbian American society. Later volumes focus on standard issues of history. They present most issues of concern to conservative Christians in a positive light. But they also note the contributions of-and injustices suffered by-Native Americans, blacks, women, the poor, and other segments of society that are too often overlooked. Hakim stumbles a bit, however, in her tendency to cast virtually all government growth in positive terms and to read future events into the past. While discussing the Constitutional Convention, for example, she all but assumes the Founding Fathers intended to create a consolidated national government much as we have today; and, when discussing the Emancipation Proclamation, she makes Lincoln into some kind of modern champion of racial equality.
It is at points like these that the Core 100 instructor's guide comes in. Over 250 pages thick, the guide is a treasure trove of insight that enables you to bank off of these few weaknesses in A History of US to enter into stimulating discussions with your children about the broader currents and finer shades of meaning that Ms. Hakim ignores.
Wonderful as A History of US is, and thorough as is the instructor's guide, Core 100 would not merit the name Sonlight Curriculum® if it didn't include a large selection of historical fiction that provides color and depth to the primary text. And so you'll find finely crafted works like Laurence Yep's Dragonwings and Dragon's Gate, E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and Catherine Marshall's Christy. From heart-pounding reality stories like The Cross & the Switchblade and Rifles for Watie to thought provoking works like Dear Mr. Henshaw and Maniac Magee, neither you nor your children will want to miss the adventures that are here for your delight!
John Holzmann's Bible Study Sampler leads students in a series of self-directed studies of Scripture passages from Genesis to Revelation. Students learn over a dozen different study methods appropriate to the literary genres they are reading.
This program combines especially well with One-Year Core 4.
Central framework is provided by Joy Hakim's A History of US (120-34). Includes Bible, History titles, Readers, and Core 100 Instructor's Guide.
No Four-Day alternative available. This is a full program!
1. "Modern liberal" as opposed to "classical liberal." Classical liberals believe, with Thomas Jefferson, that "That government is best which governs least." Modern liberals seem to place far more faith in government and applaud governmental intervention in people's personal affairs.
Estimated time requirement on a five-day-per-week/36-week schedule for a single student, including Math and Language Arts: Student: 5-7 hrs/day; Parent: 2-3 1/2 hrs/day direct involvement, availability for remainder of time. There is no four-day per week schedule in the Core 100 curriculum.
Have questions? Talk to the real experts in our Sonlight Curriculum Discussion Forums -- other families who are using this very curriculum right now. We have a special forum just for this curriculum level:
Read about the Sonlighters Club benefits you get when you purchase a Core program on our Sonlighers Club page.
More things you should know about our complete Core packages:
- The 7 Remarkable Benefits You'll Get from a Sonlight® Core Program
- Why do we call it CORE when it doesn't include Language Arts or Math?
- Core Curriculum Scope and Sequence
- Core package Themes by Course Number
- Relative Difficulty Levels of Sonlight's Core Curricula
- How Can I Possibly Use a K Program with a Second Grader? What Makes a Sonlight Curriculum® Program Useful for Multiple Grades?
