Narrowing the Fine Science of TruthQuest History Planning (Part 2)....

Yesterday, I explained how I originally planned TruthQuest History (TQ).  However, after finishing our first year of using TQ, I knew I needed to do some tweaking. This past year, we continued with TruthQuest, using American History for Young Students II.  Again, I made a chart because I am a big picture kind of gal.  Only this time, I tried to stick to resources I thought we may use rather than listing the reading from all possible spines.  Column 1, listed the TQ Table of Contents.  Columns 2-3 were readings from spines that I considered.  (BTW, once implementing the plan, I assigned RileyAnn This Country of Ours and I did not end up using The Story of the Great Republic.)  Columns 4-6 indicated books that aligned with other publishers.  And, Column 7 included books listed in the TQ guide that I was considering from our personal library.

I then went back and highlighted potential Read Aloud books in yellow, books that could be assigned to RileyAnn in teal, and books that could be assigned to Ruben in green.  Here is a sample of the first page of the chart...

American History – 1800-1865

Table of Contents	This Country of Ours	Story of the Great Republic	Beautiful Feet Early American Western Expansion History of California Geography	Sonlight – SL Bonnie’s Timeline – BA Veritas Press - VP	Time Traveler 19th Century & Civil War	TQ Books on our shelves
1. Avocados. Yes! Avocados!
2. New Capital – Washington, D.C.					X
Building of Wash.						*Story of the U.S. Capital *Story of the White House *Child’s History of Art
Tour of Wash….
Art of the Early Republic Era
3. Land-a-Rama! Lewis & Clark	Ch 66-68	Ch X			X
Louisiana Purchase				The Louisiana Purchase – BA *Louisiana Purchase – BA
L & C Expedition			*Of Courage Undaunted: Across the Continent with Lewis and Clark	*The Lewis & Clark Expedition – SL *My Name is York – BA *Lewis & Clark, Explorers of the American West – BA *How We Crossed the West, The Adventures of Lewis & Clark *Off the Map – BA		*Meriwether Lewis *Story of the Lewis & Clark Expedition *Meriwether Lewis *Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery *We Were There with Lewis & Clark *Bold Journey *Adventure of Lew & Cla
Sacagawea			The Story of Sacajawea, Guide to Lewis and Clark	Streams to the River, River to the Sea – SL – BA		*Picture Book of Sacagawea *Winged Moccasins
Seaman, Dog of Lewis				Seaman – VP		Captain’s Dog
Activities			The Lewis & Clark Expedition Coloring Book			Lewis & Clark for Kids
Zebulon Pike

Based on the chart and again our three 12-week term study, I broke our history study into three sections: Term 1, Lewis & Clark, included TQ sections 1-9; Term 2, Western Expansion, included TQ sections 10-32; and Term 3, Civil War, included TQ sections 33-49 (end).  From there, I tried to narrow my book choices, knowing we couldn't read everything listed.  

Next, I created another chart, in which I attempted to divide the books into daily readings. The first year I used TQ, we read a tremendous amount of books.  This time around, I aimed to read fewer books, three per day, rather than four, but, making sure to read the best books.  I focused heavily on books recommended in the Beautiful Feet guides and Sonlight.  I thought scheduling each book would give me a better grasp on our time spent on history.  However, part way through the first term, I started to feel the noose around my neck because if we missed a day, our whole schedule was off.  Instead, from there out, I printed blank charts and filled in the reading as we went along.  Here's a sample of this chart....
 

Week	Resource Title	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
1	The Story of Eli Whitney	Pg 5-16	17-25	26-33	34-49	50-62
	Carry On, Mr. Bowditch	Ch 1	2	3	4	5
	The Year of the Horseless Carriage: 1801	Intro – p 24
	A Head Full of Notions		Ch 1-2	3-4	5-6
	Benjamin West & His Cat Grimalkin					Ch 1-2
2	The Story of Eli Whitney	Pg 63-69	70-83	84-98	99-117	118-132
	Carry On, Mr. Bowditch	Ch 6	7	8	9	10
	Benjamin West & His Cat Grimalkin	Ch 3-4	5-6	7-8	9-10	11-12
3	The Story of Eli Whitney	Pg 133-150	151-162	163-170	171-178	179-end
	Carry On, Mr. Bowditch	Ch 11	12	13	14	15
	Benjamin West & His Cat Grimalkin	Ch 13-14	15-16	17-18	19-20	21-end
4	Carry On, Mr. Bowditch	Ch 16	17	18	19	20
	The Year of the Horseless Carriage: 1801	27-31	32-42
	The Louisiana Purchase			1-14	15 – end
	Open the Door to Liberty					Whole
	Diary of an American Boy	Intro-Ch 1	2	3	4	5
5	Carry On, Mr. Bowditch	Ch 21	22	23	24 (end)
	The Year of the Horseless Carriage: 1801	Pg 43-51
	Lewis & Clark (Landmark – SL)		Ch 1	2	3	4
	The Lewis & Clark Expedition – Color Book					Pg 1-8
	Diary of an American Boy	Ch 6	7	8	9
6	Lewis & Clark (Landmark – SL)	Ch 5	6	7	8	9
	Sacajawea, Guide to Lewis & Clark	Ch 1	2	3	4	5
	The Lewis & Clark Expedition – Color Book		Pg 9-17	17-26	27-35	35-40
7	Lewis & Clark (Landmark – SL)	Ch 10	11	12	13	14 (end)
	Sacajawea, Guide to Lewis & Clark	Ch 6	7	8	9	10 (end)
	The Lewis & Clark Expedition – Color Book	Pg 41-end
	My Name is York		Whole
	The Year of the Horseless Carriage: 1801			Pg 52-64	67-77	78-end

 
In addition, I altered our history notebooking process by no longer printing coloring sheets and pre-made notebooking pages.  As an alternative, each student was given a composition notebook, in which they entered copy work, narrations, illustrations, maps, etc.   This was more work on the child's part, hopefully helping them to build their own connections rather than me piecing it together for them.     

Now, truth be told, we didn't finish our history study this year...GASP! ;-)  There were so many great books in our Term 2, Western Expansion, that we decided to camp out long into Term 3.  Therefore, we did not make it through the Civil War as I had originally planned.  Instead, we've extended our history study into summer, tying up loose ends from Term 2 and dipping our toes into Term 3.  This fall, we will pick up the Civil War using Beautiful Feet's new Modern American and World History guide.  

You can view the books we did read using TQ AHFYS II, as well as links to reviews and sample notebooking pages, in three separate posts: Term 1, Term 2, and Term 3.  In the third and final part of this series, I will attempt to pull my TQ planning all together, summarizing and reviewing things I've learned, as well as plans for implementing TQ history this fall.