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I was so excited to get All American History II in the mail to review as part of the Old Schoolhouse Crew. It’s a complete American history program that covers the Civil War through the 1990’s. The curriculum contains 32 lessons that are easily adapted to a multi-age environment; I’d say K-12. I probably would do something like this when your oldest is 5th or 6th and adapt it for younger children. The publisher states that it’s written at a Jr. High level but adaptable lower and higher.
The lessons are easy to read and at the end of each section there are “reviews” that could be graded as well as “further study questions” that also could easily be done in written form and graded.
One of the features that make this curriculum stand out in my opinion is the worksheets that go with each lesson. They are really more like notebooking then workbooking. By that I mean it’s not so much a fill in the blank guided answer as spaces to put down the important events, timelines, key figures etc… in your own words. What I also like about these is that many have maps included right on them! I get so tired of searching for maps or honestly we often leave them out and not so with this curriculum. All American makes maps easy!
The sheets also tend to keep my kids busy as I read. There are often photos of key figures and flags of countries to cut out and paste in. Now I do have to say my daughters age 9 and 11 like this feature more than my boys ages 14 and 16. The 16 year old tolerates it but I pretty much have to make the 14 year old do it. I’m not sure if it’s an age or gender issue but I think its great reinforcement so we did/do it.
I’m not sure that a short review can really do this curriculum justice as it’s quite comprehensive! You really do want to get the student activity book, reader and teachers guide. The teachers guide has all your answer keys as well as suggested additional reading by age level and other recommend added activities by ages. The student activity book has all the notepages, maps, key figure pictures and reproducibles.
There are special pages and suggestions if you want to do a Native American notebook, war battle pages (civil, WWI etc...), and president pages.
Please ask questions if there is anything I haven’t answered about this curriculum. You may want to bookmark the blog as well as we’ll be using All American for much of our history after the 1st of the year and I’ m sure I’ll have blogs to write as we go along!
Can I think of any negatives? This is tough! I really have a hard time coming up with any. For some it may seem costly and though it is from a Christian perspective it’s not quite as apparent as for instance Mystery of History curriculum. That’s not necessarily a negative but something some might want to know.
I highly encourage you to check this one out! It’ available from Bright Ideas Press. All three are $68 and they are also available priced individually. On the website they also have sample pages so you can see for yourself. | 
