How to Easily Teach U.S. Government to Your High Schooler
High school is the perfect time for a deep dive into U.S. history and government with your high schooler. Truth be told, when I dove in with my oldest several years ago, I learned so much myself! (Isn’t that the beautiful thing about homeschooling?)
America has an amazing and complex history. I think it’s so important to instill a good understanding of her history to our kids, but finding great tools isn’t always so easy.
So, when Boundary Stone asked if I would review their U.S. government course, I was happy to check it out and share it with you! I am always looking for ways to simplify big topics like government!
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This article will break down what Boundary Stone’s U.S. government course has to offer, how we are using it in our homeschooling, and the aspects I am loving as a homeschool mom.
I was compensated for my time in writing this review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
How + Why to Teach Your High Schooler about U.S. Government
The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.
Theodore Roosevelt
As homeschoolers, we have a unique opportunity to use an assortment of resources to teach our kids a well-rounded history of our amazing country. There is no other country like America and her history deserves to be preserved and taught. The more our kids know about history, the better place they can make our country going forward–preserving the integrity of our country, while still making it a better and better place.
History is important–the good parts and the not-so-good. It all makes up a story that is uniquely America’s.
What is Boundary Stone U.S. Government?
Boundary Stone offers bundles for your homeschooled high schooler on Basic American Government and Basic Economics. We have been using the government bundle.
These bundles use a combination of text + online course with reading assignments, quizzes, and videos to teach a full comprehension of basic American Government.
Your child will log onto the online course and see each day clearly laid out for them. The course is divided into units. Units cover big idea topics like:
- the constitution
- growing pains of the U.S.
- limited government
Those units each contain two modules.
Each module then contains 8-16 daily lessons, so each module will take a different length of time depending on the number of daily lessons.
Most weeks look like this:
- reading from the online course lesson
- watching a video
- reading from the textbook + textbook assignments
- discussion questions
- quizzes and/or interactive questions
- One day set aside to work on research project
The course includes quizzes and then unit tests as well and you can grade your student as you like.
Each daily lesson is clearly laid out with what your student needs to do and then can check “lesson completed” after each lesson so they can easily stay on track and see how much of the course they’ve completed.
What We’re Loving about Boundary Stone U.S. Government
It’s important that our kids find the resources that we set before them to be engaging and inspiring. It’s also important that they’re easy for you as the homeschool mama to easily track progress and stay current on what your child is working on. With multiple kids, we all know this can be challenging!
That being said, here’s what I’m loving about Boundary Stone’s U.S. Government course:
- It’s so easy for me to check the course and see where Jack is in the course.
- The daily lessons are very clearly laid out and ordered, so it’s great for both him and I to see what needs to be done that day/week.
- It’s simple: just a text and an online course. It would be a great idea for your child to keep a notebook with notes as well.
- The built-in quizzes help me to know that Jack is grasping the material.
- These courses provide one credit for your high schooler.
If you have a homeschool co-op and would like to teach a U.S. government class, Boundary Stone also has bundles designed for co-ops. They include multi-print licenses (so you can distribute the PDF or printed copies of it) for the government study guide (economics study guide is in the textbook) and the study guide suggested answers section of the teacher’s guide for situations where a teacher wants parents to be able to check student work at home.
History is Important
The U.S. Constitution is the main theme of this course, as is the main foundation of our country. Through this course, your student will become very familiar with the organization and the content of the the Constitution.
By the end of this course, Boundary Stone’s goal is for your child to understand the historical reasons for the design of the U.S. government and what the Founders expected when they designed it.
Another thing I love is that students will learn to discuss how our U.S. government has grown to what it is today and how that impacts us as citizens. They will also learn about policy issues, policy proposals, and how those decisions impact us as well.
Politics can be a very heated area of discussion, but this course will teach students how to keep up on current events: federal, state, and local and be able to discuss them in a civil and courteous manner. Boundary Stone recognizes the varying opinions of these topics and how students have have these varied opinions and still discuss them civilly.
Giveaway + a Coupon Code for You!
Sign up below to win a giveaway from Boundary Stone:
OR: Use coupon code StoneReward2020 to receive 15% off all purchases. Valid through 8/23/2020.
More Help for Teaching U.S. Government to Your High Schooler
- Check out Boundary Stone’s Government & Economics curriculum page
- Check out their Freebies Page:
- download the Budget Project Mini-course
- The Law Mini-course
- and soon-to-be-released Dinner Table Economics which will include short videos and a handout with discussion starter questions on economic topics.
- You can also sign up for their newsletter HERE.
More on Homeschooling Your High Schooler:
- Curriculum for Junior Year
- ACT Prep for Your High Schooler
- Editor in Chief for Your High Schooler
- WriteShop for High School Writers
- Homeschooling High School: Our 9th Grade Resources
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