As a reviewer for TOS Homeschool Crew, I was asked to provide a review for American Heritage Education Foundation. I was sent a CD, America’s Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty which is a K-12 lesson plan resource for social studies & civic education. The lessons are divided into Elementary, Elementary Spanish, Middle, and High School units which are based on the themes of freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility.

The mission statement of AHEF directly from
the American Heritage Education Foundation website is as follows:

“Our Mission
AHEF is a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation dedicated to the understanding and teaching of America’s factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship and Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility among our students and citizens.

AHEF accomplishes this patriotic mission by writing, producing, and distributing FREE K-12 lesson plans to teachers, students, and families in all 50 states and through additional initiatives, programs, and partnerships.”

We reviewed the elementary level of the curriculum which included the following topics:
# American Heritage Themes
# Colonial American: Causes of the American Revolution
# Declaration of Independence
# A Famous Signature
# George Washington: Our First President
# The U.S. Presidents
# The Great Seal
# The History of Thanksgiving Day
# The United States Flag
# The Star Spangled Banner
# The National Motto
# The Statue of Liberty
# The Pledge of Allegiance and Creed
# America The Beautiful
# What is An American?
# Teacher Resources: Religious Expression in American Schools
# Character Education

You can look at, as well as download, the elementary lessons from their website at http://www.americanheritage.org/elementary.html. Likewise, you can find the other lesson plans for each of the grade levels at http://www.americanheritage.org/k-12_lessons.html by clicking on the link within the text on that web page.

I am using these lessons to supplement the social studies curriculum that we are currently using in our home. I like that the lessons include a diversity of historical material that is significant to our country. It also does a good job of providing small lesson plans that you can add to any studies that you are currently doing. Also, it does not require you to do each lesson or even to do them in order that the are presented.

Best of all it is a FREE resource available to you from American Heritage Education Foundation. You can download the lessons from their website or request a CD to be sent to you. If you want a printed copy of the material you can purchase the printed material for $19.50 per level.
You can go here to the order form at their website if you wish to request a free cd of their lesson plans or to purchase a printed copy.

Visit the American Heritage Education Foundation website to find out more about AHEF and to check out other resources available to you from them.

Filed under: Home, TOS Crew by Barbara
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