I think I will start this review with the mission statement from American Heritage Education Foundation's home page, as well as, a quote from Thomas Jefferson.
"American Heritage Education Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation (501.c.3) 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.
American Heritage Education Foundation 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."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." ~Thomas Jefferson
"Our founding fathers also emphasized that a democratic republic cannot survive without a high degree of literacy and knowledge" ~Dr. Richard Gonzalez, co-founder American Heritage Educational Foundation
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." ~James Madison
I think that it is very sad that as a whole we Americans have "lost" our history. It has been said that if we don't know our history, we are doomed to repeat it. It has also been said that history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. Our schools are teaching part truths when it comes to American history, and children accept it for truth. We can't see that we are losing precious truth, with each generation. The American Heritage Education Foundation is stepping into the gap, and providing the missing pieces to our history with their America's Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty curriculum.
Let me tell you a little about it. Each level (Elementary, Middle School, and High School) has the same basic format and includes some of the same lesson's written with varying degrees of difficulty. Some of the Elementary lessons include: The Declaration of Independence, George Washington, Thanksgiving, the US Flag, and the Statue of Liberty. Middle School lessons include: Live, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor, The Bill of Rights, The Gettysburg Address, and The Pledge of Allegiance. High School lessons include: the Mayflower Compact, Federalist 47, The First Amendment, Our National Documents. Each lesson is built upon at least one of these themes: Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility. The Unit lesson plans contain: the purpose, objective, theme, core knowledge (elementary) and NCSS (middle and high school), time and materials required, prep required, and focus. The units also contain activities that are appropriate for each level using a variety of activities and include lots of extras like: charts, pictures, songs, games, puzzles, bookmarks, finger puppets, vocabulary worksheets, role playing activities, and journaling worksheets.
I believe that our American Heritage needs to be preserved, and taught to our children, they need to know that our nation was built on Biblical values, why the Pilgrims came here, what our forefathers believed, and what our founding documents say and do not say. It is also important to know and to not forget the sacrifices that were made and the lives given for our freedom. Freedom isn't free and we must never forget. I am thankful to the American Heritage Educational Foundation, and others who are preserving and teaching our true history. We will be using this curriculum in our homeschool, and you may want to, too or you may want it for a resource.
To download this curriculum visit the American Heritage Education Foundation's website. There are also printed binders available for purchase if you prefer for $19.95 each.
Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.
