What is American Heritage Education Foundation?
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.
I received the free CD An Adventure in Liberty from American Heritage Education Foundation to review. The curriculum is divided into three levels: elementary, middle school, and high school. I focused mainly on the elementary level since most of my children are elementary school aged. The elementary level is divided into 14 units. Each unit focuses on one topic such as The Declaration of Independence, The Star-Spangled Banner, Thanksgiving, George Washington, or the Great Seal. Each of these topics also illustrates one of the four themes: Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility.
The program was designed for classroom use, so there are a lot of group activities suggested. Many of these can be adapted to the homeschool setting, though a few would require a larger group, like a co-op.There is great variety in the activities suggested. There are simple cut and paste activities like putting the pieces of the Declaration of Independence in order. There are also some crosswords, word searches, and coloring pages. The quality of the printable resources is average or below average. I think it would be relatively easy to find better resources on-line.
My favorite of the activities is a role-playing activity called the Independence Game. Students are assigned roles (such as king, parliament, colonist, etc.) and are given money and goods to trade. There are specific events that the students can use for simulations. This is one of the activities that obviously require a large group of students.
What do I like about An Adventure in Liberty?
- Very clear learning objectives
- The variety of suggested activities
- The overall emphasis and spirit of the program
How will I use An Adventure in Liberty?
Since we study history using a 4 year chronological history cycle, we don’t spend as much time on American History as public schools, or those using more traditional curriculum. Because of this, I have found that there are some "gaps". Things like learning the Pledge of Allegiance have been missed. This curriculum will serve as a reminder of topics we need to make sure that we cover, as well as providing the structure to do it.
If you are interested in An Adventure in Liberty, go to the American Heritage Education Foundation website, and order your free copy. For more reviews of the American Heritage Education Foundation, visit the Homeschool Crew Blog.
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.