This past year, I had planned for my two homeschool high school students to take US government and economics for social studies. In Texas, these are semester long classes that count for 1/2 credit each toward graduation on a high school transcript. After looking into various resources, I settled on the Uncle Eric book series for government and economics and the accompanying study guides by Bluestocking Press.
I planned out each semester to be 16 weeks, four days per week. I also decided to incorporate in Crash Course videos, as my girls tend to enjoy them short, engaging, and educational. We started the year with economics, and used the plans. My oldest daughter, 11th grade, really enjoyed the conversational style of the Uncle Eric books. She breezed through the course. My younger daughter, 10th grade, was totally uninterested in economics and gave her assignments in the study guides the least possible effort. Even with her minimal effort on the daily assignments, she still learned enough from the engaging reading and videos to do well on the exams and earn an A in the course.
I combined the lesson plans for these two classes to make a one year plan that includes government and economics and can be found here in my TPT store. The lesson plans do require the purchase of the four Uncle Eric books and four Bluestocking Guides pictured above (book links below are Amazon Affiliate links and I receive compensation if purchases are made through the links):
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy by Richard J. Maybury
A Bluestocking Guide: Economics by Jane A. Williams
The Money Mystery by Richard J. Maybury
A Bluestocking Guide: Solving the Money Mystery by Kathryn Daniels
Whatever Happened to Justice? by Richard J. Maybury
A Bluestocking Guide: Justice by Kathryn Daniels
Are You Liberal? Conservative? Or confused? by Richard J. Maybury
A Bluestocking Guide: Political Philosophies by Jane A. Williams
The lesson plans include readings from the books, video links, and activities from the study guides, including projects and final exams. The plans are for four days per week, leaving a day open for co-op, field trips, or additional assignments that the parent/teacher may want to add. A perk of homeschooling is flexibility to pursue the topic at hand in whichever way is most appealing to your family. I hope the lesson plans work as well for your student(s) as they did for mine!
North Star Homeschool Resources 