Right now Princess and Eldest may only be in Junior High but it’s definitely time to plan for High School NOW with free resources for High School Government. We are still trying to keep our homeschool budget at zero or as close to as possible to show other families you don’t have to be rich to homeschool!
So far I have found a handful of free resources for High School Government available online. I bet if you check your local library you will find some books related to Government as well!
The Bill of Rights Institute educates young people about the words and ideas of America’s Founders, the liberties guaranteed in our Founding documents, and how our Founding principles continue to affect and shape a free society. There site has so much great content and they have an entire section of FREE lesson plans for educators. There are political cartoons, primary source documents, and questions to help your students understand constitutional issues.
Center for Civic Education is a non profit organization with 3 main goals to give students: (1) an increased understanding of the institutions of constitutional democracy and the fundamental principles and values upon which they are founded, (2) the skills necessary to participate as competent and responsible citizens, and (3) the willingness to use democratic procedures for making decisions and managing conflict. There are free lesson plans, podcasts, daily quizzes and much more!
With What So Proudly We Hail, educators Amy A. Kass and Leon R. Kass demonstrate how story, speech, and song can be used to enhance civic education and how a pedagogical approach that stresses learning through inquiry can make primary sources come alive for students of all ages.
Ben’s Guide to the US Government is a website created to inform students, parents, and educators about our nation’s Federal government, history, and political structure. There is a Learning Adventures section specifically geared towards students ages 14 and up.
The Constitution for Kids gives a brief explanation of how the Constitution is the framing document of our country. There are 3 different levels of information and activities: ages K-3, ages 4-7, and ages 8-12. While this website is lacking in bells and whistles, I found it to have very pertinent links for a student who is doing serious study of the Constitution and why it matters to each and every American.
The Oklahoma Homeschool website has several unit study plans available to homeschool families. One of them is a 12-week study of American Government. The President & Elections lesson plan lists the current president as George Bush, so you will want to change that part of the lesson plan to make it accurate and current. There are many, many ideas you can use from the lesson pages as independent lessons if you don’t want to make a unit study of this topic.
Cool! We are studying government right now, and these websites will come in handy in our study!
Thanks for sharing at Home Sweet Home!
We used and thoroughly enjoyed the courses offered through Hillsdale: https://online.hillsdale.edu/dashboard/courses