AP American History - Advice Wanted!

[ViolaMum]

I'm doing American History next year with all of my kids. If at all possible, I'd like my oldest (10th grade) to work toward the AP exam.

What have you used? Did you student feel prepared for the exam? How did your student score?

Here's what I have planned. Thoughts?

Our spine is going to be Land of Hope. The teacher text comes out at the end of the month, and there's also a class at Hillsdale College (free! and online). For the AP component, Khan Academy has a course and there are loads of test prep books and materials. I'm thinking she could do a course with me in conjunction with Khan or another test prep book. (I have absolutely ZERO AP experience, though. I grew up in a small town that didn't offer ap any classes and I've never taught any in my short stint in PS music classes. Is that a reasonable expectation? I've read that the history tests in particular are written and graded from a Progressive viewpoint so if I teach from any other point of view, my student may suffer. Again, not sure how accurate that it, but it sounds plausible. I figure the Land of Hope may be on the wrong side of the political viewpoint of the tests, hence the need to combine.)

Along with American History, we're doing Veritas Press Omnibus III (Primary only, but it includes a lot of political writings) and her local Literature teacher is doing American Lit next year, so she'll have a solid writing component. I'm teaching American Music next year, for our IRL homeschooling friends, too.

On top of that, we live in New England, so we have loads of field trip and living history options that we are planning to take. One of my closest friends is homeschooling her 8th grader and we're planning to do History together. She's a great resource - she was a History major, did Revolutionary War-era re-enactments and worked in a living History Museum as a "translator" or whatever the term is for people who pretend to live in another era and interact with visitors. It feels like next year will be pretty saturated with American History.