Talk to me about SWB's high school history series, please

[johnandtinagilbert]

Have you used it? Did you like it? Thoughts, please.

[emubird]

Fill me in -- have I missed something? Did she write some books for high schoolers?

[johnandtinagilbert]

There are 2 out so far:

Ancient World and Medieval World

 

It's my understanding she intends on finishing 4 volumes. I'm hoping TOG will add them in!

[kate in seattle]

Those books are HUGE.

 

I had my high school history/lit class read about 200 pages a week from the great books and maybe, in the course of a year, 200 pages of Western Civ (which included LOTS of maps, pictures, summaries, end of chapter questions, etc.)

 

If you are going to add in a 700 page spine, you are going to have to cut out that many pages of great books.

 

For me, in the end, it was not worth it. But I am more 'great books' oriented, rather than 'SWB classical"

[MamaT]

Those books are HUGE.

 

I had my high school history/lit class read about 200 pages a week from the great books and maybe, in the course of a year, 200 pages of Western Civ (which included LOTS of maps, pictures, summaries, end of chapter questions, etc.)

 

If you are going to add in a 700 page spine, you are going to have to cut out that many pages of great books.

 

For me, in the end, it was not worth it. But I am more 'great books' oriented, rather than 'SWB classical"

 

:iagree: I started reading The Medieval World a while back to preview for my ds for next year. It is just too much, too heavy feeling if you will, for us. He has quite a load next year with his Great Books study, so I am going to stick with our Western Civ. text and some Teaching Company dvds for history.

[johnandtinagilbert]

WOWZA! I ordered the Ancients one from my library to check it out. I'll have to see just how heavy the tone. I'm perfectly content with TOG as is :) Just looking about for my learning pleasure. Thought I could read one each summer, before I teach the topic and enjoy the reading, as opposed to a more encyclopedic approach.

[Tiramisu]

We used History of the Ancient World this year with different supplements. (That's the fancy way of saying we jumped around a lot until we decided on HoAW. :lol:)

 

There is a lot of detail in History of the Ancient World. I don't know how much dd will remember. It will be wonderful when SWB comes out with a guide for them to give people like me a clue as to what's really worth remembering. When I gave her the test that was put together by someone on the this board, I really had to help her going through the study guide to make sure she knew her stuff. I don't think she would have done well without the study guide. It was that much. That test covered the first few units of the book. Since I don't have a test for the rest of the book. I decided to try to figure out what was worth knowing by going through History Odyssey by Spielvogel, which dd has also read parts of. So far I've made an outline of the Greek unit to go through with her, and then I'll give her an exam based on it. It was easy for me to do it that way since I have Spielvogel's unit reviews to use as a guide.

 

Dd enjoyed HoAW. She even said it helped her answer a question on the National Latin Exam. My only reservation about it is the couple of references to things of an adult nature. For that reason, I may not use it with my other children when they are in high school. Dd is interested in HoMW, but I think I'll preview that first. I'm rather conservative, so this might not bother other people too much.

[johnandtinagilbert]

We used History of the Ancient World this year with different supplements. (That's the fancy way of saying we jumped around a lot until we decided on HoAW. :lol:)

 

There is a lot of detail in History of the Ancient World. I don't know how much dd will remember. It will be wonderful when SWB comes out with a guide for them to give people like me a clue as to what's really worth remembering. When I gave her the test that was put together by someone on the this board, I really had to help her going through the study guide to make sure she knew her stuff. I don't think she would have done well without the study guide. It was that much. That test covered the first few units of the book. Since I don't have a test for the rest of the book. I decided to try to figure out what was worth knowing by going through History Odyssey by Spielvogel, which dd has also read parts of. So far I've made an outline of the Greek unit to go through with her, and then I'll give her an exam based on it. It was easy for me to do it that way since I have Spielvogel's unit reviews to use as a guide.

 

Dd enjoyed HoAW. She even said it helped her answer a question on the National Latin Exam. My only reservation about it is the couple of references to things of an adult nature. For that reason, I may not use it with my other children when they are in high school. Dd is interested in HoMW, but I think I'll preview that first. I'm rather conservative, so this might not bother other people too much.

Thank you.

[Liza Q]

Even though I used the first book for ancient History with my daughters I did not think that it was designed for High School :confused: Is that how SWB is marketing it?

[johnandtinagilbert]

Even though I used the first book for ancient History with my daughters I did not think that it was designed for High School :confused: Is that how SWB is marketing it?

 

from the website, "Susan Wise Bauer's history book for high schoolers and adults!"

[JayneJ]

We started reading the Ancient book outloud as a family. Both of my kids are in elementary-middle school level studies so we read a few paragraphs and then discuss/talk about it as a family. They are very jammed back and written in a wonderful historical but also story-like style. I am not sure I would use them for high school history unless my child was going to be majoring in history for college or had a love for history. If using them for high school you pretty much have to have your student write essays about this or that. There are no discussion questions or pointers. Personally, I love the footnotes and author's comments as well. The book gives the reader a full picture of history not just a picture of history from one belief or worldview.