Any History Suggestions to finish out High School US History or Other

[nitascool]

My second ds will be going into 7^th grade this year. He devours History books like they are cookies.

In History he has already read Story of the World 1-4, every book on SWB’s list of History books for K-8^th grade and every other history book in our children’s section of the public library. And he could tell you more than you would like to know about just about every era he has studied. At the end of last year he started reading (for fun) Ancient History of the World. We just let him read it… no writing required.

He’ll be reading Ancient History of the World again and doing the Study Guide this year (exactly what I will be requiring of my 9^th grader) and Medieval History of the World next year. When he gets to high school he is required to do three years of Social Studies. I don’t really want to make him repeat so what should I do with him for history? I was thinking maybe US history. He read the entire History of US in 6^th grade so I would need something a bit more advanced. Any Suggestions?

[Luckymama]

Social studies is sooooo much more than history!

 

To name a few: psychology, economics, anthropology, archaeology, geography, government, comparative politics...

 

Within each disciplines there are sub-categories, like micro- and macro-economics and physical and human (cultural/political) geography. Some disciplines have corresponding AP classes, like AP Psychology, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, and AP Human Geography.

 

A good might be two years of history (world and US--both have AP tests) and two years of other social studies topics. If the student loves a topic, additional courses could be added as electives.

 

My son studied world history (over two years), AP US History, AP US government, and AP Psychology. My older daughter studied world history (one year), AP US History, AP Psychology, and child psychology.

 

My rising ninth grader has a very strong interest in ancient history and archaeology. This year she will be studying ancient world history (basically a survey through 300ish AD; designed by me), intro to archaeology (also designed by me), and AP Human Geography (small group of three kids; I wrote the syllabus for official approval). Her two electives are additional "social studies" courses :)

[JennW in SoCal]

In addition to all the great suggestions by Luckmama, how about specializing in a period of history or a particular geographic area?  Don't let the "1 year of US history and 1 year of world history" box you into thinking you MUST repeat a general history survey for both.  You can specialize, let your son go deep into whatever aspect of history fascinates him.  It could be Asian history, the Napoleonic Wars, music history, science history.  I organized a US History course around theater and movies for one ds, for instance.  

 

Look into works by popular authors such as David McCullough, Simon Winchester or Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson's book on 1927 would make a great spring board for a study of 20th century America.  David McCullough has all those wonderful works on the founding fathers but also has works on periods and topics such as the Panama Canal. Or consider starting with one of the many Ken Burns documentary series as a starting point.  These authors and the film maker all have an infectious love of history and are great role models for researching something they find interesting, and presenting it in a clear, interesting manner.   

 

Consider the WTM approach and treat history as a series of research topics for writing a context paper about each major work of literature you are going to study.  Look at all the teaching company offerings under history and pick one or two of them to flesh out your son's own reading and research.  

 

Most of all have fun with it. 

[nitascool]

Thank you for your suggestions ladies.