Jackie Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I have History Odyssey, Story of the World, and the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History on hand. My intention is to use one as a "spine" and the others for resources. They each present history in a different order. Any opinions or advice regarding a preferred order? None of them seem to organize by place/culture, which would have been my instinct. It seems like it would allow us to immerse ourselves more, less jumping around. I could certainly reorder to do this - all my resources on Mesopotamia, then Egypt, then on to India or China, Africa, the Americas, Greece, Rome... I'm sure I need to fit some other bits in there... Pros or cons for organizing in this manner? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDmom Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I thought history odyssey was organized a little more by culture? It's been a long time since I looked at it--maybe I'm remembering wrong. But IIRC, it schedules both SOTW and Usborne. So if you want to use all 3, it would make sense to use history odyssey as a spine.Eta: I like organizing history by culture. It's why I adore The World in Ancient Times set for middle school. What makes it fun, is that you can use a timeline to track events, and your kids can come back with each culture make connections of what's happening at the same time around the world. SOTW tries to do this for you, but it sticks better when you make your own connections.The only cons for me are skipping around in SOTW and getting to a chapter that says, "remember when...?" But you haven't read the chapter they're referring to. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 HO seems to jump around about as much as SOTW, just in a different order. When I map it out, it seems very disjointed to me. For anyone who has used it, did it feel scattered in practice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelucc Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I'd be interested to know more. I'm trying to figure out how to plan it all out without jumping around. :huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I reorganized SOTW 1 by region. I did Mesopotamia as the first region for obvious reasons then I made sure we did the Greeks earlier as they peak before Rome and influence it. We did the Romans last because SOTW 1 ends with discussing what the Romans left Western Culture and SOTW 2 starts with a recap of the Fall of the Roman Empire. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 We've used HO through Early Modern (using now). It's organized by civilization...as they arose in history. Having said that, some cultures were so long-lived that they are studied more than once. Usborne is our spine, but I use the SOTW activity guide as a resource for planning (book suggestions). HO pulls chapters from across the SOTW text (as well as Usborne) and groups them together. HO also tries to include all of the Usborne text, which includes some pretty small civilizations. The dates for these smaller civilizations can span hundreds of years, so they are often included in context of how they related to larger civilizations around the same time period. Every once in a while, you get a jump in geography, but typically the civilizations are more or less in the same general geographic region. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Is this not more or less how HO organizes? Egypt breaks into the study of the Mesopotamian region, but that's because it was so longed lived. If you want to group all of Egypt together, I guess you could do that, but there's a couple thousand years difference from it's beginning to end. Same with China. Plus, if you're studying only ancient times, you wouldn't study all of China at once. I have History Odyssey, Story of the World, and the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History on hand. My intention is to use one as a "spine" and the others for resources. They each present history in a different order. Any opinions or advice regarding a preferred order? None of them seem to organize by place/culture, which would have been my instinct. It seems like it would allow us to immerse ourselves more, less jumping around. I could certainly reorder to do this - all my resources on Mesopotamia, then Egypt, then on to India or China, Africa, the Americas, Greece, Rome... I'm sure I need to fit some other bits in there... Pros or cons for organizing in this manner? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paceofnature Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 We are planning on using Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World as our spine for next year. I like how it is organized by culture...I wish it included Ancient China, Africa and India, but I will just plan on adding those in along the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzanne in ABQ Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 I can see how presenting by culture could work well in the Ancient times, because, for the most part, one culture followed another. However, it would break down if you were trying to see how one culture affected the development of another. For instance, Egypt rose and fell from prominence several times, with the Greeks taking over in the later kingdom. Then Rome conquering it. If you didn't study Greece and Rome along with Egypt, it might be difficult to explain where Cleopatra came from, or what Antony and Julius Caesar were doing there. This becomes even more evident in later history when Europe and Arabia and China were all rising to power separately, at the same time. I believe that that is why most history texts seem to jump around so much. They are attempting to show how the various cultures interacted and affected each other. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndOfOrdinary Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 We did it by cultural region, but pulled out a timeline that had everything split up so Ds could actually see the overlapping components. It was crazy doing it by time period. Made both our heads blow up. Without the timeline at all, Ds started seeming to think that it was like one group of people just morphed into the next, or that the world was blank in a region until we talked about it. So we do timeline stuff here and there, but cultural for the most part. Our order: Mesopotamia, Indus River Valley, India, Egypt, Minor Mention of Minoans, Biblical Lands, Quick hello to the Persians, Africa, Americas, Greece, Rome Ds directly said he could care less about China and did not want to do China. Ditto on Vikings. Well, okay then. I told him he would definitely have to learn about China and Vikings, but not necessarily this year. Our Americas study was a bit more cursory as we will be returning in earnest with the Spanish during the Age of Exploration and just camp out a bit discussing the American cultures. This is also true of later studies in Africa. I am personally not quite ready yet to really get into all of the wonderful things that Europeans did to African cultures during the Age of Exploration, but when we get there our cultural information will be much stronger and go back quite a ways. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Doesn't it? We studied those civilizations with our copy. http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20History - Weeks 28-31, roughly pages 60 to 71 in Usborne Ancients We are planning on using Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World as our spine for next year. I like how it is organized by culture...I wish it included Ancient China, Africa and India, but I will just plan on adding those in along the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 HO is more or less organized by culture/region but still in a chronological order that makes sense. It pulls various chapters from across SOTW and links them together by civilization. Egypt pops up a couple of different times, but that's because it was so long-lived. I think it's important to organize in way so as to understand how one civilization gave rise to another and realize the interplay between them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paceofnature Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Doesn't it? We studied those civilizations with our copy. http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20History - Weeks 28-31, roughly pages 60 to 71 in Usborne Ancients No, the book we will be using is different. It's the 400 pg Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 We did it by cultural region, but pulled out a timeline that had everything split up so Ds could actually see the overlapping components. It was crazy doing it by time period. Made both our heads blow up. Without the timeline at all, Ds started seeming to think that it was like one group of people just morphed into the next, or that the world was blank in a region until we talked about it. So we do timeline stuff here and there, but cultural for the most part. Our order: Mesopotamia, Indus River Valley, India, Egypt, Minor Mention of Minoans, Biblical Lands, Quick hello to the Persians, Africa, Americas, Greece, Rome Ds directly said he could care less about China and did not want to do China. Ditto on Vikings. Well, okay then. I told him he would definitely have to learn about China and Vikings, but not necessarily this year. Our Americas study was a bit more cursory as we will be returning in earnest with the Spanish during the Age of Exploration and just camp out a bit discussing the American cultures. This is also true of later studies in Africa. I am personally not quite ready yet to really get into all of the wonderful things that Europeans did to African cultures during the Age of Exploration, but when we get there our cultural information will be much stronger and go back quite a ways. This sounds like what I have in mind. DD is early elementary and I have no need for her to understand how one civilization gave rise to another at this age. I want to engage her in the culture of different places. We'll almost certainly revisit ancient history when she is older and we can approach is differently then. I do intend to use a timeline so she can see that piece of the puzzle. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahamamama Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I have History Odyssey, Story of the World, and the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History on hand. My intention is to use one as a "spine" and the others for resources. They each present history in a different order. Any opinions or advice regarding a preferred order? None of them seem to organize by place/culture, which would have been my instinct. It seems like it would allow us to immerse ourselves more, less jumping around. I could certainly reorder to do this - all my resources on Mesopotamia, then Egypt, then on to India or China, Africa, the Americas, Greece, Rome... I'm sure I need to fit some other bits in there... Pros or cons for organizing in this manner? I asked this same question a few weeks back, because I think that for a first pass, a regional/cultural approach would work better for us (both for implementation & retention). HTH. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/541935-does-this-exist-non-chronological-ancient-history-civilizations-approach/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 There's a 400-page book all about Ancients?! I had no clue. ETA: Just checked it out. All this time I thought this one was just another version of the smaller one. Cool...thanks! No, the book we will be using is different. It's the 400 pg Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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