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Using great courses as a full HS History credit


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We used the audio version of Ancient Workd History: A Global Persoective. I added region-specific books from the library. We have a very good library system; many of the books we used are used as textbooks at our state flagship university.

 

I'm traveling right now (college stuff) but I'd be happy to share the books once I'm home with the computer.

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We did the first half of US History using the GC History of the US and supplemented with Hakim Books. I did skip some lectures; we used the discussion questions from the course guide as writing and discussion prompts. I have the CLEP practice tests for this section of US History and she has done quite well on them using just these two resources. We've done it this way to check the US History box for college and still let her do her four year world history sequence she prefers. It's basically taking up and elective credit but she really wants to do all four years of world history too. This seemed the most economical way. She might take the CLEP test next year. She will take the second half over the late spring/summer probably.

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Not world, exactly, but we're using Philip Daileader's GC lectures (3 sets, each with 24 lectures) on the Middle Ages for ninth grade this year. In our case, they're the supplement, so we use History Odyssey's Level 3 plans as the main plans, which incorporates writing, reading, and literature, plus I added additional biographies/primary sources. DD absolutely loves the GC lectures, and if I'd known that, I might have built the year around them more instead of fitting them in where I could, if that makes sense.

Edited by happypamama
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We split world history in three years, this is what we used each year in addition to literature:

Ancients:

The Iliad (12 lectures), The Odyssey (12 lectures), The Aeneid (12 lectures), Classical Mythology (24 lectures) all by Prof. Elizabeth Vandiver; Famous Romans (24 Lectures, Prof. Rufus Fears); Great Battles of the Ancient World (24 lectures, Prof. John W. Lee);

The Persian Empire (24 lectures, Prof. Garrett Fagan). 

 

 

Medieval-1850

The Early Middle Ages, The High Middle Ages, The Late Middle Ages (72 lectures, Prof. Philip Daileader); The Italian Renaissance (36 lectures, Prof. Kenneth Bartlett); The Vikings (36 lectures, Prof. Kenneth Harl); Dante’s Divine Comedy (15 lectures, Profs. William Cook and Ronald Herzman); Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon (48 lectures, Prof Suszanne Desan).

 

 

 

20th century:

Textbooks:  A Short History of the 20th Century by Geoffrey Blainey.

The student listened to the following audio lectures by the Teaching Company:

World War I: The Great War (36 lectures, Prof. Vejas Liulevicius)

World War II: A Military and Social History (30 lectures, Prof. Thomas Childers)

 

 

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For a second half of US History, I'm going to use Critical Thinking Press's 2nd US history (detective) book, the GC Us History lectures (2nd half), and reading from a few spine books. I definitely think you need to add some reading to round out the audio/video lectures.

 

Mine will probably mostly only do the writing in the US History Detective book and/or summaries from the spine(s) and not much more because most of her writing will be in her Lit/Comp class(es) next year. 

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For a second half of US History, I'm going to use Critical Thinking Press's 2nd US history (detective) book, the GC Us History lectures (2nd half), and reading from a few spine books. I definitely think you need to add some reading to round out the audio/video lectures.

 

Mine will probably mostly only do the writing in the US History Detective book and/or summaries from the spine(s) and not much more because most of her writing will be in her Lit/Comp class(es) next year. 

 

I was thinking of doing the same.  We used the first U.S. History Detective when dd was in 8th grade and she liked it a lot and it was so easy for me to use.

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I was thinking of doing the same.  We used the first U.S. History Detective when dd was in 8th grade and she liked it a lot and it was so easy for me to use.

 

Here is a link (Amazon & Critical Thinking Co.) for those who want to see it. (I picked it up for 1/2 price at a going out of business sale.) There are less than 60 lessons - so probably two per week pacing wise for just this one book? (If you use both books, you're looking at more per week if you do them all.) 

 

From just a brief glance, I like it better than the Crit. Thinking in US History books we used for the 1st half of US History. But, it would depend on what you are looking for, I guess. :-)

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FundaFunda has a US History using them, we modified it, but based ours on that one.

 

 

You can find it here - http://fundafunda.com/blog/shop/

 

I developed it for my own kids and figured I would share. I included quite a few "extras" - books and movies and Critical Thinking through US History - and you can pick and choose how much you want to do. My boys both got 5s on the AP exam after doing it exactly as I set it out. I know the exam has changed since then, but as I didn't try to teach to the test anyway, it shouldn't matter. It is just a rigorous walk through US history (though you can make it less rigorous by leaving resources out)

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You can find it here - http://fundafunda.com/blog/shop/

 

I developed it for my own kids and figured I would share. I included quite a few "extras" - books and movies and Critical Thinking through US History - and you can pick and choose how much you want to do. My boys both got 5s on the AP exam after doing it exactly as I set it out. I know the exam has changed since then, but as I didn't try to teach to the test anyway, it shouldn't matter. It is just a rigorous walk through US history (though you can make it less rigorous by leaving resources out)

 

Thank you so much for sharing.  You did a fantastic job.  :)

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You can find it here - http://fundafunda.com/blog/shop/

 

I developed it for my own kids and figured I would share. I included quite a few "extras" - books and movies and Critical Thinking through US History - and you can pick and choose how much you want to do. My boys both got 5s on the AP exam after doing it exactly as I set it out. I know the exam has changed since then, but as I didn't try to teach to the test anyway, it shouldn't matter. It is just a rigorous walk through US history (though you can make it less rigorous by leaving resources out)

 

We are doing your course this year and we love it! I'm doing it with my dd and my friend's ds and they are learning so much. They really like the Critical Thinking book exercises. We're loving watching the movies too! So far the John Adams DVD has been our favorite. We are going to try the AP US History exam this summer. Thank you so much for sharing your work. We're on the Civil War section of the TC lectures right now and I feel like I'm immersed in the war, can't stop thinking about it! I'm from the UK so am not strong in American History and I am learning so much myself.

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We split world history in three years, this is what we used each year in addition to literature:

Ancients:

The Iliad (12 lectures), The Odyssey (12 lectures), The Aeneid (12 lectures), Classical Mythology (24 lectures) all by Prof. Elizabeth Vandiver; Famous Romans (24 Lectures, Prof. Rufus Fears); Great Battles of the Ancient World (24 lectures, Prof. John W. Lee);

The Persian Empire (24 lectures, Prof. Garrett Fagan). 

 

 

Medieval-1850

The Early Middle Ages, The High Middle Ages, The Late Middle Ages (72 lectures, Prof. Philip Daileader); The Italian Renaissance (36 lectures, Prof. Kenneth Bartlett); The Vikings (36 lectures, Prof. Kenneth Harl); Dante’s Divine Comedy (15 lectures, Profs. William Cook and Ronald Herzman); Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon (48 lectures, Prof Suszanne Desan).

 

 

 

20th century:

Textbooks:  A Short History of the 20th Century by Geoffrey Blainey.

The student listened to the following audio lectures by the Teaching Company:

World War I: The Great War (36 lectures, Prof. Vejas Liulevicius)

World War II: A Military and Social History (30 lectures, Prof. Thomas Childers)

 

 

Would you mind clarifying? Do you mean you split one credit over three years or that you split world history into three credits over three years? I'm presuming the latter. That seems like a lot for just one credit! Thanks for the detailed listing! 

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Would you mind clarifying? Do you mean you split one credit over three years or that you split world history into three credits over three years? I'm presuming the latter. That seems like a lot for just one credit! Thanks for the detailed listing! 

 

We take three whole credits to cover world history over the course of three years, with one credit each for Ancient, Medieval-Modern, 20th century (or slightly different similar split for DD)

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We are doing your course this year and we love it! I'm doing it with my dd and my friend's ds and they are learning so much. They really like the Critical Thinking book exercises. We're loving watching the movies too! So far the John Adams DVD has been our favorite. We are going to try the AP US History exam this summer. Thank you so much for sharing your work. We're on the Civil War section of the TC lectures right now and I feel like I'm immersed in the war, can't stop thinking about it! I'm from the UK so am not strong in American History and I am learning so much myself.

 

Thanks! I am glad it has worked for you. I am South African so also learned the material with my children. We moved here about 14 years ago. That's also when we started homeschooling. 

 

We loved the John Adams DVD too. I watched with my older son and my husband watched with my younger. The Critical Thinking book exercises will help them in the AP. There are lots of places to find review quizzes - take a look on Quizzizz and if you have more than one, Kahoot is fun too. And of course Quizlet. Those are fun ways to go over the detail that might come up.

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From just a brief glance, I like it better than the Crit. Thinking in US History books we used for the 1st half of US History. But, it would depend on what you are looking for, I guess. :-)

 

Would you elaborate please? What do you consider to be the differences between the two materials and why do you prefer the US His. Det.? 

 

I have the first Critical Thinking in US History CD-Rom, but am still curious about about whether US Det. would be better, so I'd appreciate your input since you have experience with both.

 

Thanks

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  • 6 months later...

Just wanted to update on our experience using the Funda Funda schedule. My dd did the APUSH exam and scored a 5. We had a great year learning US History and my dd ( and I) learned a huge amount.

 

 

Just curious...how much of the reading did you do?  I looked at the amount of reading and I KNOW my don would NEVER be able to handle it all....or even most of it.  So I am curious as exactly what parts of the Funda Funda Schedule you followed.

 

thanks.

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Just curious...how much of the reading did you do?  I looked at the amount of reading and I KNOW my don would NEVER be able to handle it all....or even most of it.  So I am curious as exactly what parts of the Funda Funda Schedule you followed.

 

thanks.

 

My dd did not manage all of the reading but did most of it. She reads well but is slowish at reading. The Paul Johnson book is fantastic in my opinion but is not the easiest to read, partly because it isn't split up into chapters. OK I just went to look in the book and realized maybe she didn't quite manage most of it lol! We got up to page 650, which was about the end of WW1 (976 total pages in the book). She found the format of no chapters difficult and slacked off in the middle of the year. She got back into reading it later on and towards the end I read some to her, usually sitting in the bathroom reading while she was in the shower lol! She really felt like she learned a lot from the book, although the TC lectures were great too, and also the Critical Thinking Exercises. We also watched most of the movies and the "Presidents" DVDs and those really helped too.I think you could substitute another book for the readings, depending on your kid's preferences. I did get one of the more usual AP textbooks for her to look at when she was struggling with the Johnson book, but she turned that down and decided to persevere with Johnson.

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Is this fundafunda schedule their online US History class or a specific AP schedule?  I guess I don't understand how fundafunda works.

 

The schedule or plan is available for free on their site. It lists a weekly schedule to follow and all the resources needed. I see that they have a US history course available also but not sure if that follows the free schedule or if it is different.

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You can find it linked from the page here. It is not an AP-approved syllabus. In this case, it is a free schedule offering from the founder of the FundaFunda site - who is a WTM board member, BTW.  :hurray:

Is this fundafunda schedule their online US History class or a specific AP schedule?  I guess I don't understand how fundafunda works.

 

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You can find it linked from the page here. It is not an AP-approved syllabus. In this case, it is a free schedule offering from the founder of the FundaFunda site - who is a WTM board member, BTW. :hurray:

You add to your cart as if you are buying it but it is free. Thanks fundafunda for your generosity.

We're taking another class there, excited.

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Thank you!  Does it prepare well for the AP Exam?

 

I think the amount of information covered, the analysis, and writing done really help get the student ready for the AP exam. In my opinion you also need to do some prep with specific AP prep books to get familiar with the exam format and also strategies for answering and scoring well.

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Just wanted to update on our experience using the Funda Funda schedule. My dd did the APUSH exam and scored a 5. We had a great year learning US History and my dd ( and I) learned a huge amount.

 

 

Thank you!  Does it prepare well for the AP Exam?

 

I quoted tcb's post saying that they certainly felt so. I can't speak to that because 1) I tweak(ed) it too much to say we used the actual schedule & 2) DD hasn't ever taken an AP test & probably won't. 

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