These are textbooks from educational publishing company K12 that we have been using to study world history during the past 17 months. There are three volumes: Volume 1: Prehistory to the Middle Ages Volume 2: Middle Ages through 1914 Volume 3: 1914 to the present We found out about these books from Well Trained Mind. We are just about to finish Volume 2. The books are comprehensive and very readable. One volume can be covered in 5 to 9 months -- more if you supplement with outside books and movies. There are a few threads here on Well Trained Mind about supplemental materials. We baked a Greek meal, read excerpts from the Oxford University Press history books, and watched the movies "Spartacus," "Gladiator," and "Roots," but otherwise have not done much supplementing so far. We will do more in Volume 3. (I am a World War II history buff.) I only have two complaints. First, I would have liked more coverage of prehistory before Sumer. Second, Volume 1 states that Muhammad al Khwarizmi invented Algebra, which is not true. These, however, are quibbles. The books are affordable. Right now you can buy a used copy of Volume 1 on Amazon.com for $4.00. You can buy a used copy of Volume 2 for $3.47. You can buy a full online course through K12 for several hundred dollars, but the books are all you need. We purchased the full online course last year and rarely used it. The books are secular, but can be used by anyone. All the major world religions are covered. For us, pedagogy is simple. I have my son read about 4-5 pages per day (one chapter per week, usually); every day I quiz him on what he has read. I ask simple questions such as "Who is so -and-so" or "What was such and such?" If he hasn't absorbed the material, I have him re-read the entire section. I then quiz him again. If he still hasn't absorbed the material, I have him read the section a third time. Nowadays, he almost never has to read a section more than once. During our lessons, I often will ask my son to point to a particular location on the globe or in an Atlas. This enables him to simultaneously learn about both history and geography. We use Anki (a free flash card app) several times per week to boost retention. We have created thousands of world history flash cards. I back up our Anki cards about once a month. The reading level of Volumes 1 and 2 is appropriate for kids from about 5th grade and up. I would not recommend them to children younger than that unless they are unusually strong readers or have a passion for history. It looks like the reading level of Volume 3 might be a little more advanced. Not only are these great books for kids, they are also excellent for adults. I knew little about world history before starting these books. My knowledge has increased enormously. Recently, I got a perfect score on a SAT World History prep test. In short, these books provide an excellent and affordable way to learn about world history. Highly recommended.

Okay, since we are using History Odyssey Level 2 Middle Ages, Human Odyssey texts, SOTW 2, KingFisher, and Usborne History Encyclopedia..... We needed a reading chart!! I've noticed A TON of threads on reading schedules for these books...... so I'm sharing ours. I have come across helpful schedules and just meshed them together so it is all in one place rather than separate schedules. So I didn't entirely come up with this myself! I had help from a bunch of you on the WTM Forum! Thank you.... you know who you are. It's not an easy task lining up different sources, but I feel this is pretty well formulated. So, if you don't feel it's accurate enough, then by all means don't use it! I am only using SOTW 2 and Usborne Encyclopedia with my 3rd grader......along with lots of books & activities. 6th and 8th grader are using History Odyssey 2 without The Story of Mankind and replacing it with K12's Human Odyssey vol. 1-2 (end of vol. 1 and beginning to somewhat middle of vol. 2). They are reading the scheduled KF readings from the History Odyssey. Printable Middle Ages-Renaissance Reading Schedule Edit to add: Just want to mention that there are lots of reading schedules and lesson plans for these same resources on my blog!

I'm trying to round out my resources for history next year, and would really appreciate suggestions, comments, ideas. This will be for a sensitive 10 yo boy who reads well and doesn't particularly like history but does like science. He's more-or-less done a WTMish grammar history cycle, with spottiest coverage for ancients and medieval history, and reads well. My goals are to: * provide rich food for thought and ideas (sort of CM-ish that way), * give a coherent sense of the ancient world and how it followed from prehistory and set the stage for the history that follows * provide a strong grounding in Western Classical civilization, culture, and history * give practice reading I've got a lot of books from History Odyssey Level 2 Ancients and some others, divided into history, literature and other. It may be too much as is! He'll also be reading the books from Beautiful Feet's History of Science. ETA: I'm updating this list as I plan and adding links. Also adding a few China resources; we are settling on Chinese as our modern language choice and that's a great hook for the culture. PRIMARILY HISTORY: K12's Human Odyssey Van Loon's Story of Mankind Augustus Caesar's world (Foster) Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way (Hakim) Caesar's Gallic War (Coolidge) Eyewitness Books Ancient Rome Learning Through History booklet, Ancient Rome Macaulay's Pyramid Anubis Speaks! (Shecter) Builders of the Old World (Hartman) Memoria Press' Famous Men of Ancient Greece Fantastic Inventions and Inventors (True Stories from Ancient China series, Zhu) Ancient China (See Through History) PRIMARILY LITERATURE: Tales of Ancient Egypt (Lancelyn Green) Black Ships Before Troy (Sutcliff) The Wanderings of Odysseus (Sutcliff) The Children's HOmer (Colum) -- OR Iliad & Odyssey for Boys and Girls (Church) The Golden Goblet (McGraw) Greek Myths (Coolidge) -- we'll have done D'Aulaire's this year Tales of Theseus Theras and His Town (Shedeker) Aeneid for Boys and Girls (Church) Gilgamesh Trilogy (Zeman) (esp. read-aloud) Why Snails Have Shells: Minority and Han Folktales from China (Han & Han) (esp. read-aloud) The Chi-Lin Purse: A Collection of Ancient Chinese Stories (Fang) (esp. read-aloud) OTHER: Ralph Masiello's Ancient Egypt Drawing book Music of the Ancient Greeks (audio resource) Music of the Ancient Romans (audio resource) Ancient Egypt (audio resource) Classical Chinese Folk Music or Classical Folk Music from China (audio resource) Chinese Lullabies (audio resource) Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes (Simonds & Swartz)

Okay, since we are using History Odyssey Level 2 Middle Ages, Human Odyssey texts, SOTW 2, KingFisher, and Usborne History Encyclopedia..... We needed a reading chart!! I've noticed A TON of threads on reading schedules for these books...... so I'm sharing ours. I have come across helpful schedules and just meshed them together so it is all in one place rather than separate schedules. So I didn't entirely come up with this myself! I had help from a bunch of you on the WTM Forum! Thank you.... you know who you are. It's not an easy task lining up different sources, but I feel this is pretty well formulated. So, if you don't feel it's accurate enough, then by all means don't use it! I am only using SOTW 2 and Usborne Encyclopedia with my 3rd grader......along with lots of books & activities. 6th and 8th grader are using History Odyssey 2 without The Story of Mankind and replacing it with K12's Human Odyssey vol. 1-2 (end of vol. 1 and beginning to somewhat middle of vol. 2). They are reading the scheduled KF readings from the History Odyssey. Printable Middle Ages-Renaissance Reading Schedule Edit to add: Just want to mention that there are lots of reading schedules and lesson plans for these same resources on my blog!

The following information is copied from my blog. I will be adding the additional resources we used this year to the page on my blog only so that this post doesn't get too messy. The main text: The Human Odyssey Vol. 1: Prehistory Through the Middle Ages edited by Mary Beth Klee, John Cribb, and John Holden K12 Inc. publisher ISBN 9781931728539 seen here on Amazon The supporting texts: The World in Ancient Times series by Oxford University Press the entire set here on Amazon The Ancient Near Eastern World here The Ancient Egyptian World here The Ancient South Asian World here The Ancient Chinese World here The Ancient Greek World here The Ancient Roman World here The Medieval and Early Modern World series by Oxford University Press full set seen here (not all volumes are used this year) The European World 400-1450 here The African and Middle Eastern World 600-1500 here The Asian World 600-1500 here An Age of Empires 1200-1750 here This schedule is intended for a full year's history study by a middle grade or logic stage student. The additions of book or other resources would enrich the material but are not necessary. Human Odyssey chapters are listed first with each chapter's title. Underneath each is a listing of the corresponding Oxford University Press volume(s) in purple. Please note that some chapters are listed out of numerical order. Instead they are listed as the material is covered within the Human Odyssey chapters. Part 1 Chapter 1: How Civilized! From Hunters-Gatherers to City-Builders Chapter 2: Unearthing Sumer The Ancient Near Eastern World Chapters 1-3 Chapter 3: Working, Trading, and Building in Sumer The Ancient Near Eastern World Chapters 12,13,15 Chapter 4: Honoring the Gods: Religion in Ancient Sumer The Ancient Near Eastern World Chapters 5,6,9 Chapter 5: Passing It On: The Written Word in Ancient Sumer The Ancient Near Eastern World Chapters 4,14,11,7 Chapter 6: The Sun Sets on Sumer The Ancient Near Eastern World Chapter 8,10 Chapter 7: Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon The Ancient Near Eastern World Chapter 22 Chapter 8: The Spread of Civilization: Egypt The Ancient Egyptian World Chapters 1,5,2,3,8,10,7,6,4,9,12,14,17,21,11 Chapter 9: Three Pharohs of the New Kingdom The Ancient Egyptian World Chapters 13-15, 18, 16 Chapter 10: The Spread of Civilization: India and China The Ancient South Asian World Chapters 1-10 The Ancient Chinese World Chapters 1-5 (through the Shang dynasty) Part 2 Chapter 1: The Life and Ideas of Confucius The Ancient Chinese World Chapter 10 Chapter 2: The Confucian Legacy The Ancient Chinese World Chapters 13-14 Chapter 3: The Birth of Hinduism The Ancient South Asian World Chapters 10 (the later part),11,13 Chapter 4: The Life of the Buddha The Ancient South Asian World Chapter 14 Chapter 5: The Buddha's Teaching and Legacy The Ancient South Asian World Chapter 18 Chapter 6: A Chosen People The Ancient Near Eastern World Chapters 18-20 Chapter 7: The People of the Law The Ancient Near Eastern World Chapters 20-22 Chapter 8: The Greeks and Their View of Nature The Ancient Greek World Chapters 3,4,1,2,17 Chapter 9: The Greek Celebration of Man The Ancient Greek World Chapters 5,6,18,19,7 Part 3 Chapter 1: Two Greek City-States The Ancient Greek World Chapters 12,8 plus 9-11,21 Chapter 2: Defending Greece: The Persian Wars The Ancient Greek World Chapter 13 Chapter 3: The Age of Pericles The Ancient Greek World Chapters 14,19,20 Chapter 4: A Fall, a Rise, and a Final Burst of Glory The Ancient Greek World Chapters 16,22-26 Chapter 5: The Roman Republic The Ancient Roman World Chapters 1-4 Chapter 6: Rome Rising and the Republic Challenged The Ancient Roman World Chapters 6,5,7,15 Chapter 7: Days of Empire The Ancient Roman World Chapters 11,13,20,8,18,10 Chapter 8: Judea and the Rise of Christianity The Ancient Roman World Chapter 23-24 Chapter 9: The Spread of Christianity The Ancient Roman World Chapter 24 Chapter 10: Rome on the Wane The Ancient Roman World Chapters 24,14,25-26 Part 4 Chapter 1: Rome Moved East: The Byzantine Empire The European World Chapters 1(to p.28),3(pp.46-49) Chapter 2: The Rise of Islam The African and Middle Eastern World Chapters 1-2 Chapter 3: The Spread of Islam The African and Middle Eastern World Chapters 3,5,7 Chapter 4: Ghana and Mali: Two Medieval African Trading Empires The African and Middle Eastern World Chapter 9-10 Chapter 5: Europe's Early Middle Ages The European World Chapter 2-3 Chapter 6: Thunder from the North: The Viking Age The European World Chapter 4 Chapter 7: Of Land and Loyalty The European World Chapters 4,7(pp. 106-110 Chapter 8: An Age of Faith: The Church in Western Europe The European World Chapter 6 Chapter 9: Monarchs on the Rise The European World Chapters 5,8,7 Chapter 10: China in the Middle Ages The Asian World Chapters 2,6,4(silk road) Chapter 11: Mongols on the Move The Asian World Chapters 7,4 Chapter 12: Europe's Calamitous Fourteenth Century The European World Chapters 11,12 An Age of Voyages Chapter 1

My 6th grader is using HO vol 1 as the history spine and she is loving the colorful pages and stories. I do have the teacher's manual and student pages to go along with it and she does do as much she can minus online course material (we are not signed up for the online course). However, I wondered if there was somewhere that I could locate some tests for each chapter or unit. The student pages do have partial unit assessments but I was hoping for something to help gauge how much she is retaining and understanding overall. Thanks.

A few weeks ago I asked about the WTM way of doing Logic stage history and K12's Human Odyssey was recommended. I've read through it to do a quick plan for next year and I've found I don't particularly like the text. It isn't as in depth as I'd hoped and large portions of the readings are stories, often pulled from literature assigned to DS anyways. Before asking about history here, I read through the appropriate sections in the Kingfisher encyclopedia. I think it's a more thorough overview of the time period. Though there's less text, it appears to have more meat on Eastern and American cultures. I had planned on supplementing the history spine with age-appropriate literature (Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid) and life-in-ancient-time books. To me, Human Odyssey will be more reading than Kingfisher with less substance. So I'd love to hear from someone who used Human Odyssey, especially if you used all the books. Based on Volume I, I can't see using HO up to eighth grade. From my admittedly brief survey, SOTW4 is written to a higher reading level than Human Odyssey Volume I.

Ok, I keep trying to read this book and I'm finding it so boring! I wanted to love it, I really did. I've skipped around to different time periods, thinking maybe I just find Mesopotamian history boring. I thought Confucius was boring, Rome was boring. I'm a bit history nut...it's my favorite subject! So I don't know what gives. I think the book reads like a textbook and not much at all like Joy Hakim's U.S. history books. :sad: I guess I'm back on the hunt for a spine for 7th grade ancient history. Maybe the World in Ancient Times series?? SOTW is too easy for my 7th grader.

We picked SOTW up a bit late this year, and because we've interleaved our history with Ambleside Online Year 2 we've been relaxed in our pace. Could you tell me where you are in SOTW2, and when you expect to finish it? (we're halfway through chapter 8, "Islam Becomes an Empire". It actualy lines up quite nicely with our AO right now ...) :) thanks!

Okay, changes are a coming for my 7th grader. I got Human Odyssey Prehistory through the Middle Ages and love it. Had planned on using with History Odyssey Middle ages. However, not particularly liking history O and not finding Kingfisher History meaty enough. So, where do I go from here? Found the links to match H.O. with SOTW 2. Don't necessarily want to read SOTW but the activity guide seems to be better than history odyssey's. I just got SWB's History of the Medieval World. Has anyone per chance already read it and did a link up with Human Odyssey???? I'm thinking perhaps or would it be too much? Don't want to kill the kid with too much busy work and I know I'll end up doing much of the reading. I just want something easy to plan, implement and hopefully get him to do more independently. Asking too much, too little. Overthinking it? Help.

Hi! I am interested in this text written for high schoolers but I can't find it anywhere. Any ideas? From what I can tell they have a 3 book set for middle grades and a 1 book covering all of world history for high school. Right?

I'm finally starting to work on my history curriculum for next year. I've decided to move away from SOTW with my rising 7th grader. I will be using the first Human Odyssey book. My question is can I also use this text for my rising 4th grader? He listened in to ancients when he was in kindergarten. I'd like to move on with him as well. I'm ordering a copy of HO from Amazon today. But, I'd like some input from others who have used this book to see if I can adapt it for use in 4th grade. Thanks!

My dd will be in 5th next year, and I am considering using History Odyssey Level 2 - Middle Ages for her, but after reviewing The Story of Mankind I don't think she is going to like it as much having come from SOTW 1 this past year. (We pulled her from PS last year and decided then to start her at the beginning in the history cycle). Has anyone created a schedule showing how k12s Human Odyssey text could be integrated instead of The Story of Mankind?

I would like to purchase K12's HO to have on my bookshelf, along with the teacher guide (and does it come with student pages as well??). I don't want to buy used off amazon if it can be avoided and I've read posted here that it's possible to sign up for K12's course, pay the fee, then pull your child out and you get to keep the materials. Is this legit or something they will get annoyed about? I don't like having people annoyed at me. :o Also, I'm not at all familiar with K12 so could anybody be so kind as to type real slow and (WITH LINKS!!!) walk me through what it is I need to do to find these materials on the K12 site (and get info on their online course offering)? I don't even know if I'm going to the right site, let alone find what it is I want. :001_huh: Is this available for both levels of HO or just the 1st? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I'm befuddled by the whole K12 thing. :blink:

I bought Human Odyssey (used, for an excellent price) and am somewhat happy with it...it seems a bit easy, though, for my almost 13 year old. I do like the look of History Odyssey and am wondering if it would work to combine the two? Use the book lists to reinforce what he reads in Human Odyssey, for example? Use the maps to do the same? Any thoughts? Anyone ever do this? Thanks! Pam

Do you just have your child read the book? We just got this today from a friend, and my daughter loves it. BUT, she says "I am not interested in doing any student pages or workbook pages, I just want to read the book." Hmmm..... How do you do HO with your child? (FTR, I do have student pages in my cart in case we decide to use this, but now I am not sure)

I just received my copy of The Human Odyssey Vol. 1 and I really like the looks of it. I will be using this with my two 7th graders this year and I'm wondering if I should get the teacher's manual and student pages? Does anyone have these? I'm also wondering how I should schedule it. Does anyone have plans they'd like to share? Thanks Susan in TX

I have found the K12 Teacher Guides and Student Guides on Amazon for Intermediate History A. Are these worthwhile? If they are, do you need the student guide or does the teacher guide include all the worksheets, maps, etc.?

Is Human Odyssey suitable for outlining by logic stage students? Dss start 5th grade next year and I want to follow the WTM suggestions re: outlining a history encyclopedia, but Human Odyssey sounds like it will appeal to dss more than the Kingfisher history encyclopedia will. Are any of your logic stage students outlining Human Odyssey? TIA.

I need a secular world history (not world cultures)program for 7th grade. I have to cover ancients through the 1700's or so. I know it's ambitious to cover so much in just one year. We just finished a year of world cultures and we need to focus on history this year. The secular middle school curriculum I have seen is more world cultures oriented than world history oriented. I did find Global History but that seems to be high school level. I really wanted something a little less intense for 7th grade. Any ideas?

Next fall my oldest dc will restart the history cycle with Ancients (7th grade). Either we can do another 4 year cycle (7-10th), or I was thinking doing world history for 2 years (7th-8th), then in 9th grade start with Ancients using VP Ominbus w/Great Books or TOG Year 1 (or something else?). Just wondering if anyone has used K12 for 7th or 8th grade world history. We used K12 years ago when dd was in 2nd grade. But, stopped due to cost, at the time no DSL was available in our area, and being stuck to the computer for most subjects. So, just wondering if you liked/disliked the 7th/8th grade K12 history and if it's worth the $$$. It's hard to justify for one child for 1 year. But, if it's really good, I would consider it. Thanks so much for responding!