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World History: The Human Odyssey


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For scheduling Spielvogel's Human Odyssey, we generally aim for reading/discussing 6-8 pages a week -- about half one day and half on a second day in the week, and adding in any other books or resources at that time. Movies were thrown in as extras or family viewing in the evening.

 

The first year we did the ancients and only needed to get through the first 200 pages of Human Odyssey (chap. 1-6, average of 5.5 pages/week), so we did a lot of extra resources, and also did a number of the section review questions and end-of-chapter questions in Spielvogel.

 

The second year we did 20th century history; we were shooting for chap. 22-34 (about 430 pages) in Spielvogel, but only made it through chap. 22-30 (about 320 pages), which was an average of 9 pages/week. We did almost NO section questions or end of chapter reviews -- BUT, we did DISCUSS a lot in both years, esp. that second year.

 

We are taking this year off to do Notgrass American History (loving it!), and next year we will do Medieval World History, using Spielvogel's Human Odyssey, and we'll shoot for chap. 7-20 (about 450 pages -- so we'll probably only get through chap. 18). Below are movie ideas for ancients to get you started. Try a search on the high school board for some of the past threads with movie lists. Enjoy! Warmly, Lori D.

 

 

Ancients non-fiction

- History Channel and other documentaries from Netflix

- Reader's Digest: Mysteries of the Ancient World series

- NOVA: Secrets of Lost Empires series

- NOVA historical episodes http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/archive/int_hist.html

- "Pyramid" by David Macauley

 

Ancients fiction films

- Jason and the Argonauts (Greece) - 1960s

- The Odyssey (Greece) - 2001 TV mini-series

- Jim Hensen's The Storyteller: Greek Myths (Greece)

- The Ten Commandments (Egypt/Israel) - 1950s

- The Greatest Story Ever Told (Israel)

- The Gospel of John (Israel)

- Ben Hur (Rome/Israel) - 1950s

- Spartacus (Rome) - 1960s with Kirk Douglas

- Gladiator (Rome) -- PREVIEW (violence)

Edited by Lori D.
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We are using this for 8th grade. I have the study guide and the study guide TE and have started with just those and the textbook. Do I need the TE? What does it have beyond the answers to the questions in the text?

 

We only have the student textbook (no study guide and no TE), which has been more than sufficient for us. No answers in the textbook, but it's pretty easy to just go back into the chapter and find the boldface words which are the answers to the section questions, and then for the end-of-chapter review questions we either discussed aloud together, or used as an occasional essay question.

 

We've never really been "into" formal textbooks/tests/schedules, so we've never really needed any of the TE or study guide extras. But that's just us. :) Hopefully, someone who has used those additional resources will jump in here and speak from their experience. Warmest regards, Lori D.

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We only have the student textbook (no study guide and no TE), which has been more than sufficient for us. No answers in the textbook, but it's pretty easy to just go back into the chapter and find the boldface words which are the answers to the section questions, and then for the end-of-chapter review questions we either discussed aloud together, or used as an occasional essay question.

 

We've never really been "into" formal textbooks/tests/schedules, so we've never really needed any of the TE or study guide extras. But that's just us. :) Hopefully, someone who has used those additional resources will jump in here and speak from their experience. Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

This is the last year I am homeschooling, so one of the advantages to having a TE might be tests. Getting DD accustomed to taking chapter tests is one of my goals for this year. So far I have written these myself, based on the content in the book and on some of the study guide and chapter highlights, but I don't really know what is 'reasonable' in that regard, and would like to get some guidance.

 

We are using the book for more of an overview, going through it at a rate of about two chapters every three weeks, and not correlating literature with it at all. That way by the end of next summer DD will have a fresh review of history at a level that is more like what she will be looking at in high school, and hopefully be primed for whatever school she attends next year.

 

I wanted her to experience this kind of survey class before she moved on--gave her the choice between a one year survey of US history and a one year survey of world history. This is what she picked, and I'm a little startled at how much more challenging this book is than, say, the Abeka history surveys or All American History--but she is dealing with it very well, and I think that it's going just fine.

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