Thoughts about 4 year history cycle..

[Guest aquiverfull]

Please share your thoughts about the 4 year history cycle. Do you follow it, why or why not? Furthermore, I'd like some feedback on how we can progress from where we are.

 

Some background: we've had our first cyle of the 4year history. We used SL core 1+2, WP AS 1, and my own stuff for the rest of our American study. This year, I thought I would just use MFW ECC, and get back on the rotation this upcoming school year. Now ECC didn't really work for us, and I realized that I didn't want a whole year on geo and cultures. So now our 4 year cycle in thrown off. My dd will be in 6th grade this coming school year. We start in August.

 

So how do I proceed with this? What would you do? Try to catch up in the next 3 years, so that I could do the full cycle again starting in 9th or is that so important? Or just take the next 4 years 6th-9th grade to do the cycle? Or somethings else??

Please share your advice, thoughts, etc.

[Stacy in NJ]

I wouldn't try to "catch up", just jump in at the most logical place and continue on. While having 3 full cycles is ideal, it's not always do-able. Don't stress about it, just continue on.

[mom31257]

I started ancients in 6th grade and we're finishing the cycle in 3 years. I've been trying to switch to classical methods the last year and half. I really wanted her to do all of history in middle school before she got to high school. We did MOH 1 last year. Over the summer we covered early middle ages just with library reading and netflix movies/documentaries.

 

We started our year with a textbook as a spine (BJU 7th), but have switched to Kingfisher as a spine because it was not chronological. She is going to be reading 10-15 pages a week. I posted a thread for ideas to use with Kingfisher.

 

Next year we're doing American history in one year. As of right now BJU 8th will be the spine (it is chronological). I am looking elsewhere, though. I would love something like History Odyssey, but only American in one year and from a Christian perspective.

[Mama Lynx]

We do follow the four-year cycle, because it is a convenient organizing tool, and because I like it. It is not important.

 

What matters is that your kids get a good overview of the sweep of history, and a sense of the chronology, that these events we study did not happen in a vacuum. You don't have to be on a particular point in history in a particular year of school to get that, though.

 

I fixed things so that my oldest will start over with ancients in 9th grade, because that's what fixed my sense of order :) But my next oldest child will be in the early modern year when he hits 9th grade, the third will, I think, hit ancients again for 9th, and the fourth will start 9th with the medieval year.

 

There is no need to make yourself crazy trying to "catch up" :)

[Laura W.]

I was in a situation similar to yours last year. We were doing a year of geography and my oldest was in 5th. I was thinking about what I wanted her to cover in history before high school. We live overseas, and there is the possibility she will go to boarding school beginning in 9th grade. So the topics our family is covering are based on her needs.

 

She had covered ancient history pretty well with SL 1, but our coverage of medieval-modern history hadn't been as thorough. I decided to do a quick overview of ancient history while finishing up our year of geography. I used CHOW for this (already had it on hand). Her younger sibs will get ancient history more in-depth the next go-round. This year we are using Biblioplan year 2. We'll do years 3 and 4 when she's in the 7th and 8th grades, respectively. If it's really important to you to start ancients in 9th grade, you could do something like this. Otherwise, I agree with another poster - just start with ancients in 6th and keep going from there.

 

Blessings,

 

Laura

[Janice in NJ]

How about SL 6 & SL 7 for 6th grade and 7th grade. Then you could do a year of American History for 8th (SL 100?) and then start the cycle again in 9th. SL 6/7 uses SOTW so you could use the SOTW activity guides to choose topics to study/books to read with your younger kids; then you could use SL 3/4 combo year when you did SL 100 with your older child.

 

Just a thought.

 

In fact if you began SL 6 now, you could run on the 5 day per week schedule but just stretch it out by doing only 4 days of work per week. Week 1, Days 1 - 4; Week 2, Days 5-8; etc. (180 days x 2 cores = 360 lessons/4 days per week gives you 90 weeks of work. You could do 18 weeks this year. 36 weeks each for the next two years.) That way you could stretch years 6 & 7 to make them 2 1/2 years instead of trying to do them in 2 years; lots of folks wish that they had more time when doing SL cores anyway.

 

Peace,

Janice

Edited January 12, 2010 by Janice in NJ

[Lori D.]

At the risk of a barrage of tomatoes from the strictly classical crowd... My 2 cents worth is that there's no ONE "right" way to do history. Doing history chronologically is very popular, and it is a very organized and "building" way of learning history -- but it's not the only way to create "pegs" for your students to "catch hold of" history.

 

Unit studies, or culture studies can do the same thing. Starting close to home and working your way outward with history (state, then country, then world history) -- or learning history geographically, by continent or culture, also works very well!

 

Also, realize NO one can every learn ALL history (*everyone* has history "gaps" here and there).

 

So, for all those reasons, it is *okay* to skip, go out of order, back up, etc., as best fits your family's situation, needs, and interests. There, you have absolution for getting "out of order" and "permission" to procede as you please. :tongue_smilie:

 

 

Our initial history "cycle" was done chronologically, but instead of 4 years as originally planned, it took 6 years. We got SO much more out of being able to enjoy lots of "bunny trails", delve into events/people of particular interest, go out of order to match up with a vacation/book/movie/event, sidetrack for some state history, and even set history entirely aside from time to time to focus on other school subjects.

 

That took us through elementary school years. We then set history aside for a year of awesome study of world culture/geography and comparative religions in middle school -- wish we'd have taken TWO years! That was such a worthwhile prep for highschool topics, worldview, etc.!

 

Now in high school, to give our DSs more input and ownership of their education, they pick what period we study each year... And it's been all out of chronological order... Which has not been a problem at all! They remember things from past years of study, and are now adding on to what they've already learned, making connections, etc. It's all good!

 

 

So... what time period do your CHILDREN want to study? How about you? Is there a particular curriculum you really want to use that is age-dependent -- then schedule around that. Do you want to use a year or two of middle school (logic stage) for learning about worldview, comparative religions, and cultures that almost never get covered in high school (which is almost always all Western Civ.) -- then do that! High school is a whole 'nuther world unto itself -- it's like starting afresh. So plan these next few years around what YOU would really like to see accomplished history/social studies wise, rather than worrying about whether you are on or off a classical history track and how to get back on it.

 

Just my 2-1/2 cents worth! :D BEST of luck, whatever you decide! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[siloam]

I can be a bit type A now and then. :001_huh: To be honest I think the biggest start in letting go of the 4 year cycle was the fact that my kids are so close together that there is now way to arrange for them all to end neatly in American History and Government.

 

The next step was my dh asking me all the time why we spent so much time on history (this was back when we did SL).

 

After that came the realization that my younger three really could drop history entirely and not care, which is quite the change from my history loving oldest dd. :blink:

 

Now I just don't have the time. I am so maxed out that reading at lunch is the only hope I have of getting history done. There is no way that I have enough time to get through everything I want to do in the 15 mins that I read at lunch, so I just had to let go. At this point we are still on our first history cycle which we started back with my oldest was in 1st grade. I hope we finish it next year. But I am more interested in depth than getting it done, so maybe not. :D

 

Heather

[Peela]

I really love the 4 year cycle, and keeping both kids on the same year. Its like having a theme running the whole year- for all 3 of us, since our read alouds will be related to the history theme mostly. We started late though and we are only going through it twice- and this year is my dd's last homeschooling and so we are skimming lightly over the Rennaissance and focusing more on Modern. Ds will get the same because I prefer to keep them together. Then I will probably take him right back to Ancients next year simply because he likes the gory stuff.

I think people often get hung up on doing the 4 year cycle perfectly and I know I was anxious about it in the beginning. But you just dive in where you are and move forward. You cant actually mess it up really.

[Melissa in Australia]

I really love the 4 year cycle, and keeping both kids on the same year. Its like having a theme running the whole year- for all 3 of us, since our read alouds will be related to the history theme mostly. We started late though and we are only going through it twice- and this year is my dd's last homeschooling and so we are skimming lightly over the Rennaissance and focusing more on Modern. Ds will get the same because I prefer to keep them together. Then I will probably take him right back to Ancients next year simply because he likes the gory stuff.

I think people often get hung up on doing the 4 year cycle perfectly and I know I was anxious about it in the beginning. But you just dive in where you are and move forward. You cant actually mess it up really.

 

this is what we are doing as well. because we started late, the oldest 2 will do it twice, and the younger ones will do it 3 times. I really find keeping the reading etc. tied in with the history very beneficial

 

Peela, what is your dd doing next year?:bigear: I just saw your other post, terrific!

Edited January 13, 2010 by melissaL

[Mom22ns]

How about SL 6 & SL 7 for 6th grade and 7th grade. Then you could do a year of American History for 8th (SL 100?) and then start the cycle again in 9th. SL 6/7 uses SOTW so you could use the SOTW activity guides to choose topics to study/books to read with your younger kids; then you could use SL 3/4 combo year when you did SL 100 with your older child.

 

Peace,

Janice

 

This is exactly what I was thinking. If you want to do a 4 year history cycle in high school this would have you ready. It depends on how you liked sonlight when you did it before.

[Guest aquiverfull]

Thank you so much for all your wonderful input!! :) You have all given me a lot to think about.

 

I have thought about doing SL, we liked it ok when we did it. I felt my dd needed more hands on and that's why we went with WP for the American. Now I think we like a combo of the two. My dd loved the paper type crafts, but it was too many in WP. So I have considered doing the SL 6 and 7 and stretching it out just like Janice suggested. I really want to use SOTW and MOH. I'm sure I could add it to SL somehow and possibly add some paper crafts in too.

 

I asked my dd what she wanted to study and she said Ancients. I gave her the choice, I would have been fine with doing Middle Ages or whatever if that is what she wanted. I've gone back and forth over how important the whole 4 year cycle is, etc. I do feel like Mama Lynx in the fact that the 4 year cycle just seems easier to organize and coordinate with other things.

And I really do like the idea of it. The problem is that my children are both spaced far apart and close together. So everyone's history cycle won't look all neat and pretty and perfectly laid out.

 

Since I wanted both MOH and SOTW I thought about going with Biblioplan. I drool over TOG but I really can't afford it and I'm not sure I could handle all of the planning. I feel like I go crazy around here already and I'm only officially schooling one at the moment. I don't know. I go back and forth over trying to catch up or just going on from here.

 

Our schedules did feel a little history heavy earlier on. I think it's because we were using history heavy curriculum like SL and WP. So I understand completely Heather. We often heard the same from my DH.

 

I'm always stressing over history and what to do. :tongue_smilie: Well again, I appreciate your input. I'll have to think on it some more. I'll try to figure out our goals and what we are after. Thanks everyone!

[Peela]

 

Peela, what is your dd doing next year?:bigear: I just saw your other post, terrific!

 

Dd is doing a Diploma in Mass Communicaitons specialising in Journalism at TAFE. Its designed for foreign students coming ot study here apparently but she is welcome and wont be the only local. And it transfers straight to 2nd year uni if she decides to go further. We are thrilled about it but will see what happens when the time comes!

[Momling]

At the risk of a barrage of tomatoes from the strictly classical crowd... My 2 cents worth is that there's no ONE "right" way to do history. Doing history chronologically is very popular, and it is a very organized and "building" way of learning history -- but it's not the only way to create "pegs" for your students to "catch hold of" history.

 

Unit studies, or culture studies can do the same thing. Starting close to home and working your way outward with history (state, then country, then world history) -- or learning history geographically, by continent or culture, also works very well!

 

Also, realize NO one can every learn ALL history (*everyone* has history "gaps" here and there).

 

So, for all those reasons, it is *okay* to skip, go out of order, back up, etc., as best fits your family's situation, needs, and interests. There, you have absolution for getting "out of order" and "permission" to procede as you please. :tongue_smilie:

 

 

 

:iagree:

The idea of three four-year cycles sounds awfully neat and well-thought-out and if I were constructing a curriculum for a school or a group of students, I'd go with it. But really, the reason I'm homeschooling is to tailor an education for my kids specifically. So while my general intention is to have our first run-through of world history in three years (Ancients, Medieval/Renaissance, Modern) and then U.S. history for a fourth year, if my kids find a passion for learning more about the Incas or the reformation or the women's rights movement in the U.S. or whatever, I have no reason not to add depth where there is more interest. It's like traveling to a new country... you can't truly see everything, but you can plan out a cool itinerary that you think your family will benefit from, enjoy the sights you come across, and adjust your plans as you go along.