High School History

[Erica in PA]

I am trying to decide how to approach high school level history for ds who will be in 9th grade next year. We've mostly used the WTM approach to this point, with SOTW, and we've gone through the cycle twice. I just reread the WTM approach for high school, and I'm not sure that I want to continue with the four year cycle again through high school. Starting with the ancients a third time just sounds really blah to me, and I'm sure to ds as well. The time period we haven't done as much with is 1900 to the present, so I definitely would like to spend some time on those. We've barely done anything with the World Wars, for example. Never did much with Korea or Vietnam or the Cold War or any of the Presidents from the 1900s. I don't want to go through all of the ancients, middle ages, exploration AGAIN before we squeeze in this important modern stuff right before he graduates. Not to say we won't do any of that in high school, but just not right now.

 

So.... not having WTM to fall back on, I'm at a loss. I don't even really know where to start looking. I need something reasonably priced. Engaging, and challenging. A Christian perspective would be nice. I tend to prefer programs that have a text-style spine, versus entirely literature based, though I would consider anything at this point.

 

I would love to hear what you are using for high school, if you are not using the chronological 4 year approach. Or even if you are doing that, if you are using materials that could be used in a different order.

[atozmom]

What about Notgrass World History? It starts with Creation and goes to the 21st century. You could always move through the periods you have studied more a little faster, then slow down and spend more time on the later years. Add in some extra living books in those areas. You can usually find Notgrass pretty reasonable used.

 

Forgot to mention this is also written from a Christian perspective.

Edited March 3, 2010 by atozmom
adding

[Alphabetika]

I second Notgrass, and you might also be interested in the 3 upper level American history guides from TruthQuest.

[Kate CA]

Have you considered Sonlight's Core 100 History? We are going to do this next year and I am considering doing it over two years and fleshing out all the subjects we have not studied in depth yet. There is a LOT to cover in this time period and I think they do it well from all I have been able to tell thus far.

[Veronica in VA]

American history might be a good place to start - both SL 100 and Notgrass American history are interesting. Another possibility is Sonlight core 200 which is church history, though there isn't just one spine. Our favorite Sonlight core was probably core 300 - 20th century - but I would wait for 10th or 11th grade for that one.

Another possibility is to go with your child's interests. For instance, if he likes music, you could design a history course around the development of music throughout history. Or you could do the same thing with science if that appeals to him more. You'd still be hitting the important parts in history, but from a different perspective, which might make it more interesting.

[TXMary2]

For my oldest who graduated last year we used Notgrass and Sonlight.

 

For my ds13 who will be 9th grade in the fall I plan on using a combination of Notgrass, Abeka and books from the Sonlight reading list along with DVD's from Netflix.

[Susan C.]

Erica,

Here is what I might do (this week anyway... :) )

 

If you haven't done a true geography course, you could do one for 9th grade. Then for 10th, you could do modern world history (and maybe a brief review of the rest). Human Odyssey has quite a bit for modern. For 11th, you could do a true US History course (right now I am considering Tindall's), then for 12th, a semester of government and a semester of economics. You could study the world wars in either 10th or 11th grades.

 

I wish I were in your shoes!! We don't have near as much history under our belts, and are attempting all world history in one year...

[Kareni]

Carmen and Company linked a site on another post because of its secular high school biology program. I see that the author also has a unit study that might be of interest to you:

 

20th Century American History for Teens by Jamie McMillin

 

Regards,

Kareni

[April in CA]

Hello, Erica!

Have you considered Tapestry of Grace Year 4? This covers 20th century history very thoroughly and includes both American and World history. If you and your son are well versed in history up through the 19th century, you could just jump in with TOG year 4. TOG also includes literature and writing and government and philosophy should you choose to use them.

Hope this helps!

Blessings,

April

[Erica in PA]

Thank you all for your posts. I've looked into all of your suggestions, and they have helped me to narrow down exactly what I'm looking for. I am leaning toward the traditional route for high school history, with one year American history, one year world history, a year of geography, and a year of civics/government. So now I have to decide in what order to do them, and which programs to use. I would like to use a program that has some sort of spine-- as much as we love good literature, I just feel more comfortable with a textbook to give structure for the upper levels. I also would still really like to cover 20th century history next year (9th grade). We have led up to this point in the history cycle twice before without really diving in on that fourth year, and I want to do that this time.

 

I'm thinking of using this order: US History (focusing mostly on 1850s-today), Geography, World History, Civics/government. Does that make sense, or is there a strong reason for doing Geography in 9th, before moving on?

 

If I do go with that order, I guess this is what I'm looking for: a textbook program that focuses on 20th century history (could be US or world history), that is suitable for a ninth grader. Would Notgrass US History be a good fit?

[Alphabetika]

Erica,

 

My name is Erika. :)

 

Notgrass is actually not as 20th-century focused as my dd would have liked (I didn't know beforehand that this is the period she's most interested in, or I would have tweaked it more). For instance, she told me she thought WWI got short shrift (her phrase), so I found extra books on that and we even watched a documentary series about it. As an aside, the documentary was very interesting because it was a BBC documentary and much less "USA-focused" than globally focused. I felt like I finally began to grasp why it was called a "World" war! It was fascinating especially to see actual film footage of that time period. Film was new enough that it seemed like many of the people being filmed were enamored with the camera, so there were many shots of various soldiers filing past in ranks, but then they'd sort of break rank to mug at the camera. This was very touching to me, because I could see how very young they were, how alike they all were in that aspect even though they were from all different places. And I think US involvement was maybe 15 minutes of the whole thing! Definitely a different perspective than you'd get from most American-produced resources on the topic.

 

Well, that was a ramble, but I guess it illustrates one of my ideas. I know from reading your post above that you definitely want a spine rather than just pulling together your own resources. But one thing you could do would be to go quickly through the non-20th century history and leave extra time when you get to the 20th century to dig in more and use extra resources. Plenty are available! That would allow you to use Notgrass as your spine but flesh things out according to interest.

 

Just a thought!

[atozmom]

Here is another text that could be used as a spine for US history. All American History vol 2 (scroll to the bottom of the page to see volume 2). It is written for grades 6-12. It starts with the Civil War. There are suggestions with each lesson for further research, project ideas, and literature selections. You can see samples of the program at the link above.

 

Notgrass Exploring America starts with the late 1400's. From looking at the table of contents, the War of 1812 is in lesson 33 in unit 7. You can see the TOC here at the Notgrass site.

[cathmom]

Erica,

 

My name is Erika. :)

 

Notgrass is actually not as 20th-century focused as my dd would have liked (I didn't know beforehand that this is the period she's most interested in, or I would have tweaked it more). For instance, she told me she thought WWI got short shrift (her phrase), so I found extra books on that and we even watched a documentary series about it. As an aside, the documentary was very interesting because it was a BBC documentary and much less "USA-focused" than globally focused. I felt like I finally began to grasp why it was called a "World" war! It was fascinating especially to see actual film footage of that time period. Film was new enough that it seemed like many of the people being filmed were enamored with the camera, so there were many shots of various soldiers filing past in ranks, but then they'd sort of break rank to mug at the camera. This was very touching to me, because I could see how very young they were, how alike they all were in that aspect even though they were from all different places. And I think US involvement was maybe 15 minutes of the whole thing! Definitely a different perspective than you'd get from most American-produced resources on the topic.

 

Well, that was a ramble, but I guess it illustrates one of my ideas. I know from reading your post above that you definitely want a spine rather than just pulling together your own resources. But one thing you could do would be to go quickly through the non-20th century history and leave extra time when you get to the 20th century to dig in more and use extra resources. Plenty are available! That would allow you to use Notgrass as your spine but flesh things out according to interest.

 

Just a thought!

 

What is the name of that documentary please? :)

[Alphabetika]

What is the name of that documentary please? :)

 

Ta-da!

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009S2K9C/ref=s9_simh_gw_p74_i3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1KDG4S84GP889V71ZXBS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

[TeaTotaler]

I don't have suggestions for texts but wanted to mention that you could use the Teaching Co course the History of the United States as a supplement (at least the latter half of the course) if it is available at your library or through ILL.

 

 

 

I am trying to decide how to approach high school level history for ds who will be in 9th grade next year. We've mostly used the WTM approach to this point, with SOTW, and we've gone through the cycle twice. I just reread the WTM approach for high school, and I'm not sure that I want to continue with the four year cycle again through high school. Starting with the ancients a third time just sounds really blah to me, and I'm sure to ds as well. The time period we haven't done as much with is 1900 to the present, so I definitely would like to spend some time on those. We've barely done anything with the World Wars, for example. Never did much with Korea or Vietnam or the Cold War or any of the Presidents from the 1900s. I don't want to go through all of the ancients, middle ages, exploration AGAIN before we squeeze in this important modern stuff right before he graduates. Not to say we won't do any of that in high school, but just not right now.

 

So.... not having WTM to fall back on, I'm at a loss. I don't even really know where to start looking. I need something reasonably priced. Engaging, and challenging. A Christian perspective would be nice. I tend to prefer programs that have a text-style spine, versus entirely literature based, though I would consider anything at this point.

 

I would love to hear what you are using for high school, if you are not using the chronological 4 year approach. Or even if you are doing that, if you are using materials that could be used in a different order.

[Chris in VA]

We did 20th cent with tweaked Sonlight 300. (They have since redone the 300 course--I've complained enough about the lack of literature guidance in other posts...) We used two spines--We added in the first two volumes of Martin Gilbert's 20th cent books that go year by year. Fascinating, well-written, just the facts approach. We used the DK History of the 20th Century Day by Day (not sure if that's an exact title...) and linked the literature to the period. We did world lit, because I wanted to hit some of the great books. I know we read The Jungle, Metamorphosis, All Quiet, Great Gatsby, Grapes, Hiding Place, Alas Babylon--can't remember the rest. It was a good year, because the literature made so much sense, read as we were reading about the time period.

[Chris in PA]

Erica,

You could do Notgrass World History in 9th grade. Start in the textbook where you want to cover 20th century world history. I would add in documentaries, additional non-fiction reading from periods where you want to go more in depth, and some historical fiction. Then in 10th grade you could start at the beginning of the text and complete it in one semester (since it has already been well covered in the past) and then do something like Abeka geography the second semester (it is a one semester course). Then do Notgrass American History in 11th and gov/econ in 12th.

 

HTH

[cathmom]

Ta-da!

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009S2K9C/ref=s9_simh_gw_p74_i3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1KDG4S84GP889V71ZXBS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

 

 

Thank you!

[Erica in PA]

Erica,

You could do Notgrass World History in 9th grade. Start in the textbook where you want to cover 20th century world history. I would add in documentaries, additional non-fiction reading from periods where you want to go more in depth, and some historical fiction. Then in 10th grade you could start at the beginning of the text and complete it in one semester (since it has already been well covered in the past) and then do something like Abeka geography the second semester (it is a one semester course). Then do Notgrass American History in 11th and gov/econ in 12th.

 

HTH

 

I have been looking at that option, but there is a lot of overlap between Notgrass W.H. and the time period we're doing this year (world history through 1849). A little more than half of the lessons in Part 2 would be review. In fact, I just pulled Noah from the co-op (CHASE) class where they are doing Part 2 of Notgrass W.H. next year, because of the overlap. I signed him up for health instead, since he still needed that class too.

 

What about doing Notgrass US History next year? I'm really liking how this program looks, from what I can see on the website. Then Geography in 10th, World History in 11th, and gov./econ. in 12th? I've seen that most people tend to do American History in 11th grade-- is there a reason why I should wait to do that?