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Six weeks left, want to cover Modern History


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Hi all,

You may all want to shoot me, but I want to quickly (over six weeks) do Story of the World Vol. 4 to cover 1900 - present. We are doing World History in one year. I just read WTM over the summer, and have a 10th grader. Since we don't have four years to do a cycle, World History had to happen in a year. (I need to do US and Govt. /Econ. for 11th and 12th). We did Streams Vol. 1, five chapters of BJU World History, 2 chapters of Human Odyssey, so most of this year has been high school level. Dd's mind is swimming with so many facts that retention won't happen for the rest of the year anyway. (I can definitely see the advantage to breaking history up over four years!!!). So, I would like to do eight chapters a week and the outlines and maps in the activity book. (She could use some outline work). DD is so excited.... I know it isn't that deep, but I bet she will at least remember what she does.

 

Is this awful?..... :)

 

From a Mom desperate for this school year to end!!!! LOL

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No, not that awful! But, you may want to consider a different approach....your daughter is in the 10th grade now, right?

 

This year my daughter is a junior and she is taking American History, German, Psychology, Geometry and English as 1 credit courses. She is also taking Government as a 1/2 credit course.

 

Next year she will take World History 1600-2000, German, Chemistry, some kind of math (pre-calc, consumer math or maybe a semester of each??) and English as 1 credit courses and will take Economics as a 1/2 credit course.

 

This way I was able to fit in 4 years of History as well as a semester each of Eco and Gov't. To be sure that we had time, I made sure that she took her other extra (state-required) classes, like Health and Art, earlier in High School. So, I realize that you may not have room for an extra 1/2 class for the next two years!

 

Anyway, I thought that I should throw it out there for you to consider.

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Yes, I think that could work. SWB's Story of the World vol. 4 puts modern history in context and makes connections, so it makes modern history easier to retain. Here's a suggestion: perhaps do SofW to finish off your school year, and then consider including more in-depth history in your remaining years of high school.

 

As the previous poster said, you may have more flexibility than you realize. It looks like you are in SC; from what I can see, your state requirements for social studies are pretty similar to most other states:

- 1 credit (year) Amer. History

- 1 credit (year) History

- 0.5 credit (semester) Government

- 0.5 credit (semester) Economics

 

We are currently doing our 1 credit (year) of American History AND our 0.5 credit (semester) of Government in the same year, and it actually works extremely well, as the two subjects actually overlap in many ways. You could also do your 0.5 credit (semester) of Economics in that same year, leaving you a full year to do more in-depth world history in the senior year of high school, and call the extra credit an elective.

 

The nice thing about doing American History next year, is that it covers almost 1600-present -- and certainly the entire last century the U.S. is VERY involved with world events, so you will get a lot of 20th century WORLD history along with the latter part of American history. :)

 

 

Some ways to "sneak" in a little more history:

- through American Hist.: include additional books, resources, timelines and events around the world

- through Literature: as part of the "pre-reading," do more in-depth research of the times in which the works are written

- through Composition: make many of the research papers about a specific historical time period

- assign historical fiction as solo reading books -- or, enjoy together as family read-alouds

- watch a lot of historical movies on DVD for family movie nights

 

 

Neither of our DSs is headed into math/science fields, so we're getting in quite a lot of extra history and literature as elective credits, and doing those subjects based on the WTM methods. It's been great fun! BEST of luck, whatever you decide! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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Consider doing American history in the context of World History. Go ahead and do SOTW now, just for "fun," but read something like Martin's 20th Century Year by Year to get in better detail the world interactions in modern times.

You can also do Econ and Gov for one half credit each, and blend in the Gov't while you do history--SWB lays out how to do it in WTM. Brilliant use of time!

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Thank you for the replies!

 

I am thinking about the combining US History and Government, but I don't want to do two entire textbooks (it would seem like we are doing two histories, wouldn't it??) She is a slow reader. I remember with ds (who is graduated) that government seemed like a repeat of US. So, I need to decide if the second pass at US is good or unnessary. What texts did both of you use for government (and US while you are at it :) )? If I just added Idiots Guide to Government to US HIstory, I don't think that would be too bad, but would that be enough for a half credit? (We usually do far above 150 hours for a history credit, so part of the US could move to Govt.). She loves reading whole books for history, but again, is a slow reader..... if we open up her senior year for more history, then we wouldn't be so pressured for time. And she would be more than thrilled to ditch the textbooks!

 

Chris, tell me about the Martin book please and send a link if you can.

 

Thanks again!

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