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We're off schedule. What would you do? History cycle


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My son 8th grade is finishing up early modern (TOG) this summer. That means we will start Modern History cycle in 9th, which has us taking early modern his Senior year. Is this weird? Or do you think it will be okay?

 

I have thought about going year round and cramming to get modern done so he will at least start part of ancients in 9th, but after twisting myself in knots to make this work, I've come here.........:D

 

I am concerned about the literature aspect. I'm afraid the Rhetoric offerings for Modern might be essential. What do you think?

 

Thanks.

 

Jo

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Guest HSmomof 7

I think it is fine. We are at the end of our 2nd time through the whole 4 year cycle. I like to keep all my kids together, so I had to come to terms with this too. My oldest will end with modern this year (12th grade), but others will end in middle ages, and still others in early modern. IMHO, some of the best literature was written in that early modern period. I guess your worry might be covering the modern period well enough for high school....so just make 9th grade a good year! And, at the end of 12th grade, you can always do some refresher reading on those last 160 years, just to get the feeling of "finishing through to the end". (talking and reading about the same stuff in history together is all our favorite thing about Hsing.)

 

PS- HEY BattleMaiden! I just realized we have the same configuration of children...4 boys, then 2 girls, and then another boy! What a coincidence!

Edited by HSmomof 7
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I'd condense the 2nd year slightly, perhaps emphasising the later Ren instead of so much Medieval. Then you could go a touch lighter on the Early Mod period in 12th, doing Gov't concurrently, which covers at least Am History of the 1700's pretty thoroughly.

 

We all have to pick and choose, that's for sure. I let my ds skip over Early Mod, doing 20th Cent in 11th, and then pick it back up in 12th, lightly covering the history portion and changing the lit to only one semester of Early Mod lit GB's, and doing a semester of short stories (so we covered Poe here) and poetry. His Gov't (a semester) did, indeed, cover some of the Early Mod period, and he read several founding documents, which I consider Early Mod primary sources/Great Books, of a sort! lol

 

ETA for clarity--

So, do Mods in 9th, but pick easier books. Do Ancients in 10th, Med/Ren in 11th, and some Early Mod (history will be lighter because of Gov't as history) and some later Mod (harder, more intense books than you did in 9th). --Boy, I'm having a hard time being clear--what I mean is, use the time you'd be spending on history of the Early Mod period to do more lit.

Edited by Chris in VA
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There are so many factors that play into high school, your best-laid plans can dramatically alter -- or completely tossed out the window! My suggestion is to list what literature and what history you want to make SURE you cover, and schedule the top items for 9th grade, the next items for 10th, etc.

 

For example, you may find that your students either CAN'T or don't WANT to do more than what is required by your state (usually history falls into the social studies category) -- which is usually 1 year American History, 1 year World History, 1 semester Government/Civics, 1 semester Economics. So you may find that one year you *counted* on doing history may be taken up with Gov't and Econ. And another year you planned on part of your history cycle may fall by the wayside so your student can do more science, math, music/art or other subject in preparation for what they KNOW they want to study in college and go into as a career.

 

And no, it wouldn't be weird doing 20th century lit. in 9th grade -- some of it is actually FAR more readable than some of the ancients. The only difficulty is that a few 20th century works (Brave New World, All Quiet on the Western Front, Lord of the Flies, etc.) are pretty depressing, intense, or have mature themes, so you may want to save some of those works and blend them in with whatever other lit. you're doing in 11th/12th grades. Just a thought!

 

So I suggest scheduling what you WANT to do for history and literature nexst year, and if you GET to do 4 years of history in high school, it's a bonus! :) BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

Edited by Lori D.
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Yes, I'm in the midst of trying to figure out how to best use the next 4 years. I really believe, after having my ds graduate last year, that figuring on 4 complete years for history just does not work. At best, you get 3, the last year (and possibly the 3rd too) is spent with either speech, debate, PSEO college classes that don't quite fit the WTM pattern, CLEP testing, don't forget government and economics, music contests, and any other interests that your student may have. History, unless that's where the interest is, gets put aside.

 

All that said, I am only planning on 3 years of history with my dd. :)

Edited by LatinTea
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I WAS going to do Middle Ages/Renaissance with dd this year for 9th, but decided to just go back and start with Ancients. I think either way would work fine, it just seemed to work out best for her this way. I found MFW and decided to just start over and move through the 4-year cycle. I DID ask dd about it, and she looked over the program with me. She thought it looked good and said she was fine with doing Ancients again (we had such fun with SOTW, the AG, and a few other things we pulled in, that we ended up doing 2 years of ancients when she was in the lower grades), so that's the direction we're headed.

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PS -- I'd also ask DS what HE wants to study in high school for history. You get more buy-in from your student -- and it also gives you the opportunity to sit down with him and the 2 of you together look over what credits you HAVE to do, the classes you WANT to do, and how the 2 of you want to accomplish them.

 

Another consideration -- you have a large number of students; do you plan to keep them all together in history, or start spinning out students into solo history/literature work once they hit high school? It would probably be easier on you to keep them all together -- so then the consideration is, do you want the youngers doing 20th century world history next year??

 

More to ponder as you make your decision! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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With six dc, we all stayed together on the history cycle. So, some studied time periods other than ancients their 9th grade year. I actually found this worked out well. Some of the more difficult reading (ancients) were studied when they were a little more mature and they actually took more from it.

 

I don't understand your concern that all four years of the history cycle will not be covered in high school. :confused: They are just out of order, right? You still have all four years of high school to cover all four history cycles on the rhetoric level.

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