Need a 10-12 week "filler" study for next year for history - please offer any ideas..

[Rhondabee]

OK - I will risk coming on here and sounding like a complete religious nut-job! For reasons I won't go into here, I am stream-lining our homeschool, and looking for options that are not quite so mom-dependent for next year. So, this morning I was praying (read: worrying) about it and thought I should probably read my Bible for a few minutes. It opened almost right to James and this caught my eye:

 

"If you need wisdom--if you want to know what God wants you to do--ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking."

 

After talking to my kids, I've discovered that both my boys each want their "own" school - they don't want big family discussion times - or reading from a spine all together. Just a checklist, and go.

 

So...after looking at a few samples, at this point I'm toying with the idea of using My Father's World (World History) for my 10th grade DS and Sonlight's Alt-7 for my 7th grade DS. (Why can't we call them by their names, anyway? Wouldn't that make life so much easier?)

 

The problem.....with both of these programs.....(which is just too weird for it to be anything other than God nudging me in this direction imo).... is that we have just finished a very intensive Ancients year - ending at the fall of Rome and both of these programs take exactly 12 weeks to get to the fall of Rome. MFW starts at the founding of Rome, and Alt-7 starts at Mesopotamia I guess - but both take 12 weeks to get to the *fall* of Rome.

 

Now *I* certainly don't want to re-hash everything we've studied this year - we have studied deep and hard this year! And I couldn't ask the boys to do that.

 

So...my question for you (if you don't mind helping God out) ;)...what could we possibly sub in for those 12 weeks?

Edited May 6, 2010 by Rhondabee

[Susan C.]

Hey Rhondabee,

I would just start at the 12 week mark. There is always a lot to do in any program you choose, you will start off ahead (hooray). That way, you can linger if you want, do more of the program (maybe even everything). I love being able to say I'm ahead :) Again, most programs have way more than a year's worth of work.

[MIch elle]

Geography workbook/ Idiot's Guide to Geography - something like that

Shakespeare study - Hewitt or Discovering Shakespeare

Church History

Art History

Science project - work toward entering a local science fair

[mjbucks1]

I can't speak for MFW, but we are just finishing up Sonlight Core 7 (we did core 6 last year) and I can tell you that you could easily slow it down a bit to cover those 12 weeks. Perhaps do a little more research on an interesting topic, etc. I almost wish we would have done Core 6 & 7 in FOUR years....there was so much covered. Just a thought :)

[Wendi]

Hmm. What I'd do ...

 

1. Just skip those twelve weeks, and choose some topics to study in more depth (maybe add in some extra art or music history, projects, etc. to those weeks?).

 

2. Do a church history survey. I've had my eye on this book.

 

3. Do a worldview study.

 

4. Do a civics/government course.

 

Do any of those appeal to you?

 

Wendi

[Tullia]

History of science and maybe some hands/on projects: build examples of simple telescopes, water or wind mills?

[Brenda in MA]

Rhonda,

 

I liked a lot of the ideas the previous posters came up with.

 

The first thing that came to my mind after reading your post was to grab the Teaching Company catalog and look for a course that could be completed in 12 weeks on a topic of interest, either history-related or not.

 

HTH,

Brenda

[Beth in TN]

Hey Rhondabee,

I would just start at the 12 week mark. There is always a lot to do in any program you choose, you will start off ahead (hooray). That way, you can linger if you want, do more of the program (maybe even everything). I love being able to say I'm ahead :) Again, most programs have way more than a year's worth of work.

 

I agree. Since they both want to work independently I would start at week 12 (or 13). If there are weeks left in your school year once they finish allow them to choose a topic, person, event etc that they enjoyed or what to know more about to study on a deeper level until the year is up.

[Corraleno]

I would just start at the 12 week mark. There is always a lot to do in any program you choose, you will start off ahead (hooray). That way, you can linger if you want, do more of the program (maybe even everything).

:iagree:

This way you'll have lots of time to follow rabbit-trails, add more depth in areas you really enjoy, etc.

 

Jackie

[Mommyfaithe]

OK - I will risk coming on here and sounding like a complete religious nut-job! For reasons I won't go into here, I am stream-lining our homeschool, and looking for options that are not quite so mom-dependent for next year. So, this morning I was praying (read: worrying) about it and thought I should probably read my Bible for a few minutes. It opened almost right to James and this caught my eye:

 

"If you need wisdom--if you want to know what God wants you to do--ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking."

 

After talking to my kids, I've discovered that both my boys each want their "own" school - they don't want big family discussion times - or reading from a spine all together. Just a checklist, and go.

 

So...after looking at a few samples, at this point I'm toying with the idea of using My Father's World (World History) for my 10th grade DS and Sonlight's Alt-7 for my 7th grade DS. (Why can't we call them by their names, anyway? Wouldn't that make life so much easier?)

 

The problem.....with both of these programs.....(which is just too weird for it to be anything other than God nudging me in this direction imo).... is that we have just finished a very intensive Ancients year - ending at the fall of Rome and both of these programs take exactly 12 weeks to get to the fall of Rome. MFW starts at the founding of Rome, and Alt-7 starts at Mesopotamia I guess - but both take 12 weeks to get to the *fall* of Rome.

 

Now *I* certainly don't want to re-hash everything we've studied this year - we have studied deep and hard this year! And I couldn't ask the boys to do that.

 

So...my question for you (if you don't mind helping God out) ;)...what could we possibly sub in for those 12 weeks?

 

You are not a nut-job....at least not more than any of the rest of us.

 

I would start at week 12 and not really worry about it. If you can actallu finish 24 weeks of any program in 36, I'll be amazed and awestruck by you. I think it always takes us longer...which makes those kinds of programs so annoying to me. I always feel behind. It took me 2 years to get through SOTW 3 and we STILL have about 10 chaps left!

 

If you start 12 weeks in, that would give you some stop and enjoy the roses moments....I like it! maybe that is what I should do from now on....buy a program and start 12 weeks in....hmmmmmmmm

 

~~Faithe

[WTMindy]

Might I just offer one word of caution. Don't pull all the way back from family discussions and reading spines out loud together. It is easier to turn it over to them to work on their own, but there is SUCH great value in those shared learning and talking. I turned a couple of subjects over to my kids and I found they did not learn them nearly as deeply as the things we did together. Other than that, I don't have any advice on where to start. :-)

[Rhondabee]

DH pointed out that when I had Music Theory in college, I didn't have to attend class as long I made A's on the tests. So, don't make them re-cover stuff they've already learned. I may take my older DS thru some of the Uncle Eric books (ending with the Ancient Rome book) - I don't know. I'll have to get everything in hand first. I do agree, it would be nice to have some breathing room!

 

As for family discussion, we are actually listening to audio-books in the car (on the way to the office and on the way back home). Only now Dad gets to listen in as well. My DH is not what one would call "academic", and has never been involved in our homeschool in *any* way, but he has really enjoyed listening with us. So, even if we're giving up "cuddle on the couch" time with just Mom-and-the-kids, I think it's a great pay-off.

 

 

 

Might I just offer one word of caution. Don't pull all the way back from family discussions and reading spines out loud together. It is easier to turn it over to them to work on their own, but there is SUCH great value in those shared learning and talking. I turned a couple of subjects over to my kids and I found they did not learn them nearly as deeply as the things we did together. Other than that, I don't have any advice on where to start. :-)

[Carol in Cal.]

However, if you don't want to do that, here are some ideas:

1. A unit study on your state's history. BF sells these for many states, or you can piece together a living books study.

2. Church History--Concordia Publishing House has a good one semester church history curriculum for 8th grade. It's about a half a class worth of material (I think they assume that kids will simultaneously be doing confirmation training), so you could easily fit into 12 weeks. This would give an overview of the history of the world from a Christian history perspective. I should mention that, more than other Voyages curricula, this has a pretty Lutheran focus.

3. Steward Ship unit studies on areas of US history that you are interested in focussing on. You could complete 1-2 during this period. The ante bellum period, including reform movements, Westward expansion, new political parties, massive immigration from Europe, and new religious movements, is particularly complex and rich. When DD studied this a couple of years ago I realized that I had studied these trends in isolation from each other, and never really considered that they were all happening at the same time and interacted with each other.

4. A focus on art history, particularly before, during, and right after the Renaissance. Development of visual observation and vivid description would be hallmarks of such a study.

5. A focus on history of the sciences, and maybe an ancillary unit on science fiction.

 

Wow, I'm getting all excited just thinking about this stuff!