Help me decide History/Lit for 3 kids!

[mamato4girls]

Meant to post this in the K-8 forum, but if you have a high school please feel free to chime in.

Ok ya'll I really need to "talk" this out, cannot make up my mind. I don't want to send anything back this year! I have 4 kids- preschool, rising 4th/8th/10th. We all studied Ancient History this year, using different curriculum's.

I would like to study American next or World for my oldest. My 8th grader hasn't had US since about 4th grade (they were in private school before hs-ing), 4th grader never had US history, and 10th did SL Core 100 in 8th grade but I didn't count it for High School and she will take government/econ probably 11th grade so she could do world history?

 

If I combined kids using, say Sonlight my oldest 2 can't be combined becase then what would the 8th gr'er study in high school- kwim?

If I combine the 2 middle girls I feel some will be over the 4th gr'er's head or boring for the older one. I really don't want to do 3 core's, although if 2 of them are studying US that would probably be ok.

 

I also love the looks of TOG and have downloaded 2 of the free US history weeks. That seems so much easier to combine. But if I use it this year, at what point would my oldest do British Literature? IS there any with TOG? We would start with Yr 2 Unit 2.

 

I know there are other choices out there also, I am lost as to what will be best for my girls, and fairly easy on me. I don't mind planning/finding books (TOG), I am a bit concernced about doing 3 cores (SL) although the oldest will work fairly independantly.

[Chris in VA]

I'd keep the 8th and 10th graders together in the same time period. In fact, I'd keep everyone in the same period--do Medieval/Ren, unless you've just done it recently. Several advantages--

 

I love chronological b/c you can see ideas and influences develop. This will esp be important for your oldest two.

 

You can incorporate some of the early Brit lit for your eldest--for ex., Shakespeare is accessible to everyone in your group (just do different assignments depending on age). There's lots of excellent lit in this time period, and there are a ton of 5th grade resources, too.

 

If you do SOTW with your middle two (unless you've used it already) or even MOH (if you don't mind the Christian POV), you will have a dandy spine. Have them both look up articles in Kingfisher and do outlining, too--5th grade, just a list of main ideas or facts, 8th grade a level 3 outline, plus additional research (have 8th grader research 8-10 topics of interest and do a report/project)

 

Use Spielvogel as a spine for the eldest. You could do Omnibus with her/him (sorry not sure! lol) It's all laid out for you, and you can skip some of the lit and still have a great program. Or pick 8 or 9 Great Books and use Spielvogel for a spine. You can cover lots of Brit lit and other influential lit this way. We liked:

Pilgrim's Progress

Augustine's Confessions (selections)

Canterbury Tales (pick 3 or so)

Dante's Inferno

Shakespeare--Midsummer, Hamlet, MacBeth

among others.

 

If you save Am Hist until next year, it makes much more sense. You can pick up the thread of Am hist in the context of the world--so you see how British colonialism worked, how the philosophical ideas of John Locke and others influenced the beginnings of many countries, including US. Taking gov't at the same time is perfect--really puts it into perspective. Then in 12th grade, do Moderns/20th cent. You could use Core 300 for your eldest two--they'd get lots of American Lit then, as well as great World lit (so some Am lit would be in Year 3 Early Mods, like Scarlet Letter, etc., and some would be in the last year, along with the World lit--Great Gatsby, Metamorphosis, Grapes of Wrath, etc). Your youngest would be in 8th and could do All American 2 or something like that.

[MommyThrice]

My best advice is to keep them together! That is the biggest mistake I made and we're still suffering. My oldest joined a co-op for a year, and he studied a different time period. So, the following year I moved him on to the next time period alone, and the other two did something different. It almost killed me. This year, I'm putting them all back together and that means someone will have to study the same things two years in a row!

 

You can use completely different materials for the younger and older students, but discussing the same events and people is SO rewarding. And I have finally learned that the last four years of HS do not have to be chronological! One can even skip "history" and cover British Lit., Economics and/or Governement.

 

I was discussing the great books with a friend last year and she said, "You know, your youngest (age 10) could follow along with the Odyssey." That's when the lightbulb when on for me. I suddently realized that authors didn't write books for "7-9" or "10-12" - we really can read or listen to the same books together and enjoy them together. I'm looking forward to having all my kiddos gathered together to study and discuss together again.

 

Good luck.

[Susan C.]

I like Chris' ideas, but if you want another, see what you think of Beautiful Feet High School, US & World History from Civil War on. (bfbooks.com). I did this with my son, I clipped it way back so we could do it in a year. A lot of the books would be enjoyed by even your 4th grader, in fact, when I did it with ds, dd was much younger, and she took most of the books and read them then (Number the Stars, So Far From the Bamboo grove, etc.). I got Hiding Place, Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof dvds to watch. It is not WTM Rhetoric level, but very memorable. Ds is in college, and he says that is the only history he remembers doing. Dd is doing US next year, I am trying to put together a sequence of books for her. She read Hakim's series in 8th grade, and I am going to review some of it, and build on it with whole books. I pulled books from BF Jr. High and Sr. High levels (I own them already). I tried looking at TOG, but they don't have a US History course (it is integrated in), and I would have had to get three programs to cover it. I was too deep in a traditional schedule to move over to a four year history cycle, so I need to keep US History in 11th, and Govt./Economics in 12th.

[Susan C.]

Part two of my last post: OK, I just saw the lit. part. I would add an American Lit. course for the 10th grader, and let the books in BF be literature for the other two.

[Quiver0f10]

Another vote for keeping them together. Your 10th grader already had ancients so if you started this coming year with TOG year 2 she would be able to finish TOG years 2, 3 and 4 before she graduates. You would cover US History in the end of year 2 onwards.

[mamato4girls]

Thank you all! I haven't looked much at Beautiful Feet, will look into that!