What would you do? (Coordinating kids' studies)

[amys]

I'm trying to figure out what to do with history studies this year. I have been HSing DS11 for 2 1/2 years. We started the 4 year cycle of chronological history studies with him 2 years ago, so we're slated for early modern this year (we've been using HO and SOTW.) DS13 has been in public school. His history class last year covered American History up to and including the Constitution. He's never really had ancient or medieval history, and hasn't had too much world history at all, as far as I can tell. The public high school here apparently does a two year world history course in 9th/10th (9th grade is ancient through medieval.) Any way I slice it--starting him with Ancients, or proceeding from the time period they left off with--he is going to be out of sync with DS11. I had decided to just start him with ancient history, but I can't help but think it would be easier to have them studying the same time period! My second idea was to have the 13 yo do a quick survey of ancient and medieval history while I get the 11 yo up to the time of the US Constitution, and then proceed with them both from there. These seems to make the most sense in the long run, but I don't know how much he'll get out of having all of ancient and medieval history crammed into approximately one semester. What would you do??

[regentrude]

I'm not sure I understand: is your son planning to go back to the public highschool (since you write about what they are covering)?

 

If you want to coordinate, I think you can just have him jump right in where your younger son is at. It is not ideal, but the ancient knowledge is not absolutely essential for understanding modern (purists will disagree with me, I am saying this from merely a practical perspective).

 

OTOH, I can tell you what we are doing: my kids are 11 and 13 as well, this is our second year homeschooling, and we work out of sync. This is our first year following WTM, so I have DD 13 start the rhetoric stage with the ancients. (She had studied the Renaissance last year, because in her last year at public school they had medieval history and we wanted to continue chronologically at first).

DS11 has studied ancient history last year because he had not previous formal history teaching. So he will do Medieval and Renaissance this year.

Since at that age they will read a lot and research independently, I feel it feasible having them work on different time periods. (It would be different if they were young kids where I had to read to them and do more, then I would probably not choose to do it this way).

 

Good luck.

regentrude

[Jayne J]

If it were me, I'd start them both together on the early moderns. A little review can't hurt, and it may even help the transition a bit, freeing up his mental energy for the changes. Without knowing how far your younger son is from the Constitution, I can't be positive--will it take 1 month or 6 to get to the same spot as elder ds? If it were just a month or two, I might even just let history slide for the older ds until younger was caught up. A little deschooling, so to speak. It will be much easier to proceed together for the next few years than trying to run two streams of history. Elder ds has time to cover ancients and medieval history in the coming years. IMHO of course.:D

[Jen+4dc]

If it were me, I'd start them both together on the early moderns. A little review can't hurt, and it may even help the transition a bit, freeing up his mental energy for the changes. Without knowing how far your younger son is from the Constitution, I can't be positive--will it take 1 month or 6 to get to the same spot as elder ds? If it were just a month or two, I might even just let history slide for the older ds until younger was caught up. A little deschooling, so to speak. It will be much easier to proceed together for the next few years than trying to run two streams of history. Elder ds has time to cover ancients and medieval history in the coming years. IMHO of course.:D

:iagree:

 

Having them on the same time period makes for great discussions!! They can even read some of the same books which also makes for great discussions.

[simka2]

Mine are younger so it was less teacher intensive to get the all on the same page. I can't help but think that at 13 he should be headed into more self directed learning. If he's ready for that I might have them on different history rotations. Hope that made sense!!!

[EKS]

I'd keep them separate. IMHO, a coherent history education for *each* child is more important than convenience.

[zaichiki]

I'd put them together. I'm sure the school didn't cover the material the way you will be doing it. (WTM?) It's really nice to have them together, and don't forget that you'll get back to ancients in a few years (so he won't miss it).

[amys]

Thanks for all the input. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do! LOL! I honestly hadn't considered starting him together with my younger son at all, because that seemed like it would be a waste of time. Maybe it wouldn't be, though. Hm. The reason I mentioned what they'll be doing in the high school is that I am not 100% sure we'll even make it through this entire school year, much less high school. I feel like I want him to be able to jump back in to school at any point if we decide that's for the best. He is, shall we say, a difficult child to parent. I'm apprehensive about being his teacher as well as his mom!

 

Hm, it occurs to me that another option is for me to have the History of Science be his history for now. We'll be doing The Story of Science, starting with Aristotle, so that might make a certain amount of sense.