Well-Trained Mind History Sequence?

[poohma]

I am in the process of reading the Well-Trained Mind, by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer.

 

They recommend the following for history sequence:

 

5th gr. - Ancients (5000 BC - 400 AD)

6th gr. - Medieval-Early Renaissance (400-1600)

7th gr. - Late Renaissance - Early Modern (1600-1850)

8th gr. - 1850 - Present

 

What if my 8th grader has not had a solid background in any of the other time periods from 5th-7th gr.? Should I still have her study 1850-Present? or should I use this year to do a quick overview of the other time periods somehow?

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

I've heard of some homeschoolers choosing to just jump in where they are, so I guess they'd do the Modern era for the 8th grade even without the history background.

 

If I were starting with an 8th grader, I think I'd want to do a one-year overview of world history. Then the student would be ready for Ancients in 9th grade, Middle Ages in 10th, Early Modern in 11th, and Modern in 12th.

 

I'm a fan of Sonlight, so my first recommendation would be Sonlight's Alt. 7 Core.

[Brenda in FL]

Either do an overview or start with Ancients. If you start with ancients, it will give you an extra year to spread out the 4 time periods. Or you could use the last year to focus on a particular time period of interest.

[Chris in VA]

I'd start your 4 year rotation in Ancients, but do it at the logic stage. Add in lots of wonderful lit. You could probably tackle The Odyssey on a logic level, as well as some paraphrased/abridged works, but look mostly for meaty historical fiction.

Teach outlining from the Kingfisher or other book--has your dc done any yet? I'd use the encyclo as a spine, and see if you can get to 3rd level outlining by the end of the year (start with just jotting down the main ideas of each paragraph). Every week or two, have your dc pick a topic from that week's reading and do more research, and write a very short paper--or make a cool project, or do an oral narration--something to show what was learned. Keep a timeline.

 

Then, in high school, start with Med/Ren, and do high school level stuff. When you get to 12th grade, you can either do Gov't/Econ or do high school level Ancients. I prefer putting Gov't in the context of Year 3, reading primary documents along with Early Mod lit/history, as SWB recommends, and giving .5 credit. You can then use that 4th year to tackle some cool Ancient stuff--The Iliad (love using Elizabeth Vandiver's Teaching Company course with this and with The Odyssey), Orestia, etc.

 

You can look at Omnibus 1 for some appropriate works for 8th grade (but I'd stay away from Suetonius, and I'd go with just the primary stuff, and pare that down so you can save some for the Sr. year).

 

THat's what I'd do.

[JudoMom]

I am in the process of reading the Well-Trained Mind, by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer.

 

They recommend the following for history sequence:

 

5th gr. - Ancients (5000 BC - 400 AD)

6th gr. - Medieval-Early Renaissance (400-1600)

7th gr. - Late Renaissance - Early Modern (1600-1850)

8th gr. - 1850 - Present

 

What if my 8th grader has not had a solid background in any of the other time periods from 5th-7th gr.? Should I still have her study 1850-Present? or should I use this year to do a quick overview of the other time periods somehow?

 

I would probably do an overview using Sonlight Alt 7, and start with Ancients in 9th.

[katilac]

I would likely do a history/geography overview for the year, prepping him for the full rotation in high school. I wouldn't divide the year evenly, but I would want at least a short overview of ancients/medieval.

 

The SOTW books, while below his level, could give a very good summary in a short amount of time, and you could add in biographies and such in the areas he is most interested in or lacks knowledge in.

 

I'd be a bit geography-centric, if he hasn't had the benefit of years of coordinated mapwork and such. Not memorization, just spending lots of time examing where places are in relation to each other, discussing why the geography of certain places might be extra-important (the Americas are naturally separated/protected by oceans, other places by mountainn barriers, etc).

 

I'd weigh the time toward modern, partially b/c most people would expect a student entering high school to have some idea of those times/events. So I might do the first three in term 1, and moderns in term 2.