When do you do US History?

[Whereneverever]

Obviously, this question in this specific form is most pertinent to US people, so feel free to substitute if you aren't from the US. ;)

 

I've read the WTM section on teaching history multiple times and I'm still unsure on whether or not I want to take a whole year to study US history or not. And when. And how often?

 

I was giving some thought to doing it after SOTW 3 and skipping SOTW 4 the first run through.

 

What's everyone else doing, and when?:bigear:

[EKS]

With my older son I incorporated US history into the first four year cycle (we started in 3rd and went to 6th). Looking back on that I didn't like the way the US history eclipsed the rest of it.

 

So with my younger son we are trying something else. We are doing a three year cycle for world history in grades 1-3 which includes US history, but properly proportioned. We are doing SOTW 3 this year and are finishing the year with the last part of K12's History 4. Then next year we will do start a two year sequence of US history followed by a three year sequence of world. This will likely be followed by a year of US history and another year of world.

[kokotg]

 

I was giving some thought to doing it after SOTW 3 and skipping SOTW 4 the first run through.

 

 

 

This is what we did, though it was mostly because my oldest really hated SOTW, and I wanted to shake history up a bit and try to make it more interesting for him. I just found lots of high interest books to read and spent 2 years covering US history. It seems to have worked; we're doing SOTW 1 again now with all 3 of my kids, and this time my oldest thinks it's just swell. He says history is his favorite subject, in fact.

 

ETA: oops--I misread your post. We did SOTW 1 and 2 and then 2 years of US history.

[Whereneverever]

This is what we did, though it was mostly because my oldest really hated SOTW, and I wanted to shake history up a bit and try to make it more interesting for him. I just found lots of high interest books to read and spent 2 years covering US history. It seems to have worked; we're doing SOTW 1 again now with all 3 of my kids, and this time my oldest thinks it's just swell. He says history is his favorite subject, in fact.

 

Do you worry about not making it through 3 times? :bigear:

[kokotg]

Do you worry about not making it through 3 times? :bigear:

 

My oldest is 4th grade now and is starting over with ancients, so he's on track for 2 more 4 year cycles. I don't plan to stop and do dedicated American history this time through...it was really more about what worked for DS at the time.

[Luckymama]

I'm just homeschooling our youngest who is fifth grade (by age). We're going to do two years of world history, utilizing K12's Human Odyssey texts (not the courses), then one or two years of US History. Since we live smack in the middle of the MidAtlantic states, we're within nice drives of many historical sites. Stretching out US History over 2 years might work well for us. If not, we'll throw return to the "modern" era of world history for 8th grade.

[Whereneverever]

Interesting- thanks, everyone!

 

Anyone else?

[HSMom2One]

We studied U.S. history during 4th grade, and will be there again at the Logic stage during 7th grade next year. This year we plan to cover the Roman Empire through the Age of Exploration and end at the colonization of NA. This should set us up beautifully for U.S. history in 7th grade. I'm really looking forward to it!

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[Stacy in NJ]

we'll be using the Hakim books early in high school, probably 9th and 10th grade along with the a guide (probably the Sonlight material) and an AP American History guide like Barron's. We'll also do some US government and economics during those years. 11th and 12th grade will be a world history cycle in two years probably using World History by Jackson Spievogel.

[mcconnellboys]

It comprises the major portion of our studies during the years we do SOTW III and IV. So we did it in third and fourth grades and now we're returning to colonial history this year, in seventh grade....

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

We're doing...

 

2 years American history

4 years world history

2 years American

4 years world.

 

When we do American history, we can focus on the details without feeling like we're shortchanging the rest of the world. When we're doing world history, we can take the hyper-focus off America and do justice to the exciting details of the history of the rest of the world.

 

I'm not worried about doing only two world history rotations. I've read about people struggling to do justice to American history in the 4 year rotations. I feel that covering world history twice with more of a whole world focus might actually net me more coverage of world history in the end, if that makes sense.

[kwickimom]

I am bringing this thread back and hope more people comment. This is one thing I totally think about when I cant sleep :) I want to add in more American History AND I am out of rotation starting a 3rd reader with SOTW1 as this is our first year HS'ing. Now that we know we are doing this for the long haul, I am looking ahead.

I was thinking of doing SOTW 1&2 this year and 3&4 next year (going through the summers of course)Then starting rotation 2 in 5th. But I feel that we need more American history. So I was then going to line up A History of US with SOTW 3&4. Which I know will be too much.

 

OR I could slow down and do SOTW1(3rd) SOTW2(4th) SOTW3 (5th) SOTW (6th) and then do in depth American in 7th and 8th. downside- only 2 rotations.

 

OR I could do SOTW 1&2 (3rd) SOTW 3&4 (4th) and start over 5th-8th and add in American History seperately and slowly over those 4 years.....or alongside 3 and 4 in 7th and 8th grade.

 

:glare::glare::glare: I need a new hobby :lol:

Edited September 13, 2010 by kwickimom
typo

[DragonflyAcademy]

We were going to do it this year, 4th grade, which is also when schools in our State do US history at the Elem level.. however, we just finished Ancients and I decided to stay in order.. so we will be doing US history as part of Early Modern next year..I have it all written out and planned.. as we were going to use it. I am going to use History Odyssey with STOW as the spine and then do a bit longer, and more in depth Us History when it comes up in HO with lots of extra activities and readers...

[RootAnn]

I plan on doing a US study next year using Portraits of American Girlhood and various booklists (including SL 3+4 & BF Early American). We'll be between SOTW 3 & SOTW 4. I'm not sure if we'll skip SOTW 4 or not.

[mom31257]

I didn't know much about classical education until it was almost my dd's 6th grade year. We did world history in 2 years using MOH Volume 1, Kingfisher, and Usborne. We are now doing a year of American history. I wanted to finish all of history in middle school so we might could do a 4 year rotation for high school.

 

Ds will be 3rd grade next year. I will probably do a 4 year rotation focusing more on world history, then a year of world geography followed by a year of American history in 8th. I am liking dd's SL Core 100, so I will be saving it for him.

 

I am looking at MFW for dd in high school. It's not really a 4 year rotation, though.

[EKS]

I am bringing this thread back and hope more people comment. This is one thing I totally think about when I cant sleep :) I want to add in more American History AND I am out of rotation starting a 3rd reader with SOTW1 as this is our first year HS'ing. Now that we know we are doing this for the long haul, I am looking ahead.

I was thinking of doing SOTW 1&2 this year and 3&4 next year (going through the summers of course)Then starting rotation 2 in 5th. But I feel that we need more American history. So I was then going to line up A History of US with SOTW 3&4. Which I know will be too much.

 

OR I could slow down and do SOTW1(3rd) SOTW2(4th) SOTW3 (5th) SOTW (6th) and then do in depth American in 7th and 8th. downside- only 2 rotations.

 

OR I could do SOTW 1&2 (3rd) SOTW 3&4 (4th) and start over 5th-8th and add in American History seperately and slowly over those 4 years.....or alongside 3 and 4 in 7th and 8th grade.

 

:glare::glare::glare: I need a new hobby :lol:

 

How about this:

 

Grade 3: SOTW 1+2

Grade 4: SOTW 2+3 (skip 4)

Grade 5: A History of US

Grade 6: The Human Odyssey volume 1

Grade 7: The Human Odyssey volume 2

Grade 8: The Human Odyssey volume 3

Grade 9: American history (instead of going through world again right away)

Grade 10-12 or so: World history

[patchfire]

With dd, we incorporated it in with SOTW. It worked all right, but because we were supplementing so heavily with American history, we didn't supplement much w/ regards to other areas, at least until WWI and onwards, when world history & American history become increasingly interconnected.

 

For logic stage, though, she's doing a three-year cycle with a heavy emphasis on world history (skimming American history, to place it in the timeline, etc), and then doing a fourth year in eighth grade of just US history. Then we'll do a four year GB study in high school.

 

Ds started SOTW a year earlier, so we'll take a year between SOTW 3 and 4 to do US history. I don't know how it will work, but if it does, we'll do the same with little dd. :)

[kwickimom]

How about this:

 

Grade 3: SOTW 1+2

Grade 4: SOTW 2+3 (skip 4)

Grade 5: A History of US

Grade 6: The Human Odyssey volume 1

Grade 7: The Human Odyssey volume 2

Grade 8: The Human Odyssey volume 3

Grade 9: American history (instead of going through world again right away)

Grade 10-12 or so: World history

 

 

ahhh...another great option...:D thank you. I will also ponder this. Why do I feel I cannot skip SOTW 4? I know i can, just my brain freaks at that lol

[JadeOrchidSong]

I think we will do world history with SOTW/Sonlight for three years. Then we will do American history using Sonlight for 1.5 years. I don't know what we will do after that.

[Ravin]

For first grade, we did a broad overview of history with How Children Lived and a timeline. This year, we're doing U.S. history using GuestHollow; that will probably continue into next year and then perhaps we'll do a unit study on the States or on our own state (Arizona) to round off 3rd grade. I plan on going back to world history and starting with the ancients in 4th.