Natalija Posted September 16, 2010 Share Posted September 16, 2010 I was planning on using Speilvogel's Human Odyssey spread over 4 years for dd15. I am concerned about how covering all requirements for world history, american history, gov't & economics. I looked at the WTM book, but it seems too complicated for my tastes. I need clear cut. Would the American history portion alone of HO be enough for an American History credit? I would like to take more time and not cram most of world history into one year (dd read the ancients portion of HO last year) and add in lots of literature, independantly and aloud with Dd 13 who is just starting MOH2 Vol. 2. However! It would be be easier and more clear cut to go the traditional route.. 10th: World history 11th: American history 12th: Gov't & econ I am contemplating switching to Notgrass World History and picking up where we left off at the end of Rome. It's still 650 pages if we were to complete it this year. Then we could continue with Am. history and gov' & econ in 12th. I know I sound confused. That's becasue I AM confused!! :lol: If anyone can simplify this for me or give me suggestions, I'd so greatly appreciate it!! With much thanks, Natalija Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted September 17, 2010 Share Posted September 17, 2010 Civics and econ are usually together in one course, separate from the history courses, though it can make sense to study civics alongside of American history (if you want to go that route, but it's more complicated because you have to coordinate everything.) Studying them sequentially can reinforce things learned in the other course. Will you be adding other things to your course besides what's in the text? What are your goals for your student? Is s/he college-bound? To a select college? Do you want your student to be able to demonstrate proficiency by taking an SAT subject test or an AP test? Do you have any thoughts of your student transferring into a private or public high school? If you want to keep it simple, do it like a traditional school: do each subject in its own year. If you want to take it slowly and get confused on your own and WTM seems too complex, you might want to consider something like Tapestry of Grace. Deviating from the traditional schedule is fine if you are happy marching to the beat of a different drummer, confident in your ability to get your child into a good college (if that's your goal) happy to pull together a lot of different resources on your own--and sure that you'll never want your student to transfer into a private or public school with certain requirements. If you don't fit that description, you may be happier sticking to a traditional course of study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted September 17, 2010 Share Posted September 17, 2010 Are you willing to consider MFW? I haven't used it yet, but it is what I am strongly considering for dd next year (9th). It uses Notgrass's textbook for the first 2 years of ancient and world history, but add in lots of writing, composition, literature, and Bible. It is enough for 3 credits in History, English, and Bible. I don't know if you want secular or not. The last 2 years of high school are one semester each of American history, and semesters of government and economics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natalija Posted September 17, 2010 Author Share Posted September 17, 2010 Thanks for your replies. We tried TOG1 last year but I did not keep up on my end so it fell apart. I considered MFW but we only need the history/lit component as dds have separate writing courses. I prefer a Christian perspective but there were things I liked about HO... the review questions, etc, study guide....and went with that. I am pulling in lots of lit...so many good books!...Church history, books about the saints, maps, TTC tapes, DVD's and Diana Waring CD's. I may need to go back to TWTM book and re-evaluate the workings in of gov't into the Am. history section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted September 17, 2010 Share Posted September 17, 2010 (edited) Would the American history portion alone of HO be enough for an American History credit? No. However, HO *could* be used as a supplement of what was happening elsewhere in the world during your American History focus -- but there's very little focus on American history in H.O. I was planning on using Speilvogel's Human Odyssey spread over 4 years for dd15... I would like to take more time and not cram most of world history into one year... I am contemplating switching to Notgrass World History and picking up where we left off at the end of Rome. It's still 650 pages if we were to complete it this year. Then we could continue with Am. history and gov' & econ in 12th. Most states require 3 credits of Social Studies: - 1 credit = American History - 1 credit = World History - .5 credit = Government/Civics - .5 credit = Economics If you want to use all of HO, then you WILL have extra Social Studies credit that you can count towards elective credits. In case it helps, here's how we broke down our Social Studies, and also how we've used HO: gr. 9 = 1 credit social studies (world history) - Ancient World History (first 200 pages of HO, and about 200 pages of other resources) gr. 10 = 1 credit elective (world history) - 20th Century World History (last 450 pages of HO) gr. 11 = 1.5 credits social studies - 1 credit = American History (Ray Notgrass Exploring America) - .5 credit = Government (Great Source American Government textbook) gr. 12 = .5 credit social studies; .5 to 1 credit elective - .5 credit = Economics (Dave Ramsey Foundations of Personal Finance, and Teaching Company Economics) - .5 to 1 credit = Medieval to Enlightenment World History (HO, the middle section we haven't read yet, from page 200 as far as we manage to get -- since this is an elective, it gives us flexibility to do as much or as little as we have time for) DS have also done .5 credit of Church History with DH over 2 years' time. In addition, we've done lots of literature WTM-style -- more than enough to count not only towards the literature portion of an English credit (which we count as literature, writing, grammar), but enough to make some elective "Great Books" credits, too. And, to make the transcript more coherent, I'm listing things by subject, NOT by year, so it doesn't matter for us what *year* we study things -- I have scheduled courses and credits for when it was most convenient for us, not to match up with public school schedules. So our transcript will look something like this: ENGLISH English 9 = 1 credit (Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings) English 10 = 1 credit (Worldviews in Sci-Fi Literature) English 11 = 1 credit (American Literature) English 12 = 1 credit (British Literature) SOCIAL STUDIES - American History = 1 credit - World History: Ancient World = 1 credit - World History: Medieval World* - World History: 20th Century World* - Church History* - Government = .5 credit - Economics = .5 credit - Worldviews* * = counted as an elective credit ELECTIVES - Literature: Classic Ancient Literature = 1 credit - Literature: Classic 20th Century Literature = 1 credit - Literature: Classic World Literature = .5 credit - World History: Medieval World = .5 credit - World History: 20th Century World = 1 credit - Church History = .5 credit - Worldviews = 1 credit Then we could continue with Am. history and gov' & econ in 12th. We found that doing American History AND Government in the same year made a LOT of sense -- there is quite a bit of overlap. We were able to spread the .5 credit of Government over 1 year, so we could do it just once a week -- but depending on what you decide to use for Econ, it wouldn't be too hard to do your Government in the first semester, and then your Econ. in the second semester. BEST of luck in finding the programs and scheduling that fits your requirements and your interests the best! Warmest regards, Lori D. Edited September 17, 2010 by Lori D. added info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted September 17, 2010 Share Posted September 17, 2010 We incorporated .5 credits of Gov't into ds' Sr. year, when he was doing Early Mods (we did the 4 years slightly out of order). He also paged for the VA Senate as an 8th grader, so we felt he know the gov't pretty well. We just added Idiot's Guide and some primary source readings (Declaration, parts of the Constitution, Federalist papers), and had a few discussions. So, ds had Ancients 9th grade Med/Ren 10th grade (both years with Omnibus) 20th Cent (sonlight with lots of tweaking) Early mod and govt 12th grade We used corresponding lit and did a short story/Prog Press poetry combined semester in 12th. I did not do economics, because VA has no state requirements of any kind for homeschoolers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natalija Posted September 17, 2010 Author Share Posted September 17, 2010 Very helpful. Thank you all. I really appreciate it! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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