MFW AHL users, what do your students "do" with their history?

[home4school]

I'm curious as to how MFW "does" history. I've looked at the books used and the sample schedule, but was hoping for some more info. Does it follow a structure as far as mapping, timeline, writings?

 

Thanks!

Kim

[Julie in MN]

Interesting question.

 

Well, to start with, because the three subjects are connected, there will be weeks when one subject is emphasized and the others are somewhat waiting to catch up (usually tying up final chapters in misc areas during that time).

 

So, at the beginning of the year you are studying creation and the beginning of history, so any chapters on God & creation in Notgrass, and some apologetics type chapters in the Answers book (does science match the Bible, etc.), and reading Genesis of course. The English at the beginning of the year emphasizes how to write a real high school essay, with detailed lessons, so it's not necessarily history-related at first and not a lot else assigned for English just yet.

 

Then history continues with early topics (early people groups, Sumer, dinosaurs), the Bible is covering these topics in Genesis, and the Pharaohs book picks up the story of Egypt. For English, at times a history-related section of the Bible will be studied (Job, Proverbs), and more often a piece of literature will be scheduled (Bubastes, Bulfinch, etc). Writing assignments are scheduled along the way, often as responses to the literature.

 

Every so often, a certain day will have students put a group of maybe a dozen timeline figures into the timeline book, or do one of the map assignments (they are detailed assignments on specific regions, and extra helps are in the manual based on what previous students found confusing). If timeline or mapping is assigned, then it is usually at least half of the history assignment for that particular day. In other words, time is allowed for it in the schedule. There aren't a ton of these in AHL, but enough to get good at it in 9th.

 

Lastly, there is sometimes a separate history activity designed by Marie Hazell, such as learning the Greek alphabet or the books of the Old Testament (we studied the groupings, since ds could already recite them in song :) ). Again, at least half of the history assignment for the day will be set aside for this.

 

By the end of AHL, you will have read all of the Notgrass chapters that apply to B.C. years, as well as all the Ancient World Encyclopedia B.C. pages (a lot!), and a few other books on history (Pharaohs, Daniel study re: Babylonian empire).

 

Does that make any sense? I realized it was harder to type out than I expected. But I type fast, so I just went with my thoughts.

Julie