History: chronological vs. geographical

[ereks mom]

I'm trying to compile a list: Which well-known unit study or literature-based programs cover history more or less chronologically (as opposed to geographically)?

 

We've been using TRISMS, which is divided chronologically into 4 one-year studies: Ancients, Rome & the Middle Ages, Renaissance/Reformation & Exploration/Colonization, Modern. Within each year, history is studied geographically. This year, for example, we are doing TRISMS Rise of Nations, and we started with Africa, then went to Pre-Columbian America, then Italy (Renaissance), and so on. I dearly LOVE the way TRISMS includes the study of art, architecture, and music, and also the way it incorporates research into the lessons. However, I'm finding that it's next to impossible to cover European history (Italy, Spain, France, England, Germany...) without overlapping because those countries' histories are so intertwined, so the geographic thing doesn't seem to be working well. I'm just wondering what else is out there that might go more chronologically... TOG? MFW? WP? SL? HO? BF?

Edited October 21, 2011 by ereks mom

[Ellie]

Well, Beautiful Feet Books is not a unit study; it's a literature-based study, like Sonlight. At the high school level it's chronological.

[Candid]

TOG is chronological. They do Ancients up to the fall of Rome, fall of Rome to the signing of the US Constitution, 19th Century and the then 20th Century and the last ten years.

 

The organization depends a bit on the time period of history studied. In Ancients you get more of a geographic approach but they continually are asking you to compare and contrast ancient civilizations. As you progress to more modern history then they don't do each country separately but instead study patterns and trends in larger areas like Europe.

 

There is less study of non Western civilizations, but there is some coverage. The US tends to be the focus of history once it comes into history, but it is not purely US history, you do step back and study what other areas are doing.

[ereks mom]

Well, Beautiful Feet Books is not a unit study; it's a literature-based study, like Sonlight. At the high school level it's chronological.

 

Yes, of course. I guess what I really mean is literature-based history. I'll go back and edit my original post. Thanks.

[Julie in MN]

Must you really prevent any overlap in Trisms? Or could you think of the overlap as preview/review?

 

I do think all high school history programs have to separate out history into chunks in some fashion, because history overlaps. No person (let alone nation) exists for one minute. George Washington could be studied during frontier times, continental congress, revolutionary war, or early presidency. A publisher has to pick a time frame to cover most figures, so you can move on and study others. We use several sources for history (using MFW), and those sources all organize history a little differently, so you have to jump here and there in different books sometimes if you want to match things up, since each book organizes things a bit differently.

 

I've used 3 of the programs you asked about. I'd say that SL and BF group things in a bit bigger chunks than MFW does, such as SL's Eastern Hemisphere year, USA history, and Church history. Although I haven't seen their 20th century, that's a specific focus, too. BF is chronologic but to me just focuses on a few key events in history, although any of their Genevieve Foster books are good for blending in world events. MFW is pretty chronological, ala WTM methods, but they also need to choose how to organize things. So they might join together events in Asia, for instance, which is helpful at my house because they aren't jumping every day & confusing us :)

 

Julie

P.S. And I agree that true unit studies are unlikely in high school, when science and math get too complex to combine, although a lot of language arts, fine arts, government, geography, and Bible are interwoven in many of those you are looking at.

[ereks mom]

We use several sources for history (using MFW), and those sources all organize history a little differently, so you have to jump here and there in different books sometimes if you want to match things up, since each book organizes things a bit differently.

 

Yes, this is what we do too--we use 4 or more textbooks as reference spines, and we go back and forth between them so that we get a fuller picture. But by picking and choosing sections in those books, I get confused as to what we've read already and what we haven't read yet. :tongue_smilie: I fear that by doing it piecemeal, we'll cover some things twice (or more) and some not at all. I guess I fear that we'll have gaps.

 

MFW is pretty chronological, ala WTM methods, but they also need to choose how to organize things. So they might join together events in Asia, for instance, which is helpful at my house because they aren't jumping every day & confusing us :)

 

 

I'm not quite sure what you mean by what you said here.

 

 

 

I'm seriously considering using MFW for history with my now-7th grader when she gets to high school. My tentative plan is to use the Creation to the Greeks/ Rome to the Reformation/ Exploration to 1850/ 1850 to Modern Times sequence, supplementing with the art/music/architecture part of TRISMS and also some additional high school literature selections. She has some learning issues, so that should work well for her.

[Julie in MN]

MFW is pretty chronological, ala WTM methods, but they also need to choose how to organize things. So they might join together events in Asia, for instance, which is helpful at my house because they aren't jumping every day & confusing us

I'm not quite sure what you mean by what you said here.

Sorry to be confusing. I just meant that even though you don't want to group things geographically, sometimes it helps to at least do that a little bit. Does that make sense?

 

 

I'm seriously considering using MFW for history with my now-7th grader when she gets to high school. My tentative plan is to use the Creation to the Greeks/ Rome to the Reformation/ Exploration to 1850/ 1850 to Modern Times sequence, supplementing with the art/music/architecture part of TRISMS and also some additional high school literature selections. She has some learning issues, so that should work well for her.

I think it would take more mom work than just working with the high school program, but it could be done. Also, MFW has a built-in review of all the composer studies during the years they actually lived (during Exploration to 1850), and a lot of art history if you use the scheduled history parts of God and the History of Art.

 

Julie

[ereks mom]

Sorry to be confusing. I just meant that even though you don't want to group things geographically, sometimes it helps to at least do that a little bit. Does that make sense?

 

 

 

I think it would take more mom work than just working with the high school program, but it could be done. Also, MFW has a built-in review of all the composer studies during the years they actually lived (during Exploration to 1850), and a lot of art history if you use the scheduled history parts of God and the History of Art.

 

Julie

 

Thanks! Yes, that does make sense. And I'll look more closely at the music portion of MFW.