What is your opinion: 2 cycles of history or 3?

[muffinmom]

What has been your experience? We're starting 1st grade and I don't want to miss the opportunity to do the three 4-year cycles UNLESS it is too intense or not essential.

 

Your thoughts?

[MelissaM]

My ds is starting first grade next week. He will be studying the Ancients along with his older sisters but in a much gentler way. We will read through the WTM Ancients reading list and SOTW activity guide lit. suggestions. I don't think that at 5/6/7/8 what topics a child is reading is nearly as important as making sure that they ARE reading, kwim?

 

My oldest will go through only once, the second child twice, and the third and fourth children will go through three times. MNSHO is the older grades retain much more than the younger grades. It's not essential to do history in the younger years, but it is fun.

[LisaCA]

My DD started her 2nd cycle last year (5th grade Ancients) and will start her 3rd cycle in 9th grade. I really look forward to this 3rd cycle as she will really be researching and putting the pieces of history together. I'm looking forward to reading some really good persuasive essays.

[Mallory]

I think this is one of those cases where you need to look at the end.

 

Start with high school. What is really important to cover then? Does it matter if they get the whole cycle on that level? Are you going to want to spend a year on government or ...? If you start the ancients in 7th or 8th grade are they missing out on having that study at a more serious level? Or since the ancients are one of the hardest to study (those books are hard to read) might that be better covered in 11th or 12th anyway?

 

 

Do the same kind of thinking about middle school.

 

I don't think it matter so much what you do those first few years, but I think at least 2 full cycles is nice. Maybe you just want to go interest led the first few years. Maybe you want to do a year of local/state, then a year of american, then a year of geography, then a long cycle through, say 4th-8th grade, then a high school cycle (and maybe that is a 4 year rotation, or a 3 year cycle then a year of government). Whatever, if starting the cycle right now seems too much then don't.

 

We started in K and 1st and they don't remember that much of the beginning. I would say the biggest advantage to that first cycle is it is really helping me get the whole picture of history better.

[Chris in VA]

And I'd just add that modern history at the high school level is truly World History, with American blended in. It's really impossible to separate the two. Also, you can easily embed American Gov't into the 3rd year--WTM tells you how.

[mcconnellboys]

I think it's a good idea, if you're starting young enough to accomplish it. I think it helps you to plan for three times through so that you can at least get two times through - just in case your older child ends up going back into some other form of school, where they won't get nearly as much in-depth history.

 

You are doing history to a greater depth each time through the cycle, so the focus becomes much more refined each time. The last time my older son started through the cycle, right before he decided to go back to private school, he took a college class on Ancient Greek history and culture, so he didn't really fully study the entire ancient time period, but only one specific, seminal culture within that world.

 

By contrast, this past year, he had honors world history and they started in medieval times, but came all the way up through modern times, so he got very little specific focus in that class for any country or time period. Next year, he will have an AP American history class, so there will be a focus on our country, at least, but he'll be covering topics from 1492 to present, so crossing three distinct time periods in history without really focusing on how the development of our country related to what was occurring within the rest of the world (which I detest). So it's nice that at least he has a background that enables him to know how very important are world-wide relationships in history.

[HFClassicalAcademy]

I curious as to where the split is when you go with a 2 cycle schedule. I'm using Angelicum Academy and they use 2 cycles (something I'm still not sure about). They have you do the first cycle up until middle school and then the 2nd cycle through high school. I'm not sure I like it that way.

 

I would love to see what the advantages are to both from those who have been there!

 

Liz

[Tutor]

I know our family's tendency to linger on topics that interest us or to just put aside planned lessons to learn about something someone develops a sudden interest in, so with that in mind, I am planning on three cycles with the hopes of ultimately completing two. :001_smile:

[muffinmom]

I think it's true that as long as they need to be reading or read to, it might as well be history!

 

Thank you, everyone.

[rafiki]

[,

[Laura Corin]

We are doing two. I just like being able to dive in a little deeper, linger a little longer as we go. Between cycles we do a unit study on Chinese history; you could do a year of State history if you wanted.

 

Laura

[PeterPan]

I'm sure someone else has said this in the thread, but I'll say it too... You don't need to sweat that because it's going to happen naturally. Your dc may turn out to be this huge history buff who cycles through history so fast it isn't funny! Or you may find yourselves burnt out one year and take a whole year off unexpectedly to do geography. Life could intervene and you could have an off year. You also don't have to be at the beginning of a cycle to take it to the next level in thought, connections, and expectations. You could move up to logic level expectations in the middle of a cycle, no problem.

 

I say find materials that *you* are able to teach and find practical that fit your dc's interest level and personality. Then just go through them chronologically and see where it gets you. It all pans out in the wash. For instance, we started VP OTAE in 1st, which should have resulted in 2 long cycles, instead of 3 at 4. Well some people combine some years, and my dd the history buff could easily go through the VP american more quickly. So will their cycle take us 5? It's just all going to work out, don't sweat it. As long as you've really DONE whatever you were trying to do, taking your time to pursue it to your family's degree of interest, you'll be happy.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I definitely see the advantages of doing three, and I fully intended for us to do so, but. . . .

sometimes life just gets in the way.

We lingered on favorite time periods. We had a baby, and moved to a new state. We took several months off to study state history, as well as to do science, since I never seem to be able to fit both into our weeks at the same time.

 

The result of all this is that we're going to get two rotations for my older dc. My younger is young enough that he might get in a third, at least part of the third. Well, that's what it looks like now.

But, life could get in the way again. :)

 

Don't stress.

[EKS]

My son is starting first in the fall as well. My plan is to do five years for the first rotation, stretching the last two years into three. There is so much good material for the grade 3-5 crowd for that time period that I want to take advantage of it. Also, after doing the 20th century with my 6th grader this year, I am quite sure that waiting until my younger one is almost 11 before tackling that can only be a good thing. Then my plan is to do another rotation (3 year) in grades 6-8 and leave a full four years for high school history.

[Storm Bay]

We do two. We don't start the cycle until later. We also include Canadian and American history at different times. I only have one who loves history so much that I'd consider doing 2 histories together. In between the 2 cycles is when we do the Canadian & American, but not those two together.

[Hoggirl]

This is a somewhat different take than what others have said. My ds is NOT that into history. I plan to do two cycles (we will be doing our 2nd year of our 2nd cycle) which will take us through the 8th grade. After that, I plan to do a more traditional approach with one year on World History, one year on American History, one year on Econ/Gov't, and one year on Geography and/or State History. I just can't see my son being into a really deep history study in high school...at least not right now. He is definitely a math guy. Don't get me wrong, we aren't going to abandon history!! But, I cannot see putting him in something that is history-DRIVEN in high school.

[Jean in Wisc]

My dc got tired of doing history! They knew more history by 6th grade than I did after college. They really wanted to move on to something new and enjoyed our high school classes in non-western history; economics; world views, philosophy & ethics; geography; and government.

 

If I were to start all over again, I would not plan to cycle through 3 times.

 

Jean

[Mommy22alyns]

Three is my goal, but I may not get there, which is fine too. With two kids so close in age, Sylvia's going to be around for the fun stuff in ancient history. By the time she's ready for first grade work, Becca will likely be ready to go into modern history. With everyone saying how emotionally hard it can be, I'm probably not going to cover it right then. Becca will be a young fourth grader and Sylvia's going to be way too young to handle it. We might then take a year for American history before going through the cycle again.

[Kay in Cal]

I agree... we are planning for three rotations so we'll have two done by 8th grade. We may just do the last four years of school according to WTM, but if we want to do AP whatever for history, I want my kids to have had the "whole thing" at least twice.

[nutmeg]

3 rotations here:

 

- the first child gets a perfect year 1-4, 1-4, 1-4.

 

- the younger child will have hers broken up, since she joined in first grade while we were doing year 3: 3-4, 1-4, then 2 years of ???, then finally 1-4 through high school

[mycalling]

This is what I have planned so far: 2 full cycles in 3rd-6th grades & 7th-10th grades. I figure they can then go through the early more difficult classics or study on their own civilizations that have peaked their interest the most over the years during those final 2 years. Of course this will only work for my 6yo's schedule.

 

For studying, we are not the every-week-type family. We do the basic subjects during our normal weeks and every 4th or 5th week take the week off for fun Science and History study. Projects, experiments, field trips, educational shows, etc. Have have set up a 28 week school year for basic subjects (an advanced pace or 4 days per week) and 6 weeks of Science and History study mixed in.