jessicalb Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Does that even exist? I love the idea of Tapestry of Grace, but as people who aren't religious and lean pretty hard left, this is not a great fit. I would like to find something as broad and comprehensive as Tapestry, but without the conservative religious worldview. I have been hunting for months and have not found anything. I've read a ton of threads here, but have not found that one thing that is just perfect. Any ideas? Thanks! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenneinCA Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 As far as I know, there isn't anything. If you do find something, come back and let us know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Does that even exist? I love the idea of Tapestry of Grace, but as people who aren't religious and lean pretty hard left, this is not a great fit. I would like to find something as broad and comprehensive as Tapestry, but without the conservative religious worldview. I have been hunting for months and have not found anything. I've read a ton of threads here, but have not found that one thing that is just perfect. Any ideas? Thanks! :) Are you adverse to creating your own? It isn't that difficult to do, and, best of all, it is quite liberating. There are scads of wonderful history books on your library and area bookstore shelves -- you don't have to limit yourself to what some curriculum publisher wants to sell. You should read the rhetoric section of the WTM before you start and get an idea of what you are aiming to do. Rather than a stand alone history course, it becomes a much richer course of literature in the context of history, with credit being given in both history and English 9 (or 10 or whatever year.) For World History I used the book A History of the World in Six Glasses as the unifying element as it breaks world history in to 6 tidy periods. I selected literature for each of those six periods and used lectures from the teaching company to introduce the literature and authors. I especially liked the series Western Literary Canon in Context. I didn't always assign a "context page" as is described in the WTM Rhetoric section, but there was always some background reading either in a history book (never a text book) or on the internet. Sometimes the background research would be on an individual. I also assigned essays for each work, usually topics that came up during our discussions of the work or of the Teaching Company lectures. Planning it was simply a matter of researching titles and making sure I could find lectures on most of the titles. I broke the year into 6 periods and made sure there was and equal amount of reading for each. We didn't get to everything planned, but it was a great year. I did a similar year of studying modern American history and literature through plays, movies and biographies of playwrights and movie moguls. It was fascinating and memorable. Don't be afraid of doing it on your own! Type in a topic on Amazon and see what titles come up or sit on the floor in the history section of your local B&N and see what inspires you. You could frame history around sports, art, science or music -- it is all good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessicalb Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 I actually really enjoy building my own curriculum. What I am afraid of is that I am not particularly well-versed in history, and so I lack the perspective and knowledge needed to spot ideological revisions, and to make connections across various bits of history. Maybe if I just start with a core book that I know I agree with ideologically (something like Zinn's People's History, but for world history) I could use that to guide me. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chirowife Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Oak Meadow has high school world history and it is secular Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Are you wanting world history completed in one year? If not, I thought History Odyssey was secular. Dd really loves Glencoe's World History by Spielvogel. You could use it and add historical literature from SWB's book and follow her plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShellChelle Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 You could check out Connect the Thoughts (connectthethoughts.com). I haven't used their history program yet, but it was recommended on another homeschooling forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 I actually really enjoy building my own curriculum. What I am afraid of is that I am not particularly well-versed in history, and so I lack the perspective and knowledge needed to spot ideological revisions, and to make connections across various bits of history. Maybe if I just start with a core book that I know I agree with ideologically (something like Zinn's People's History, but for world history) I could use that to guide me. Thanks! I've found Teaching Company series to be great teacher prep as well as good material for my kids to listen to. Most of the history lectures do a good job of digging hard into the conflicting viewpoints of issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 After much deliberation and lots of time here, I am going with History Odyssey with the Connect the Thoughts package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in SEVA Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Trisms? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Are you looking for a secular textbook? The McDougal Littell World History: Patterns of Interaction text is interesting and covers all of world history in one year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 For World History I used the book A History of the World in Six Glasses as the unifying element as it breaks world history in to 6 tidy periods. I selected literature for each of those six periods and used lectures from the teaching company to introduce the literature and authors. I especially liked the series Western Literary Canon in Context. I didn't always assign a "context page" as is described in the WTM Rhetoric section, but there was always some background reading either in a history book (never a text book) or on the internet. Sometimes the background research would be on an individual. I also assigned essays for each work, usually topics that came up during our discussions of the work or of the Teaching Company lectures. Planning it was simply a matter of researching titles and making sure I could find lectures on most of the titles. I broke the year into 6 periods and made sure there was and equal amount of reading for each. We didn't get to everything planned, but it was a great year. This sounds great! Which titles did you use? And which "history book (never a textbook)" did you use? I did a similar year of studying modern American history and literature through plays, movies and biographies of playwrights and movie moguls. It was fascinating and memorable. Could you give more detail on this? It does sound very memorable! Thanks, Ruth in NZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessicalb Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Bumping this back up as I worked through studying a lot of the suggestions and finally landed on using World History for Us All. I found CTT to be of very low quality IMO. I know some people like it, but I bought a couple of sections and was not at all happy with it. Several other curriculum I looked at looked good but were too expensive, or were audio focused, or had too much of a churchy feel, or I felt weren't rigerous enough. I was going to pretty much make it up and then I stumbled on World History for Us All and I think that is going to be a great fit. :) Many (very late) thanks for all the ideas offered up! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann@thebeach Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Bumping this back up as I worked through studying a lot of the suggestions and finally landed on using World History for Us All. I found CTT to be of very low quality IMO. I know some people like it, but I bought a couple of sections and was not at all happy with it. Several other curriculum I looked at looked good but were too expensive, or were audio focused, or had too much of a churchy feel, or I felt weren't rigerous enough. I was going to pretty much make it up and then I stumbled on World History for Us All and I think that is going to be a great fit. :) Many (very late) thanks for all the ideas offered up! :) I've looked at this before and thought it looked good. But as I browse thru the site I don't seen any book lists, is all the reading done on-line or is there a text to follow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessicalb Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 I've looked at this before and thought it looked good. But as I browse thru the site I don't seen any book lists, is all the reading done on-line or is there a text to follow? For the basic lessons, all the reading is done online, and/or you can get a text they created to go along with it. I haven't decided whether I want to buy that book or not, so I don't know what it's like. My plan is to use this as a starting point and guide, and to spread world history over two years. We will be reading other nonfiction history, biographies, historical fiction, information on world religions, information on art and music and science history, and doing geography. I will be building all of that. If there is interest, I will share the syllabus/plan I create. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann@thebeach Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 For the basic lessons, all the reading is done online, and/or you can get a text they created to go along with it. I haven't decided whether I want to buy that book or not, so I don't know what it's like. My plan is to use this as a starting point and guide, and to spread world history over two years. We will be reading other nonfiction history, biographies, historical fiction, information on world religions, information on art and music and science history, and doing geography. I will be building all of that. If there is interest, I will share the syllabus/plan I create. :) Sounds like a great resource! I'm sure many could benefit if you shared your plan :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessicalb Posted June 29, 2012 Author Share Posted June 29, 2012 Will do! I will get it up as soon as I am done! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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