Chloe Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 I will have my first high schooler this fall and am trying to map out our plans. We just moved to the UK a few months ago and will be here a minimum of two years, after which, we will either move elsewhere in Europe or go back to the States. Regardless of where we are living in four years, my daughter feels that she will want to go to college in the US, so we are trying to gear her curriculum towards what a US college would want to see. However, since we are new to the UK, my dd wants to delve deeply into British history for the next year. Do you think this will look ok on a high school transcript? I thought perhaps she should do European history, but she much prefers to narrow her scope and go deeper than wider. Right now we are thinking she will do British history for 9th, 20th century world for 10th, US history for 11th and then either US government and economics for 12th or ancient history in 12th and do the US government/economics along with the US history in 11th. Does this sound ok? I'm just not sure how important it is for us to follow a more traditional scope for history in high school. I'm thinking as long as we have four social studies credits with one being in American history we should be good, right? FWIW, my dd has no idea at this point what she wants to major in in college, but she's leaning towards something in business or economics (possibly international economics). She's also mentioned government. TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 No advice really as my oldest homeschooler is your dd's age and just going into 9th grade, but I wanted to wave and say hello from a fellow American in the UK. I think you could put together a fantastic study of British history while living in London. So many amazing places to visit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chloe Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 No advice really as my oldest homeschooler is your dd's age and just going into 9th grade, but I wanted to wave and say hello from a fellow American in the UK. I think you could put together a fantastic study of British history while living in London. So many amazing places to visit. Hi, Megan! Yes, we've been taking in a lot of the London museums already. I'm really excited to learn more about the history right along side my daughter! It's nice to have fellow UK-living Americans here on the board! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 We are in the UK too. We have been here for 5 years. My dc's are the ages of your 2 oldest. One of the best things we did when we arrived was get a copy of "Our Island Story". It is a great starting point for visiting historical landmarks. Obviously not the spine book for your daughter but a great outline of the basics. Another thing we have done was a series of lectures on how to "read" a church. There are books by the title and a series on the BBC. Visiting ancient churches is much more meaningful now. I hope you are able to go on lots of wonderful field trips! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chloe Posted June 5, 2012 Author Share Posted June 5, 2012 Ooh! Thanks for the tip about the church lectures. And, yes, dh is reading Our Island Story aloud right now. I've compiled a list of biographies for dd to read in chronological order, but I'd still like a spine to pull it all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Your spine book problem prompted me to email a friend who is a British home ed mom. She has graduated 4 the British way--GCSE and A levels. Her youngest just finished her history A level and is off to uni as a history major. She can't think of any one text at the level you need because British students only cover a small portion for their degrees. She suggested Our Island Story.:001_smile: One idea might be to go to a bookstore like Smiths and look at the A level history books. You would need several but they might work. If you go this route please let me know how it works because I am contiplating buying them! The GCSE one I have is mainly 20 th century and WWII. I think I have seen one for 1 other time period. I started looking at the A level ones recently and there are more. possibly corresponding to the link in the thread that Margaret in Co linked already-- if I try to link or copy now I will lose my post.:001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freerange Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 Simon Schama has written a series of 3 books on the history of Britain, with an accompanying series on DVD. For modern British history there's the wonderful Andrew Marr - again, book & DVD. If you want something less bulky, Kingfisher and DK both do encyclopedia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freerange Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 As soon as I posted I remembered a book we were given that was like a modern version of Our Island Story, so I went to look for it: The Story of Britain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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