what are your thoughts about a 6 year rotation instead of a 4 year?

[jesiwins]

I am considering do a 6 year rotation to add in depth US history and to include non-western history & current events.

 

Here is what I am thinking:

 

Year 1: Ancients

Year 2: Middle ages

Year 3: Early modern w/ additional US history

Year 4: finish Early Modern & begin Late Modern

Year 5: finish Late modern w/additional US history

Year 6: Current events & history of any areas I found lacking in the previous cycle

 

I figure that if I do it this way we will get through the rotation twice and leave a senior year to be decided based on dc's goals.

 

So, what do you think? Have I completely missed something?

 

thanks,

 

Jesi

[Shasta Mom]

who is taking the (arbitrary) 4 year cycle with a grain on salt.....

[Felicia]

I think this would work great. You could possibly cover a few more topics and go a little more in depth where the dc were interested in and not make you feel like you have to rush through some things. I didn't really discover the rotation cycle thing until last year. So my oldest will have History one and 1/2 times my 2nd child will get it twice on a 4 year rotation...... I think two times is good... The other two dc will go through 3 cycles.... But I may to a 6 year like you .... I still have to work that all out.....

 

Anyhow....IMHO....it looks good. :)

[genie]

That's what we are ending up with. It wasn't really planned, but I like how it's working out. I like spending a little extra time on each period, and little extra depth on American, but still getting two cycles in. Go for it!

[hillfarm]

We will be doing a four year cycle, then two years to focus on topics of particular interest, and then back to the 4 year cycle for high school. For the two interim years, I plan to allow dd to select many of her favorite history topics for more indepth study and we will also do an intensive unit study on our local history. However, I do think that a high level complete program during the last 4 years will provide a solid basis for post-high school work.

[Mallory]

I agree with hill farm, I think it is nice to get in a whole rotation at high school level. With your schedule ancients (think Plato and Aristotle and Ceasar) will only be studied at a K and 6th grade level. Then middle ages (all that church history, serious stuff) only at a 1st and 7th grade level.

 

But if you do a 6 year rotation then a 4 year rotation in high school, that leaves a couple extra years for something else, starting later or a science or art or ??? focus in one of those other years.

[Another Lynn]

Lots of great curricula plan a 5 or 6 year history cycle, so I think there's nothing wrong with it at all. I also think mixing a 4 year with a 6 year (or other combinations) can make a lot of sense. You might want to consider (as pp pointed out) doing the whole cycle once in hs - that would obviously be a 4 year cycle. I've also seen some people plan it the other way - a four year cycle first followed by a 6 year cycle - leaving time for econ. or gov't or geography or American only, etc.

 

happy planning!

[Danestress]

That the hardest part of covering history in four years is that there are about 4000 years of "Ancient" history including a number of fascinating cultures that one has to sort of breeze by.

 

I think my six year rotation would look more like this:

 

1: Ancient history with an emphasis on Old Testament

 

2. More Ancient history spending lots of time on the Greeks and Romans

 

3. A little more time on Rome and the end of it's empires, Middle Ages

 

4. Renaissance which included a rediscovery of what? Yes, that would be the classics (back for some more Greece and Rome)

 

5. The age of discover and the age of revolution

 

6. The 20th Century.

[EKS]

I did a 4 year rotation with my son from grades 3-6 and found that that I would have liked to have more time from the late 1400s on. We will be doing a two year study of world history in 7th and 8th with 4 years saved for high school.

 

With my 6 yo I am planning to do 5 years/3years/4 years. Having the third year in the second rotation will give us more time for American.

 

I hope that makes sense.

[Jami]

I did a 4 year rotation with my son from grades 3-6 and found that that I would have liked to have more time from the late 1400s on. We will be doing a two year study of world history in 7th and 8th with 4 years saved for high school.

 

With my 6 yo I am planning to do 5 years/3years/4 years. Having the third year in the second rotation will give us more time for American.

 

I hope that makes sense.

 

That's basically what I have planned. We'll be doing a 5 year cycle in 2nd-6th grades following the VP structure. Then in 7th and 8th a world history overview. And then a 4 year cycle in high school based on the recommendations in LCC and Norms and Nobility.

[Tami]

I am the kind of person who likes depth over breadth, and next year will complete our six-year rotation. No regrets here. There is more time to notebook, write and reflect on what you are learning. The four year rotation felt rushed to me. For some, it is perfect. Go with your gut!

 

EDIT: Here is our 6-year rotation FWIW:

 

1-SOTW 1/VP Ancient cards & tape-TQ guides

2-SOTW 2/VP Middle Ages cards & tape-TQ guides

3-TruthQuest AHYS I

4-TruthQuest AHYS II

5-Sonlight 5 (Eastern Hemisphere)

6-TruthQuest AHYS III

 

7-TOG 1

8-TOG 2

9-TOG 3

10-TOG 4

Grades 11 & 12 - Electives or spread TOG out over six years

 

Covering a topic with whole books: biographies, narratives, speeches, and literature takes time. If you are enjoying it, and the family is learning, why rush. I find whole books touch the heart and spirit, and learning is memorable. A living books approach is more doable with a six-year rotation, unless you have voracious readers. You will cover so many topics that aren't touched or developed in textbooks. Just a few reasons we enjoy the six-year rotation!

[PeterPan]

Not sure the ages of your kids, but a lot of this is decided by the materials you want to use. You can't know what you'll use for high school. You'll probably start less structured and find yourself wanting more structure as you go into the middle years (to get writing assignments), which means your ideas may change. Personally, I think you're scrunching the ancients a lot, which could be expanded into two years, and basically devoting 4 to american, which is overkill. For high school, your dc will have preferences, things they want to study, and probably some traditional things like a semester of econ, govt, etc.

 

If you try to spread american into 3, I'm not sure what program you'd use to do that conveniently. TQ does, but it's very destructured. A traditional textbook approach like BJU does (bleh). So basically you'd be doing all this on your own, which I can say from experience gets old FAST. Look for the materials you want to use. It's ok to have some general idea of where you want to go, but it's the materials that will probably drive it.

[momto2Cs]

Ours is all tweaked. Currently, the kids do history together, but I may split that up in a few years when dd (5) reaches about the 3rd or 4th grade...

 

ds (started cycle 1 in 1st grade)

1 - Ancients up to Rome

2 - Rome through the Renaissance

3 - Renaissance through early American colonization

4 - World history post colonization, with a semester spent on California history

5 - Modern world history

6 - Ancients

7 - Medieval

8 - Early Modern

9 - Late modern (or may spend year on comparative mythologies?)

10 - World in the 20th century

11 - U.S. in 20th century (or other)

12 - Political Science & economics

 

dd (started cycle 1 in pre-K)

1 - Ancients up to Rome

2 - Rome through the Renaissance

3 - Renaissance through early American colonization

4 - World history post colonization, with a semester spent on California history

3 - U.S. history post colonization (may do year of Little House books unit studies? Anne of Green Gables?)

4 - California history, one semester... other?

5 - Modern world history

6 - Ancients

7 - Medieval

8 - Early Modern

9 - Late modern (or may spend year on comparative mythologies?)

10 - World in the 20th century

11 - U.S. in 20th century (or other)

12 - Political Science & economics

[Shasta Mom]

We ps'd for about 1/3 of 3rd grade this past year so didn't finish all I had hoped for in SOTW Vol1. We're doing some this summer, but have lots of other activities so it's going slow, and if I do it too fast, we don't remember what we've learned. I was absolutely set on starting Vol 2 in Sept. Maybe I will just let it happen when we're done with Vol1. I think we would like to spend more time on Rome, also. I also like the idea of not giving equal time to the chapters, as I have done up to this point. Some of the pre-Roman history is less important to me. Thank you - I feel inspired to go at my own pace,,,,,,,,,,,,:)