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History Odyssey! How in the world do you fit 89 lessons into 36 weeks of school?


helena
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Somebody, please help me!

 

Last year was a total bust, she didn't come anywhere near finishing. The writing assignments bogged her down. We never did level 1 (which I believe gave writing instructions), so she was never totally sure what her writing assignments should look like. Her papers were often long and took forever to complete.

This summer I had her finish all the reading assignments including the booklist.

 

She wants to try HO again for EM level 2. I'm happy that she knows what she likes and she feels like she can get it right this year. I'm just looking for ways to help her. It's just so much work crammed in.

 

Any tips? :001_smile:

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I look ahead and see when a book assignment is coming up, and try to have them start the book in advance, before the assingment, so they don't have to go back.

 

I combine some that don't look like a ton of work.

 

We are going to do it 3x a week this year, like last year, we'll see how we do.

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I look ahead and see when a book assignment is coming up, and try to have them start the book in advance, before the assingment, so they don't have to go back.

 

I combine some that don't look like a ton of work.

 

We are going to do it 3x a week this year, like last year, we'll see how we do.

 

Do you have a set amount of time?

 

Sigh... 3 days a week?! We're definitely doing something wrong.

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I look ahead and see when a book assignment is coming up, and try to have them start the book in advance, before the assingment, so they don't have to go back.

 

I combine some that don't look like a ton of work.

 

We are going to do it 3x a week this year, like last year, we'll see how we do.

 

Same here. We did 87 lessons in 5 months, but skipped the second History Pockets they had scheduled.

 

I really didn't like the layout and we quickly moved away from HO to Creek Edge Press - similar, but laid out much, MUCH better in the form of weekly work.

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If you are getting bogged down in the writing, then maybe you need to lighten it up. Are you using anything else for writing? We will have writing in science, history, and actual writing, so I think skipping a few assignments is ok. Have her do it orally, so you know she gets the gist of the assignment, and she can practice her public speaking

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Same here. We did 87 lessons in 5 months, but skipped the second History Pockets they had scheduled.

 

I really didn't like the layout and we quickly moved away from HO to Creek Edge Press - similar, but laid out much, MUCH better in the form of weekly work.

 

Hmm... history pockets? I think that's level 1. From what I understand it gets a lot harder in level 2. But, I'm not sure.

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If you are getting bogged down in the writing, then maybe you need to lighten it up. Are you using anything else for writing? We will have writing in science, history, and actual writing, so I think skipping a few assignments is ok. Have her do it orally, so you know she gets the gist of the assignment, and she can practice her public speaking

 

Yes, she had a lot of writing last year (in many subjects). I'm changing everything this year though.

 

I like the idea of doing some of it orally. That takes some of the pressure off right away! :001_smile:

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ancients level 2 uses history pockets. we pretty much skipped the crafting and I just had them read for the information

 

Ah! I didn't realize that. We started at Middle Ages level 2. I keep feeling like we missed something important from level 1.

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Yeah, we used level 2 Ancients. It sucked the fun out of history. The whole thing felt disjointed - the books were thrown in, the crafting was annoying, and even with the timeline/maps, there was just a disconnect. We went from that, to CEP Medieval for a steadier pace, and now moving into Learning Adventures to address some of the other needs that HO and CEP didn't. Mainly, I want to make sure I'm still involved and that my kid is enjoying the topic. He liked the independent work of CEP and the ability to design his own projects, but we're taking it a little slower this time through to go deeper into topics - and for that I'd like to guide him.

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We used Level 2 Ancients last year and it went well. We did 3 lessons a week.

 

We didn't do the literature because he had already read some of the books. We just skipped the lessons with literature.

 

He did all the writing in addition to his other writing. It's a lot, but it helped him process. We may do more orally this year, not sure. I think there may have been some longer research type things we skipped.

 

We skipped the History Pockets as my ds is NOT a crafty guy. He did do the reading in them though.

 

We had a hard time with the timeline. Not enough room to write and the stickers didn't help. This year I got some software and we're trying a computer timeline that will hopefully be neater and make more sense.

 

My guy is a "history" guy so I don't know if that made a difference, but he really liked HO and we are planning on doing Middle Ages this year.

 

ETA: My only hang-up is I don't like the arrangement of chronological by country. I prefer straight chronological such as in SOTW, but this didn't seem to bother ds at all.

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Yeah, we used level 2 Ancients. It sucked the fun out of history. The whole thing felt disjointed - the books were thrown in, the crafting was annoying, and even with the timeline/maps, there was just a disconnect. We went from that, to CEP Medieval for a steadier pace, and now moving into Learning Adventures to address some of the other needs that HO and CEP didn't. Mainly, I want to make sure I'm still involved and that my kid is enjoying the topic. He liked the independent work of CEP and the ability to design his own projects, but we're taking it a little slower this time through to go deeper into topics - and for that I'd like to guide him.

 

I'm stressing just thinking about it. We haven't even started. WAH!

My daughter on the other, loved it. :tongue_smilie:

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We used Level 2 Ancients last year and it went well. We did 3 lessons a week.

 

We didn't do the literature because he had already read some of the books. We just skipped the lessons with literature.

 

He did all the writing in addition to his other writing. It's a lot, but it helped him process. We may do more orally this year, not sure. I think there may have been some longer research type things we skipped.

 

We skipped the History Pockets as my ds is NOT a crafty guy. He did do the reading in them though.

 

We had a hard time with the timeline. Not enough room to write and the stickers didn't help. This year I got some software and we're trying a computer timeline that will hopefully be neater and make more sense.

 

My guy is a "history" guy so I don't know if that made a difference, but he really liked HO and we are planning on doing Middle Ages this year.

 

ETA: My only hang-up is I don't like the arrangement of chronological by country. I prefer straight chronological such as in SOTW, but this didn't seem to bother ds at all.

 

She and I have been talking today. I'm telling her how other kids are managing and how moms are tweaking the schedule. We agree that a big part of the problem is that she had too much writing last year. And most importantly, she worked at way too slow of a pace for History Od.

 

If she wants to stick with it she's going to have to work 4-5 days a week, do some things orally, and be willing to not do some of the lesson.

She loves history, she like HO... We just need to work harder and be more flexible. I also need to keep a close eye on her. I dropped the ball, and she never asks for help. Bad combo.

 

Thanks everyone! I know this isn't the first time I've brought this up, I appreciate your thoughts and insight. :001_smile:

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I think you really hit it on the head when you say you both need to be flexible. That's how people stay with curriculum. NO curriculum is perfect. You just have to find something you both generally can like and then tweak it. That's true with any subject! Remember, the curriculum is a guide! If something isn't working, change it up to meet your daughter's needs. You will be more content with your schooling if you can find ways to make what you have work. Sometimes that's not possible, but with most of the curriculum that's discussed here.... it's great stuff. Just can't do everything for everyone so we need to be flexible as teachers and students!

 

(Now that I got on that little soapbox, I won't tell you I've spent the last year changing curriculum for my daughter who learns SO differently from her older brother that I had to change up most subjects for her!)

 

Enjoy your upcoming year of history! Yeah for you for figuring these things out! It will go a long way! :D

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Maybe use something like Biblioplan, that schedules it for you?

 

We're not Christian so Biblioplan wouldn't work for us. I think you're right though, we need something that's completely scheduled. We'll stick with HO for 8th grade (already bought it and she likes it), but I'll be looking around for 9th-12th.

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I think you really hit it on the head when you say you both need to be flexible. That's how people stay with curriculum. NO curriculum is perfect. You just have to find something you both generally can like and then tweak it. That's true with any subject! Remember, the curriculum is a guide! If something isn't working, change it up to meet your daughter's needs. You will be more content with your schooling if you can find ways to make what you have work. Sometimes that's not possible, but with most of the curriculum that's discussed here.... it's great stuff. Just can't do everything for everyone so we need to be flexible as teachers and students!

 

(Now that I got on that little soapbox, I won't tell you I've spent the last year changing curriculum for my daughter who learns SO differently from her older brother that I had to change up most subjects for her!)

 

Enjoy your upcoming year of history! Yeah for you for figuring these things out! It will go a long way! :D

 

Yeah, even my daughter was apprehensive about tweaking the schedule. We only started playing with it when we got desperate. :tongue_smilie:

Lesson learned!

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