ballardlm Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 I have a question that has been bugging me since reading WTM. When do you do US History? (Or history particular to your country). How do you work it in. In the case of US HIstory, do you just try to work it into Early Modern and Modern years? Just curious. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Some people add more US History when they are doing the relevant section of World History. I took a year off (instead of doing Modern) & just did US History last year. Some add another "year" or two to their cycle (six years). Everyone does it a bit differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 We hit US History when we cover it in CC Cycle 3. So for my kids that means they will hit it once between the ages of 3-5 (assuming they are listening to older siblings at 3), once at 6-8, and once at 9-11. On top of that they get it every year in the timeline as review. And for my kids they will get it in detail in 5th and 6th grades through VP Explorers-1815 and 1815-Present. I don't own SOTW 3 or 4 yet but I was assuming it also had US History in there, which I would have mine do in 5th and 6th grade as well. But if the focus is more on world history that is ok too because mine will still get it as I mentioned before....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 We're doing... 2 years of American history 4 years of world history 2 years of American history 4 years of world history When we do American history, we can really immerse ourselves in the details, taking lots of bunny trails instead of just hitting the high points. When we are doing world history, we can really do world history, without feeling that we are shortchanging America. We can explore details of world history that we wouldn't get to otherwise, if we were attempting to supplement with American history at the same time. I'm very happy with this schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 History is the favorite subject around here so no one minds doing it every day. We're doing SOTW 3 right now with a first and third grader and I just looked at the timeline and added in lots of US History read alouds to beef up the focus on the US. So we do history 4-5 days a week. Some weeks we don't touch SOTW and some weeks we do two or three sections of it. I'm not sure this would work as well for an older kid but we don't really do much with activities and whatnot. I prefer grammar stage history to be a fun, story-based experience. But I can envision, down the road, condensing world history into a three-year program and doing one year of American History as well. I really like the four-year cycle so I'd like to keep it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NittanyJen Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 We started homeschooling when DS11 was haflway through fourth grade and DS9 was halfway through 2nd grade. We spent the first 12-14 weeks just enjoying our way through ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt, then we really got started. Below is my anticipated plan, and so far it still feels good, though nothing is carved in stone. I'm dealing with American History by spending extra time on it during each section of the history cycle as it comes up during the grammar and logic years, adding in lots of extra literature and field trips, and then condensing world history in high school and adding in a year of US history and government, as I see that that is a requirement for admissions in some of the colleges that I have scanned. This leaves us a year for the kids to choose an area of interest to focus on of their own choosing in their senior year. I am curious whether anybody else has planned in a year or more of allowing their children to choose topics of interest to them in high school (such as a year to focus on the period of history that interests them most, such as Tudor England, or WW2, or signing up for an AP course, or whatever that interest may be) rather than planning everything out for them. I don't seem to hear that mentioned very often, or maybe I just don't hang out around the high school boards enough since my kids aren't that old yet? Yes, the below schedules mean that my kids are not studying the same periods of history at the same time. Two years into it, this has not been a problem. Sometimes they listen in on each other's lessons, which has proved very interesting, because they not only get some great reinforcement, but they see some cause/effect connections over time, and some interesting parallels in leadership styles and mistakes that have taken place that they might otherwise have missed. I certainly don't require this of them, but they have both enjoyed history enough that they sometimes even pilfer each other's literature in their spare time, which has been fun as well. We were able to all watch "1776" (the Musical" together this weekend because DS11 has been reading and listening ahead, so he's learned enough about the American Revolution and the Constitutional Convention to know all of the players involved. The one oddity I have in there is that I have their timings rearranged so that they will both study US and government the same year together-- that will allow for plenty of public service, field trips, and book discussions together on the topic. (O/T: I am doing the same thing in science: I have also arranged for senior year science to permit them freedom of choice to choose a topic of interest to them, having already covered bio, chem, and physics with labs in the high school years. They can choose a second year of one or more of those, earth science, a specialty subject, an AP course . . . but by then they should have some say in figuring out what is interesting, even in a semester or trimester format). For DS11: 1 Ancients World 2 *now Medieval World 3 Early Modern World 4 Modern World Freshman Ancient & Medieval World View Sophomore Modern East & West Junior US & Government Senior DS11 Choice of topics For DS9: Year History & Literature 1 Ancients & Medieval World Survey 2 *now Early Modern & Modern World Survey 3 Ancients World 4 Medieval World 5 Early Modern World 6 Modern World Freshman US & Government Sophomore Ancient & Medieval World View Junior Modern East & West Senior DS9 Choice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 I don't know what our cycle will be in high school. Forgot to add that some people also do two histories at once - American History & World History. Or they throw in geography studies parallel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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