Do you do multiple history threads at once? And how long is your history cycle?

[TKDmom]

For instance, do you teach colonial American history to your 1st grader alongside ancient history?

Do you teach British history at the same time as world history in the early grades (like Ambleside Online does)? Or do you just roll everything up into world history?

 

Also, how many years do you spend on your history cycle? 4 yrs? 6 yrs? Some other random amount of time? Do you take a year off world history to teach world geography or government or economics?

 

I'm having my yearly homeschool philosophy cisis and I curious what everyone else is doing. :D

[km123175]

We have begun to cover American History only as it relates to the 4-year cycle (WTM style), but we are doing a full-blown American history next to the regular world history. So, for the next 2 - 3 years as we finish up middle ages, and work through early modern and modern, we'll be using SL Core D and Core E.

 

While we do the 4-year cycle - in terms of ancients, middle ages, early modern, and modern, we do not strictly adhere to a 4-year schedule. We use SOTW as a spine for World history - we'll be doing Pandia Press next year for early modern instead of SOTW activity guides. And when I say "next year," I really mean when we're finished with the current SOTW book, and ready for the next.

[Hunter]

I use the ORIGINAL What Your Grader Needs to Know series. There are 3 strands: geography, American, and World history. There are 6 books in the series. BEWARE that the revised series is 8 books long and NOT finished. I'm talking about the ORIGINAL series.

[*Lulu*]

We do a 5 year cycle with all the students together in history, but older going in more depth with extra materials. I do not get twitchy about all our reading coming from the era of history we are in although I do make an effort to choose at least a few read alouds that are set in that era each year.

 

Our year is 50 weeks broken into 5 week increments and I take a 5 week American History break for Colonial America, the Revelutionary War, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement. We also do units on state government, local government, federal government, state history, and state issues. (It works out to about one or two a year.) We play games year round that review basic information about our country I want them to remember.

[Julie Smith]

We just use SOTW. Right now we are on #3. Whenever we finish a book we quickly listen to all previous books before starting the next one.

 

Usually sometime during the day I will listen to a lecture from The Teaching Company while doing a chore. Dishes, putting away winter stuff... It is always from a time period we already studied.

 

Since I play it loud to hear over the chore I'm doing, the kids hear it also. The like Bob Brier (Mr. Mummy) but as of yet don't like Brian M. Fagan. They did ask me to get the other set of lectures made my Bob Brier, but the library doesn't have them. No extra work is required from them for these lectures. They don't even have to listen unless they choose to remain on the main level of the house when I'm doing my chores.

[2_girls_mommy]

I don't have high schoolers yet. That might be the one exception I would have, based on what they may take out of the home if we enroll in a co-op or a program out of the house or something.

 

But the general answer to your question is NO. I have a 5th grader, 3rd grader, and a preschooler I teach. We do a 4 yr cycle, and they fold in as they get there. They will all get 4 yrs of history/science, but in different orders. The preschooler hears a story about the Hungry Caterpillar and a song about the body parts of an insect and sat in on as many picture books as she wanted to.. The 3rd grader listened to many more stories about insects, including non fiction and did output: drawings, narration/journal pages, worksheets, etc. The 5th grader read a much more detailed text and did her own written work. We all went on multiple field trips to zoos and museums and watched videos.

 

It works the same for history. DD8 hears me read SOTW and has lots of picture books and short chapter books to read along and does her SOTW notebook.. DD10 uses the KHE and library books and does her work from WTM. The preschooler learns Bible stories and memorizes the books of the Bible with them (ancients at her level!) and hears some picture books and longer read alouds when she is interested. They all do art projects. Older 2 watch documentaries and such.

[2_girls_mommy]

I don't have high schoolers yet. That might be the one exception I would have, based on what they may take out of the home if we enroll in a co-op or a program out of the house or something.

 

But the general answer to your question is NO. I have a 5th grader, 3rd grader, and a preschooler I teach. We do a 4 yr cycle, and they fold in as they get there. They will all get 4 yrs of history/science, but in different orders. The preschooler hears a story about the Hungry Caterpillar and a song about the body parts of an insect and sat in on as many picture books as she wanted to.. The 3rd grader listened to many more stories about insects, including non fiction and did output: drawings, narration/journal pages, worksheets, etc. The 5th grader read a much more detailed text and did her own written work. We all went on multiple field trips to zoos and museums and watched videos.

 

It works the same for history. DD8 hears me read SOTW and has lots of picture books and short chapter books to read along and does her SOTW notebook.. DD10 uses the KHE and library books and does her work from WTM. The preschooler learns Bible stories and memorizes the books of the Bible with them (ancients at her level!) and hears some picture books and longer read alouds when she is interested. They all do art projects. Older 2 watch documentaries and such.

[Amber in SJ]

We use a 4 year cycle for history and science slightly modified from the WTM recommendations. This works well for us because it gives me a framework and I know they will hit the same time period multiple times (or subject matter) in varying degrees of complexity.

 

When I started homeschooling my oldest was going into 4th and her little sister was going into 1st. We also had others too little for school. We started little sis in SOTW 1 and big sis in "The World in Ancient Times" so they were doing the same time period. Little sis did SOTW straight through 1-4 in 1st through 4th grades. Big sis did "The World in Ancient Times," "The Medieval and Early Modern World," and two years of US history in 5th-8th grade. Our high school requirements are slightly different so big sis did World Geography, World History (ancient through modern,) US History and Civics & Economics for 9th-12th grades, while little sis repeated what big sis did for 5th-8th. We have folded our littles in as they have been school ready. Big sis is off at college and little sis is in high school now with one in the middle cycle and one still in SOTW.

 

Our science is similar in that we do a cycle, but it is a little more divergent from the WTM

 

Each school year is broken up into three 12 week sections because this help me plan.

 

Year 1: Earth Science- Geology/ Water Cycle & Weather/ Astronomy

Year 2: Biology- Botany/ Zoology/ Human Anatomy & Physiology

Year 3: Fundamental & Applied Science- Chemistry/ Physics/ Technology

Year 4: Tree Hugging Science- Geography/ Habitats & Biomes/ Ecology & Environmental Studies

 

In high school Chemistry & Physics each get their own year so year 4 gets booted.

 

I appreciate having a four year cycle because I don't have to decide every year what we are going to study and if something interesting shows up I can see where it will be folded in.

 

Amber in SJ

[TKDmom]

I use the ORIGINAL What Your Grader Needs to Know series. There are 3 strands: geography, American, and World history. There are 6 books in the series. BEWARE that the revised series is 8 books long and NOT finished. I'm talking about the ORIGINAL series.

 

I have a couple of the books (What Your Second Grader Needs to Know and Books to Build On) from several years ago.

 

I like the recommendations, but is a little overwhelming to collect a whole new set of books... ;) the library and I have a difficult relationship.

 

I Really like the idea of multiple history strands, but trying to implement AO over the last year (with multiple threads and every child in a different year) has taught me that I need to consolidate as much as possible to save my sanity.

[TKDmom]

We use a 4 year cycle for history and science slightly modified from the WTM recommendations. This works well for us because it gives me a framework and I know they will hit the same time period multiple times (or subject matter) in varying degrees of complexity.

 

When I started homeschooling my oldest was going into 4th and her little sister was going into 1st. We also had others too little for school. We started little sis in SOTW 1 and big sis in "The World in Ancient Times" so they were doing the same time period. Little sis did SOTW straight through 1-4 in 1st through 4th grades. Big sis did "The World in Ancient Times," "The Medieval and Early Modern World," and two years of US history in 5th-8th grade. Our high school requirements are slightly different so big sis did World Geography, World History (ancient through modern,) US History and Civics & Economics for 9th-12th grades, while little sis repeated what big sis did for 5th-8th. We have folded our littles in as they have been school ready. Big sis is off at college and little sis is in high school now with one in the middle cycle and one still in SOTW.

 

Our science is similar in that we do a cycle, but it is a little more divergent from the WTM

 

Each school year is broken up into three 12 week sections because this help me plan.

 

Year 1: Earth Science- Geology/ Water Cycle & Weather/ Astronomy

Year 2: Biology- Botany/ Zoology/ Human Anatomy & Physiology

Year 3: Fundamental & Applied Science- Chemistry/ Physics/ Technology

Year 4: Tree Hugging Science- Geography/ Habitats & Biomes/ Ecology & Environmental Studies

 

In high school Chemistry & Physics each get their own year so year 4 gets booted.

 

I appreciate having a four year cycle because I don't have to decide every year what we are going to study and if something interesting shows up I can see where it will be folded in.

 

Amber in SJ

 

This sounds like a great plan. It looks like that gives you an opportunity to study areas that might otherwise be neglected.

 

My boys (2nd and 4th grade) are halfway through SOTW2. My 6th grader is finally finishing up Oxford WIAT, after 18 months or so. I think she'll finish the series in another month. I have the Medieval and Early Modern World sitting on my shelf, but I've been trying to figure out what would be next.

 

She did SL core D and part of E in 4th grade, so maybe she could get through the Medieval Oxford books for 7th grade and then spend 8th grade reading the SL core E books she never got to and focusing on modern world history. She's been asking a lot of questions lately about modern history (which we've never covered), and part of me wants to drop what we're doing and follow her interest, while the box checker in me needs to keep going through history "in order".

[EKS]

My favorite history sequence:

 

K: World geography and American

1st: Ancients

2nd: 500-1650ish

3rd: 1650ish-present

4th: American

5th: World to 1450

6th: World 1450-1914

7th: 1914-present

8th: Geography, current affairs

9th: American

10th: World to 1500 or to present

11th: World to present or elective

12th: Elective

[Mandy in TN]

K-world geography

1- world history 1

2- world history 2

3- US history and geography

4- world geography and culture

5- world history 1 with Eastern hemisphere geography

6- world history 2 with Western Hemisphere geography

7- world history 3- 20th century; some basic state history

8- US history

 

I like this sequence for elementary school.

 

For high school, my boys chose more of their own courses. Both boys completed the standard world geography, US history, and a semester each of economics and government. My big boys were with an umbrella that also required a semester of Southern history through the umbrella. My oldest did 2 years of world history in high school. He also did an extended research project on ancient Meso-America focusing on Mayan civilization. My second did a year of world history and a year of European history. My second also did two semesters of humanities through dual enrollment and a semester of renaissance art history using 2 Teaching Company courses as his spine. There are lots of options for social studies/ history/ geography and in high school I let my boys explore those.

 

HTH-

Mandy

 

[Miss Tick]

We're in SOTW 2 and this year started American history, loosely planned to be a 3 year cycle. American history is a bit more seat-of-my-pants and fairly passive for my kids (which makes it popular). Our library has a good collection of junior fact books, so I do some read-alouds and some strewing. So if everything continues at this pace both history cycles will finish together and then ?

[Mrs Twain]

I am an oddball on here, but I don't like history cycles. Or maybe you could say that I do a 1-year cycle. For the first half of the school year, I cover world history. For the second half of the school year, I cover American history. I do civics/government/state history/or basic economics once per week throughout the year. I also do geography once per week as a separate subject. This has been going well for the last 3 or 4 years. I plan to do this, perhaps a little modified, through middle school. Obviously I don't go into as much detail on each topic as many of the people who are doing 4 or 5 or 6 year cycles. However, I have my kids do three history lapbooks per year which do go into detail on those subjects. I prefer my 1-year cycle method because I think it correlates best with the research, i.e. the kids learn the basic big picture outline and then review often, adding in more information to the scaffold as we go year to year.

[momto2Cs]

We're finishing off our year trying something a little different. I'm still reading to the kids a chapter each week from K12's Human Odyssey as an overview/exposure, but then the rest of the week, I'm loosening the reins and letting it be interest-led, so ds and I are reading The Early Days of Automobiles (at long, long last), and dd and I will be reading about Africa (getting this book and this one from the library to see what works). I may just hand them this awesome list of Landmark & World Landmark books (pdf), and let them pick and choose from that!

 

So, in partial answer, two (or so) strands of history at the same time.

 

The second part of the answer is that I think it will take us another 2-3 years to get through the K12 books (a full history cycle), and at the end I think we'll tack on another year with their American Odyssey.