Help with 6th grade History

[mstara]

I have a dd going into 6th grade, and I am having difficulty finding a classical 6th grade Ancient History program. I love SOTW, but it is to easy for her. Can anyone recommend a literature rich program? Omnibus 1 is an option, but I'd like to know your opinion. Thanks.

[Ethel Mertz]

What about History Odyssey Ancients Level Two from Pandia Press?

 

http://www.pandiapress.com/?page_id=103

[SilverMoon]

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Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[shukriyya]

Classical House of Learning might be a place to start. It's a lit. based approach to history. Here's a link to the Ancients logic level portion: http://www.classicalhouseoflearning.com/logic-stage-literature.html

[Space station]

BF's (bfbooks.com) Ancient History Intermediate Pack?

 

OUP's The World in Ancient Times series?  It is geared toward middle school, is very readable, and very thorough.  You would have to add lit though.

 

As shukriyya said, Classical House of Learning Logic Stage Ancients adds enough to beef up SotW for a 6th grader.  She also has a Multi-stage Ancients Guide on her blog which does not use SotW.  .  Here is the link to the first part:  http://classicalhouseoflearning.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/reading-list-for-unit-1-logic-stage/

 

 

 

 

[mdefields]

I've been very unhappy with the "formal" history curricula I've found. So FWiW - I've been using the "For Kids" series of history books. You can find them on Amazon.com - they are very well written books on specific subjects and historical individuals that includes some fun and interesting activiities. We used the American Revolution one last year and I loved the depth of information it provided. We've also used the ones on Gallileo and Newton as well as Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, and da Vinci - all very well written and very indepth. For our study of the Renaissance, we also used Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines by Core Chronicles (so disappointed that they've gone away from writing anymore history books!) which we absolutely adored.

 

[fourcornersacademy]

I second bfbooks.com awesome program!

[Reefgazer]

We are in love with the Classical Historian here!  You'll need a few meaty books, the World History Detective by Critical Thinking Company, and The Classical Historian Ancients curriculum.  DD is a history nut and had a ball with this last year!

[shukriyya]

We are in love with the Classical Historian here!  You'll need a few meaty books, the World History Detective by Critical Thinking Company, and The Classical Historian Ancients curriculum.  DD is a history nut and had a ball with this last year!

 

I've not seen this before. It looks intriguing. Is it secular? And how writing-heavy is it? We used WHD along with HO last year for Ancients and I found it helpful but this looks like it takes things a step further in terms of 'thinking' about history and analyzing the events through a specific lens.

 

Would you mind sharing a little of how you implemented it? My ds is not a formal history lover though he loves pre-history and myth and is actually quite interested in the way society has unfolded in various cultures but not through the lens of a formal history program. All the ones we've done have been too dry for him, and me, I might add.

 

[sagira]

We are going with Dorothy Mills' The Book of the Ancient World, The Book of the Ancient Greeks, and The Book of the Ancient Romans. Rounding it off with K12's Human Odyssey, Geography through A Child's Geography, and lots of supplemental historical fiction and other living books.

 

Kfamly offers Book Notes on two of the Dorothy Mills books:

 

http://amindinthelight.blogspot.com/p/time-period-ancients_8.html

[Space station]

I've not seen this before. It looks intriguing. Is it secular? And how writing-heavy is it? We used WHD along with HO last year for Ancients and I found it helpful but this looks like it takes things a step further in terms of 'thinking' about history and analyzing the events through a specific lens.

 

Would you mind sharing a little of how you implemented it? My ds is not a formal history lover though he loves pre-history and myth and is actually quite interested in the way society has unfolded in various cultures but not through the lens of a formal history program. All the ones we've done have been too dry for him, and me, I might add.

 

We used Classical Historian with my 7th grader last year and she hated it. It was like pulling teeth. The same thing week after week, very writing intensive, no fun at all. The only thing she liked at all was the world history detective workbook? We switched to BF half-way through the year and life got much better.

[shukriyya]

We used Classical Historian with my 7th grader last year and she hated it. It was like pulling teeth. The same thing week after week, very writing intensive, no fun at all. The only thing she liked at all was the world history detective workbook? We switched to BF half-way through the year and life got much better.

Oh, thank you for the heads up. From the samples it does look rather writing-intensive. The draw is that it's all laid out rather than having to reinvent the wheel which just seems to be the way of it with history, doesn't it.

[Reefgazer]

The author emphasizes religious influence, but in such as way that this could be used in public schools. In other words, the influence religion had on ancient history, not preaching.  This may just be because most of the major religions were birthed then, and this may or may not bother you. If it bothers you, you will not be able to use this program because religion's role in the development of modern civilizations is central in this book.

The essays are very well taught and require thought and research (at the appropriate grade level, of course). The essay writing can be adapted to a beginner (1 paragraph) or a more advanced student (5 paragraphs).  For a 6th grader, I would start with a 1 paragraph essay.  We are looking at a 3 paragraph essay this year for DD (7th grade).  So the writing can be as intense or as slack as you make it.  Most 6th graders can manage a 1 paragraph essay.

 

As far as implementation goes:  We used the DVD to teach the concepts of history research first, and then tackled the first essay.  That involved background reading on the topic at hand, making notes, and pulling out the important points to answer a question.  That's what I like most about this curriculum - it asks the student to read and research and look at history on a much deeper level than just reading the text and answering a few multiple guess questions.  We did the accompanying book (World History Detective) in tandem.  The book covers most aspects of ancient civilizations, but not all are covered in the essays. The essays focus on high points and important issues, while WHD also covers more minor issues you wouldn't need to spend a few weeks on.  You will need a substantial spine to supplement the WHD readings because the WHD is focused on the proverbial "Close reading of text". We used Oxford's First Ancient History as a spine. It worked well with WHD and was a good age level and interesting for my DD. WHD is packed full of relevant facts that will flesh out your spine nicely, though.

 

I've not seen this before. It looks intriguing. Is it secular? And how writing-heavy is it? We used WHD along with HO last year for Ancients and I found it helpful but this looks like it takes things a step further in terms of 'thinking' about history and analyzing the events through a specific lens.
 
Would you mind sharing a little of how you implemented it? My ds is not a formal history lover though he loves pre-history and myth and is actually quite interested in the way society has unfolded in various cultures but not through the lens of a formal history program. All the ones we've done have been too dry for him, and me, I might add.

[Reefgazer]

Keep in mind that it can be very involved (a 3 page essay for an older student), or it can be quite simple (a 1 paragraph essay would be appropriate for a 6th grader).  Also, we skipped a few essays; some I didn't think were worth the time input.

Oh, thank you for the heads up. From the samples it does look rather writing-intensive. The draw is that it's all laid out rather than having to reinvent the wheel which just seems to be the way of it with history, doesn't it.

 

[shukriyya]

The essays are very well taught and require thought and research (at the appropriate grade level, of course). The essay writing can be adapted to a beginner (1 paragraph) or a more advanced student (5 paragraphs).  For a 6th grader, I would start with a 1 paragraph essay.  We are looking at a 3 paragraph essay this year for DD (7th grade).  So the writing can be as intense or as slack as you make it.  Most 6th graders can manage a 1 paragraph essay.

 

 

Thank you, Karen, for taking the time to write all that out. It seems there are wildly divergent opinions on it based on your and klwalukas's responses. That's pretty much par for the course with curriculum. I'm encouraged to see that one can adjust the writing to a one paragraph essay for 6th graders. That wasn't made clear by the sample which inferred the essays would increase in length as the year progressed. And as our writing program will be fairly rigorous I fear this would be overkill for ds and turn him off history completely.

 

 

As far as implementation goes:  We used the DVD to teach the concepts of history research first, and then tackled the first essay.  That involved background reading on the topic at hand, making notes, and pulling out the important points to answer a question.  That's what I like most about this curriculum - it asks the student to read and research and look at history on a much deeper level than just reading the text and answering a few multiple guess questions.  We did the accompanying book (World History Detective) in tandem.  The book covers most aspects of ancient civilizations, but not all are covered in the essays. The essays focus on high points and important issues, while WHD also covers more minor issues you wouldn't need to spend a few weeks on.  You will need a substantial spine to supplement the WHD readings because the WHD is focused on the proverbial "Close reading of text". We used Oxford's First Ancient History as a spine. It worked well with WHD and was a good age level and interesting for my DD. WHD is packed full of relevant facts that will flesh out your spine nicely, though.

 

I do like the idea of using a spine of one's choosing. Again the sample didn't make this clear. We used HO last year for Ancients and both ds and I enjoyed. It would be helpful to be able to maintain that continuity as we move into the Medieval/Renaissance period this year.

 

You mentioned that your daughter is a history lover, though, and my ds is only a history lover inasmuch as it doesn't involve a formal program :lol: so I do have some concerns that this might be too structured for him. Of course that's just what *I* would like because it would make things so much easier. Sigh.

[Space station]

I should probably also explain that my daughter was also taking an honors high school composition class at homeschool co-op, which was taught by a college professor. He required a great deal of writing (3 page papers). She is a very strong writer, but the combination of the two was too much. If Classical Historian were used as a writing requirement and history, two birds with one stone so to speak, then it could work because it does do a lot of essay instruction. I probably was asking too much of her, because I expected 5 paragraph essays for history, in addition to her composition class. In retrospect, that was my mistake in implementing it. I never considered just letting her write 1 paragraph - I would have felt like she wasn't doing enough. Like I said, we switched to BF history which had a variety of projects laid out instead of just essays to demonstrate learning, which made history for her more fun. BF is well laid out, so we found it just as easy to implement as Classical Historian.

[MicheleinMN]

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